Debating multi gpu? Just do it!

[jboydgolfer]

yup , kids, wife, work, Life here too.
I built it because i have the means to do so now, sadly when i DIDNT have the means to build it , I DID have the time to USE it, and now in a cruel twist of fate, it would seem the universe has "given" me what i asked for

^^ this is one of the primary reasons i hold giveaways...So those who might not have the means, DO.

**edit*** is your front header panel in good working condition?? i.e. 3.5mm headpnone & mic jacks? They had to send me a new one, since its totally F"ed up. but the way they sent it out SO easily lead me to believe it might be a known issue

 

[Orijin16]

yup , kids, wife, work, Life here too.
I built it because i have the means to do so now, sadly when i DIDNT have the means to build it , I DID have the time to USE it, and now in a cruel twist of fate, it would seem the universe has "given" me what i asked for

^^ this is one of the primary reasons i hold giveaways...So those who might not have the means, DO.

I hear you on that!

I've actually been off work the last 2 days after smashing my knee on my eldests metal bed frame, still haven't had chance to play anything!

I don't quite have the means to just give stuff away, but respect to you for that, most of my old stuff gets handed down to the boy or sold at a massive loss.

Which reminds me I have a 2m x 0.75m x 0.5m ottoman full of spare parts I really need to sort out at some point!

Edit after your edit: It's all in one piece but I don't use the mic / headphone jacks, the USBs all work ok.

I was a bit worried when the wife told me it had been delivered because the bottom of the box split open as the delivery driver was carrying it in, but no damage to the case done whatsoever.

 

[jboydgolfer]

yeah, i have a garage bay loaded with old PC stuff, and a room FULL of old Toys. just found a bunch of the original Dr,who figures.
I STILL have this crt monitor in my garage id LOVE to toss, but i hate tossing stuff, and I always feel like someone could use it (stuff) , think im gonna need to bite the bullet on the crt. too heavy to ship. i REALLY need to offload one of my 970's...but havent found a buyer. ill likely just let it sit in that garage bay for another year or so, maybe THEN someone will want it

good luck on the 2nd GPU, i gotta hit the Dr's office soon. gotta figure out whats making all that damn noise

 

[Orijin16]

Hahaha yeah most of my spares are old junk, I was without a pc for about 5yrs after splitting with an ex partner then she finally gave it back when the gpu died (the 8800gts I mentioned earlier in the thread) about 2yrs ago, so most bits are either out of that old pc and pretty much worthless or cheap stop-gap upgrades in-between that pc and the what I have now.

About the only thing I do have spare that someone might want is an Alphacool DDC Complete Plexi edition and limited edition Alphacool white plexi single bay res, but debating using them for the boys pc when I upgrade the rads in mine... Not sure I can trust an 8yr old with ADHD around a watercooled pc though lol!

 

[jboydgolfer]

i wouldnt .
my 8 y/o daughter is pretty mature for her age, and she has her own PC (that i would have killed for up until my 20's btw...) but not with Water cooling. i suppose as long as they stay out of the chasis, theres no harm.
I have never had a leak, or issue with H2O , but thats certainly not a certainty, just a run of good luck.
i solved the kid pc thing by getting my nephew a optiplex 7010, and built the others as simple builds.
when they are @ school and i have time, they crunch for WCG, but i can only do that when they are gone, and i am here. when the moons align just right

 

[Orijin16]

Yeah I don't really think it's a good idea, but he's got the Pentium Anniversary edition I bought specifically for his build so I don't know.. To be fair though having the Intel stock cooler on there at least lets us know when he's fired it while he's supposed to be in time out lol!

As for leaks I've had plenty but no damage done yet touch wood, normally happens during the filling stage when I've forgotten to tighten up or a fittings twisted loose while routing the tubing at the opposite end, worst one was when I forgot to fit an entire tube and poured 500ml of coolant straight onto my motherboard... Good times lol!

 

[Orijin16]

I just learned that The Division is still lacking Crossfire support.

Something interesting, I just installed the division to see what all the fuss is about with the flicker.

On first boot it crashed (Ubisoft games don't like Afterburners overlay), on second boot it set itself to windowed mode at medium settings... Drop straight into the game... NO flicker!

Up the settings to ultra with medium AA, full screen, and reboot... Load the benchmark... 48fps average but lots of flickering textures.

Dropped it back to windowed mode and ran the bench again, NO flicker, but crossfire not working and getting 15fps.

Put it in to borderless windowed mode and again no flicker but again crossfire not working and this time 11fps.

Now, I do remember reading somewhere ages ago about crossfire not working in windowed modes, but didn't look into it... If it's possible to fix that then it *should* resolve the flickering in this game.

 

[EarthDog]

That isn't a fix, that is a workaround for most (windowed mode)... You really are pushing that glass half full mentality through all the negativity, aren't ya?

 

[Orijin16]

That isn't a fix, that is a workaround for most (windowed mode)... You really are pushing that glass half full mentality through all the negativity, aren't ya?

Lmao no not really because it's still not a game I'm ever going to play so it doesn't matter to me if it's a work around or a fix, but anyone googling for crossfire issues in the division will likely stumble across this thread, so why not try to offer something more constructive than "nah you're screwed mate!"

