Crackling and lag spikes whilst in SLI

Physorac · 7 Sep 2011 at 22:57

So basically, this problem just came out of the blue, it wasn't caused by a recent hardware/software/driver change. Basically one day I turned on my pc and opened black ops, at the main menu there was a decrease of about 20 frames (It's usually at 55-60 on the menu) and there was an unbearable crackling noise. I tested this out in other games, it happens in dirt 3 and also sometimes in League of Legends. I have tried changing the PSU, doesn't make a difference, the only option I have left is to get a sound card seeing as I am using onboard sound. Oh and it only happens when SLI is turned on in the Nvidia control panel, and also when the second graphics card is in my pc, all my temps go higher than they should be, but return to normal when I remove my second card.

My specs are:
NZXT Phantom case
Asus Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard
Corsair 650W PSU
2 x GTX 460's
AMD Phenom II x4 955
6GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
160GB 7200RPM Boot disk
1TB 7200RPM Storage disk

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 00:20

Bump.

mp260767 · 8 Sep 2011 at 00:24

have you tried each of the cards separately just to see if its one of the cards playing up.

what drivers have you got loaded for the cards.

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:05

mp260767 said:
have you tried each of the cards separately just to see if its one of the cards playing up.

what drivers have you got loaded for the cards.

Ahh, no I haven't. I have the 280.26

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:19

I switched them, and no there isn't a problem

Purgatory · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:59

May want to try this fix here

http://support.creative.com/kb/showarticle.aspx?sid=57605

I know it says it's for the creative cards but have a fishy feeling may help you too. Worth a try and can be undone too if it makes no change. Just go down to where it says NVIDIA SLi Patch.

mp260767 · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:23

Physorac said:
and also when the second graphics card is in my pc, all my temps go higher than they should be, but return to normal when I remove my second card.

when you say temps, do you mean processor temps ?

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:31

mp260767 said:
when you say temps, do you mean processor temps ?

I mean all of them

mp260767 · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:34

if you drop the side off the case does it make any difference to the temps ?

have a look for core temp and gpu-z, have them running then test out the system and see what they go like.

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:02

37 idle cpu temp, 33 idle mobo temp, 41 idle vcore temp, 41 idle gpu1 temp, 36 idle gpu2 temp

Orcvader · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:11

What temps do you get on max load? Idle temps look normal.

I take it you had SLi running perfectly before with no problems? Tried another SLi bridge?

Also, bare in mind having a second card will obviously add more heat to the system, so the temp rise is normal.

What PSU did you have before? The Corsair 650w should be fine but I have a strange feeling it may not be giving the cards enough power. I could be wrong on this though as 650w should be enough for two 460s.

Also your sig is too long, it has to be 4 lines max

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:28

About 42+ for the cpu and 45+ for the gpu's. And I tried the new Have90 1000w psu by NZXT yesterday, made no difference. Yea, I could try the new SLi bridge. My boss is picking me up on saturday anyway to fix my pc, we're hopefully gonna get to the bottom of it then. And that didn't work Purgatory

mp260767 · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:33

Physorac said:
About 42+ for the cpu and 45+ for the gpu's.

thats max load temps ? :eek:

what did you use to stress test them ?

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:41

mp260767 said:
thats max load temps ?

what did you use to stress test them ?

Ai Suite II, a utility that came with my Mobo

mp260767 · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:56

have you tried downloading prime95 ?, if not try that for your processor and FurMark for your graphics cards.

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:29

I get 69 on my 2nd gpu and 76 on my 1st on furmark and 50 on my cpu on prime

Orcvader · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:50

Is that after you run prime/furmark for around 10 mins? If so then they look absolutely fine, not even close to dangerous temps.

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:57

Oh really? Ah, fair enough. I do need to try a replacement SLi bridge, it's either that or the motherboard anyway

mp260767 · 8 Sep 2011 at 18:04

temps look fine.

came across a site that listed psu's for sli/tri nvidia cards, your corsair 650 is NOT listed but other 650 psu's are, which possibly begs the question whether its the amps on the lines supplying the gfx cards thats the problem.

edit:
have you had the 2 gfx cards in the pc but without the sli bridge in place ?

Physorac · 8 Sep 2011 at 18:33

mp260767 said:
temps look fine.

came across a site that listed psu's for sli/tri nvidia cards, your corsair 650 is NOT listed but other 650 psu's are, which possibly begs the question whether its the amps on the lines supplying the gfx cards thats the problem.

edit:
have you had the 2 gfx cards in the pc but without the sli bridge in place ?

Yea but yesterday I tried the 1000w Have90 psu by nzxt and I still had the same error. And no I haven't tried without the bridge but that would be pointless because I can't enter SLi mode to test if the error's there without the bridge in place.