Couple SLI Questions

[Vanzagar]

So I just got my two gtx260's installed in SLI... couple quick questions:

1. How do I know for sure a game is utilizing both cards. My nVidia control panel says it's enabled but when I play a game like Oblivion I can only select "GTX260" only from the vid card selection box, there is no reference to SLI? FPS sometimes dip below 30 but I have Quarl's texture pack and a bunch of other eye candy mods running at 1920x1200 with 2AA, 4AF, so I'm not sure if I should be dipping down that low with GTX260 sli...

2. When I over clock the cards, using something like eVGA Precision, there is one slider bar to change clock speeds, is this for both cards? Can I over clock one to one speed and the other card to a different speed?

Thanks,

Vanz

[aceflier]

Originally Posted by Vanzagar

So I just got my two gtx260's installed in SLI... couple quick questions:

1. How do I know for sure a game is utilizing both cards. My nVidia control panel says it's enabled but when I play a game like Oblivion I can only select "GTX260" only from the vid card selection box, there is no reference to SLI? FPS sometimes dip below 30 but I have Quarl's texture pack and a bunch of other eye candy mods running at 1920x1200 with 2AA, 4AF, so I'm not sure if I should be dipping down that low with GTX260 sli...

2. When I over clock the cards, using something like eVGA Precision, there is one slider bar to change clock speeds, is this for both cards? Can I over clock one to one speed and the other card to a different speed?

Thanks,

Vanz

You can use Nhancer to enable load balancing bar in profile's/global to make sure. Also Precision only has 1 slider to overclock both cards and no you cant overclock both differently cause SLI will default both cards to the lowest clocked card.

Hope this helps.

[Vanzagar]

Originally Posted by aceflier

You can use Nhancer to enable load balancing bar in profile's/global to make sure.

Could you elaborate a bit please... is this in regards to knowing if a game is actually using SLI...

[aceflier]

Originally Posted by Vanzagar

Could you elaborate a bit please... is this in regards to knowing if a game is actually using SLI...

If you install Nhancer there is an option to enable load balancing in SLI this will show you A bar on the left hand side of the screen the more screen that bar uses the better the game is using SLI (AFR). If you force (SFR) it will put a line in the middle of the screen separating top from bottom.

This is how you will know for sure that SLI is working correctly in certain game.

Or just trust that its working if its enabled it should be some games use it better than others is all. Gluck.

[gstanford]

nHancer is an alternative to nvidia's control panel and is far better suited to managing game profiles and their options.

One of the options available in a profile is the ability to display a SLI load balancing graph. You can enable this with nhancer.

http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?i...rslitabwz4.jpg

Just set the option so that on "on" checkbox is ticked.

You can find the nHancer thread here: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82570

[Vanzagar]

Nice, thanks guys...

[scubes]

im really happy with the performance of my 2 280gtx,s no MICROSTUTTER wot so ever the only thing i need now is more ram but thats coming tomorrow..

[Vanzagar]

I'm getting some stuttering in Oblivion once in awhile but it may be the hd loading stuff...

[jcrox]

Originally Posted by aceflier

You can use Nhancer to enable load balancing bar in profile's/global to make sure. Also Precision only has 1 slider to overclock both cards and no you cant overclock both differently cause SLI will default both cards to the lowest clocked card.

Hope this helps.

Again, the highlighted portion is NOT TRUE.

On every motherboard I've tried it on it depends on which slot which card is in.

On my current board, the top slot is master so, if I put a card in that slot clocked @ 800mhz and a card in the lower slot that's @ 600mhz the card in the lower slot automatically OVERCLOCKS to 800mhz.

If I switch them and put the 600mhz card in the top slot and the 800mhz card in the bottom the bottom one will then under clock to the slower speed of the card in the top slot.

It's a basic Master/Slave hardware configuration.