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"WTF is wrong with MGPU setups these days" Tweaktown

Well I must just be lucky with the games I play then because my two 970's allow me to play the likes of Project Cars, GTA V, Battlefield 4, Metro Last Light and loads of others at 60fps with everything maxed out at various resolutions from 1080p to 4K with excellent scaling across the board.
 
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Pretty much. Ever since I've gone custom PCs I've always told myself one day I'll go multi GPU, but never happened due to poor support especially from game developers. DX12 looks promising as it bypasses the need for SLi/Crossfire but it still requires the game developer to do the work.
 
Orcvader said:
Pretty much. Ever since I've gone custom PCs I've always told myself one day I'll go multi GPU, but never happened due to poor support especially from game developers. DX12 looks promising as it bypasses the need for SLi/Crossfire but it still requires the game developer to do the work.
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My understanding is that multi gpu support needs to be built in to a game for good results no matter which DX version is used. As PC games see less and less love from game developers these days, support is getting worse and all Amd/Nv can do is work around it with the driver if possible. So if developers are still lazy with dx12 I see multi gpu getting worse as in dx12 the driver has less responsibility so possibly Amd/Nv will not be able to do much to fix things. We seen some of this with Mantle.
 
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TheRealDeal said:
As PC games see less and less love from game developers these days, support is getting worse and all Amd/Nv can do is work around it with the driver if possible. So if developers are still lazy with dx12 I see multi gpu getting worse as in dx12 the driver has less responsibility so possibly Amd/Nv will not be able to do much to fix things. We seen some of this with Mantle.
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Absolutely agree. Given that the game developers keep breaking multi-GPU compatibility in DX11 titles when the control is with Nvidia/AMD and all the devs have to do is not put in stuff that breaks it, I don't think this bodes well for multi-GPU support in DX12 when the roles are reversed. I really hope I'm wrong but I see dark times ahead for multi-GPU setups outside of VR for the next 3-4 years at least. :(

Shame. I always think a single GPU looks so lonely through a side window, and all that empty motherboard space is crying out for another one to slot alongside it.
 
Also as VR takes off, both AMD and Nvidia may pay less attention to SLI/Xfire than they even do now.

Since the process of doing one GPU per eye is different from doing SLI/Xfire in the traditional sense.
 
AllBodies said:
Also as VR takes off, both AMD and Nvidia may pay less attention to SLI/Xfire than they even do now.

Since the process of doing one GPU per eye is different from doing SLI/Xfire in the traditional sense.
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Is it? I would have thought it's pretty similar to doing AFR myself.
 
Baboonanza said:
Is it? I would have thought it's pretty similar to doing AFR myself.
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Nah, apparently there's a small but fundamental difference.

It's like you're running 2 sessions of the same game on 2 monitors, and telling each card to do 100% of the work on each screen, independently.

Whereas SLI/Xfire is asking 2 cards to chat to each other and do 50% of the work of rendering the same thing.

Sounds kinda similar, but not at the driver level apparently.
 
Went from 970s to ti and I'll never look back: would rather have less performance than heat and random hiccups.

G-Sync monitors also alleviate the issue.
 
i think it was raja at AMD who said bcos big chips are going to get more expensive mgpu is the way forward

altho that makes sense to me i agree unless the new system is super easy to do most game makers wont bother,
there's soooo many pc games that are not made by big studios, and they are often the best games too ><
 
Confused Stu said:
Absolutely agree. Given that the game developers keep breaking multi-GPU compatibility in DX11 titles when the control is with Nvidia/AMD and all the devs have to do is not put in stuff that breaks it, I don't think this bodes well for multi-GPU support in DX12 when the roles are reversed. I really hope I'm wrong but I see dark times ahead for multi-GPU setups outside of VR for the next 3-4 years at least. :(

Shame. I always think a single GPU looks so lonely through a side window, and all that empty motherboard space is crying out for another one to slot alongside it.
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As I understand it (and my knowledge is very limited), the main reason why there are so many problems with mGPU setups is to do with the way effects are rendered by modern engines. These effects require information from the previously rendered frame to be used by the current frame - something which appears to be extremely difficult for the GPU driver to handle effectively. As the effects grow in complexity, more & more info is required from the previous scene which just compounds the problem.
 
