460 GTXs SLI 3dMark Vantage Artifacts

[KTVStriker]

When I run 3dmark Vantage with SLI disabled I have no issues. When I run SLI, I get severe artifacts in water and other artifacts in other tests. I have tested both cards by themselves with no issues in Vantage. They run flawless in 3dmark06, AVP Benchmark, and Heaven in SLI mode no issues. Whats up with 3dmark Vantage? Is there a setting i need to adjust? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Phenom II 1090T X6 BE
SLI 2 Each EVGA 460 GTX 768MB (Vanilla)
M4N98TD EVO
4GB GKILL RipJaws Series DDR3 1600 Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Zalman 9700 Cooler (Green LED)
OCZ MODXSTREAM-PRO 700W PS (Yes, it does have enough power for these to 460 GTX cards in SLI)
WD 1TB 1001FALS 32MB Cache SATA

 

[notty22]

That PSU has 1-6 pin and 1-6+2 pin.
So I assume some of your connections to your 2 cards are molex to pci-e adapters , or did you get Y adapters ?
The point is, did you put a dedicated pci-e connector from your psu to each card and then a molex connection.
Or is one card using all molex connector adapters ?

 

[KTVStriker]

Yes, I put 1 pci-e connector per card and 1 molex connecter per card.

 

[notty22]

I asked because power issues can cause what your describing. Someone had a similar setup and it turned out to be a cheap ,long extension cord power strip. It caused memory artifacts.
The molex connectors can sometimes pull from non 12 v rails or other issues. Having a pci-e cable in each card is where you at least want to start.
Vantage is coded to stress certain gpu hardware to the extreme. You could try lowering your clock speeds and memory speeds to see if those artifacts go away, that might help troubleshooting further. See if that changes anything.
Try 100mhz on each less.

 

[KTVStriker]

I think your right on the power issue. Although I down clocked everything from my GPUs, to my CPU, the artifacts are still there when I run vantage in SLI. I also have noticed when I put allot of torque i.e. overclock CPU, and overclock SLI configurations in 3dmark 06 my score begins to drop. I think my power supply may be in question. I will see if I can hot swap with my buddy who is using 1000watt.

 

[barmaley]

I have exact same problem with my GTX 460 1GB SLI. When I test the cards in 3D Mark Vantage without SLI, everything works fine. As soon as I enable it, artifacts come in. In my case, power supply is not the issue (Corsair HX1000) and I know it is functioning properly since I just upgraded from GTX 275 SLI and everything was hunky-dory. Funny thing is the problem only presents itself in this benchmark. When I play Starcraft 2, Split Second, The Last Remnant - everything is fine. Even the fuzzy donut in Furmark works fine. I tried latest and previous version drivers, set all frequencies to NVIDIA default (675 core), tried increasing GPU core voltage, no change. One card at a time works fine, but artifacts in SLI. Here's the full specs:

i7 920 4.2Ghz (tested GPU's @ 2.66Ghz as well)
Scythe Mugen 2
PNY GTX 460 1GB SLI OC (765Mhz core)
Corsair HX1000
Cooler Master HAF932
ASUS P6X58D Premium
OCZ Gold 3x2Gb (8-8-8-24)
Seagate 7200.12 Raid 0 (2x750Gb)

 

[KTVStriker]

Barmaley,

I did a fresh install of Windows 7 64bit and drivers and downloaded Vantage again and BAM! I was able to run Vantage in SLI mode with both my 460 GTXs. I suspect I had a corrupt driver or Vantage download but all is well now.