Setting up Sli

[CrazySchmidt]

(5) Stop showing off Ruski.

[Purg]

MSI Afterburner shows that SLI is working and load is being displayed on my 2nd card but performance increase is absolutely zero compared to it running single GPU.

[335th_GRAthos]

Nice solution Rick, I tried it on my two GTX570 and it is very nice and smooth play.

I can not say whether it is because of new NVIDIA drivers (wishfull thinking) or because of your SLI setup but anyhow, the result is very good! Thanks!

~S~

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by Purg

MSI Afterburner shows that SLI is working and load is being displayed on my 2nd card but performance increase is absolutely zero compared to it running single GPU.

What I'm seeing is similar. My single card works at 90% -100% with good frame rates (45 -60 fps) at high detail and slight micro stutters at low altitude over landscape. Temperature runs quite warm (60 - 70 C) with fan running at high speed (noisy).

With beta 285.27 driver and Rick's settings in SLI the two cards are running in near parallel at 45% - 65% (higher percentage over land at low altitude) and temps are a little cooler (50 - 60 C) with fans running at lower speed (quieter). Frame rates seem the same as the single card with slight stuttering as well at low altitude over land.

I'm going to remain in SLI mode since there seems to be less operational wear & tear on the cards. Also there may be greater potential to handle greater graphical workloads such as Effects (explosions, clouds, instrument panels), but further work (well, play - actually ) required here to determine that.

My 2.67 CPU is likely a bottleneck for SLI, and possibly 1C will come out with an optimized SLI profile to increase SLI performance.

Nice work, Rick!

[RickRuski]

Hey "Crazy" good to see you here, about time you got your butt of the couch. How about having a look at a "Mission Mate" for "Dover"

Cheers

Rick

[RickRuski]

Purg, one thing to have a look at is the "Control Panel" , make sure you have "Sli enabled". Also the other thing I have done in the C/P is to set "PhysX Settings" processor to cpu in the RH panel.

[katdogfizzow]

Originally Posted by RickRuski

Although I have only recently gone Sli I feel that I have found some things that help to get it running reasonably well.

(1) make SURE that all settings are the same in all adjustments (control panel, Invidia Inspector, etc) sometimes I have found that they aren't.

(2) Try and get all cards balanced so that voltages, frequencies, etc are the same. ( I use EVGA precision Tool for this purpose available at EVGA , my two cards are from different stables and therefore not the same clocks etc.)

(3) Overclocking sometimes has a negative effect (although my cards are factory O/C I have turned them down to stock settings and find them more stable)

Hope these few things that I have found during testing help others who might be struggling.

Here are my new "Profile" settings applied after 285.27 beta driver.

Sli compatibility bits (DX10) = 0x00000011
Sli compatibility bits = 0x00000011
AA-mode = override any application setting
AA-setting = 2x (2x Multisampling)
AA-Transparency Multisampling = Enabled
AA-Transparency Supersampling = Off/ Multisampling
Text filtering-Anisotropic sample opt.= OFF
Text filtering-Negative LOD Bias = Clamp
Text filtering-Quality = Quality
Text filtering-Trilinear opt. = OFF
Max pre-rendered frames = 3
Multi-display/mixed-GPUacceleration = Single display performance mode
Power management mode = Adaptive
Treaded optimization = Auto
Triple buffering = OFF
Vertical Sync = Force on

Sli : -

AA-SliAA = AA MODE SELECTOR SLIAA ENABLED
Number of GPU's to use Sli = SLI_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIA predefined No.GPU's = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_TWO
NVIDIA predefined No. GPU's = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIApredefined SLI mode DX10 = SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_DX10_FORCE_AFR
NVIDIA predefined Sli mode = SLI_PREDEFINED_MOED_FORCE_AFR
SLI rendering mode = SLI_RENDERING_MODE_FORCE_AFR

Other : -

Do not display this profile in the C/P = CPL_HIDDEN_PROFILE_DISABLED
Enable application for Optimus = 0x00000011 (Il-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover)

In the "Nvidia Control Panel" Sli setup RH panel I have set "PhysX settings" = cpu

Now have smooth play after cards reach operating temps.
Get EVGA "Precision" tool to show fps and card temps, also to balance frequencies and voltages. These will display on screen instead of using "Fraps".

My latest screen shot from "London Attack" after applying 285.27 and "Profile"update

I have had some feed back from the members at "Nvidia Sli Club" on my profiles, they seem to work ok with dual cards but not with 3+ cards in Sli. Those who are using 3+ cards all I can suggest is try different things in "Nvidia Inspector" to get the best results you can until an official release for Sli is done. (17/9/2011)


RickRuski

Didn't work with my Gigabyte 460s. Still the slow and jittery fps mess. Also did C/P = CPL_HIDDEN_PROFILE_DISABLED, Enable application for Optimus = 0x00000011 and "PhysX settings" = cpu

thanks for sharing, looks like my hardware is a no go with this profile

[EZ1]

I just got it all set up and and running per instructions from RickRuski. Results: Yes, it runs evenly on both GPUs. Yes, it is pretty smooth but not quite as smooth as single GPU. But, I don't see any performance improvement. I would think SLI isn't going to give us much until they get AA working right.

Thanks again for the info.

[snwkill]

Very well done, noticed a bit of improvement but I also fly with grass off because it is easier to see runways. Thanks though, only time it pauses is when I am looking around like a mad man trying to find my pursuer

[RickRuski]

Hi Snwkill,

I am at the moment trying to get the best I can from the current situation with "Dover", that means I will accept advise and or sugestions from all. We will all have some input that we can try, and the more that try with Sli the better we could achieve with our performance until an "offical" profile is provided.

I also fly with Grass and Shadows "Off", cant see any sense in having a performance hit from 1500 mtrs up.

My setup that I have posted is what is working for me, I realise that it won't for everyone but lets keep at it, then the developers will see that there is enough of us using Sli to warrant some effort there.