Strange behavior in second GPU with SLi.

[DouglasteR]

Hi there fellow HF´s.

I have a very common setup :

i7-2600k@5ghz
16GB ddr3 1600
Corsair AX1200i
2x Geforce 680 2GB (one Evga superclocked and the other a Zotak Overclocked too)

One of these days, playing Dota2, i saw that the second gpu (the Zotak) was using more than 50% of its processing while the first Gpu was in the tens.

Very strange, but it was working normally ! SLi profiles crazyness i thought.

But yesterday the PC was very unresponsive in games and anything that used the GPU and i saw that the second GPU utilization was in the 90% ! While the first gpu was in the tens.

After doing all the basic checklist (see if theres another game in the background, check temperatures, voltages, clocks and etc) i ended disabling SLi and voila. everything normal.

I removed the second gpu, cleaned it, reapplied the TIM and set it on again, and bamm, everything was like before.

Reading thru the web, i saw that because of the GDDR5 ECC feature, if the board is bugged it can be correcting itself at the cost of processing power. That could be the culprit !

So i ask these questions, how can i see if the gpu is bugging and correcting itself ? Its these normal for a Sli setup ?

Thanks.

 

[Armenius]

AFAIK only Quadros and Teslas use registered memory.

Might be a quirk with using mixed brand video cards in SLI. What are the temps on each card when this happens? Is it happening in any other games you play?

 

[DouglasteR]

Finally a response

The second gpu always gets hotter.

Any games .

 

[DraginDime]

I've never experienced anything like that using SLI.
Do the cards work fine individually?

Maybe you could switch the cards around, and when the issue happens again, see if the card in slot 2 now drops in gpu usage. That might indicate a faulty card (If the gpu droppage follows that card).
If the gpu drops on the card in slot one (no matter which card) it could be an issue with your motherboard PCI slot.

Just some suggestions you can try. Good luck

 

[Bluesun311]

Are you using MSI afterburner to GPU sync? If not, definitely worth a shot.