SLI GTX970 + Intel i7 3770

[Rygem]

When you put load on the CPU does it actually go up to the 4.3GHz?

yes, it does

 

[newtekie1]

This, to me, really sounds like a CPU bottleneck. But at 4.3GHz I wouldn't think a 3770 would be holding back SLI 970s that badly. I can see the low framerate in Cities, as that game is extremely CPU sensitive.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Yeah, no way that 3770 is bottlenecking. There is something else going on.

 

[newtekie1]

What are CPU temps like while playing games? What cooler are you using? Maybe the CPU is thermal throttling?

 

[raptori]

I only read your 1st post OP and based on that information if you get good usage from both GPUs in benchmarks and bad GPUs usage (utilization ) in gaming then that's the typical situation with SLI , sometimes worst performance in certain games on 2xGPU than on 1 (your case GTX970), I've been dealing with 2xGTX680 SLI for the past two years and that was the situation except for benchmarks (as it's designed and optimized to put high load on GPU and CPU even if it's SLI ) and few AAA games like BF3-4 and crysis3 , Warthunder and few more, those were the only few games that make use of my both GTX680 up to %90-95.

 

[Rygem]

What are CPU temps like while playing games? What cooler are you using? Maybe the CPU is thermal throttling?

my CPU temperature is at ~60 degrees when loaded

 

[kn00tcn]

can you test SLI off, particularly points where the gpu usage on a single card is higher than the total of both, with framerates higher than SLI enabled?

are you sure you're using rivatuner not afterburner? you should really use afterburner (or fraps, or in game counter, or steam overlay counter, or just gpuz/hwmonitor logging without creating an overlay on screen)

random idea: check any pci-e power saving settings in windows & bios, use the slots your mobo recommends, see if gpuz shows the 'bus interface' updating when there is load, etc

Also don't use Fraps, that is IF you used that as fps counter, it causes fps drops

lolwut, do you have proof?

if anything, the rivatuner being used will cause drops or crashes as i experienced back in the day

when just using the counter, not recording of course, fraps is just fine (source: possibly geforce2, possibly geforce4mx, 9800pro, x800xtpe, 4870x2, 660, 570m, 7850k, anyone else's comp i've used, desktop, laptop, win7, vista, xp, 2k, possibly 98, dx7, dx8, dx9, dx10, dx11, ogl, you name it)

 

[P4-630]

can you test SLI off, particularly points where the gpu usage on a single card is higher than the total of both, with framerates higher than SLI enabled?

are you sure you're using rivatuner not afterburner? you should really use afterburner (or fraps, or in game counter, or steam overlay counter, or just gpuz/hwmonitor logging without creating an overlay on screen)

random idea: check any pci-e power saving settings in windows & bios, use the slots your mobo recommends, see if gpuz shows the 'bus interface' updating when there is load, etc


lolwut, do you have proof?

if anything, the rivatuner being used will cause drops or crashes as i experienced back in the day

when just using the counter, not recording of course, fraps is just fine (source: possibly geforce2, possibly geforce4mx, 9800pro, x800xtpe, 4870x2, 660, 570m, 7850k, anyone else's comp i've used, desktop, laptop, win7, vista, xp, 2k, possibly 98, dx7, dx8, dx9, dx10, dx11, ogl, you name it)

I have had frame drops myself in GTA V using fraps, I'm using the build in Steam fps counter now if I need to, fps drop problem solved!

 

[Folterknecht]

Something is fucked up. Mack a backup and start with a clean installation, might be less time consuming than figuring out whats wrong there.

Disable iGPU in BIOS or set it to dedicated GPU depending on your motherboard options. Install drivers one by one (Win XP style) starting with chipset.

 

[Hawkstream]

While it might be a bottleneck for loading times it should not affect FPS in any way.

I didn't mean FPS, it just seems odd to have such a high spec PC with such a slow, old school, HD. But whatever floats your PC...

 

[GreiverBlade]

I didn't mean FPS, it just seems odd to have such a high spec PC with such a slow, old school, HD. But whatever floats your PC...

... SSD aren't the only option and Sata 3 7.2k rpm HDD are still fast enough. (not mentioning the 10k/15k they are less common) if it was a 5.6k or slower and under SATA2 i would understand.
also on the long term nothing replace a HDD, tho i use a SSD as main OS drive and 2 7.2k SATA3 HDD as storage and game drive ... i tested on both SSD and HDD different games and i got no huge difference between test, also "slow, old school, HD" ... thanks for the laugh at the time of the 3770K the SSD were not cheap as they are now ... so high spec ... doesn't always rhyme with SSD

reliability, capacity, price and practicality crown is still owned by HDD (mind you my 2 1tb HDD cost me less than the last 60gb and 120gb SSD i bought for testing, the initial SSD i have in my main rig did cost me a bit more than the last 120gb tho )

keeping a 4690K with a stock cooler is another story tho

 

[Rygem]

I just came to the possible conclusion that it might just be a game optimization issue. I monitored all the things while playing The Witcher 3 and constant ~95% usage and good framerates.

So basically all the low usage reports etc. are most likely almost fully related to the game itself.

Still, thank you all very much for your support!

 

[kn00tcn]

I have had frame drops myself in GTA V using fraps, I'm using the build in Steam fps counter now if I need to, fps drop problem solved!

this really doesnt sound possible, too bad i dont have the game to test (but i do have friends with it, steam & nonsteam)

 

[ShredBird]

There are basically 3 scenarios in which a GPU will fail to reach 100% load.

1. There is a framerate cap or vsync is on, the GPU only renders as fast as it needs to in order to maintain the desired framerate.

2. The application is CPU bound. The CPU cannot provide draw calls fast enough to saturate your GPU.

3. Imperfect multi-GPU scaling. The game is incompatible or otherwise has imperfect alternate frame rendering. Newer games that often require access to previous frame information for certain shader techniques or have deferred rendering techniques have more overhead and can't achieve perfect scaling. The 2nd GPU ends up having lower load than the primary GPU.

That being said, I am also running dual GTX 970s, and if there is anything you'd like me to run for comparison for load testing or performance, let me know.