GTX 970 SLI Issue!

[Creepz]

My 970s while in sli, tend to have an issue, unless running very intense titles or intense scenes in titles such as Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, my first gpu will clock at around 1100 mhz and my other gpu will clock at my max oc. ~1400-1500ish. While playing games, I have had to actually turn turn the settings up higher, to get a more playable fps. On arma 2 epoch I was getting a better framerate maxing the settings, then at stock. At stock my graphics card would just sit at ~900mhz. I've read that others are getting a similar issue on 970 and 980 sli, here. I am hoping it's just a software bug that will be easily fixed, so I don't have to send back one of my cards. It should have nothing to do with my specs, considering I had 660 ti's in sli for ~2 years and they never had this glitch. 

 

 - Bioshock inf (load screen but it does the same in game also)

 - Borderlands The Pre-Sequel

 - League 

 - Crysis 3

 - Battlefield 4 the only game that constantly actually uses my graphics cards to close to their full potential? 

Sorry for the lq thread, I didn't have the time to fix any mistakes or make the screenshots not choppy, just spreading information to people interested in using sli on the 900 series, because currently it seems badly optimized. 

 

 

[Faceman]

What CPU?  What overclock?

[Creepz]

What CPU?  What overclock?

 

4.5 ghz on an  i7 3770k, 16gbs of 1600 mhz ram, 1080p

[Faceman]

4.5 ghz on an  i7 3770k

Hmm..  more than enough power for two of those cards.

 

I don't have an SLI config, so I am just speculating here:

 

Maybe the cards are not at the exact same voltage and Mhz?  Make sure they have the exact same settings inside afterburner.

 

My 2nd guess is that the cards are just so powerful for these titles, that the cards don't have to run at 100%.  For instance, when I play LoL, my card is not at its max 1215Mhz, it is relaxing at around 900Mhz because its just not needed.

 

Are you suffering from bad performance? Flickering? stuttering?  Or is this just MSI Afterburner/Rivastats reporting different values in the On screen display?

 

If you'll excuse me, talking about league makes me want to play some league.  I'll be back shortly to continue to try and throw darts at the dartboard.  My expertise is not in this field though.

[Creepz]

Hmm..  more than enough power for two of those cards.

 

I don't have an SLI config, so I am just speculating here:

 

Maybe the cards are not at the exact same voltage and Mhz?  Make sure they have the exact same settings inside afterburner.

 

My 2nd guess is that the cards are just so powerful for these titles, that the cards don't have to run at 100%.  For instance, when I play LoL, my card is not at its max 1215Mhz, it is relaxing at around 900Mhz because its just not needed.

 

Are you suffering from bad performance? Flickering? stuttering?  Or is this just MSI Afterburner/Rivastats reporting different values in the On screen display?

 

If you'll excuse me, talking about league makes me want to play some league.  I'll be back shortly to continue to try and throw darts at the dartboard.  My expertise is not in this field though.

Well, It depends, In borderlands, I was getting bad performance on physx earlier, dropping to 20 fps while my gpu 1 was clocked at 900mhz smiling at me. 

My settings in afterburner are synced, and it doesn't make sense why the second gpu clocks alot higher then the 1st when the temps are very close.

I'm not getting a very bad experience playing games, but alot of times it's not a very high framerate - 50ish, and I will be sitting near 900-1100 mhz on gpu 1 and 1470 on gpu 2. 

[Faceman]

Well, It depends, In borderlands, I was getting bad performance on physx earlier, dropping to 20 fps while my gpu 1 was clocked at 900mhz smiling at me. 

My settings in afterburner are synced, and it doesn't make sense why the second gpu clocks alot higher then the 1st when the temps are very close.

I'm not getting a very bad experience playing games, but alot of times it's not a very high framerate - 50ish, and I will be sitting near 900-1100 mhz on gpu 1 and 1470 on gpu 2. 

What motherboard are you using?  I fear that maybe one of the PCI slots is 3.0 while the other is 2.0.  Or they both aren't running at 8x.  I'm not trying to be rude, just throwing darts until one sticks.  I would like to reiterate that I don't have an SLI config, and I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with them, so until anyone else steps up, you're stuck with me and my cockamamie ideas.

[Creepz]

What motherboard are you using?  I fear that maybe one of the PCI slots is 3.0 while the other is 2.0.  Or they both aren't running at 8x.  I'm not trying to be rude, just throwing darts until one sticks.  I would like to reiterate that I don't have an SLI config, and I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with them, so until anyone else steps up, you're stuck with me and my cockamamie ideas.

I have a z77 asus sabertooth, both of my cards are running 3.0 x8, lol @ the last bit. Which should be more then enough bandwidth, especially since the second one is the card that stepping up to the plate. 

[Faceman]

I have a z77 asus sabertooth, both of my cards are running 3.0 x8, lol @ the last bit. Which should be more then enough bandwidth, especially since the second one is the card that stepping up to the plate. 

Ok, so thats not the issue.  I am running out of ideas...

 

Maybe try switching the cards, see if it still happens.  Try with just one card.  Also try with just one card in both slots.  Maybe one of the PCI lanes is acting up. 

 

I'm really grasping at straws here.  Could someone who actually has an SLI setup jump in here to help please?  New forum member, want to show him that this community can and will help.

[Hendrics]

Try going into NVidia control panel > manage 3d settings > program settings > then use the drop down to select a game, and set "power management" to "prefer maximum performance" and launch the game again

 

I had this happen a few times in games, it seems its only pulling the power needed for the game when its set to "adaptive" as it normally is by default in the program list

 

About it using GPU 2 instead of GPU 1 as primary, not entirely sure why it would do that, unless again, in NVidia Control panel > configure SLI, surround, PhysX > and that card 1 isn't set to specifically control PhysX?

[Creepz]

Try going into NVidia control panel > manage 3d settings > program settings > then use the drop down to select a game, and set "power management" to "prefer maximum performance" and launch the game again

 

I had this happen a few times in games, it seems its only pulling the power needed for the game when its set to "adaptive" as it normally is by default in the program list

 

About it using GPU 2 instead of GPU 1 as primary, not entirely sure why it would do that, unless again, in NVidia Control panel > configure SLI, surround, PhysX > and that card 1 isn't set to specifically control PhysX?

Just tested borderlands pre-sequel and cs go since go is a very easily ran game, and both cards ran the same clock @1443 mhz. The power management setting worked perfectly! Thank you very much Hendrics!

 

@Faceman thank you for your time and suggestions!

[Hendrics]

Any time bro! Enjoy the cards! Im totally jealous, looking to try to offload my 770s so I can get 2 970s -

 

Feel free to PM me with any more questions, cheers!

[Anusha]

This is valuable information as I am testing SLI right now.