SLI 970GTX - Low benchmarks

[Koizumi]

I've been comparing my benchmarks to the ones from review sites. Single GPU and SLI. My benchmark numbers aren't even close to them. They're just over half way there. I get the same benchmarks for each GPU single so both are fine or broken. Heres a GPU-Z box. They both have the same GPU-Z entrys. Heres a GPU-Z box when both are installed. I noticed that sometimes in the Bus Interface box it says 1.1 but most of time it stays at 2.0. I've also updated my BIOs(latest update is from 2013-01-09). I've also tried 344.11 and 344.16 drivers.

Everything I listed down below is whats connected to the system.
GTX 970 x2
Intel Core i5-2500K OC'd to 4.2GHZ. I was running stock speeds for a while until I noticed that OC'ing it stablized my fps in the games I was playing. I had a single 660TI at the time.
MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Creative Sound Blaster ZxR
CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i
Intel 320 Series
Western Digital WD VelociRaptor
ASUS ROG PG278Q
Windows 7 64-bit
4 case fans as well

 

[motherpuncher]

While it won't account for your benches being half of what the reviews are, having the 2500k does lower your pcie interface speeds. It does depend on what your motherboard supports also. On my board with a 2500k and two card, each will run on pcie 2.0 8x. With a 3570k they will run at pcie 3.0 8x. Like I said it shouldn't account for a halving of the benches but it does make a small difference. Also, when running SLI getting more out of your cpu will help, you certainly have the cooling for it, but I'm not sure how your motherboard will handle it. It does look like a motherboard upgrade should be considered maybe find a z77 board and then sell your 2500k and get a 3570k, overclock it and then you should see better results. Also your RAM is lower speed than what most of the review sites use. If you look at their test setups, they are usually pretty up to date, maybe using a 4770k or better.

 

[Armenius]

You have the SLI bridge connected, correct? I apologize for asking, but some older motherboards can get away with enabling SLI even when the bridge is not installed, but it is still running single card.

I notice you have the PG278Q. Are you running with Gsync enabled? I did not see anything in the driver release notes that addresses the lingering problems of running Gsync with SLI. You also don't want to have Gsync turned on while running benchmarks.

 

[Araxie]

if you are comparing synthetic benchmark, like 3dmark suites, yes your numbers will be completely inferior to chips with higher speed and more threads like more sites uses, [H] its traditional but even that they use 3770K for their test.. one at 4.6ghz in some reviews, and other at 4.8ghz in other reviews (I guess it depend in who are making the review have different benchmark rig) when you want to check synthetic benchmark like 3dmark you have to check only the Graphic score and not the overall score..

also sorry to say but probably your 2500K its holding back a bit that 970SLI setup.. probably you have to overclock it to 4.5ghz+ to feed enough the cards..

You have the SLI bridge connected, correct? I apologize for asking, but some older motherboards can get away with enabling SLI even when the bridge is not installed, but it is still running single card.

I notice you have the PG278Q. Are you running with Gsync enabled? I did not see anything in the driver release notes that addresses the lingering problems of running Gsync with SLI. You also don't want to have Gsync turned on while running benchmarks.

^going to ask same thing... this is definitely something to check.. be sure its correctly mounted.. or revert it..

 

[Lord_Exodia]

Check if your cards are Throttling your boost clock and voltage at full load. If your using a monitor in Afterburner or precision X you'll notice the voltage dips down and then comes back up and you'll also notice your boost clock does that too. If that's happening you may want to reduce any overclocking by a bit or drop your voltage a little bit.

Make sure your power settings are 125% in those programs. On the GTX 970 you only have 145Watts and once you hit that point your card will downclock to not go over that. Going to +125 will give you a bit more headroom.

Which GTX 970s do you have exactly? Some are reported to NOT throttle back.

