8800gt SLI Framerate Problems

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maverick777

Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
540
I just put in another 8800gt for SLI on my gaming rig, but my FPS hasn't improved at all over my x1900xt. I know my CPU is a bottleneck, but I don't think it should be bottlenecking this much. Here's what I'm running:

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe/Wifi
AMD 3800+ X2 AM2
4g Corsair XMS2 DDR-800 (PC2-6400)
BFG 8800GT SLI (698mhz core)

Running Oblivion with "Ultra" settings and Qarl's texture pack at 1680x1050, I'm getting frames as high as 50 and as low a 10 outdoors. It fluctuates quite a bit resulting in "lag" when my computer tries to load new terrain.

In cities, I'm getting around 25FPS. I dips into the single digits occasionally and is almost unplayable. This odd, since it seems I'm getting worse FPS in the Imperial City than I am outside.

I tried disabling all mods and ran Oblivion again, but I didn't notice any significant improvement.

I also tried reducing the resolution to 1280x1024. At best I saw a 10% improvement in FPS.

With my setup, do these numbers look about right? I was pretty sure that 8800gt's in SLI would do better considering benchmarks I've seen.

I'm not even in the ballpark of these numbers.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_sli2007.html?modelx=33&model1=1068&model2=819&chart=357
 
Umm that cpu setup is harsh bottlenecking that setup and even if you HAD a good processor SLI is only gonna give you a 5-10% increase in FPS
 
firebane said:
Umm that cpu setup is harsh bottlenecking that setup and even if you HAD a good processor SLI is only gonna give you a 5-10% increase in FPS
Click to expand...

No, SLI is going to give a 40-50% boost in frame rates minimum in most games.
 
firebane said:
Hmm well thats something I've never seen and I've played with a few sli'd gtx setups.
Click to expand...

I've had SLI and 3-Way SLI and though it doesn't scale perfectly, it sure as hell scales better than 10% or 15%.
 
try running driver cleaner after uninstalling the drivers, and then reinstalling.

run 3dmark06 with SLI disabled, then run it again with it enabled and report your scores. your CPU may be a bottleneck, but there sure as hell is something else going on.
 
If you're loading > 512MB worth of textures in these big outdoor scenes your SLI setup isn't going to help.
 
@ the guy talking about 5-10% preformance boost were you running at 1280x1024 or some other non-high res output?
 
maverick777 said:
I just ran 3DMark06 with SLI on and off.

SLI OFF
7373
SM 2.0 3208
SM 3.0 3883
CPU 1509

SLI ON
7611
SM 2.0 3159
SM 3.0 4292
CPU 1495

http://service.futuremark.com/resultAnalyzer.action;jsessionid=7DA880C34BDDD08AD0B86B769FF672C2

How does that score look given my setup?
Click to expand...

Something is wrong. Terribly terribly wrong. What are your other specs currently on that system. I run a single 8800GT and get 14k+. Obviously my CPU score is a lot higher than yours, pointing to the CPU as a huge bottleneck for you. But even my shader scores are a lot higher with my single GT. without overclocking I was still in the 12k's. You should see a lot more improvement than that on your shader scores when SLI is enabled. That's not much of a difference at all.

With AMD prices where they are, you could probably boost your CPU score a LOT without spending a lot. I would go 5000 minimum on the processor. Even the 6000's are downright economical. And if your board gets a bios that will run a phenom .... muahahahaha. 3dMark06 tends to favor intel processors, or so I've heard, but it also favors quad cores, too. Imagine that, a synthetic benchmark scoring higher with faster CPU's... (maybe that's why it seems to "favor" Intel... they have faster processors these days perhaps??)

Anyhow. I think something's up. What nForce driver version do you have? And do you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard? I'll have more first hand experience with this SLI business when I get my tax returns and buy that second 8800GT.... but until then, we've got to go on what information is available from others. Just let us know your version of nForce drivers and if you have the latest BIOS and we'll go from there.
 
