GTX 580 and SLI

[ubercake]

I'm considering picking up a second GTX 580 for an SLI setup.

Does anyone out there have a dual-SLI GTX 580 setup and running on Win 7 64-bit?

If so, are you experiencing any issues with SLI?

The reason I ask is I used to run with 3 5850s in my system and every 5 to 10 minutes, while playing Medal of Honor or BFBC2, the screen would flicker for about five seconds and then go back to normal. It wasn't like the monitor was losing a picture and the screen was going black. Things that would trigger it were when I was behind a wall in a good hiding spot or driving a tank or when a tremendous amount of smoke was unleashed on the battlefield. I also had the flicker very seldom in NBA2k11 though once they released drivers for the NBA2K11 issue, the flicker went away altogether. At any rate, none of the flicker occurred with one card in the system (each card worked flawlessly individually, though at lower framerates); only when I had two and three.

I'm just wondering if I'm in for any surprises when running two GTX 580s in SLI?

Thanks.

 

[iceclock]

well 2 way sli souldnt be a problem ubercake, u got the power supply thats great, u got a sli capable motherboard, and im assuming u got the latest graphic and motherboard drivers, and have updated ur bios to the latest to rull out any issue,

so honestly i looked it up and from what i can see shouldnt be a problem,

u got all the required equipment to run 2 in sli, so honestly, should be fine,

 

[ubercake]

Done deal. I started with constant insane flicker in BFBC2 and Medal of Honor (It looked like a jiggly old movie projector on crack). I shut down and reseated the SLI connector from the rear to the forward connectors on the cards flipping the connector so that SLI was readable from the front. Restarted and everything worked like a charm.

It's so nice. Incredible stuff. Drivers work no problem.

I'll post some fraps info tomorrow.

 

[17seconds]

Do you have a pair of PNY 580's? Hopefully, you registered on their website to activate the full lifetime warranty. By the way, I am overclocking well with mine, somewhat, but BFBC2 gets "color dots" on the screen if I get anything over 800 mhz. Other games are good well above 800 mhz.

Hopefully Psychosaysdie will chime in. He has SLI'ed Asus GTX 580 DirectCU's.

 

[ubercake]

Do you have a pair of PNY 580's? Hopefully, you registered on their website to activate the full lifetime warranty. By the way, I am overclocking well with mine, somewhat, but BFBC2 gets "color dots" on the screen if I get anything over 800 mhz. Other games are good well above 800 mhz.

Hopefully Psychosaysdie will chime in. He has SLI'ed Asus GTX 580 DirectCU's.

Yeah. 2 PNYs. I registered the first, but I have to pull the second card out to see the darn serial number. I always get too excited and throw the thing in right away. While it was easy to leave the card in and read the serial number of the first, not so with the second. The lifetime warranty is nice.

You really find it necessary to OC these beasts? That's hardcore! What kind of framerates are you pulling in BFBC2? I'd be curious to see how much performance gain you get at stock versus the OC. Do you use a particular profile when you play BFBC2? Or do you adjust the settings within the game only?

I'm going to run some fraps reports this weekend to list the stock clocks back here.

 

[jfby]

Sorry for the side-line, but what resolution are you playing at that two-three 5850 couldn't max BFBC2?

 

[ubercake]

Sorry for the side-line, but what resolution are you playing at that two-three 5850 couldn't max BFBC2?

I was playing BFBC2 maxed at mid-90fps ave. with 3 5850s at 1080p. It's not that I couldn't. Don't get me wrong. The 5850 is a great card. 3 provide great fps and detail quality.

It's just that the drivers were less than desirable the more cards I added to my system. I would get better framerates with each card, though I'd get the flicker I described earlier after adding the second. Also, every driver release on my crossfire system seemed to correct some issue but introduce a new one.

On my single AMD GPU systems, I have no driver issues. It's just when I introduced crossfire on one system, it introduced me to headaches that began to outweigh the gains. I am not one that likes dealing with that sort of thing after spending that kind of money on anything. So, I stopped complaining and switched.

 

[jfby]

That's more than reasonable, I was just curious. I'm getting my hands on a second 5850 and hope the games I play won't suffer the flicker...

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The reason I ask is I used to run with 3 5850s in my system and every 5 to 10 minutes, while playing Medal of Honor or BFBC2, the screen would flicker for about five seconds and then go back to normal. It wasn't like the monitor was losing a picture and the screen was going black. Things that would trigger it were when I was behind a wall in a good hiding spot or driving a tank or when a tremendous amount of smoke was unleashed on the battlefield. I also had the flicker very seldom in NBA2k11 though once they released drivers for the NBA2K11 issue, the flicker went away altogether. At any rate, none of the flicker occurred with one card in the system (each card worked flawlessly individually, though at lower framerates); only when I had two and three.

