No "SLI Visual" indicators on 7900GX2?

Hi

I can't confirm that my 7900GX2 card (the original long version of the 7950GX2) is working in SLI. I have tried using the 91.37 and then the 91.45 drivers, and I know that when I go to the 3D Settings page in the (new) nVidia Control Panel, there should be a menu setting for "Show SLI Visual Indicators". These are green bars that go up and down showing how the rendering is split between the two cards.

Yet...

No matter what I do, I have no such menu option at all. Whether I have one or two monitors attached, in "multi-GPU" mode, whatever - there's never a menu for the Show SLI Visual Indictators.

Why not?!?

I am somewhat confident that SLI does work because FRAPS reports more fps with it on, but I'd like to see the indicators so I can try out which type of SLI rendering is most effective for a game.

Has anyone else had this problem? There's just no menu option at all.

Hope you can help

Thanks

DM

Probably you've already sloved your problem by now, but have you tried switching to Classic Control Panel mode? Maybe it's easier for you to find that setting then? I think in new control panel, the setting was in "3Dsettings" drop down menu, not in "enable SLI" window.

Yeah I did try the Classic panel and it's not there either. It's really not a case of "I can't find it", it's a case of "it's absolutely definitively not where the manual says it should be in the 3d Settings menu of the 3d Settings page, nor anywhere else to be found, at all"

Basically I think because I'm only running one 7900GX2, I get a "multi GPU" option not an SLI option. And so I don't get offered SLI Visual indicators. Daft.

DM

I have GV-3D1 on my second computer and control panel shows "enable SLI" window just like normal SLI configured setups. But if you say you're getting SLI performance out of it then probably I won't bother if I were you. I can understand you wanna experiment with SLI rendering options, but unless you play games in ultra high res, I don't think it will make dramatic difference in performance anyways and I believe 7900GX2 already is a kick ass card as is. I don't know, maybe driver is still not well optimized for 7900GX2? Maybe you should ask this same question at places like guru3d or nvidia forums, then I think you'll get much better responses. Sorry that I'm of not much help.

Interesting you get "SLI" with your dual core card, I guess it is a driver thing. I have looked around for an answer but not posted anywhere else. The fps drops to 20 on Rise of Legends sometimes, just at 1024x768 with everything turned up high (on a C2D E6600 2GB PC6400 4-4-4-12 system) so something seems not to be right.

I appreciate your posting notsobig, so yeah you've been of help!

DM

What do you get on 3dmark06 matt?

I only have an option to turn, 'multi GPU mode' on, no options to change rendering type. At 1280x1024 in 3Dmark 06 i can get 9000+ points.

In 3DMark06 1024x768 I get 9,300 (E6600, Asus P5W DH Deluxe, 2x 1GB Geil DDR2-800 4-4-4-12, 1GB XFX 7900GX2).

And that's completely at stock settings, 800RPM on the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro, RAM set manually in the BIOS but otherwise all normal, and it doesn't break a sweat.

So that's pretty good right?! :) I've not seen many scores like that without overclocking.

BUT WHY, when playing Rise of Legends, 4 player map with all the graphics turned to maximum BUT only on a resolution of 1024x768, am I getting fps as low as 20 and often below 60fps?

Spazman - have a look at the control panel page with the list of the individual 3d settings for anisotropic rendering etc (can't remember off hand what it's called), there should be one setting for "Single/Dual/Multiple display performance mode", there's another which is the GPU rendering mode and I get options for multi-GPU default and 4 others (again, sorry, can't remember exactly what it's called).

It's these different rendering options that I want to experiment with, but can't easily without the SLI visual indicators...

Thats a great score so while i cant help with bringing up the visual indicators, I can assure you that your card is running SLI in 3dmark06. Does Rise of Legends have its own SLI profile? If not then you need to add one in to use SLI in that game.

On my system (6600, P5WDH, 2 x 1GB corsair 5 5 5 12, 7900GX2) i get about 8000 at stock. I overclock the processor to 2.9 and get 8300. When i overclock the graphics by about 10% I get slightly over 9000. These are low overclocks and I could go higher if I wanted

How are you getting such high scores at stock? I want to know the secret.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dancingmatt

In 3DMark06 1024x768 I get 9,300

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This is 3DMark05 score right?:mrgreen: Wow, that's really awesome....

