GTX680 SLI overclock problem?

[jfizzle4321]

I am running two EVGA GTX 680s reference and I toyed around with overclocking. Ever since, I have been getting lag when playing online games. I did have to reset the tower 1x during a match in BF3 but that is all. I tried stress tests, benchmarks like Witcher 2 ubersampled in 1920 X 1080, BF3 Campaign maxed in 5760X1080, Skyrim at the same triple screen res with all of the tweaks set and everything checks out. When I play any game online (BF3, BFBC2, Red Orchestra) I get serious stutter. My ping fluctuated in BFBC2 only, the other games it never rises above 31 and I did a speed and ping test.

Could it be the overclock causing this? Again I'm only experiences what looks like internet speed lag when I'm playing online.

My specs:

Rampage IV
I73820
16GB 1866 G-Skill Ram
2 GTX680s in SLI
1000 Watt Corsair PSU
Corsair H100 processor cooling.

 

[GArrigotti]

Doubtful, but Nvidia did announce a new driver for the 600 Series cards that corrects several Vertical Sync and Stutter related issues. I'd download the new driver first.

On another note; if you believe it is the overclock you can simply revert it back to it's stock frequency. More then likely the driver will fix it, since the new cards adapt to their workloads. Since they can thread several task at a time, they have to mitigate traffic to the threads. It may be essentially holding a lower clock as the workload is increasing, as it is mitigating along the threads. Or it just isn't doing it fast enough.

Did it have stutter when it was SLI'd before the overclock? The cards aren't too close together causing one to generate too much heat either correct? A lot of cards have safety's built into them when the temperatures reach critical.

I would try these:

1. Download latest Driver
2. Put the cards back to Reference, No Overclock.
3. Add more rendering features / Tone down Nvidia Control Panel Settings.
4. Overclock it further.

Try those, if that doesn't resolve it. Simply put the cards back to their default clock rate. Cleanup your drivers; install the latest driver. Try the cards individually see if the issue happens. If it doesn't, SLI and see if the issue persist. If it doesn't then start pushing your Rendering / Resolution. If it still isn't try to do a moderate overclock. If it doesn't at that point then overclock them further.

Hope that helps. Let me know, I'll see if I can help you further.

 

[jfizzle4321]

Doubtful, but Nvidia did announce a new driver for the 600 Series cards that corrects several Vertical Sync and Stutter related issues. I'd download the new driver first.

On another note; if you believe it is the overclock you can simply revert it back to it's stock frequency. More then likely the driver will fix it, since the new cards adapt to their workloads. Since they can thread several task at a time, they have to mitigate traffic to the threads. It may be essentially holding a lower clock as the workload is increasing, as it is mitigating along the threads. Or it just isn't doing it fast enough.

Did it have stutter when it was SLI'd before the overclock? The cards aren't too close together causing one to generate too much heat either correct? A lot of cards have safety's built into them when the temperatures reach critical.

I would try these:

1. Download latest Driver
2. Put the cards back to Reference, No Overclock.
3. Add more rendering features / Tone down Nvidia Control Panel Settings.
4. Overclock it further.

Try those, if that doesn't resolve it. Simply put the cards back to their default clock rate. Cleanup your drivers; install the latest driver. Try the cards individually see if the issue happens. If it doesn't, SLI and see if the issue persist. If it doesn't then start pushing your Rendering / Resolution. If it still isn't try to do a moderate overclock. If it doesn't at that point then overclock them further.

Hope that helps. Let me know, I'll see if I can help you further.

Hey thanks a lot for the detailed message. I tried a ton of things, I took the side of the case off, I did upgrade to the new beta driver, and I tried stock clocks. I checked my windows update and realized that windows hadn't been updated since 5/9/12. I updated windows manually and ever since it's been running well with a rare 1 second hitch but that's it. I don't know if I completely fixed it or not. I toned GPU Clock offset from 125 mhz to 100 mhz and toned Mem clock offset down from 160 to 125. Meanwhile I maxxed the fan speed and increased my power target to 132%. I may try adjusting the clocks again just a bit more. The only reason I do so is because I'm running BF3 in Triple screen. Believe it or not, the two 680s in SLI aren't maxxing the game all that well in 5760X1080, hence the overclock. On other games like Skyrim I am getting over 100fps maxxed and tweaked with the overclock. Witcher 2 is actually disasterous in triple screen but with ubersample enabled and running on one screen I'm getting 80fps in SLI which, from what I've read, is a really good framerate with ubersampling enabled.

