G92 SLI limbo

[Blazer7]

Ok I?m in SLI limbo over here.

I got 2 8800GTS cards on Saturday (ASUS EN8800GTS TOP) but my scores are beyond pathetic. I get 12.900 3DMarks with 1 card, which is more than I got with my old GTX, but only 14.450 with the addition of the 2nd one, a mere 12% increase in performance. I?ve tried Forceware 169.21 (WHQL), 169.28 (beta) & 169.44 (beta). I get the same scores no matter what.

Reviewing the profiles in nVidia's control panel revealed that few games have SLI set as default. Crysis, Oblivion, Everquest 2, F.E.A.R., Ghost Recon, Guild Wars, Halo, Hellgate London, Neverwinter Nights 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Call of Juarez, World in Conflict, are just few of those that default to single GPU. The same goes for 3DMark05 & 06.

It seems that nVidia launched their G92 cards (8800GT & GTS) but the drivers are not quite ready for SLI yet.

Does anyone have any insight on this ?

 

[Hauk]

I'm running 169.32 with two G92 GTS's on a 780i and everything's solid. SLI is scaling well in Crysis, Bioshock, and The Witcher thus far.

Is second card recognized in Windows CP? SLI bridge installed? SLI enabled in CP? Have you enabled SLI visual indicator in nV CP to watch if it works? Something ain't right...

 

[Blazer7]

Hi SteelSix,

I?m currently running on XP Pro. The 2nd card is recognized correctly and the SLI bridge and power cords are in place. SLI is enabled in nVidia?s CP and I have the visual indicator enabled also. I?ve double-double-checked everything and I?m sure that there is nothing wrong with my setup.

The visual indicator?s behaviour in 3DMark06 corresponds with the 12% increase. If I switch to AFR1 or AFR2 the scores plummet. Everything points to the drivers. The 169.21 were the first drivers for the GTS and nVidia has released only 2 betas afterwards.

Searching the net about SLI scores for G92 setups only confirms the existence of the problem.

BTW, what are your scores ?

 

[Narse]

I score 17500 with 8800gt in SLI, what CPU do you have?

 

[Blazer7]

I'm using an E6850@stock.
17500 is ok for 2 GTs I guess.
I believe that ~20k should be the norm for my setup as the TOP edition is factory oced.

Check the rig in my sig for details on my setup.

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
I'm using an E6850@stock.
17500 is ok for 2 GTs I guess.
I believe that ~20k should be the norm for my setup as the TOP edition is factory oced.

Check the rig in my sig for details on my setup.

I have a Q6600 @ 3.2 and cards clocked to 740/1835/990. Haven't ran any benchies yet. But 17K sounds about right for an E6850 @ stock.

Other opinions??

 

[Blazer7]

@ Narse/SteelSix

In nVidia?s CP do you have SLI as default in your 3DMark05/06 profiles ?

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
@ Narse/SteelSix

In nVidia?s CP do you have SLI as default in your 3DMark05/06 profiles ?

Yes, other settings:

can't remember the option, but I set it to Single Display Performance Mode
Quality Settings (turns on one optimization & turns off another)
nVidia Recommended SLI (in the vast maj of cases this is AFR mode 1)
AF/AA/everything else set to Use Global/Application Controlled

 

[lavaheadache]

your scores in 3dmark are low because you are cpu limited at that low res of 1280x1024. If you own 3dmark and can change the resolution higher then your scores will scale much better

i would also download nHancer. Great program for nvidia cards

 

[legoman666]

3dmark is useless. Benchmark using a real game.

 

[KBTuning]

with my Q6600 at stock and 4gb of ram my 9600GT KO's in SLi only score 12,2xx in 3dmark06


seems like futuremark needs to release a new version again... that vantage thing was useless too

 

[SergeC]

3dmark06 weighs the CPU rather heavily. Yours is holding you back from higher scores.

That said - who cares about 3dmark scores?

 

[manimal]

3.6 G92GTSSLI scores 18.5-19K on my quad. I wonder if the drivers arent as good with XP pro. I havent used XP pro in years so I am no help ; ;

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: SergeC
3dmark06 weighs the CPU rather heavily. Yours is holding you back from higher scores.

That's for sure- I got in the 14k range with my rig last time I ran it. Oh noes!

