SLI performance question

arfur · 31 Jan 2011 at 10:18

I have a I7 920 running at 3.5GHz (WC), 12GB 16000 memory, Gigabyte X58 board, 60GB OCZ SSD, MSI 470GTX card.

While playing Badcompany2 which is all I'm playing at the moment the VGA usage flatlines at 98%, CPU about 60% on 1 core and I get 60-90FPS.

I got another 470GTX at the weekend which is identical, now when I play the game the FPS doesnt seem to be any better but the cards are now running at about 50% each and CPU remains the same.

I've tried several drivers, reinstalled the game and ensured sli is enabled (afterburner is showing both cards working throughout game), but sometimes its over 150FPS, very wierd, any advise?

Rroff · 31 Jan 2011 at 12:41

Try running something like Resident Evil 5 benchmark with SLI on and off to see if its doing anything at all.

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 17:53

Im running an i7 @4ghz with sli 470's at 750 mhz core, my fps does show as over 150 at times when playing online, ive only ever benched a section of the single player portion of the game, results below.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
32200, 285318, 51, 158, 112.857

Gpu usage shows at 49%- 98%, 800mb ono memory usage, iirc on the above run my settings were all on high, 1920x1200, 4 x aa, 16 x af.

arfur · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:35

setter said:
Im running an i7 @4ghz with sli 470's at 750 mhz core, my fps does show as over 150 at times when playing online, ive only ever benched a section of the single player portion of the game, results below.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
32200, 285318, 51, 158, 112.857

Gpu usage shows at 49%- 98%, 800mb ono memory usage, iirc on the above run my settings were all on high, 1920x1200, 4 x aa, 16 x af.

any idea what you were getting on a single card?

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:41

Ill knock my cards back to stock, disable sli and run the same section i benched on a single card. My cpu speed shouldnt make too much of a difference.

chaparral · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:42

arfur said:
any advise?

I always keep an eye on my power draw meter to tell/check if my SLI is working...

If my system is drawing over 500watts while gaming i know my SLI is working

The higher the power draw the better SLI is working

M1k3H · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:53

sorry but OT, how can u see the vga usage and memory usage while playing?

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:55

Single stock speed gtx 470, 2 mins using fraps.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
9127, 120000, 55, 106, 76.058

Sli stock speed.

15101, 120000, 79, 165, 125.842
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

All ran at 1920x1200, highest settings, 8 x aa, 16 x af

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:57

M1k3H said:
sorry but OT, how can u see the vga usage and memory usage while playing?

Msi afterburner should do the job.

M1k3H · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:00

I already got MSI afterburner, but I only managed to appear FPS, didn't find the option for the rest.

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:20

Post above edited for sli results

@M1k3H, in the afterburner settings/monitoring menu, does it not allow you to select mem/gpu usage in the on screen display?

arfur · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:22

setter said:
Single stock speed gtx 470, 2 mins using fraps.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
9127, 120000, 55, 106, 76.058

Sli stock speed.

15101, 120000, 79, 165, 125.842
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

All ran at 1920x1200, highest settings, 8 x aa, 16 x af

I'll give it a test, out of curiosity what map where you testing it on? I've noticed a massive drop with the snowy maps in BC2. I'm also thinking PSU, its a crappy upgrade but it is only a 700w PCZ, looking at 900-1kw I think. But as the cards are now working at 50% less I was expecting a bigger increase, maybe BF3 will fix that

arfur · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:24

setter said:
Post above edited for sli results

@M1k3H, in the afterburner settings/monitoring menu, does it not allow you to select mem/gpu usage in the on screen display?

I use a G15 keyboard which shows all the stats on the LCD while running.

I also ran the counter strike source benchmark and the results were the same for 1 card or 2, but the work on each card was only 50% each.

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:27

I benched it on the single player part of the game, the section just after you get shot out of your boat. Ran fraps for two minutes. Psu wise, a good quality 850w would be fine, (corsair hx 850 here). Gpu usage for me is usually between 49 - 98%.

G15 here as well.

arfur · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:29

setter said:
Gpu usage for me is usually between 49 - 98%.

G15 here as well.

is that per card or total?

respect

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:34

Afterburner on screen display shows percentage use for each card.

M1k3H · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:01

what i want to see is the amount of memory used. I manage to see everything but that.

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:06

Strange one that, unless it's an ati issue? On my nvidia cards memory usage in mb's shows up.

M1k3H · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:15

ur supposed to tick the ones u want to be shown on OSD, but there's no memory usage. only memory clocks.

setter · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:23

I can only assume then that this option is available on nvidia gpu's only.

Screen shot of my settings