Hi all, New to the forums although been building PCs for over 10 years now - but I've got a problem that's giving me the run around and would like some help. I've got an SLI setup and have a monitor plugged into each card (the second smaller monitor I just use for monitoring software and gadgets whilst gaming), but I noticed the other day that when the primary GPU goes into 2d clocks mode of 50ish MHz, the other one is staying at full chatter and dumping heat into the case unnecessarily. It was only when I went back down to a one monitor setup that both the cards entered a low power state as they should. Is there any way to have the SLI setup with 'twindows' and get the 2nd GPU to behave correctly? Thanks all. Fuzzy
When you have a 2 GPU's (or more) setup, the 2 GPU's needs to stay in perfect in sync... So both cards goes full performance. You have the same effect on a multiple monitor setup on 1 GPU, to be able to sync all monitor refresh rates, the GPU needs to stay at full performance. Can you force things? Yes. But expect possible driver crash (so your screen will flicker), and at that point, any further graphic card tweaks will no longer apply (it will ignore any force downclocks, until the computer restarts). I am working on a software which controls the graphic card clocks based on what you run, works very well on my tests, it's just not complete... it's packed with options, and will have a community supported list of software and games so that the user rarely and possibly never needs to interact with the software, once installed. However, I have never tested it under SLI setup at the moment. If you want to give it a go, and feel adventurist, simply PM me about it. The idea behind my software is to reduce system noise by reducing graphic card temperature, by reducing the card performance when not needed, and give you the performance when you need it (play games, for example). Also, it can also extends battery life of laptops, by forcing the GPU at minimum speed no mater what you do in Windows (flip3D, move windows arounds, minimize/restore animation, etc.. it won't clock the GPU faster.. so you save battery life, and reduce heat, but you have the performance when you lunch a program that does require the graphic card). In addition, for overclockers. If you have some games that needs your GPU overclocked, when you can have that setup. Minimum performance when on idle, older games or non intensive game set the graphic card at default speed, and for those select games, use a defined overclocked profile. So while, my software supports SLI and multi-GPU's (Nvidia card only for now) setups, I never tested at the moment to see if it works.
I've tried that too. It does exactly the same thing. Card 2, even though no monitor is connected, won't drop to 2d clock speeds. The only configuration I've got to work so far is a single monitor setup. Goodbytes, that sounds absolutely brilliant. YGPM from me also
I've seen similar behaviour too, in my case it happens running Aida64 Extreme's Sensor Panel on the second or third monitor, it'll happen if you watch a movie on one monitor/GPU while the other monitor(s)/GPU(s) sit idle. Simply put your monitoring software and gadgets cause the GPU to do more work, hence never give it chance to down clock alike the other GPU/monitor. I've got 3x GTX470's running 3x 24'" monitors, one monitor per GPU and I can get the behaviour to exhibit itself by moving the Sensor Panel from one monitor to either of the others. Hence why I run things like your monitoring software, etc. on a Nanovision MIMO mini monitor running off of a USB port on the motherboard. Try turning off your gadget's, etc. and see if that makes a difference ? Just noticed this tho' .... That might be something more significant than just software related Can you move the graphics card, i.e. swap them around ?
Hmm, I maybe didn't word that last bit well uerseya. What I should have said was: Card 2 will only behave properly if no monitor is connected at all and no 2nd monitor is connected to card 1. Here's a quick breakdown in case I'm not really explaining too well. Each card has 2 DVI ports. We'll call these 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B with the number representing the card. Card 1 being the uppermost (primary) GPU. Config 1: Working 1A- Monitor connected 1B- unused 2A- unused 2B- unused Config 2: How I'd prefer it although card2 doesn't idle in this config 1A- Monitor connected 1B- unused 2A- Monitor connected 2B- unused Config 3: this also displays same behaviour as config 2 1A- Monitor connected 1B- Monitor connected 2A- unused 2B- unused I've tested both GPUs individually, all is well. I've also swapped the GPUs around and what was Card1 which is now in Card2 does exactly the same - so I'm quite happy it's not a hardware fault. It may just be a characteristic of SLI when connecting a 2nd monitor?? Can anyone out there disprove that? Thanks for all the replies so far. Fuzzy.
Well I caught what you meant but it's not a characteristic I've noted with my triple SLi setup, if I have nothing happening on any of my 3 monitors then my 3 GPU's quite happily downclock no problems. Out of curiousity have you tried turning off your gadgets and monitoring software, assuming you've had them running in the single monitor setup ? Plus what GPU's are you running ? and even with both monitors plugged into just one of the GPU's depending on how they're configued in the NVIDIA control panel it might mean the 2nd GPU is being utilised ? Plus some NVIDIA GPU's, older ones don't downclock, if you have a newer and an older one that may be the case ? I have a 9800GX2 in my 2nd PC and that doesn't downclock at all. HTH Uerseya
Yeah, I've turned all gadgets off and it still does the same. It's really strange. The cards are GTX580s, both identical. I've set PhysX to automatically select the GPU to utilise. Like I say, everything works as it should when one monitor is connected. As soon as I connect a second to any of the spare 3 DVI ports between the two cards, Card 2 won't go into low power state.
I did reply to this a while ago, but I don't think it's been moderated yet. If it doesn't appear, before this reply, I'll repost my initial response.
Tried setting the CPU for PhysX ?, it shouldn't be something as daft as that ? Plus are the cards identical, i.e. make, etc. ?
Having two screens on the same card forces the card to remain above 2D clocks, it will drop down to low-power 3d, but not 2D, as it has to devote more cycles to keeping monitor refresh in sync. In theory; One monitor per GPU should lead to lower clocks.
I've tried one monitor in each card as explained above but still card2 wont drop to 2d clocks It's frustrating as hell!