 

[EarthDog]

Dat forest...... Dos' trees...

 

[JATownes]

Crossfire only works in fullscreen mode. Windowed or borderless windowed mode will never work with Crossfire.

 

[Orijin16]

Crossfire only works in fullscreen mode. Windowed or borderless windowed mode will never work with Crossfire.

That's what I thought I'd read, thank you, makes sense though because there's no game on the market that you'd "need" to run windowed for performance reasons... Unless you're gpu/resolution are ridiculously imbalanced.

Dat forest...... Dos' trees...

Not sure I understand your meaning, or the relevance of that saying in relationship to this... It's one game, 1 issue, in a sea of games that work perfectly... You're again completely disregarding the merits of crossfire because of a single issue.

Next you'll be saying you wouldn't have an orgy with FHM's top 100 women because 1 of them wears glasses...

 

[EarthDog]

Next you'll be saying you wouldn't have an orgy with FHM's top 100 women because 1 of them wears glasses...

You are doing a great job at proving my point... keep it up!

 

[Orijin16]

You are doing a great job at proving my point... keep it up!

WHAT point?

If your point is what it appears to be, that because a game that scored around 65% in reviews doesn't work yet, means spending £340 to play so many games that do work at the same level as spending £600+, is not worth the saving... Well that's either a very rubbish point, or you have more money than sense!

 

[Ferrum Master]

Next you'll be saying you wouldn't have an orgy with FHM's top 100 women because 1 of them wears glasses...

Without makeup and photoshop those are a waste anyway.

So again with reality... Multi GPU is really fragile. I've done both too. Not worth the hassle unless you got the second card for free. If it works good... if not... screw it.

 

[EarthDog]

WHAT point?

If your point is what it appears to be, that because a game that scored around 65% in reviews doesn't work yet, means spending £340 to play so many games that do work at the same level as spending £600+, is not worth the saving... Well that's either a very rubbish point, or you have more money than sense!

You still aren't getting it.

You keep going with your bad self. Its clear that no matter what anyone says, your opinion is your opinion be it wrong or not helpful for those that run across the thread.

I will stop spreading the haterade, unsubscribe from the thread, and let the sweet bliss of ignorance reign supreme.

 

[JATownes]

Just for a little clarity in this thread: the latest AAA title that have horrendous Crossfire support:

Just Cause 3 (impossible to support Crossfire by the coding used)
Fallout 4 (possible but HORRIBLE implementation - should play with a single card)
NFS16 (same as above)
Far Cry 4 (same as above)
The Division (same as above)...and the list goes on and on.

I'm sorry Orijin but I have used Crossfire for years and will continue to do so (because it's sexy ) but the simple fact of the matter is LOTS of AAA titles and LOTS of indie games, and TONS of older games never get good Crossfire support. I will admit there are quite a few that DO work very well, i.e. MGSV and Mad Max (two of the best optimized games I've ever seen).

It is a decent upgrade path if funds are limited, but I could not recommend it in the comparison between a single high-end card and two mid-range cards.

JAT

 

[Orijin16]

Getting what though?

You're right, this is not helpful to anyone coming across this thread, what perhaps would be helpful is listing the pro's and con's so that people can make their own decision rather than just hearing "yeah I tried it, wouldn't recommend it"... Why not?

Personally I think the power / heat argument is mute, there's too many variables that could mean they're better or worse off in single or multi, so how's about we just list the games that work, those that don't, and if they don't whether or not there is a work around.

I'll start:

Working:
Alien Isolation
Ashes of the Singularity
Assassins Creed Black Flag
BF4
GTA V
Grid 2
Fallout 4
Far Cry 4
The Witcher 3
Tombraider 2013
Added by JAT: Mad max
MGSV

Not working:
The Division (no confirmed work around)
The Elderscrolls Online (unowned/confirmed by me)
Added by JAT: JC3
NFS16

 

[Toothless]

There are a lot more games that don't support XFire/SLI, but seems that the thread turned into "what xfire works in to break it more."

 

[Orijin16]

Just for a little clarity in this thread: the latest AAA title that have horrendous Crossfire support:

Just Cause 3 (impossible to support Crossfire by the coding used)
Fallout 4 (possible but HORRIBLE implementation - should play with a single card)
NFS16 (same as above)
Far Cry 4 (same as above)
The Division (same as above)...and the list goes on and on.

I'm sorry Orijin but I have used Crossfire for years and will continue to do so (because it's sexy ) but the simple fact of the matter is LOTS of AAA titles and LOTS of indie games, and TONS of older games never get good Crossfire support. I will admit there are quite a few that DO work very well, i.e. MGSV and Mad Max (two of the best optimized games I've ever seen).

It is a decent upgrade path if funds are limited, but I could not recommend it in the comparison between a single high-end card and two mid-range cards.

JAT

Was writing my last comment as you posted, Far Cry 4 and Fallout 4 both work fine in crossfire for me, Far Cry in particular has excellent scaling... Can you confirm what you mean by poor implementation?