No, 3DMark 2006 :woowoo:

And the magic is, erm, I dunno I just put it all together don't look at me sorry guv :embarrassed:

Seriously, I have nothing overclocked, everything running at stock:

E6600 (retail)
P5W DH Deluxe, 0701 BIOS (haven't got round to flashing it yet and can never find the 1001 on Asus's site)
2x 1GB Geil DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 2.1V (stock speed but had to set them manually in the BIOS as the SPD is at 533)
1GB XFX 7900GX2 (and nVidia 91.45 drivers)
Antec P180b case (with the three pre-installed tricool fans)
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro (running at ~850rpm via Asus Q-fan "optimum" setting)
and Windows XP MCE 2005

Took ages to very carefully install it and wire it up. Honestly, can't tell you anything more than that.

My 91.45 driver does have an SLI profile for 3DM06.

The only other thing I can think of is I'm running 1024x768 (temporary monitor) - if you are running at a higher resolution then you'll naturally get a lower score right? I also got 33,000-something in 3DM03 if that helps.

I'm sorry I can't give you any more magic than that but I hope that doesn't stop you worshipping my mighty score :bowdown:

And I can't do more tests since the PSU is faulty (really noisy, and never stopped buzzing) and gone back

DM

I know but my X1800XT only do 9550 in 3dmark05 and I'm lil jelous:p So how long exactly is the card? It looks quite long in the picture(kind of reminds me of good old voodoo) but have you had any problem installing the card?

The card is HUGE 30cm long at least. I had trouble plugging in the SATA cable on my hard disks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spazman

The card is HUGE 30cm long at least. I had trouble plugging in the SATA cable on my hard disks!

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LMAO that is a beast:woowoo: :bowdown: :mrgreen:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spazman

The card is HUGE 30cm long at least. I had trouble plugging in the SATA cable on my hard disks!

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Thanks. I've just measured my case and there was only 28cm clearance max so looks like my case won't take it unless I cut here and there which I'd rather like to avoid:mrgreen:

I have an answer for you dancingmatt.

Download NvTray and install it. R-click the tray icon and select Hardware->Multi-GPU Applet. You then get a dialog with an option to show GPU load balancing. It seems to work on my 7900GX2.

OOOOhhhhhh

Thanks charleski! Sounds very promising, I'll try that tonight!

DM

AHA!

Only had time to try it with one game last night, which was Rise of Nations Gold Edition (since I'd just bought it and wanted to try it out). So obviously not the most challenging game graphically.

But I did as charleski suggested, downloaded NvTray (I'm trying the beta version on his link, you also need the .NET Framework 2 which you can get via the same link), installed it, then you need to right click the icon and choose Hardware-Multi GPU Applet. And it worked! I got a green line the full width of the screen, fluctuating up and down around the middle indicating a roughly 50-50 split, and an SLI watermark and the FPS and a few stats of GPU and GPU2 temperature in the corner of the screen. Just what I wanted!

Thanks charleski!

Interestingly, it didn't give me the green line indicator or the SLI watermark in the corner when I ran Rise of Legends, which appears to confirm what I expected - it's not running in SLI. So when I get some time I'll experiment with different SLI settings for it.

That appears to be just what I wanted, thanks again! :mexican:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dancingmatt

No, 3DMark 2006 :woowoo:

And the magic is, erm, I dunno I just put it all together don't look at me sorry guv :embarrassed:

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Guys, if anyone is interested, I just reinstalled my rig and only got 8,500 in 3dMark06, but then I realised that the nVidia settings were set for 8x AA and 4xAF. If you set these to "application controlled" then voila, 9,350 again.

Try that then!

Which does suggest that comparing 3dM06 benchmark scores is widely misleading, as it depends on what other settings you have...

DM

Do you mean the Nvidia display settings? As you cant change how the benchmark is run from the free version of 06.

Yeah exactly that Voronus, in the nVidia Control Panel, 3d Settings, then whatever the "global settings" page is called. That's also where the SLI profiles are set up, and the 3dM06 SLI profile that came with the 91.45 drivers I'm using has "Use global setting" for AA and AF.

When I installed these 91.45 drivers, the global settings were 8x AA and 4x AF. If you make these "application controlled" I think it runs without AA or AF. Makes sense.

Looks like the nVidia Control Panel settings are made to over-rule whatever the game's settings are.