 

[Odellus]

i'm seeing a lot of threads with people having issues with that motherboard and SLI. on msi's website there's no mention of SLI support for that particular motherboard, only crossfire. if you still can't get it to work here are a couple of things for you to try: http://www.overclock.net/t/670810/h...rd-gtx5xx-compatible-1-0-final-released/0_100

also: a 2500k is NOT enough for 120+ fps in cpu heavy games like battlefield. even with my 770 at 1440p all low in bf4 i frequently get bottlenecked by my 2500k at around 80-100 fps. you need a 2700k/3770k or better for games like that.

 

[Koizumi]

You have the SLI bridge connected, correct? I apologize for asking, but some older motherboards can get away with enabling SLI even when the bridge is not installed, but it is still running single card.

I notice you have the PG278Q. Are you running with Gsync enabled? I did not see anything in the driver release notes that addresses the lingering problems of running Gsync with SLI. You also don't want to have Gsync turned on while running benchmarks.

SLI bridge is connected. EVGA didn't include a bridge in the box so i had to get one from Fry's electronics.
Gsync is completely disabled, as is ULMB.

if you are comparing synthetic benchmark, like 3dmark suites, yes your numbers will be completely inferior to chips with higher speed and more threads like more sites uses, [H] its traditional but even that they use 3770K for their test.. one at 4.6ghz in some reviews, and other at 4.8ghz in other reviews (I guess it depend in who are making the review have different benchmark rig) when you want to check synthetic benchmark like 3dmark you have to check only the Graphic score and not the overall score..

also sorry to say but probably your 2500K its holding back a bit that 970SLI setup.. probably you have to overclock it to 4.5ghz+ to feed enough the cards..

I'm mainly using the benchmark numbers from here

Check if your cards are Throttling your boost clock and voltage at full load. If your using a monitor in Afterburner or precision X you'll notice the voltage dips down and then comes back up and you'll also notice your boost clock does that too. If that's happening you may want to reduce any overclocking by a bit or drop your voltage a little bit.

Make sure your power settings are 125% in those programs. On the GTX 970 you only have 145Watts and once you hit that point your card will downclock to not go over that. Going to +125 will give you a bit more headroom.

Which GTX 970s do you have exactly? Some are reported to NOT throttle back.

I have EVGA 04G-P4-1972-KR
My boost clock and voltage don't fluctuate once it goes full load. I have power set to 110% in precision X. I don't know how to make it 125%. I have prefer max performance set in nvidia control panel
On voltage one stays at 1.212 V while the other stays at 1.200 V. I don't know if thats normal or not.

i'm seeing a lot of threads with people having issues with that motherboard and SLI. on msi's website there's no mention of SLI support for that particular motherboard, only crossfire. if you still can't get it to work here are a couple of things for you to try: http://www.overclock.net/t/670810/h...rd-gtx5xx-compatible-1-0-final-released/0_100

The product page doesn't mention SLI but on the board itself it says "True PCI-E 2.0 SLI & CrossFire X"

 

[misterbobby]

You really need to step up to a 4790k if you want the most out of those cards. SLI adds more cpu overhead and with a 2500k you are maxing that cpu out at times trying to push that much gpu power. And even worse if you have anything else running in the background that might need cpu power while you are already tapped out. And in something like Crysis 3 you cant even stay above 45 fps with that cpu.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

I have EVGA 04G-P4-1972-KR
My boost clock and voltage don't fluctuate once it goes full load. I have power set to 110% in precision X. I don't know how to make it 125%. I have prefer max performance set in nvidia control panel
On voltage one stays at 1.212 V while the other stays at 1.200 V. I don't know if thats normal or not.

Strange, last night I ran out of time but I got my second GTX 980 installed and I notice a discrepancy in the voltage my 2 cards are running. The bad thing is that I can't tell which is the one with the lower voltage out of the 2. The better clocking one runs at a faster boost by default than the other and is in the top slot so I'm going to try that one by itself and see what voltage it registers vs the other one by itself. I also have a P67 chipset board and I haven't checked but both PCIe gen 2 slots should be @ 8x. That's another thing I'll check. I'm also going to look for any more current bios upgrades for my motherboard.

Both cards have the same bios and Device ID as per GPU-z

I'll come back here and post if I find anything out. Strange same cards are reporting different voltages. even though in Afterburner I have sync similar devices selected.