SirKronan said:
Something is wrong. Terribly terribly wrong. What are your other specs currently on that system. I run a single 8800GT and get 14k+. Obviously my CPU score is a lot higher than yours, pointing to the CPU as a huge bottleneck for you. But even my shader scores are a lot higher with my single GT. without overclocking I was still in the 12k's. You should see a lot more improvement than that on your shader scores when SLI is enabled. That's not much of a difference at all.

With AMD prices where they are, you could probably boost your CPU score a LOT without spending a lot. I would go 5000 minimum on the processor. Even the 6000's are downright economical. And if your board gets a bios that will run a phenom .... muahahahaha. 3dMark06 tends to favor intel processors, or so I've heard, but it also favors quad cores, too. Imagine that, a synthetic benchmark scoring higher with faster CPU's... (maybe that's why it seems to "favor" Intel... they have faster processors these days perhaps??)

Anyhow. I think something's up. What nForce driver version do you have? And do you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard? I'll have more first hand experience with this SLI business when I get my tax returns and buy that second 8800GT.... but until then, we've got to go on what information is available from others. Just let us know your version of nForce drivers and if you have the latest BIOS and we'll go from there.
Click to expand...

Remember, it's not just the CPU score itself suffering from a CPU bottleneck.. the GPU score will as well. If the CPU can't feed the GPU enough draw calls fast enough to keep it happy, performance on the GPU-front will suffer. I'm 99% sure this is what is happening here.

It's probably all on the crappy CPU. Upgrade to a Core 2 Duo and I bet your score will almost double.
 
Ok, as far as upgrading, is it worth it to updgrade to a Q6600 and an EVGA 780i mobo right now? I see that a new socket is going to be used on the next Intel line. Intel Nehalem Will Be Socket LGA 1366.

Should I get an AMD 5000+ Black Edition now and wait?
 
maverick777 said:
Ok, as far as upgrading, is it worth it to updgrade to a Q6600 and an EVGA 780i mobo right now? I see that a new socket is going to be used on the next Intel line. Intel Nehalem Will Be Socket LGA 1366.

Should I get an AMD 5000+ Black Edition now and wait?
Click to expand...

Are you running SLI? If not I'd skip the 780i SLI motherboard completely. The Intel chipset boards are the way to go.
 
maverick777 said:
I just put in another 8800gt for SLI on my gaming rig, but my FPS hasn't improved at all over my x1900xt. I know my CPU is a bottleneck, but I don't think it should be bottlenecking this much. Here's what I'm running:

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe/Wifi
AMD 3800+ X2 AM2
4g Corsair XMS2 DDR-800 (PC2-6400)
BFG 8800GT SLI (798mhz core)

Running Oblivion with "Ultra" settings and Qarl's texture pack at 1680x1050, I'm getting frames as high as 50 and as low a 10 outdoors. It fluctuates quite a bit resulting in "lag" when my computer tries to load new terrain.

In cities, I'm getting around 25FPS. I dips into the single digits occasionally and is almost unplayable. This odd, since it seems I'm getting worse FPS in the Imperial City than I am outside.

I tried disabling all mods and ran Oblivion again, but I didn't notice any significant improvement.

I also tried reducing the resolution to 1280x1024. At best I saw a 10% improvement in FPS.

With my setup, do these numbers look about right? I was pretty sure that 8800gt's in SLI would do better considering benchmarks I've seen.

I'm not even in the ballpark of these numbers.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_sli2007.html?modelx=33&model1=1068&model2=819&chart=357
Click to expand...

Dan_D said:
Are you running SLI? If not I'd skip the 780i SLI motherboard completely. The Intel chipset boards are the way to go.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he's running SLI.
 
SirKronan said:
Yeah, he's running SLI.
Click to expand...

Must have missed that part. Anyway the 780i SLI chipset based boards aren't worth it over their 680i SLI counterparts. There is virtually no advantage and actually their lack of maturity isn't helping either.
 
IF you are running bios 150X.....FLASH IT to 160X. I had the same problem with the SAM mobo. After the flash it is behaving normally. Something is wrong with Video in 150X.
 
maverick777 said:
Ok, as far as upgrading, is it worth it to updgrade to a Q6600 and an EVGA 780i mobo right now? I see that a new socket is going to be used on the next Intel line. Intel Nehalem Will Be Socket LGA 1366.