I think I'd stack my gaming framerates against about anyone's though.

Originally posted by: SergeC
That said - who cares about 3dmark scores?

It's gotten pretty hard to when you see 2900XTs beating 8800Ultras on similar systems, then you go look at some gaming benches and see the Ultra out front by 30%.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
I'm using an E6850@stock.
17500 is ok for 2 GTs I guess.
I believe that ~20k should be the norm for my setup as the TOP edition is factory oced.

Check the rig in my sig for details on my setup.

Your not going to get 20k with a dual core. I have a q6600 @ 3.6. 3dmark is very CPU dependant. I would try out some games and see how they perform. As others have said 3dmark score does not equal real gaming performance.

 

[KBTuning]

yeah the scores dont much matter to me but id like to be able ot have a number i can use to compare with... just to see where my system in the pack...

i can play the Crysis demo at 1680x1050 with everything on hight without noticing any stutters or jerkyness EXCEPT when your at the boat... then i get own.T

Lost Planet runs just fine even when maxed out... Supreme Commander seemed to run just the same way....

 

[Tempered81]

try 174.31 forceware

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
Ok I?m in SLI limbo over here.

I got 2 8800GTS cards on Saturday (ASUS EN8800GTS TOP) but my scores are beyond pathetic. I get 12.900 3DMarks with 1 card, which is more than I got with my old GTX, but only 14.450 with the addition of the 2nd one, a mere 12% increase in performance. I?ve tried Forceware 169.21 (WHQL), 169.28 (beta) & 169.44 (beta). I get the same scores no matter what.

Reviewing the profiles in nVidia's control panel revealed that few games have SLI set as default. Crysis, Oblivion, Everquest 2, F.E.A.R., Ghost Recon, Guild Wars, Halo, Hellgate London, Neverwinter Nights 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Call of Juarez, World in Conflict, are just few of those that default to single GPU. The same goes for 3DMark05 & 06.

It seems that nVidia launched their G92 cards (8800GT & GTS) but the drivers are not quite ready for SLI yet.

Does anyone have any insight on this ?

Get more educated on SLI first. When are people going to stop using 3DMark as a GPU bmark? It means nothing. The default res is 12x10...totally CPU bound with the 8800GTS so two gfx cards will do nothing at 12x10. Bump the res up to say 19x12 and turn on some AA and you'll see the benefit. Better yet, bmark some games.

You also do not seem to know how to read the profiles, all the games you mention have an SLI profile.

Your "SLI limbo" has nothing to do with nvidia's driver but more so the user "bmarking" 3Dmark06 and not reading the profiles correctly.

 

[Blazer7]

I agree that cpu & low res do hinder performance but that 12% cannot be solely because of that. As many have pointed out 3DMark is not that important as real world performance. The cpu is definitely an important factor but it cannot be that limiting, besides, there?re not that many games out there that can take full advantage of all 4 cores of a quad and my cpu although dual-core is a fast one.

My assumption of the drivers not being ready is not based solely on the fact that NV have released only 1 WHQL driver that supports the GTS but it has to do with the behaviour of my rig as it is clear that at some points SLI works quite well.

I?m using 3DMark only to get an idea of what?s happening and so far everything points at the drivers not being 100% ready yet. That said I get +56% in 3DMark03, +4,8% in 3DMark05 & +11,5% in 3DMark06.

I?m gonna start testing with Oblivion and NWN2 today with everything maxed to get a better picture of what?s happening.


PS
Thanks a bunch guys for all the info. Much appreciated.

PSS
@ quattro1,

All the games I mentioned do have an SLI profile but the profile defaults to a single GPU. I do not know if the Vista drivers have different profiles or if they are any better than the XP drivers so any input on this will be greatly appreciated. As for the res my monitor?s max is 1280x1024 and I?m stuck with it for the next couple of months.

 

[BFG10K]

Reviewing the profiles in nVidia's control panel revealed that few games have SLI set as default. Crysis, Oblivion, Everquest 2, F.E.A.R., Ghost Recon, Guild Wars, Halo, Hellgate London, Neverwinter Nights 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Call of Juarez, World in Conflict, are just few of those that default to single GPU.

That doesn't sound right to me as reviewers' rigs wouldn?t get any scaling in those games but we've seen evidence to the contrary.

Have you tried checking your profiles with nHancer?

