Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

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madmattd
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Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by madmattd »

Okay, so as you probably know I got another 9800GT 1 GB and popped it into my case for an SLI config. No problems there, my framerates have gone through the roof (nearly 2x and they were solid before), benchmarks all bear out a massive improvement, etc. Except playing games is really choppy.

I've only tried out TF2 so far as I'm still installing stuff back, but getting 100 fps in battle in TF2 is useless if it is really choppy. I've done some Google searching and not turned up anything useful except maybe disabling SLI. I was wondering if someone here knew what the problem might be/how to cure this. Else I guess I just turn off SLI...
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by Desseler »

set this ConVar "fps_max " in TF2 to you monitor's refresh rate +1

I.E. 60hz= fps_max 61
WELL DON'T THAT BEAT ALL.
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by Godkills »

What do you mean by choppy? Is the screen tearing? Video stopping for a second?

Do you have VSYNC on or off? What are your video settings?
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by madmattd »

Made it much worse. It was so-so before, then I changed it and VERY choppy (local server bot times with same number of bots, same map). Before I changed it, it was actually much better than when I was playing earlier, odd (I had a 23ms ping to the server earlier, so I doubt that was it but you never know). Still not great though.
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by madmattd »

It was behaving almost like I was only getting 15-20 fps, where it was just stuttering between frames almost. Particularly annoying when you are playing pyro and need to be close, lol.

I didn't originally have v-sync turned on, but I do now with little difference. All settings are high or very high though I haven't turned on AA at all. I'll try playing with that tonight in case it works.

I am also getting the death cam flickering that many people have reported seeing with SLI, I have yet to try any of the fixes though. Sounds like playing with AA might do it.

I might also try turning off SLI for TF2. The problem is that I have dual monitors and cycling SLI rearranges my desktop every time, which is more than a little annoying. Otherwise I would just set it to disabled for TF2 only.
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by Godkills »

Yeah.. mine is doing it now too. They must have messed something up in an update.
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by madmattd »

Well this was before the update yesterday. Actually, it played fine for me last night, it seems a bit different than it used to be, but it was about as playable as this game has been since it started getting way over-bloated.

Turning on AA made things worse, so I've turned it back off (I tried several different levels of AA). Still not sure what the issue is, but I do know Nvidia won't even think about talking to me since it isn't a SLI-certified board, lol. Forget about the fact that it is purely a driver problem. I'll report back if I figure out anything, but if I can play fine against people, I'm not going to worry about it.

By the way, I fixed the flickering death cam by removing the SLI bridge. Odd. Too bad removing it causes other games to flicker, I'll just deal with the flicker when I die. More incentive not to die so much.
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by Godkills »

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost. ... count=3950

If you are using that, now it supports the latest drivers. My issues are almost completely gone. I also turned on the triple buffer option for the hl2.exe in the nVidia control panel.
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Re: Question for you SLI/X-Fire Pros

Post by madmattd »

Indeed that is the patch I am using. I'll check it out, though I am using it with the latest driver as of Sunday (258.96) anyway. TF2 is playable as is, it hasn't been too bad though the update seems to still leave some vestiges. Trying to remember the last time this game wasn't a bit stuttery...not in a while, lol. Valve and their bloat making M$ look good...

I'll try out the triple buffering.

Are you running this SLI patch too?
"Chinese Sentries - they're cheap, crappy, and have little lights on the top!" - Pretendica
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