Should I get an AMD 5000+ Black Edition now and wait?
Click to expand...

The 780i will run Penryn processors. The Q9450 is going to be your sweet spot for price. Supposed to retail for $316. Was also supposed to come out THIS month. Oh well ... Intel has no rush to release newer faster stuff with AMD sucking.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/05/amd_phenom_9600_black_edition/

It's pretty sad for AMD right now. And sad for those of us who have been waiting for Penryn. The 780i is very much like the 680i. New northbridge, new cooling, and Penryn support are the only significant differences. I imagine nVidia's worked out some of the bugs of the 680i in the process, however. It also offers the future upgradeability of adding a erd card for tri-SLI (GASP). No practical benefit for most games by doing that, but the future expandability is there. You can also snag a 680i board for some really low prices right now, but most of them won't support Penryn quads. Most of them will support Penryn dual cores, however, which are cheaper than the quads and still quite overclockable.

With Dan_D posting here I am reminded of his "love" for the 680i. He's had lots of problems with them, if I recall. I have loved the crap out of mine though. Abit did a decent job with the IN9-32x-MAX. There are some mysterious FSB holes to watch out for when overclocking, and those who are running extreme Penryn processors on it are having trouble unlocking higher multipliers for more overclocking headroom. (anything above 10 seems to be grayed out.)

EVGA is a great company, though, and they'll take good care of you. If your motherboard isn't performing at all, and they release a new revision, they will usually replace your old revision. They did this for my friend. With his 1st revision 680i board he wasn't able to break 3.0GHz on his Q6700. Now with the second revision he's hitting 3.65GHz. So far he's loving his 680i. I think you'll be fine if you order from a company like EVGA who has such fantastic support. You'll have to work around some mysterious FSB holes when overclocking, but you'll have control over everything. RAM, Video cards, processor, are all precisely customizable for maximum overclocks. There are lots of watercooling setups that will work with them too if you want to go that route. You'll also have the advantage of your SLI cards.
 
SirKronan said:
The 780i will run Penryn processors. The Q9450 is going to be your sweet spot for price. Supposed to retail for $316. Was also supposed to come out THIS month. Oh well ... Intel has no rush to release newer faster stuff with AMD sucking.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/05/amd_phenom_9600_black_edition/

It's pretty sad for AMD right now. And sad for those of us who have been waiting for Penryn. The 780i is very much like the 680i. New northbridge, new cooling, and Penryn support are the only significant differences. I imagine nVidia's worked out some of the bugs of the 680i in the process, however. It also offers the future upgradeability of adding a erd card for tri-SLI (GASP). No practical benefit for most games by doing that, but the future expandability is there. You can also snag a 680i board for some really low prices right now, but most of them won't support Penryn quads. Most of them will support Penryn dual cores, however, which are cheaper than the quads and still quite overclockable.

With Dan_D posting here I am reminded of his "love" for the 680i. He's had lots of problems with them, if I recall. I have loved the crap out of mine though. Abit did a decent job with the IN9-32x-MAX. There are some mysterious FSB holes to watch out for when overclocking, and those who are running extreme Penryn processors on it are having trouble unlocking higher multipliers for more overclocking headroom. (anything above 10 seems to be grayed out.)

EVGA is a great company, though, and they'll take good care of you. If your motherboard isn't performing at all, and they release a new revision, they will usually replace your old revision. They did this for my friend. With his 1st revision 680i board he wasn't able to break 3.0GHz on his Q6700. Now with the second revision he's hitting 3.65GHz. So far he's loving his 680i. I think you'll be fine if you order from a company like EVGA who has such fantastic support. You'll have to work around some mysterious FSB holes when overclocking, but you'll have control over everything. RAM, Video cards, processor, are all precisely customizable for maximum overclocks. There are lots of watercooling setups that will work with them too if you want to go that route. You'll also have the advantage of your SLI cards.
Click to expand...