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Not working:
The Division (no confirmed work around)
The Elderscrolls Online (unowned/confirmed by me)
Added by JAT: JC3
NFS16

That only proves what we've been saying...

SLI working on The Division

SLI working on Elder Scrolls Online

SLI working on Just Cause 3

SLI working on NFS 2016

Those in the know go Nvidia for multi GPU setups.

 

[D007]

I'm sorry dude but just because you say something, doesn't make it true. I've been using sli since sli came out and I don't think it's worth it.. Want to know the status of my sli right now, this second? Disabled.. Why? Because most games don't use it or it causes problems in them. The games that do use it, tend to use it badly.. I just logged in because I was considering selling my other card.. Maybe with dx12, if the cards work right, it will be worth it.. right now, not so much. Unless you want it specifically for a game that you know it works properly in, stay away from sli..

As for what he means about poor implementation. Oh I can help there and some.

Flashing textures, artifacts, crashes that only happen in sli.
The microstutter problem was the worst..
Issues with profiles, including fan profiles that are still being worked out with things like evga precision X.
Oh there's no problems? then look at the patch notes that state they fixed the sli fan profiles issue. They think they did anyway.. Likely didn't..

there are tons of issues man... I've dealt with all of them.. All the way from the 8800 series to the 980's I have now.. it has NOT been worth it..
Again, maybe with dx 12, we shall see..

But you say "games that are working" above for sli and you state GTA V but you don't list the FACT that you get tons of artifacts with it enabled. I know it for a fact because I have them..
I have to wonder how many of those other games you state as a "pro" actually have problems with sli.. Likely most of them..
Working badly or with artifacts is not what I consider working.

 

[JATownes]

That only proves what we've been saying...

SLI working on The Division

SLI working on Elder Scrolls Online

SLI working on Just Cause 3

SLI working on NFS 2016

Those in the know go Nvidia for multi GPU setups.

Are you running multi-gpus?

Was writing my last comment as you posted, Far Cry 4 and Fallout 4 both work fine in crossfire for me, Far Cry in particular has excellent scaling... Can you confirm what you mean by poor implementation?

Might be working now, I'll test when I get home now, but for MONTHS after launch, FC4 and FO4 both had massive stuttering and texture flickering issues. This is very well documented and was met with silence from the developers and from the GPU manufacturers.

This is the frustration that is multi-GPU. It may very well EVENTUALLY get fixed, but playing a AAA title at an extreme resolution close to launch day is usually laughable with a multi-gpu setup, with rare exceptions. That is why a single powerful card is the best way to go, and if you have cash laying around, grab a second one just for fun.

there are tons of issues man... I've dealt with all of them.. All the way from the 8800 series to the 980's I have now.. it has NOT been worth it..

I also speak from experience here, though from the AMD side. Through multiple generations of Crossfire, the problems are not worth it. So it appears from the AMD side and the Nvidia side, the voice of experience says it can be fun, but exceptionally frustrating.

JAT

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Are you running multi-gpus?

No, and I don't really care to. I'm just saying as I did at the end of that post, that SLI always works better than Crossfire, and those 4 videos go a long way toward proving it.

 

[JATownes]

No, and I don't really care to. I'm just saying as I did at the end of that post, that SLI always works better than Crossfire, and those 4 videos go a long way toward proving it.

Most benchmarks would argue that fact:

Before we go any further, given above is the reference benchmarks for this test. It consists of 9 games and one synthetic benchmark. All of these were tested at three different resolutions, namely 1920×1080, 2560×1440 and 3840×2160. Before we begin our dive, please note that this particular graph is in relative terms to the single GPU configuration of the particular IHV and not in absolute terms, to each other. The complete list is given below:

• Alien Isolation
• Battlefield 4
• Bioshock: Infinite
• Crysis 3
• Hitman: Absolution
• Metro 2033
• Metro: Last Light
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Sleeping Dogs
• Sniper Elite III
• 3D Mark Firestrike

Right of the bat, we can see that red outperforms green in every step. There are a total of 9 tests present here, at three different resolutions and three different multi GPU configurations and the AMD R9 Fury X wins every single one of them. I think this makes it crystal clear: AMD’s multi GPU scaling clearly has an upper hand over the Nvidia counterpart. The Nvidia GTX 980 Ti and the Nvidia GTX TITAN-X scale almost identically (probably because its the same chip inside both products: the GM200 Maxwell die). The diminishing marginal returns of every added GPU (to the existing setup) are also obvious. The scaling is pretty horrible on lower resolutions (such as 1080p and 1440p) but that is more or less expected (due to the performance being CPU bound); and let’s face it, if you are running an SLI or a Crossfire setup you probably aren’t rocking an ageing 1080p monitor.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/multi-gpu-nvidia-sli-amd-crossfire-performance-value-comparison/#ixzz46JVko9Dp

And on a side note: SLI works SOMETIMES and Crossfire works SOMETIMES to imply that one works more than the other is fallible at best. And when it does work, most of the time it is a draw. I neglect to understand why you would want this to somehow turn into an AMD vs Nvidia thread...There are plenty of those around already.