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@Rusty0611
I have had 3 systems with SLi, an 8800 GTX, 260 GTX and a 470 GTX so yes I have plenty of experience with SLi thank you!
You seem to be a bit of a hardware snob?
OP didn't even mention BF3, he mentioned MW3 and said that it was unplayable.
If you read my advice above, you will find that it is sensible and methodical.
Your solution to problems seems to be throwing money at it.
Please keep your nose out of my posts in future![]()
@Rusty0611
What is your advice to help OP then please?
Get an i7 and overclock the living daylights out of it?
GW2 is CPU limited...
Don't know about MW3 but performance doesn't look right.
I've noticed my 3570k limiting my 670s recently, CPU usage is at 100% but card usage ranges from 50-90% giving me wild FPS changes. That's only at 1080p too =/
An i5 will CPU limit high end SLI set ups in certain games.
Even at 4.6GHz? I thought it would manage.. just.
Is an i7 the way to go then?
i7 isn't the way to go, I can't think of any games that use more than 4 cores?
One of my main games, BF3
But the OP wasn't about BF3 it was about helping someone out with very poor SLi performance on a multi-monitor set-up and you by your own admission said that the i5 to i7 upgrade only gave 3-5% improvement
My advice is clear above.
I will ask again Rusty0611 how would you help OP?
Read above - I've already answered that Guild Wars 2 is CPU limited so SLI makes minimal, if any difference. I don't know about MW3 as I don't play it.
I've noticed my 3570k limiting my 670s recently, CPU usage is at 100% but card usage ranges from 50-90% giving me wild FPS changes. That's only at 1080p too =/
Could it be your CPU limiting performance?
An i5 will CPU limit hgh end SLI set ups in certain games.
i7 isn't the way to go, I can't think of any games that use more than 4 cores?
I'm getting great performance with an i3 2120!!
Try removing your overclock too, it may be unstable.
Test each part like I suggested, a fresh driver (clean install) is also good advice mentioned above.
+1
i7 is the way to go
My i7 @4.0ghz gets 98% - 99% GPU usage in SLI. The CPU only runs at about 25% - 30% load to do it.
I've noticed my 3570k limiting my 670s recently, CPU usage is at 100% but card usage ranges from 50-90% giving me wild FPS changes. That's only at 1080p too =/
Could it be your CPU limiting performance?
I've noticed my 3570k limiting my 670s recently, CPU usage is at 100% but card usage ranges from 50-90% giving me wild FPS changes. That's only at 1080p too =/
In BattleField 3?
Yes and in other games too, Borderlands 2 for example however I discount BL2 currently because it's a new game and probably needs more optimization.
My 3570k runs at 4.6GHz which IMO isn't that high although it does need a decent amount of voltage to get there. I do run a custom water setup though so temps don't concern me too much.
Playing BF3 at 1080p, CPU usage is at 100% on all cores at 4.6GHz while GPU usage on both cards fluctuates between 50-90%. This doesn't really bother me that much however FPS drops do and seeing the game drop to 50fps with ultra settings when I have two 670s and an overclocked 3570k is rather odd (especially at only 1080p when at some point I plan to upgrade monitor too). I've changed from low, medium, high and ultra, turned AA off and although I might have slightly higher top end FPS, it still drops to 50 or so during intensive battles so it's not the graphics cards. I'm also fastest in the Heaven benchmark thread for dual 670s so it's 100% not the cards or drivers limiting the cards.
Running one card for BF3 I get 99% usage constantly.
I've ruled out drivers, have run the 670s at default clocks, have added 8GB more memory (making 16GB total) and still end up with same result. Have even installed BF3 on my SSD rather than HDD to see if that was causing the issue.
Try running your CPU @4.0ghz if there is no change in GPU performance it could be that you need more threads rather than more speed.