Actually the 780i SLI chipset does not feature a new north bridge. It uses the same 680i SLI MCP and SPP. The 780i SLI chipset includes a third chip providing PCI-Express 2.0 support and additional PCIe lanes. That's all they did to it. As far as the bugs being worked out I'm going to disagree. The 780i SLI reference boards use the same sub-standard power design and similarly horrid cooling that the 680i SLI reference boards did. The only reason to mess with a 780i SLI chipset based board is if you need it to support Wolfdale or Yorkfield/Yorkfield XE. It does overclock quads slightly better but we'll see how things are in a couple of months. I will not at all be surprised if the longevity of the 780i SLI reference boards is low like it is with the 680i SLI boards.

BTW you can do 3-Way SLI on any 680i SLI chipset based board as well. I have done it using my ASUS Striker Extreme. On the subject of non-reference boards that's what I'd get if I were to buy a 780i SLI chipset based board. They may be slightly more problematic today but ASUS will get the BIOS fixed given enough time. I used to think of the non-reference boards as being generally pretty bad but today that's not the case. The non-reference 680i SLI based P5N32-E SLI and Striker Extreme boards are clearly the best of the 680i SLI boards. It just took time for them to mature. I think history will likely repeat itself and the P5N-T and Striker II Formula will become decent products.
 
Dan_D said:
Must have missed that part. Anyway the 780i SLI chipset based boards aren't worth it over their 680i SLI counterparts. There is virtually no advantage and actually their lack of maturity isn't helping either.
Click to expand...


True but they do have a better throughput in terms of the fact they support the upcoming quad chips, other then that there really isn't a difference.
 
firebane said:
Hmm well thats something I've never seen and I've played with a few sli'd gtx setups.
Click to expand...

I see it every day with my config... One 7900gs w/CS:source(settings jacked)- 40-70fps.
Two 7900gs '' '' '' '' '' '' - 90-160fps
 
your loosing performance because you have your cores way to high! 800 core are you mad??? drop your cores down to 700 and try a game. you'll always "loose" performance if you push a card to far, and 800MHZ core is way to far for a GT!
 
Burnt_Ram said:
your loosing performance because you have your cores way to high! 800 core are you mad??? drop your cores down to 700 and try a game. you'll always "loose" performance if you push a card to far, and 800MHZ core is way to far for a GT!
Click to expand...

Lol. That was a typo. The cores are running at 698 not 798. Sorry. I think my cards would be toast if I ran it at 798.

Anyhow, I went to look at my C2D options and I don't really like what I see. I could go with a Q6600 for quad core, but it slower for gaming then a dual core. The E8400 is the best bang for the buck right now but it has mobo compatibility issues. I want to keep my SLI setup so that narrows the viable boards down even more. I don't really like the 780i boards that are out right now. Plus Nahalem is just right around the corner and there will be a new socket to go with it. I think I will just stick to my AM2 board for now.

The question now is what AMD CPU to get. The 5000+ BE looks good for $100 or maybe the 6400+ BE for guaranteed 3.2ghz.

Is an AMD CPU ugrade worth it? Will going from a 2.0ghz X2 to a 3.2ghz X2 really make that much of a difference when it comes to gaming?

Thanks for everyone's feedback so far.
 
maverick777 said:
Anyhow, I went to look at my C2D options and I don't really like what I see. I could go with a Q6600 for quad core, but it slower for gaming then a dual core.
Click to expand...

Where the hell did you come up with this little gem of logic? The dual core and quad core processors are the same in all applications clock for clock. There is no difference between them. Now if you meant that dual core processors can overclock higher than quad core CPUs and most games don't take advantage of quad core CPUs then I applogize. Other wise quad core processors are no slower than dual core processors. There are a few games that do leverage four cores or more making the quad core a sensible choice. Especially since Intel doesn't really charge that much for the additional cores.

maverick777 said:
The E8400 is the best bang for the buck right now but it has mobo compatibility issues. I want to keep my SLI setup so that narrows the viable boards down even more. I don't really like the 780i boards that are out right now.
Click to expand...