 

[Blazer7]

From what I know the latest nhancer does not support the new G92 GTS yet. Anyway I'll give it a try.

 

[BFG10K]

From what I know the latest nhancer does not support the new G92 GTS yet.

The beta does.

 

[Blazer7]

Thanks BFG10K, I'll give it a shot.

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: Blazer7

PSS
@ quattro1,

All the games I mentioned do have an SLI profile but the profile defaults to a single GPU. I do not know if the Vista drivers have different profiles or if they are any better than the XP drivers so any input on this will be greatly appreciated. As for the res my monitor?s max is 1280x1024 and I?m stuck with it for the next couple of months.

Those games do not default to single GPU...you are are reading the profile incorrectly. You never really ever have to touch any SLI profile to make it work like some people believe. Just leave it at default, SLI profiles are coded for these games already, dont mess with it. Post a screen shot of your drv control panel and I will tell you what that multi-display option means.

And if you really need 3DMark06 to tell you SLI is working and since you can only go up to 12x10, turn the AA up, perhaps 8x or more. You'll see the scaling there. There is no problem here, getting only 12% scaling at 12x10 with two 8800GT's is normal. Only way to make it faster is with a faster CPU since the GPU's are already too fast for it. <you need to understand that> 3DMark06 is totally CPU bound with today's top gfx cards at its default 12x10 resolution.


Uninstall the driver you are using and install it again to remove anything you might have broken. Then turn SLI on and leave it at that. The SLI profiles work on their own and do not need any input from the user.

Please let us know how it goes.

 

[Blazer7]

@ quattro1,

Thanks for the reply! I know that you may get tired of me repeating the same stuff but this is what is really happening.

Those games do not default to single GPU...you are are reading the profile incorrectly.

The default SLI profile use a single GPU only. Other games like NWN1 have profiles that clearly mention SLI as default. 3DMark05,06 and Lightsmark2007 all have SLI profiles that use a single GPU. Scores in those benchmarks are about the same SLI or no SLI. 3DMark03 has a profile that clearly mentions SLI. I get +56% on that one.

You never really ever have to touch any SLI profile to make it work like some people believe. Just leave it at default, SLI profiles are coded for these games already, dont mess with it.

This is not my 1st SLI system. I have some experience with SLI, nhancer, coolbits and nVidia?s cp profiles and I know that the profiles automatically come in effect whenever the associated file is executed.

Speaking of profiles it was not my intention to tamper with them. I just had a look at them to see if there was something there that could explain the poor scores in benchmarks. This is when I noticed that the profiles mentioned using a single GPU only. Altering the profiles for using split frame rendering, AFR1 or AFR2 resulted only in lower scores. Since I couldn?t get better scores I did the sane thing and reverted all profiles to their defaults.

And if you really need 3DMark06 to tell you SLI is working and since you can only go up to 12x10, turn the AA up, perhaps 8x or more. You'll see the scaling there.

I already know that SLI is working. The scores of 3DMark03 and the use of nVidia?s visual indicator do point that it does. What really confuses me is the overall graphics performance. Great performance with 1 card poor performance with 2. I?m planning on further testing with AA set to 8x and above.

There is no problem here, getting only 12% scaling at 12x10 with two 8800GT's is normal. Only way to make it faster is with a faster CPU since the GPU's are already too fast for it. <you need to understand that> 3DMark06 is totally CPU bound with today's top gfx cards at its default 12x10 resolution.

The cards I?m using are factory oced GTSs no GTs. I have come across other people with similar configs that do get about the same performance. I agree that the CPU is a major factor but I don?t thing that this is the only reason for that 12%, not when a single card scores 12900 3DMarks.

I?ve tried oblivion @1280x1024 with HDR enabled. I was really content with the gameplay even when outdoors but nVidia?s visual indicator barely moved. I will continue with other settings and games and will get back to you.

Uninstall the driver you are using and install it again to remove anything you might have broken. Then turn SLI on and leave it at that. The SLI profiles work on their own and do not need any input from the user.

I have already done so (3 times). I?m currently using the latest beta (169.44). I will be able to do more testing this weekend and I?ll get back to you as soon as I have something to report.

@ BFG10K,

Thanks for the info on the nhancer beta. It does work with the new GTS. Unfortunately I couldn?t find anything that could help improve my performance.