 

[GArrigotti]

Hey thanks a lot for the detailed message. I tried a ton of things, I took the side of the case off, I did upgrade to the new beta driver, and I tried stock clocks. I checked my windows update and realized that windows hadn't been updated since 5/9/12. I updated windows manually and ever since it's been running well with a rare 1 second hitch but that's it. I don't know if I completely fixed it or not. I toned GPU Clock offset from 125 mhz to 100 mhz and toned Mem clock offset down from 160 to 125. Meanwhile I maxxed the fan speed and increased my power target to 132%. I may try adjusting the clocks again just a bit more. The only reason I do so is because I'm running BF3 in Triple screen. Believe it or not, the two 680s in SLI aren't maxxing the game all that well in 5760X1080, hence the overclock. On other games like Skyrim I am getting over 100fps maxxed and tweaked with the overclock. Witcher 2 is actually disasterous in triple screen but with ubersample enabled and running on one screen I'm getting 80fps in SLI which, from what I've read, is a really good framerate with ubersampling enabled.

I'm glad that information helped. I do know that Windows 8 handles Graphic and Hard-Drive data better; better performance. One thing you could always try; is adjust your physics in the Nvidia Control Panel. Force it to use your 2nd GTX for the Physics rather then spread between CPU, Card 1, and Card 2.

You may also want to try rotating your Sli Bridge Cable.

You should be experiencing 56 to 78 FPS without any problems. The 56 is with 4XAA Turned on. The 78 is without it turned on.

Hope that helps. Here is an article for fast reference to compare performance:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-sli-overclock-surround,3162-5.html

 

[jfizzle4321]

I'm glad that information helped. I do know that Windows 8 handles Graphic and Hard-Drive data better; better performance. One thing you could always try; is adjust your physics in the Nvidia Control Panel. Force it to use your 2nd GTX for the Physics rather then spread between CPU, Card 1, and Card 2.

You may also want to try rotating your Sli Bridge Cable.

You should be experiencing 56 to 78 FPS without any problems. The 56 is with 4XAA Turned on. The 78 is without it turned on.

Hope that helps. Here is an article for fast reference to compare performance:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-sli-overclock-surround,3162-5.html

I'm wondering which map they hit those numbers. I couldn't imagine that happening on a Karkand map, I did max the game completely and I destroyed the single player however.

 

[jfizzle4321]

I'm glad that information helped. I do know that Windows 8 handles Graphic and Hard-Drive data better; better performance. One thing you could always try; is adjust your physics in the Nvidia Control Panel. Force it to use your 2nd GTX for the Physics rather then spread between CPU, Card 1, and Card 2.

You may also want to try rotating your Sli Bridge Cable.

You should be experiencing 56 to 78 FPS without any problems. The 56 is with 4XAA Turned on. The 78 is without it turned on.

Hope that helps. Here is an article for fast reference to compare performance:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-sli-overclock-surround,3162-5.html

So I did the bridge trick. A guy named ubercake recommended that on an nVidia site a while ago. My FPS on every new map was running in the 70s, occasionally spiking to 100s or dipping to 50s. Good call mate! Now lets see what happens on Karkand lol.

 

[GArrigotti]

So I did the bridge trick. A guy named ubercake recommended that on an nVidia site a while ago. My FPS on every new map was running in the 70s, occasionally spiking to 100s or dipping to 50s. Good call mate! Now lets see what happens on Karkand lol.

Nice, I'm happy to help you out.

 

[jfizzle4321]

Best answer selected by jfizzle4321.