@B6: How far down the road is official SLI support?

[ATAG_Septic]

My PC was working so well I decided to fix it, will I never learn? Anyway, it eventually, inevitably, led to a format and clean install.

My reinstall has not yet included the beta Nvidia drivers (301.34), which I thought were the reason the profile editor found launcher.exe rather than naming it WRC2010 on my system. With the clean system and official release drivers it now sees launcher and keeps the correct name too.

SLI seems to work well with 1.6 here, better than 1.5, as does AA. I force alternate rendering, which results in both GPUs running at around 70% (I only use 1 GTX590 for Cliffs) and only the slightest stutter on occasion.

I used to inject FXAA before the beta Nvidia drivers but with the clean install AA is good enough on 1.6 without FXAA.

I know this is not scientific but my system had become cluttered with lots of so-called performance improving software, Beta drivers and bespoke system settings and for me a clean basic system and game installation works as well if not better than with all the game and system tweaks.

Cheers,

Septic.

[RickRuski]

Don't know if both of your cards are from the same stable and exactly the same, if not then they may need adjustment with a software like EVGA Precision tool or similar. For Sli to work both cards must have the same V/ram (you can't mix a 1.5gb card with a 2gb card etc). My two cards are from different stables but I have clocked and voltaged them the same using Nvidia inspector, then synced both cards with PT. At the moment I have also used the fps limiter built into PT to limit the fps to 30fps. Sure I'm getting stutters but minor (micro stutters unless I'm down very low chasing a 109 or whatever) when up over about 2500 mts they virtually disappear. My two cards aren't that powerful but I'm getting good results through experimenting with settings. Don't believe what is being said about stutters being caused by Sli, if that was the case then all those running single cards wouldn't have stutters but a lot of them have (infact if they were all honest most are). My son has a quad core and a 560ti single card and has shelved Cod because of the stutters he is getting and is playing Rof where that runs silky smooth for him. I use a combination of Nvidia inspector and PT to get the results that I have, use the overclocking part of Nvidia inspector to adjust your clocks etc, it isn't just for over clocking you can use that to de-clock as well. Also in Nvidia control panel did you adjust the physics setting to CPU, this should take the load being used for physics off the Graphics cards.

[jcenzano]

Originally Posted by RickRuski

Also in Nvidia control panel did you adjust the physics setting to CPU, this should take the load being used for physics off the Graphics cards.

AFAIK ClOD does not use Nvidia´s PHYSIX feature, so it should not make any difference.

[RickRuski]

I notice with your m/b that you can run 3way Sli, do you have your cards in 2x 16 slots, or 2x 8 or 1x16 and 1x 8. My m/b is running 2x 16 and the stutters are minor until I get down low, also I've tried "Auto Select" against "CPU" settings in the Sli set up and my stutters are much less with the CPU setting.

[Blackdog_kt]

I never go for dual GPU setups and always prefer a single, beefier card.

Such setups do work in many games but they are often problematic to get right and by the time they are fixed, the cards might be obsolete.

Of course i don't mean high selling FPS titles or sims like DCS that also sell software to military clients (these companies can hire more people and get more work hours per month to fix the problems faster), but flight sims that are made by small teams of 20 people or so, like CoD and RoF.

RoF had troubles with SLI too for many months (maybe more than a year actually, just like CoD), i remember reading many requests and complaints about that too. There were also other issues as well, like "shimmering" ground textures at long range, improper use of multi-core CPUs (i think it was dual cores that crashed if the OS was win7 or vista), FM issues, CTDs, no FMB documentation, limited online playability and limited offline usability (there was no dynamic campaign and the flyables were fewer than what CoD has).

It all sounds very similar to the issues CoD has and it took about 18 months to really fix.

For me this means that given time and provided the teams stay in business, things do get fixed, and that's why i remain optimistic about CoD.
The main thing that kept me away from RoF was the micro-transaction model (i prefer to pay more and get complete expansions instead of buying planes separately) and the always online requirement, otherwise i might be flying it too.

However, to get back to the topic of SLI, since my preference is for this kind of games that are usually made by small teams, i know to expect a lengthy process of optimizations and fixes. So, i don't make upgrades that i can't be sure will be working and that's why i never use dual GPU setups.

If i was also playing a good deal of shooters or action games that are better funded and have lower graphic requirements in terms of view distance, map size, etc, then by all means i would think about SLI as well, but not when my primary focus is flight sims made by dedicated but small studios.

[von Pilsner]

Luthier said it was working a long time ago so I think that politely asking for SLI support is within reason.

If you think having a SLI setup is 'wrong' or 'bad' here is why I have an SLI system.

I purchased a SLI capable MB because I enjoy triple screen gaming. FLight sims and racing sims are very nice with super wide fov and trackIR. I am not rich so I build my system a piece at a time.

I don't want to keep using softth (as great as it is) because I want a hardware solution (nVidia 2D surround is what I'm shooting for [requires SLI] - just need 1 more monitor [or 3 new ones possibly ]). MatroxTH2GO had more limitations than just buying a 2nd card. As I understand it the super multimonitor nvidia cards are 2 GPUS in SLI mode on one card so I am not left with many options...

So there are valid reasons for SLI setups (even if you enjoy flight sims).

Cheers

[ATAG_Septic]

Hi all,

I'm using SLI with Cliffs currently (1.6 + hot-fix) and it seems with good effect. Both GPUs stay below 65c, and are used equally up to around 60%[this was incorrect, they go to 99%] . When I use one GPU it runs at 90-99% and much hotter.

Vram Memory usage is around 95% on both cards (they are on a 590). I get a few stutters but these are not from the alternate frame rendering, which appears fluid, this at very low level over London with everything on highest settings including SSAO and FXAA and all filtering off. The occasional stutter seems to occur to my unqualified eyes to be associated with loading a new map tile or object but not the SLI.

For me SLI works but might work better if we can get a proper profile.

Cheers Chaps.

Septic.

Nice setup there Von Pilsner, Congratulations! May I ask, do you need to connect and hide the X52 Joystick to enable the throttle to work? It seems I do.