That's a well known issue anytime more than 2 cards are used in CF. As indicated in the article below, that's not an issue with SLI.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/15

We've been dealing with CrossfireX reviews ever since the beginning and surely a lot has changed over the years. The one recommendation we always gave you guys is to keep it simple at 2 GPUs maximum, as after 2 GPUs in a CrossfireX setup you quickly run into weird anomalies that can be irritating....

So over the years Multi-GPU support has improved quite a bit, AMD still isn't up-to snuff at the level of NVIDIA though, multi-GPU supports still literally and directly remains the Achilles heel of ATI's Catalyst drivers. For years now we have been requesting user-based multi-GPU profiles. See when a new game comes out, multi-GPU support will not be supported by the Catalyst driver. ATI will always need to update this through drivers or downloadable profiles. ....

So let's round things up, personally we always say stick to one or maybe two high-end cards as there is so much less driver fuzz to worry about.

Here's their 580 SLI review

3 way http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-3-way-sli-review/
2 way http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-sli-review/5

 

[17seconds]

You really find it necessary to OC these beasts? That's hardcore! What kind of framerates are you pulling in BFBC2? I'd be curious to see how much performance gain you get at stock versus the OC. Do you use a particular profile when you play BFBC2? Or do you adjust the settings within the game only?

I'm going to run some fraps reports this weekend to list the stock clocks back here.

I am just overclocking for fun to see what the limits of my particular card are. I can turn up the settings more on other games, but BFBC2 gives me anomalies above 800 mhz. It's hard to tell the average framerates with BFBC2 using Afterburner, but I'm up and down between 50 and 100 fps. I have all the in-game settings turned up to max, then I have the Nvidia Control Panel turned up to max as well, including Transparency Antialiasing at 8x Supersampling.

It's funny, after overclocking, I played Half-Life 2 with VSync on. After I backed off on the supersampling, the GPU usage was less than 20%, and the frame rate was a solid line right at 60 fps!

 

[ubercake]

Here's their 580 SLI review

3 way http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-3-way-sli-review/
2 way http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-sli-review/5

Good info for multi-card nvidia/ati comparisons.

The second-to-last paragraph in the two-way SLI article is the biggest reason why I'm happy with the nVidia setup.

 

[ubercake]

I am just overclocking for fun to see what the limits of my particular card are. I can turn up the settings more on other games, but BFBC2 gives me anomalies above 800 mhz. It's hard to tell the average framerates with BFBC2 using Afterburner, but I'm up and down between 50 and 100 fps. I have all the in-game settings turned up to max, then I have the Nvidia Control Panel turned up to max as well, including Transparency Antialiasing at 8x Supersampling.

It's funny, after overclocking, I played Half-Life 2 with VSync on. After I backed off on the supersampling, the GPU usage was less than 20%, and the frame rate was a solid line right at 60 fps!

That's remarkable performance. I haven't even played with the control panel settings yet. I hear you can create profiles per application. Is there a place where you can download/upload applications people create for particular games?

 

[17seconds]

That's remarkable performance. I haven't even played with the control panel settings yet. I hear you can create profiles per application. Is there a place where you can download/upload applications people create for particular games?

No, things work a little differently than with AMD and there are no custom game profiles to download.

You have the two tabs for performance settings, Global and the one for your individual games. It will automatically search your hard drive for games and add them to the list, or you can manually add them if it doesn't find them all (games on Steam, for example). Not all the options are supported by various games, Ambient Occlusion and Transparency Antialiasing, for example, but play around with them and see what works best. I would just try to turn everything up to max and back off if there are any problems, starting with the two settings I just mentioned.

Here is a great site with a lot of information about all things Nvidia:
http://www.geforce.com

It includes info on control panel settings and has optimization/tweak guides for specific games.

 

[iceclock]

u dont need more than 2 580gtxs in sli, and ubercake dont forget to register the second card

 

[ubercake]

u dont need more than 2 580gtxs in sli, and ubercake dont forget to register the second card

Ha. Thanks. Easy to forget to register.

These cards actually perform better when you turn the details up. It's crazy.

Here's some FRAPS numbers for Medal of Honor Multiplayer (Shahikot Mountains Combat) with the highest in-game details and 16xAF(max) and 32 CSAA(max):
Min: 160
Max: 164
Ave: 161.548

I think the thing that's just plain insanity is the minimum fps. I'll post more as I play more...

