Tonny0909

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Hi

I was starting out with a new machine and the ASUS Maximus Formula motherboard, and an ASUS 8800GT, 2GB RAM and Core 2 Quad Q6600. This worked fine, until I desided to overclock, by SLI, which , obviously would not work with the Intel X38 chipset, on the motherboard. The power supply is a 500W Artic cooling, stating 350W on one group and 140W on the next group. It does seam a little low (as it was purchased to be a 500W)

I have now switched the motherboard for an ASUS P5N-T deluxe, and added the IFX14 cooler with 2x120mm fans including the extra Hr-10 +80mm fan, for the backside of the motherboard.

However, the new configuration does not deliver as it was supposed to! :fou:

I mostly use the rig for playing games, and resently it has been Crysis. This play very well on the old motherboard (Maximus with one 8800GT), but now the startup time is longer and the gameplay is very unsmooth. Also it is now impossible to perform a benchmark, as the game "dies" at the end of the 4th sweep, just before, or as, it should give the calculation of the FPS. It does not seam better the earlier, in game and in benchmark.

I am on the verge of switching the motherboard to an ASUS Striker II, to be able to run SLI still, but as this has the same chipset I am worried that it will not help at all?
 
The Maximus Formula X38 is capable of Crossfire 16 x 2 PCIE 2.0. You probably should have kept that MB and chosen two ATI 3870's in Crossfire if you wanted dual video cards. The Nvidia chipset you have now will not perform as well as the X38.
 

antas

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How much your wattage once again? Is it 500W? That might cause the problems, as 500W is not enough for dual GPU, not to mention additional fan etc ...
 

Tonny0909

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Hi Badge

Yes You may be right....at least you are right about the MB, this should not have been changed ! The ATI has never worked for me though, and if you look at the tests, the fast ATI's I have seen does not even in crossfire, reach one 8800GT......
 

Tonny0909

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Hi Antas

I know it is low wattage, but depending on the calculator it is either enough (510w), or WAY off (920w), from the two I have tried.

Do you have experience with this? What is then the required level ?
 
Unless I was using my 40 in. 1080p Samsung HDTV, I have absolutely no use for SLI, although I currently have two older SLI systems running which I use everyday (7800GT x 2 and 7600GT x2). I can tell very little difference in using one card to two in SLI at lower resolutions and smaller screens. I currently use a single 8800GTS 640 OC on my 22" monitor at 16 x 10. I would glady take 2 x 3870's to run on this system 8).

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=1057&model2=1060&chart=318
 

Tonny0909

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Are you implying that no effect will come from two cards in SLI ? This would be highly disappointing to me, however, running now compared to the previously setup with Maximus and one card, I admit that it has NOT improved at all.....
 

baddad

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Crysis is a poorly coded game with bugs that have yet to be fixed and suffers from sever memory leaks. When you changed your board and added a card did you increase your game settings? Do you have the 1.1 patch for SLI in Crysis on? What resolution are you running in?
 

antas

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Hi Badge,

are you sure for the calculation? TBH I didn't tried SLI myself, since I'm using ATi (never tried NVIDIA though), and currently I'm satisfied with it (HD3870).

But I have some friends running on NVIDIA, some on SLI. From what I heard, to be on the safe side, the wattage should be at least 600W for SLI (dual card).

However, read all over your thread again, it might be the problem with Crysis itself, not with your system. In this case you may listen to baddad advice ..

Do you have any problem with any other game? Or even in your windows? Is your windows working fine (I mean with standard applications). If so, then it's safe to say that it is not PSU problem.

What about the driver? Are you applying the last (non beta) driver from NVIDIA?

For the SLI / Crossfire, IMO for reso under 1680 the difference is not much.
 

Tonny0909

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First that I may have to do is upgrade with the patch 1.1, but I tried it before (on the old MB) and it didn't give the difference, so I decided not to install it this time. If it is a special patch for SLI, I , of course, have to install it. The settings is the same as for the earlier setup, automaticly it sets "Very high" 0xAA and I have reduced it to "High" 0xAA.

The driver is the latest from nVIDIA, and non BETA.

To be honest I have not been on standard applications other than internet explorer, but startup is slower, and the Ai technologi seams to react different "every" time I start. Sometimes everything takes like forever, and somtimes it is fast as could be expected. Do you know what that gamespy thing that installs with Crysis does?

I will reinstall Crysis, you think it would help. And also install some standard applications to try out the general performance.