Right I think some are getting confused - there are two ways to do mgpus; SFR and AFR
99% right now with DX 11 its SFR - which breaks fairly easily - as its doing split frame rendering. Takes the frame - splits it between the two cards and then you get scene spit out. SFR is faster of the two - but also far more unstable.

AFR - alternative frame rendering; splits the renders by frames - one card renders one scene; second card renders following scene. Its harder way of doing it; but more stable - doesn't give you as many frames; but usually bottom end; frame mins are faster than SFR.

3DFX originally did it in SLI - which was even scan line interface; and other card did odd scan line interface - There is also checker board style doing it.

Main issue is micro stuttering in any attempt with; some are more sensative to it with low frames times etc; early days; micro stuttering was a real killer - these days its still around; but not as bad as it was originally.

DX 12 - the engines will need to have mgpus built it - it won't be standard; but better believe with the VR push - most likely AFR style will most likely come back over SFR. Hope this helps
 
I love multi gpu, much better than it used to be, i used to be happy with 50% extra performance 10 years ago but now i see nearly 100% extra on a lot of games.
 
meldarthx said:
Right I think some are getting confused - there are two ways to do mgpus; SFR and AFR
99% right now with DX 11 its SFR - which breaks fairly easily - as its doing split frame rendering. Takes the frame - splits it between the two cards and then you get scene spit out. SFR is faster of the two - but also far more unstable.

AFR - alternative frame rendering; splits the renders by frames - one card renders one scene; second card renders following scene. Its harder way of doing it; but more stable - doesn't give you as many frames; but usually bottom end; frame mins are faster than SFR.

3DFX originally did it in SLI - which was even scan line interface; and other card did odd scan line interface - There is also checker board style doing it.

Main issue is micro stuttering in any attempt with; some are more sensative to it with low frames times etc; early days; micro stuttering was a real killer - these days its still around; but not as bad as it was originally.

DX 12 - the engines will need to have mgpus built it - it won't be standard; but better believe with the VR push - most likely AFR style will most likely come back over SFR. Hope this helps
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No, SFR is rare these days, almost all modern games with an SLI profile work via AFR.

AFR does little to improve latency but does give a good framerate boost, this is why it won out over SFR.
 
BluD said:
I love multi gpu, much better than it used to be, i used to be happy with 50% extra performance 10 years ago but now i see nearly 100% extra on a lot of games.
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What games?

For me Crossfire sucks recently and as examples of the games i play:

ROTTR -
- Flickering of water in distance
- Stuttering under 40FPS (feels like 20FPS)

Dying Light:
- Stuttering / Flickering effects (blood, water, light)

Just Cause 3:
- Stuttering / flickering effects
- Flickering shadows.


thats off the top of my head.

Those are BIG name games, all which present problems in Xfire that force me to disable one 290x and run lower settings...
 
I ran crossfire for a good few years and watched as support become less reliable. Eventually I shelled out for a 980ti and it's wonderful knowing what performance I can expect for new releases. I do miss the raw power of mgpu when it worked though!
 
I think my 295x2 will be my last mGPU setup, it's a great card and when it works the performance is awesome but combining it with being an early adopter of FreeSync has just given me so much hassle. Luckily I don't play many AAA games on release these days as it seems to be more surprising if mGPU works than not at the moment.
 
I am very happy with most of the titles I have played over my sli setup. Some games surely are not optimized for it on day 1 but with newer drivers, things improved.
 
Having tested two 7970's and saw no gains in almost all of my games. Except for 3dMark scores there is very little point and will never waste the money on two slower cards vs buying the fastest card instead. I only had the cards from Bitcoin mining and thought id just test crossfire out to see what the fuss is about.
 
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