 

[ubercake]

FRAPS numbers for BFBC2 (Laguna map) with the highest in-game details and 16xAF(max) and 32 CSAA(max):
Min: 92
Max: 148
Ave: 121.342

The minimum dips a bit, though the minimum here with the 5850s is the average I was getting with 3 5850s.

 

[17seconds]

FRAPS numbers for BFBC2 (Laguna map) with the highest in-game details and 16xAF(max) and 32 CSAA(max):
Min: 92
Max: 148
Ave: 121.342

The minimum dips a bit, though the minimum here with the 5850s is the average I was getting with 3 5850s.

Do you have Transparency Antialiasing enabled in Control Panel? Mine's at the highest, which is 8x Supersampling.

Be sure to have Multi-Display/Mixed GPU Acceleraton set to Single Display Performance Mode. For some reason, it defaults to Multiple Display Performance Mode. I'm assuming you're on a single monitor.

 

[ubercake]

Do you have Transparency Antialiasing enabled in Control Panel? Mine's at the highest, which is 8x Supersampling.

Be sure to have Multi-Display/Mixed GPU Acceleraton set to Single Display Performance Mode. For some reason, it defaults to Multiple Display Performance Mode. I'm assuming you're on a single monitor.

Here are my Medal of Honor Multiplayer FRAPS numbers with Antialiasing - Transparency set to 8x:

Min: 91
Max: 189
Ave: 137.065

I'll switch it to single monitor mode as you've suggested.

This is probably a good global setting to change?

Also, something to note (because of my frame of reference), they two cards in games are quieter than the 3 5850s used to be. Can't be scientific about that though. I just don't have to turn the volume up as high to play.

 

[ubercake]

FRAPS numbers for BFBC2 (Inocente map) with the highest in-game details and 16xAF(max),32 CSAA(max), and Antialiasing - Transparency set to 8x:

Min: 43
Max: 151
Ave: 75.855

Still completely playable and beautiful visuals. I noticed when I hit 43fps but it was just a blip on the radar and it was back up there. That 'Anitaliasing - Transparency' setting really makes a difference in the framerates, but it really adds to the graphics. I'm really hoping the new BF3 engine tends more toward the Medal of Honor engine (with destruction added, of course), than toward a more complex BFBC2 engine, otherwise I'll be shopping for new cards in about 6-7 months. For now, the GTX 580 in SLI is most impressive, though. I have experienced absolutely no issue with the drivers and no flicker in any game. The only thing I don't like is the cost of these things.

 

[iceclock]

yes they cost over 300$ each which is prohibitive in my budget lol, i can glad if i could afford a 6850, anyways, good choice man, and impressive fps, wish i was as fortunate but i bet u worked ur butt off for every penny, thats what makes america great, hard working law abiding citizens like u, cheer

 

[ubercake]

Hawx DX10 numbers using the test performance option...

Full Details w/Ambient Occlusion Low and AA x8:
Max: 399
Ave: 200

Full Details w/Ambient Occlusion Higherst and AA x8:
Max: 379
Ave: 185

 

[ubercake]

yes they cost over 300$ each which is prohibitive in my budget lol, i can glad if i could afford a 6850, anyways, good choice man, and impressive fps, wish i was as fortunate but i bet u worked ur butt off for every penny, thats what makes america great, hard working law abiding citizens like u, cheer

I probably shouldn't be spending money on this stuff. Some spend their money working on bikes, cars, or their golf game. There are probably better ways I could use this money, but I feel like I do work for it and I enjoy messing with this stuff. I just wanted to post some numbers from a regular dude with a computer and no motivation monetarily or otherwise to fudge numbers one way or another. I'm going to close this thread. Hopefully anyone considering an SLI setup with the 580s is somewhat informed and knows what to expect. Thanks to everyone for your help!

 

[ubercake]

Best answer selected by ubercake.

 

[iceclock]

cheers, thanks again ubercake, wish i had a gtx 580, lol thats freaking sweet,

 

[ubercake]

One myth I'd like to dispell is that an i7-930 at standard clocks in no way bottlenecks the GPUs. Using GPU-z I found the 580s both run near 100% every time I play BFBC2 at different points during the game. They wouldn't be doing this much processing if the CPU was a bottleneck. It is just a great gaming experience.

Of course everything is maxed and with the advice of matto17secs, I turned up the AA transparency to 8x in the profile for this game.