Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have had nothing but problems with my surround setup trying to run BFBC2 . In the light of BF3 coming out I dont want to be plagued with this setup for the new game .

My specs : i7 950 o/c 3.8ghz , Asus P6X58D Premium , 3x GTX 480 GPU's , 12gig 1600mhz Ram , Kingston 128gb SSD , 3x LG 27" 2ms Moniotrs .

Im sure im not alone but the constant fluctuation in FPS and stuttering ( mainly in Tri SLi ) . The lack of increasing game quality due to CTD's is got me thinking do I change camps and do away with SLi and Nvidia and get a ATi 6990 ?

This game in particular does not like SLi but unfortunately its needed for Surround gaming . Also there is no difference from dual SLi to Tri SLi except that I get bad stuttering in Tri Sli :(

It seams from what I have read around the net is that SLi just doesnt get the attention it needs as far as game developers and Drivers . Is SLi becoming extinct ? . Does Crossfire have the same issues ? Will a dula GPU card like the 6990 solve these problems ?

I know my rig should handle this game with good results but it doesnt . So im ready to make a change for the better ... I hope !

If anyone here feels the same way I do or has any input on the problem im sure we are all faced with , I would greatfully appreciate it .

Widescreen gaming is something I DONT WANT TO GIVE UP but I really need to do something about how this and possible BF3 runs .

Cheers Fella's :)

BC2 has problems in any multi-monitor setup, be it EyeFinity or Surround. It is a problem that they are aware of, that was fixed in the Vietnam DLC, and which early reports indicate is also fixed in BF3. So changing from Surround to EyeFinity won't help with BC2 or potentially even BF3.

This thread details the problems with BC2 and multi-monitor resolutions.

that would be a major mistake, i was using ati but moved to nvidia because of the rubbish ati drivers, vsync, stutter, adapters and lack of crossfire profiles, issues all the time.

Since going to nvidia , all my issues are gone except the ctd with normal bc2. which happens about 1 a night. but only with vinilla, not vietnam. Not sure why you are having such issues as i also use tri 480's and found them outstanding.
no stutter whatsoever and smooth as butter, bc2 is locked at 60 fps with everything high except aa which i run at 2 or 4. the 3 cards scale perfectly even accross the cards, about 90% each on bc2. only difference is that i use a 980x cpu @4Ghz

Just make sure you have the evga sli enhancement patch as well.

IMO both NVIDIA and ATI have their share of problems with surround/eyefinity.

A few things you could (and probably have) try:

1. Turn off eye candy. ie AA/AF/HBAO. The VRAM is insufficient to properly scale.
2. What PSU are you using? How old is it? My old quadfire 5970 had teething problems. It turns out my PSU was insufficient resulting in choppy performance CTDs. A new SilverStone Strider 1500W PSU helped.
3. Also, my CTD issue was resolved by turning down the sample rate for audio in Realtek audio control panel. If I remember correctly, I had to set it back to 24bits, 48000 Hz (or lower).
4. Have you tried OC your CPU to 4.0 or higher? This can reduce CPU bottleneck.

I hope this helps. Hang in there.

While I do have problems with Eyefinty in single card mode I think a big culprit here is the SLI and Crossfire. Which is why instead of buying 2-3 cards I pool all my loot together and get 1 powerful card. Just my 2 cents.

Ran fine for me, no problems both single player and multi.

Just to answer a few questions ,

I have my i7 950 clocked to 4ghz .

I have tred the EVGA SLi patch and it doesnt do anything as far as the third card is concerned .

I have a Thermatake Tough Power 1500W PSU Brand new so I dont think thats my problem .

I will have to try the Realtec sound downgrade and see if it helps the CTD's .

One thing I havent mentioned and I think this may play a big part in my scaling issue . I have an ASUS P6X58D premium mobo which only has two options for the PCI-E slots . Either x16 x16 x1 or x16 x8 x8 . Now I know that at best the third card scales to around 33% and my PCI-E lanes in actuall fact do not change in either configuration as far as getting anything more out of the third card .

I was wondering if maybe the EVGA Classified board which has x16 x16 x16 on its first three PCI-E slots would allow my third card to scale to its full 33% potential ?

What Tri Sli boards do some of you that have good scaling use ?

Thanks for your feedback guys .

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I'm not 100% certain so if someone can confirm for me-you 12V Amps are 20V 40V 20V 40V. Could this be causing the fluctuations?

As for your PCIe bandwidth, a x16 x16 x1 would be a problem. Setting your BIOS to x16 x8 x8 would be better.

IMO, a x16 x8 x8 setup would result in a ~5% performance drop. This however, shouldn't lead to wild fluctuations in frame rates.

You could try sending a ticket to NVIDIA describing your issue. Hopefully they come with a solution.

Remember, changing camps is not the answer IMO. AMD may scale BC2 fine but they might not scale other titles as well as NVIDIA. And vice versa.

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I'm not 100% certain so if someone can confirm for me-you 12V Amps are 20V 40V 20V 40V. Could this be causing the fluctuations?

.

The Thermaltake Toughpower 1500 is on Nvidia website as a recommended PSU for Tri SLi :)