Well hopefully the 780i SLI boards will mature in short order and then they will be a viable option. In any case you can make the E8400 work on a variety of motherboards including 680i SLI boards. Those are more mature and if you go for the ASUS you'll end up with a solid board however I'm not sure how pleased you'll be overclocking it with a Wolfdale CPU.
 
I was running A8N-SLI Deluxe, 3800+ x2 socket 939 , Two 8800 GTS 320mb's ..

Even with the processor, enabling SLI I saw about a 1000 point increase in 3D Mark 06 . Same scenario when I had SLI 7600gt's . Something is Fubar >:O
 
ebo_ said:
I was running A8N-SLI Deluxe, 3800+ x2 socket 939 , Two 8800 GTS 320mb's ..

Even with the processor, enabling SLI I saw about a 1000 point increase in 3D Mark 06 . Same scenario when I had SLI 7600gt's . Something is Fubar >:O
Click to expand...

3D Mark doesn't really scale properly with multi-GPU setups from what I've seen. I wouldn't worry about it. I'd actually go play some games and see what happens. Do FRAPS tests with and without SLI enabled and tell us what the difference is.
 
Dan_D said:
Where the hell did you come up with this little gem of logic? The dual core and quad core processors are the same in all applications clock for clock. There is no difference between them. Now if you meant that dual core processors can overclock higher than quad core CPUs and most games don't take advantage of quad core CPUs then I applogize. Other wise quad core processors are no slower than dual core processors. There are a few games that do leverage four cores or more making the quad core a sensible choice. Especially since Intel doesn't really charge that much for the additional cores.



Well hopefully the 780i SLI boards will mature in short order and then they will be a viable option. In any case you can make the E8400 work on a variety of motherboards including 680i SLI boards. Those are more mature and if you go for the ASUS you'll end up with a solid board however I'm not sure how pleased you'll be overclocking it with a Wolfdale CPU.
Click to expand...

Lol, Sorry again. I wasn't comparing the Q6600/E8400 based on stock frequencies. I meant in teams of overclocking potential and the fact that Crysis is one of the few if only games that manages to make use of quad core.

I'm waiting to see how the 780i boards shape up, but my main reason for hesitating is that this board will only last a year or so since Intel is switching sockets again. The future is uncertain for current boards. Even x48.
 
maverick777 said:
Lol, Sorry again. I wasn't comparing the Q6600/E8400 based on stock frequencies. I meant in teams of overclocking potential and the fact that Crysis is one of the few if only games that manages to make use of quad core.

I'm waiting to see how the 780i boards shape up, but my main reason for hesitating is that this board will only last a year or so since Intel is switching sockets again. The future is uncertain for current boards. Even x48.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I still say you can snag some great buys on 680i boards for between 100 and 200 bucks (sometimes after rebates). Most of them will support dual core penryns just fine ... well .... manufacturers say they will anyways. We'll see some more 780i boards come out. EVGA will undoubtedly release an LT version soon in the $160 price range like they did with the 680i, I bet. Dan makes some good points. I am happy as crap with my quad core. Not all my games take advantage of it, but the ones that do make up for the extra cost. You'll still be happy with something like an E8400 as you can overclock the crap out of them, too. Just remember that most games don't utilize more than 2 cores effectively. I anticipate this changing as time goes on. When Nahelem comes out, are you going to jump on that right away? I won't. I have too much invested in my 680i system, and like I said, I'm happy as a clam with it, and plan on playing out at least 2 or 3 years on it before a major upgrade. If you're really going to take the plunge when it comes out, then yeah, save some bucks and go with an AMD processor you can overclock to 3.0+ GHz. You will probably see significant gains to justify the cost. Make sure you get a 65nm one. They are quite good.
 
I just OC'd my 3800+ to 2.4ghz. I guess my CPU was really holding back my system pretty bad. My 3DMark score went up by almost 2000 points.

3DMark 9036
SM 2.0 3650
SM 3.0 5115
CPU 1813

I think I will get a 5000+ BE and wait til fall 08 before I decide on a complete overhaul or not. Thanks everyone for your help.
 
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