SLI 560ti is not better than 1 msi 560ti twn frozr...Why??

[FMFPAC]

I have an sli configuration with one zotac 560ti and one msi twin frzr 560ti. I have the twin frozer as the primary card in slot one as I figured that because it cools better than the zotac, thats where it should be. I recently bought a 1000watt ocz psu. WHen I took the zotac out and just used the msi, I was able to run BF3 with all settings on ultra except aa(set to x2) and aa post (set to low) @ 1920x1080 and get super smooth gameplay (albeit lower fps) than the sli settings. With the sli I was unable to use the settings that I used with the one card. The thing is I could not use these settings with the one MSI card with my old 750Watt psu but with the new 1000watt psu it works. With the sli configuration I have to tweak the setting for BF3 with a blend of high and ultra being most things ultra except shadows and effects both of which are set to high and aa set to 2x and aapost to low.

I just dont understand how it runs smoother with the one card and higher graphic settings. I have a theory that I am hoping to have validate or at least understand it better and give myself sort of a foundation or baseline. I think that with the single card and the BF3 settings higher than the sli configuration , the extra juice from the new psu is there for the graphics as well as the fact that I think that there is some threshold that tells the configuration to go to the cpu and ram and thus this combination of psu and my 4.6 oc'd cpu with 16 gigs of ram help out where as the sli config does not hit any threshold or test limit and thus stays within the two cards which get very hot and begin to stutter. I am basically hoping somone can explain this and perhaps make some sli configuration recomndations. Also my sli has one pcie slot@ 16X and the other @ 8X.

System specs:

2600K-OC'd to 4.6 @ 1.33v watercooled/16 gig corsair vengeance ram @1600 using extreme 1 profile/1 zotac 560ti-1 msi twin frzr 560ti in SLI/ gigabyte z68x-ud3h-b3 mobo/1000watt ocz zx series psu/1.5tb hdd

Thanks in advance to any who read and respond. Im actualy quite befuddled about the SLI as I thought it would perform much better. Benchmarks indicate about 20% faster than a single gtx 580. Thanks again.

 

[Memnarchon]

Hello.
Go to the NVIDIA Control Panel and check if SLI is enabled. Sometimes the 2nd GPU is wasted as a PhysX card instead of SLI.

 

[monsta]

Something is wrong with your set up, check that SLI is enabled in the nvidia control panel.
Do a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, and test the SLI again, your perfromance should not lessen adding one more card, I have an SLI set up and adding the second card really boosted the performance in BF3.
Try the new card separately also and see if it is performing properly on its own.

 

[FMFPAC]

Thanks, I just checked and it says that my 560ti (1) is the physx card. I just set it to auto and it selected the 2nd card. What should the selection be...cpu? I have tried many different configs using the BF3 prgramsed settings, using the "let program choose" settings and the performance settings etc. Every one eventually gives me stuttering or shaky gameplay as well as not being able to play as high as the single gpu. I also sometimes think that the two cards just get too hot and start to perform crappy. The zotac can get up to 79c and the MSI up to 70 when playing BF3.

 

[FMFPAC]

Something is wrong with your set up, check that SLI is enabled in the nvidia control panel.
Do a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, and test the SLI again, your perfromance should not lessen adding one more card, I have an SLI set up and adding the second card really boosted the performance in BF3.
Try the new card separately also and see if it is performing properly on its own.

I have the sli enabled in the nvidia control panel however, I will try the card by itself. The clean install is always lost on me. I keep going to get that driver sweeper and it always gets stuck in the middle of doing its sweeping thing. Does what I say make any sense...I guessIm trying to justify why my sli is so sucky. What exactly is a clean install? Because I think I did that when I installed the latest nvidia driver when I go to custom install and then check clean install???Is that what you mean?

Thanks for responding so soon.

 

[monsta]

Those temps are fine , its normal to get them during gameplay, you need to check the other card on its own to see if it perfroms right.
You want the second card to do physx not the cpu.
Download msi afterburner and change the fan settings to give the cards better cooling and try it again.

 

[Memnarchon]

I have the sli enabled in the nvidia control panel however, I will try the card by itself. The clean install is always lost on me. I keep going to get that driver sweeper and it always gets stuck in the middle of doing its sweeping thing. Does what I saw make any sense...I guessIm trying to justify why my sli is so sucky. What exactly is a clean install? Because I think I did that when I installed the latest nvidia driver when I go to custom install and then check clean install???Is that what you mean?

Thanks for respinding so soon.

Since you can enable SLI, you should have normal FPS. But try also to make a clean insteal by checking clean install as you said.
Remember to enable SLI after this cause it might automatically turn it off.

 

[FMFPAC]

Those temps are fine , its normal to get them during gameplay, you need to check the other card on its own to see if it perfroms right.
You want the second card to do physx not the cpu.
Download msi afterburner and change the fan settings to give the cards better cooling and try it again.

I use the afterburner to set fans already as the heat goes up. Sort of a step up process. I have my msi card downclocked to 822 as well. The Zotac is my second one and the reason I bought the MSI card. I bought the MSI while I was waiting for the Zotac RMA to process. It failed about a week after using it. I should have bought MSI to start with. I was just geting back into the pc world after ten years. Lessons learned and best practices are being revised daily on my end.

 

[FMFPAC]

I reinstalled my drivers with a clean install and the same thing. Stuttery messed up frame jumping all over. I tried BF3 and put everything on ultra except aa and aapost bother to x2 and low respectively. Vsync on and the frame rate was fairly steady at 45 -60 and with it the stuttering was unbearable. Looking quickly left or right makes the who thing feel like a slide show or jumpy even though the frame rates dont dip...what is that? Im starting to think my mobo just sucks. Nex test is try the zotac card separately. I know its not as good as the MSI and runs hotter but Ill see. Maybe Ill have to yet again RMA it. Anyone want to buy a zotac?? So annoying. I can play the same BF3 setting with just one MSI twin frozr very smoothly. Any suggestions. I put the physics card to 2 and the sli settings to "let program decide"...maybe ill try the BF3 settings within the nvida control panal. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[chase3567]

Yes you should go into the nvidia control and have settings for BF3. There is also a tweak guide on the nvidia website for BF3 settings. I know they are both 560 ti's but different manufactors but they may play a part in your problems. It's better for sli when both cards are identical down to the manufactor.

 

[monsta]

Sounds like the card you rma'ed could still be a problem , check it separately and see how it performs , if its a dud then it will cause problems like this in SLI

 

[Memnarchon]

I reinstalled my drivers with a clean install and the same thing. Stuttery messed up frame jumping all over. I tried BF3 and put everything on ultra except aa and aapost bother to x2 and low respectively.

There is a possibility that you are having these stuttering issues cause of the VRAM.
Can you run the game again and check the msi afterburner for vram use? if it limits at 1000+ MB then you need to lower some settings in order to have playable frame rates, otherwise I think you can RMA the zotac card (since you said the msi was fine).