980ti SLI Performance Issues

W

wrxdrunkie

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
461
Hey Guys,

I just got done updating my rig a little with another 980ti and a new power supply. I upgraded my setup with playing Witcher 3 in 4k in mind. I played it some with 1 980ti settings maxed at 4k and I would get around 30fps. I saw YouTube videos though of people getting 50+ FPS so I decided to give it a try.

My results have not been nearly as impressive. I am running 2 evga 980ti's. 1 is a SC version and 1 is the FTW SC version with backplate. Virtually similar cards.

Specs:
MSI X58m Motherboard with latest bios
Xenon x5650 @ 4.1ghz
Corsair 850i PS
2x EVGA 980ti
16gb DDR3 RAM

My frames have gone from like 30 to 35fps on The Witcher 3. Not nearly the jump I was hoping for.

In game one GPU is getting about 90% taxed and runs around 73 degrees Celsius. The other GPU is running between 75% - 90% and is hitting 84 degrees. Both are running at 1190mhz.

My CPU usage is very low so I don't think I am being bottle necked by the CPU. During game it is around 50% usage.

Not really sure where to start my troubleshooting. Hope I provided some good information. Any help would be appreciated!
 
Bottleneck, time for you to upgrade your CPU/Platform. X99 is in your immediate future.
It's more than just your CPU. The overall bandwidth of the platform you're on isn't up to the task.
 
What in my system do you think is the bottleneck? I was honestly thinking I wouldn't have a bottleneck after reading here about the x5650. My CPU usage is so low during gaming. What do you think of jumping to 1151?
 
wrxdrunkie said:
What in my system do you think is the bottleneck? I was honestly thinking I wouldn't have a bottleneck after reading here about the x5650. My CPU usage is so low during gaming. What do you think of jumping to 1151?
Click to expand...

Different architecture, raw CPU power doesn't always cut it. It's definitely time for an upgrade.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
What in my system do you think is the bottleneck? I was honestly thinking I wouldn't have a bottleneck after reading here about the x5650. My CPU usage is so low during gaming. What do you think of jumping to 1151?
Click to expand...

With a 6700K, that would be great as well. DDR4 Memory, PCI-E 3.0, etc. you don't have right now. Also 16x/16x is on X99, not 1151.
 
Yeah I was hoping that wasn't the answer. Passed up some good deals this week.

On the bright side I did pick up 12-15fps on GTA V.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
Yeah I was hoping that wasn't the answer. Passed up some good deals this week.

On the bright side I did pick up 12-15fps on GTA V.
Click to expand...

In GTA V I picked up over 40fps at the single card settings, over 95fps total, so now I'm running much higher details with VSYNC in SLI.
 
For a cheaper upgrade, look into an X79 with a E5-2670. It should last you a while, seeing how it's 8 full cores hyper-threaded and the CPU is going for crazy cheap on Ebay.
 
WorldExclusive said:
In GTA V I picked up over 40fps at the single card settings, over 95fps total, so now I'm running much higher details with VSYNC in SLI.
Click to expand...

So you are getting over 60fps @ 4k on GTA V with absolutely everything maxed out? I am getting between 49 and 68fps on the built in benchmark tool with everything maxed at 4k.

Here is a copy of my log:

Frames Per Second (Higher is better) Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 6.584587, 71.162132, 57.439205
Pass 1, 16.463497, 77.950478, 49.606636
Pass 2, 28.096447, 146.103455, 54.472355
Pass 3, 32.114918, 101.511543, 67.823837
Pass 4, 18.226843, 150.812012, 55.445904

Time in milliseconds(ms). (Lower is better). Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 14.052418, 151.869827, 17.409712
Pass 1, 12.828658, 60.740437, 20.158594
Pass 2, 6.844465, 35.591690, 18.357937
Pass 3, 9.851096, 31.138178, 14.744079
Pass 4, 6.630772, 54.864136, 18.035597

edit:

Might not be as bad as I thought. I copied these settings that someone referred me to so I could get a baseline as to what some other CPUs are getting. http://imgur.com/a/7aULw

The big hitter was the AA. I turned off AA and picked up 20fps.

Using his settings on my game I can hit 57-60fps, so very close. Here are the specs of that rig:

"Motherboard - MSI X99s Gaming 7 CPU - Intel i7-5820k 6- core @ 4.3 RAM - 16 GB CORSAIR Vengeance XMP GPU - EVGA GTX 980TI SC ACX 2.0 x2 PSU - EVGA Supernova G2 1000W CPU Cooler - Corsair H100i GTX"
 
Last edited:
Yes, everything maxed without using any MSAA, only FXAA. Adding MSAA will cause VRAM usage to skyrocket.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
What in my system do you think is the bottleneck? I was honestly thinking I wouldn't have a bottleneck after reading here about the x5650. My CPU usage is so low during gaming. What do you think of jumping to 1151?
Click to expand...
The Xeon X5650 has no on-die PCI-E controller, so there is increased latency between the video card and CPU having to interact with an external controller. QPI is faster than DMI, but its priorities are different. Bottom line is that the video cards are having to wait more cycles for the CPU to respond, possibly adding hundreds of nanoseconds of latency, hindering your maximum possible framerate from the bandwidth hungry 980 Ti pair. To maximize performance you're going to need a platform that includes a CPU with at least 20 lanes of on-die PCI-E Gen 3.
 
Had the exact same The Witcher 3 issue when I upgraded to 980Ti SLI while playing at 4k.
It's not a bottleneck. Turn Vsync off and watch fps skyrocket to 50+ on Max details ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top