Dissapointed in nvidia surround

[Armor]

Hello guys!

I am using 3x iiyama 27 inch LED screens (2D) for a few months now.

and with the combination of 3-way SLI GTX 680 4GB im quite dissapointed in the performance im having.

I'm using a bezel corrected resolution of 5960x1080.

When i play BF3 on the Ultra preset im getting horrible GPU usage (65% avg) and (25% min) and sometimes even 0% when something explodes nearby. I'm also getting alot of stuttering,and with the framedrops it makes it quite unplayable. When i switch off 4xMSAA and only use FXAA there is still a bit of stuttering and the GPU usage gets a bit better.
I tried all kinds of drivers, 306.23, 310.33 and now 310.61. The only driver that works for me in BF3 is 304.48 and 304.79, These drivers fixes the stuttering issues im having and im getting really good and smooth FPS on the Ultra preset, also the GPU usage is good. however 304.48 and 304.79 are old and dont have the latest SLI profiles.

In Medal of honor warfighter im getting pretty much the same issue.. Alot of stutter with 4xMSAA and works perfectly with FXAA.

Now Hitman absolution, a game i have been looking out for a while now, and now that im playing it in surround im getting the weirdest things ive never experienced before when using single screen. Please look at my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DOPYcfjPbY&feature=plcp
The settings im using for Hitman are all max No MSAA because its a huge fps hit and with 8xMSAA i'm getting black texture flickering. and yes 310.61 is installed.

I'm also not really satisfied with the surround support of games. for example i want to play Black Ops 2. this game doesn't support surround natively so i used Flawless widescreen.
Nice tool, and i can play black ops 2 and its looking good. just except for the cutscenes which are completely streched out and missing the top part of the screen. i dont know if the BO2 profile in Flawless widescreen will be updated, who knows.

Anyway im quite dissapointed since ive invested alot in my pc and my triple screens and now that i cant play my games as i want makes it very frustrating for me.

ive even considered to sell my 3 monitors and go with a 2560x1440 display or a 120hz screen.


what can you guys tell me?

Thanks!

[Wijkert]

What I can tell you is that support for Surround/Eyefinity isn't that great and sometimes you need fixes made by dedicated people on this forum to play on triple screen setups. Your main problem seems to be a combination of bad 3-way sli support (trifire support is bad as well) and microstuttering (present in multi gpu setups). I would recommend trying to play games on just one card, lower some settings and report back. I bet you that it will make a (big) difference.

[BuckNutty]

Over 2 years ago now I bought 2 gtx470s and 3 24inch 1920x1080 led monitors. I spent about $1,000 on these parts just to be able to play games in surround.

When it works its really fun and I enjoy it, however it is very frustrating when it does not work. It would be nice if Nvidia would step up and help out with fixes like we find here. I mean nvidia, and amd are advertisng this stuff like crazy and it barely works. They already have a million programers working on the drivers and huge budgets, why not develop surround view profiles just like they do for SLI?

I hope in a few years we will have ultra wide screens that can flex, so we can have surrond on a single 46 inch.

[Wijkert]

They already have a million programers working on the drivers and huge budgets, why not develop surround view profiles just like they do for SLI?

Because a really really small percentage of consumers have triple screen setups, so fixes are less of a priority. The thing we have going for us is that since we are kinda hardcore means that we are more vocal and thus seem a little larger of a community then we really are.

[Haldi]

while SLI is a driver Problem correct surround is a game engine Problem!
the game developers have to fix this not the driver creator.

but I wholeheartly agree that game developers should create their games MultiMonitor capable. and AMD/Nvidia should increase their support for crossfire/SLI.

[Timobkg]

microstuttering (present in multi gpu setups).

From the Tom's Hardware article on micro-stuttering, it was eliminated in a triple-GPU configuration. However, VSync could cause it to appear to micro-stutter. Adaptive VSync is also supposed to help.

Armor, have you tried enabling Adaptive VSync in the Nvidia control panel? Or, if that doesn't work, disabling VSync?

Also, as others have said, you're on the cutting edge of PC gaming. In order for it to improve we need to be more vocal. Post on the forums of upcoming releases asking for triple-monitor support, so that the devs add it to their games. Post on Nvidia and AMD forums so that they're aware of the issues, and maybe realize that they should direct more energy towards better driver support than to squeezing out a 2% performance increase.

[tricky]

Have you tried with 2 x Video Cards instead of 3?

I have never experienced micro-stuttering with my 470s and so far run every game just fine.

And I have learned to accept that a few games may not work triplewide, and I install those on my Asus Core i7 laptop and play single monitor when mobile.

But overall, run surround desktop mode 7x24, and have about 20 games installed right now that all run great triplewide (Borderlands 2 my latest addiction).

Nice system by the way, have had mine for close to 3 years now, waiting for 5 Ghz cpu's, and sounds like we are getting close.

[peanut]

I purchased a 120hz 2560x1440 for this very reason. Games that work well in surround I play in surround, while games that do not I run on my single screen.

Temporary solution until game makers get their act together.

[pas008]

have you tried nvidia inspector? can be alittle bit complicated

[mdickens98]

I can tell you that im running 3 way surround on a single GTX 660 and getting acceptable performance levels without the complications you seem to be having so perhaps your 3-way SLI is overcomplicating matters? I know its an awesome rig your running with power I could only dream of but I doubt the power of 3-way SLI is needed on current games. PC gaming is all about tweaking and fettling to get the cutting edge experience that isnt available on consoles so you should be prepared to spend the time trying different settings and tinkering until you get settings that work right and bear in mind that what works for one game might not necessarily work for another. I agree that better support should be provided by nVidia but if you consider the huge number of combinations of game, gpu, display configurations that they are trying to make their hardware work with you can see why we get problems. Don't be disheartened, you'll get there in the end