4gb 680gtx SLI Issue

So i just got my two 4gb 680gtx ftw and im having some issues with them.

The gpu usage will drop from 98% to 2% on just one card, while the other card will stay at 95%. Than the gpu usage will go back up, and than drop back down. This will happen constantly for about 5-10minutes, than the problem will just stop and my cards will run fine.







I've only had these cards a couple days now, and with work i haven't been able to do much testing. But like i said this issue usually occurs for only the first 5-10 minutes of gaming, and with a single card i didn't see this issue at all.

Im running three monitors 5760x1080 and when the cards are working right im getting 60-70fps in crysis 2, which is what i was playing in these pics.

What game are you playing that 34.5 fps is your high and 7.2 is a low on sli 680's
just that game or is it all games acting like that?
if one only reinstall game
if all reinstall gpu drivers

n3zyd said:

What game are you playing that 34.5 fps is your high and 7.2 is a low on sli 680's
just that game or is it all games acting like that?
if one only reinstall game
if all reinstall gpu drivers

Click to expand...

those pics are at the point of the gpu usage drop. those shots were taken in crysis 2 which i get 50-70fps
im playing at 5760x1080 and i can play bf3 on ultra with a low of 40fps, when the cards are working properly.

im going to do a fresh reformat on tuesday, my day off work, and see if that fixes the problem.
i just want to be sure i don't need to rma a card, which i dont beleive its a hardware issue.

n3zyd said:

What game are you playing that 34.5 fps is your high and 7.2 is a low on sli 680's
just that game or is it all games acting like that?
if one only reinstall game
if all reinstall gpu drivers

Click to expand...

LOL, you seem surprised.

Try installing EVGA SLI enhancer and nvidia driver 304.79 and see if this helps, by the way how are the tempretures with the 2 FTW cards?

I have 3 of them in SLI and thinking of water cooling them.

Salamndar said:

Try installing EVGA SLI enhancer and nvidia driver 304.79 and see if this helps, by the way how are the tempretures with the 2 FTW cards?

I have 3 of them in SLI and thinking of water cooling them.

Click to expand...

ok, ill try that on tuesday.

im getting 70-74 on my top card
the bottom card sits at about 56

these cards have no room between each other, im going to get an new 6 pci-e slot board so i can move them apart but im also considering getting a third. what are your temps at?

it also doesn't seem like im getting the best performance. in bf3 with high settings on all but medium shadows, 16x af no msaa, habo, motion blur off im only getting 56fps. it will drop and jump to 90fps.

You may as well set Afterburner to show the cards clocks also, so you can confirm one card isn't clocking up to 3d speeds all the time for sure.(it would explain the 2%)
Sometimes a quick alt/tab out and back into the game will "trigger" the cards to 3d mode in BF3 when that happens.

well reformatting fixed the problem. must have been some of my old 460 drivers on the pc.

however, im not getting the performance i need.
again im running @ 5760x1080 but i feel like i should at least be able to play bf3 on medium settings and not drop under 60fps, which i get 47fps-55fps average
this is high settings on bf3

the image got a little stretched but thats 50% and 55% gpu usage and 35.5 fps

now if i exit right out of battlefield and go onto l4d2 my cards will be used 98% with 100+ fps.

any ideas?

Not sure. I haven't checked my exact FPS on BF3 but it's smooth at 7680x1600 on high details. So you should definitely see better results than that. But you can't compare L4D2 FPS to BF3 given the difference in graphics. And not every game engine scales well with SLI. But again your BF3 performance shouldn't be that bad.

Dan_D said:

Not sure. I haven't checked my exact FPS on BF3 but it's smooth at 7680x1600 on high details. So you should definitely see better results than that. But you can't compare L4D2 FPS to BF3 given the difference in graphics. And not every game engine scales well with SLI. But again your BF3 performance shouldn't be that bad.

Click to expand...

if you could, could you check and let me know what fps you get. also what drivers are you using?

do you have vertical sync turned on in the game?

xnikx said:

if you could, could you check and let me know what fps you get. also what drivers are you using?

Click to expand...

Yes, I'll check later tonight.