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GTX 280 sli slower?

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Hi forum,

Thanks for the slipatch, seems to work ok since I can set sli in nvcp.

Just installed a second gtx280 in the system, fired up BFBC2 and disappointed to see a fps drop with the same settings I had with only one card.

Running BFBC2 on medium, getting about 15-20 fps when I got around 40 with one card stock speed.

Then I set everything on high, vsync off, overclocked the system to 3.6 ghz on auto everything else and achieved about 30 fps with deep drops in action scenes, GPUZ reports about a 20-25% load on the cards and the CPU is almost maxed at 98%.

I'd like to get at least 50 fps when in high action scenes (explosions and many players)!

What can I do to achieve this? quad core cpu, faster memory? very tight budget here!

Thanks for your replys.

system specs:

Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro Turbo
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wolf

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my guess given;

GPUZ reports about a 20-25% load on the cards and the CPU is almost maxed at 98%.

is that your dual core isnt coping with the overhead of running two GPUs and an already very CPU intensive game like BC2.

run a feew really GPU intensive benchmarks in single and SLi mode to see if there is a difference there, like for example SF4 bench or DMC4 bench.
 

Bo$$

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what drivers are you using, i havent tried BC2 with my second card but i think you should overclock that CPU more
 
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what drivers are you using, i havent tried BC2 with my second card but i think you should overclock that CPU more

Was on 260.99 on first try than installed 270.51 beta for a test without improvement...

tried to oc to 3.8 on auto and crashed, not very techie about oc, worried to about increasing voltages, staying at 3.6 for the moment.
 

crazyeyesreaper

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going dual core to quad core offered a near 100% performance improvement,

but those frame rates are still to low..

you will notice the Phenom II x2 vs x4 same settings same gpu same driver performance doubled.
 
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Basically saying I should get a Q9650?
 

crazyeyesreaper

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not exactly your frame rate is still way lower then it should be just pointing out another key reason for lower performance

the settings used were max settings with a 4870x2 roughly slightly slower then 280 sli so as you can guess you should be getting 45fps give or take
 
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you can guess you should be getting 45fps give or take

Should be getting this on my dual core? I'm far from it, what can be done to increase performance?
 
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Software gotta love steam, origin etc etc
Benchmark Scores http://hwbot.org/user/philbrown_23/
edit: nvm, im a dummy, could be drivers, could be the cpu. try other games or benches as suggested above
 
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Overclock that CPU. The bottleneck for your cards is in the North Bridge. Increasing your FSB will increase your North Bridge frequency and CPU frequency easing up the bottleneck.
 
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Overclock that CPU. The bottleneck for your cards is in the North Bridge. Increasing your FSB will increase your North Bridge frequency and CPU frequency easing up the bottleneck.

already OC'd to 3,6 stock voltages (auto) and stock cooling. 3,8 is not stable and crashes.
 
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Ah, stock cooling. You should probablly change that. Auto values are pretty much only good to a certain point, then you have to start manually inputing your values. It does sound like it is a driver issue. When adding a 2nd card whether you system is stock or not should result in a gain. Have you tried thuroughly reinstalling your video drivers? i.e. uninstall, run driver sweeper, delete old registry values and reinstall new drivers.
 
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Have you tried thuroughly reinstalling your video drivers? i.e. uninstall, run driver sweeper, delete old registry values and reinstall new drivers.

Yes done that in the manner suggested.
 
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Well, I assume you are having problems with the SLi patch then. See if they can help you in the SLi patch thread.
 
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qubit

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Basically saying I should get a Q9650?

Definitely not. It's such old tech now, so massively outperformed by the Sandy Bridge CPU's.

Only buy if you can find it very cheap somewhere. Unfortunately, where you can still find it, it's way overpriced. :rolleyes:
 

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Definitely not. It's such old tech now, so massively outperformed by the Sandy Bridge CPU's.

Only buy if you can find it very cheap somewhere. Unfortunately, where you can still find it, it's way overpriced. :rolleyes:

what price?
 

qubit

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what price?

Eh? :confused:

If you can find one, compare it to an i5-2500K. It's way more expensive and performance is way less. Terrible value.
 

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Eh? :confused:

If you can find one, compare it to an i5-2500K. It's way more expensive and performance is way less. Terrible value.

i mean, what is a decent price for a Q9550
 

qubit

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i mean, what is a decent price for a Q9550

I've had a quick check and an i5-2500K is currently about £170. Therefore, I'd say that one shouldn't pay more than about £100 for a brand new Q9650/Q9550, tops, likely less. However, they're going for well over £200. A complete ripoff.
 

crazyeyesreaper

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yea Q9650 i think is still $300 usd stateside on newegg with a 2500k at $200 for the price of a new socket 775 quad you can get i7 2600K kinda sad that Intel is still milking those chips so hard
 
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Problem going to sandy bridge will cost me a motherboard and memory also raising the price well above the Q9650
 
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Did tou try the 266.77 drivers?


Just installed them, did get a bit of an increase in performance. These drivers were not listed on nVidia site!
 
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