BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

[PineConeAssassin]

OK first ~ EVGA NF41 SLI Mobo w/ 2 7800GT's @ 470/1100 stock speeds.
2GB OCZ Plat. 2-3-2-5 @ 1T ~ 3200+ Venice

I have Chipset 6.85 & have tried both 81.98 and 84.20 drivers. When I load up BF2, I usually play 1280x HIGH AAx4 with V-Sync on and definatley ride 75fps solid, unless there is crazy S goin' on... then it drops into the 40's.

When I enable SLI, I am in the high 40's low 50's MAX! ??

I have tried Alternate Frame Rendering, Split Frame, Single GPU, Multi GPU, etc...
So how about it SLI users?! What did you have to do to get BF2 working in SLI?

And oh yeah, this is on a fresh build, XP SP2, and I did the full update to 1.21.
If I left out anything let me know...

[sackynut]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

well, my performance didnt drop, and though my BF2 performance is basically the same, my other games are much better. install coolbits, and set the Sli rendering to "auto-select" and try again. also undo vsync and moniter your fps. with vsnyc, if your fps goes under the refresh rate, it cuts in half.

[PineConeAssassin]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

V-Sync off & Auto Select = 70fps avg...

I get better performance out of a single card? I must be doing something wrong! I wasn't expecting that much better performance, but I did expect to see my frames stay high, certainly not 30+ fps lower!

Also, if I chose "Split Frame" the green line is horizontal & right in the center in the menu... once the game loads up it drops to 80% on top 20% bottom...

[Metal_Storm]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

Have you tried increasing the resolution on bf2, some tests concluded that performance will not double for adding an extra card but only add slightly, but...... you can keep that same performance level while cranking up the settings such as AA - AF and the resolution, where one card will stall having the other one there will help process the information quicker.

[sackynut]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

is SLi enabeled? is the switch onyour mobo flipped to SLi?
did u fully uninstall the drivers, and then reinstall them? hmm im still thinking

[PineConeAssassin]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

Yeah SLI is definately enabled, and I have tried every variant of SLI rendering mode... I have AA set to x4 in BF2, which is as high as it goes. Unless I try setting it up in the driver menu, but I shouldn't need to do that. (Right ?)

There is no SLI switch on my mobo that I know of. I have 3 PCIx slots, 1x16x for single GPU and then 2x8x for SLI. I have tried with / without the SLI bridge also... notta.

In my bios I have my PCIx lanes set to x8 - this is correct no? They are most def not x16 lanes like on some boards. I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Any other suggestions I am game...

[sackynut]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

well, I would say disable it, reboot, and run something like 3dmark. then enable it, reboot, and run it again. if the 3dmark WITH sli is higher by a good amount, than you know its just BF2 being g*y. but if the score is lower or the same you have a problem.

[PineConeAssassin]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

Doing just that right now :laugh:

I'll post my results...

[sackynut]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

dont tell me you are running 3dmark and internet browser at the same time...
dont run any other programs while benchmarking.... lol. it will tottaly own your score and make it waayyyy worse.

EDIT: hmmm, my BF2 seems to be doing worse in SLi, not worse than a single card (i havent tried it) but worse than it used to perform. Also, Ikeep getting things flickering, like server names, and sometimes things ingame like roads. its weird.

[PineConeAssassin]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

I'm a noob to SLI, not everything! LOL

I have other machines that I can use while I'm running all these tests. In fact, I haven't even hooked that baby up to my network yet.

[gerrynicol]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

Im running 1280 x 1024 X4 AA and still playing with settings, have had no slow downs, I am still trying to find the best settings.

[xZeler8]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

There is no SLI switch on my mobo that I know of. I have 3 PCIx slots, 1x16x for single GPU and then 2x8x for SLI. I have tried with / without the SLI bridge also... notta.

i would hope there is...read your mobo manual...usually there is a "chip" that you have to flip around or something like that...that's how my a8n-sli deluxe board is...i think the premiums do theirs through the bios, so that might be something to check as well

[Hulka]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

Just some basics first......Did windows give u a pop up by the task bar saying your system is ready for sli? It should do this after you install the second card. Is sli enabled in your bios? Also, try enabling the multi-gpu load balancing in the nvidia display options. It's right below where you enable sli. This will put a green bar on the left side of your screen when playing games. It will show you whether both cards are sharing the work equally, and also let you know it you have a problem with a card.

[gerrynicol]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

Have you attatched the SLi bridge?

[PineConeAssassin]

Re: BF2 SLI Settings... a little help please.

I have an EVGA NF41 SLI motherboard, which uses 3 PCIx lanes. There is no switch for setting SLI, as you use different slots for SLI configuration ~

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188002

The blue is for single x16 & then you switch to the two yellow for SLI x8.

I have the SLI bridge installed, and when I first booted up I did get that "This system is SLI capable, click here to enable" which I did. I have also setup Coolbits as per the instructions on Nzone and have tried all the different SLI Rendering Modes using custom profiles.

I am going to do some extensive testing on each individual card today and really compare the numbers to see where the problem could be.

Does anybody know of a good place to find indepth descriptions of what each of the profile settings do? For example... "Negative LOD bias"... I have googled a bit and find answers here and there but nothing from the horses mouth so to speak.