list games where crossfire / SLI do not scale

[Aberforth]

Flight Simulator X (with SP2 & DX10): Scales with more CPU cores, Phil Taylor from MS said you actually need 256 cores to make it run smoothly.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson
we're looking at tools to address those issues, but we will not be doing any instantaneous frame rate versus time graphs, nor will we be doing any tests which are not repeatable or from which reliable data cannot be obtained.

we are looking at really diving deep into micro-stutter and other multi-GPU issues when R700 is launched. i'm hoping we'll have everything we need by then to really cover these issues.

i'm not sure how we'll test input lag though ... suggestions?

That's a bit disappointing you guys will never use frame rate versus time graphs, I'm seeing more sites use it now and honestly it provides more info in a single comparison/resolution than a page worth of text. Plus no one reads the text anyways so its very easy for people to be confused when they see an Avg. FPS that is similar.

For instance, in this COD4 comparison with the 9800GTX SLI and GTX 280, the SLI set-up technically wins with 62.8 FPS compared to 62.5 FPS. But when you look at the graphed FPS its very clear actual gameplay with SLI would be very different, much worst than the 280. Consistently lower FPS with the SLI rig in intensive frame sequences which are made up with excessively high FPS in less intensive sequences.

Basically using a FRAPS dump would knock out 3 hot button topics with one tool. You could map FPS vs time, calculate frame interval for microstutter and show minimum FPS all at the same time. Anyways, looking forward to the article regardless.

Edit: Actually 4 topics, it would also show any CPU bottlenecking and/or frame rate capping.

 

[Bazra]

Neverwinter Nights 2 doesn´t seem to work with crossfire and EVE Online as well (last time I tested).

 

[Soubriquet]

Does Crossfire include 3870x2 ? Because there are a load of recent 4870 reviews out which showed the 3870x2 not scaling very well in games like... Tomb Raider Anniversary, Bioshock v1.1, Crysis v1.21, Lightsmark v1.3

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/734/1/

more reviews listed here

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/...daily-wibble-25jun2008

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: Soubriquet

Does Crossfire include 3870x2 ?

Absolutely.

 

[alcoholbob]

Originally posted by: Bazra
Neverwinter Nights 2 doesn´t seem to work with crossfire and EVE Online as well (last time I tested).

Isn't NWN2 CPU bound though? For CPU bound games SLI at most adds 1 or 2 fps to the minimum, not enough to justify double the cost considering an OCed single card would also gain 1-2 fps to the minimum.

 

[Rhoxed]

i cannot get crysis to scale at all on my 2 3870's been through every patch, and tried on catalyst 8.3 through 8.7

 

[ajaidevsingh]

kk, here is my Startrek list:- "CF 4850"

Armada 2 does not scale
Elite force 2 seems to have artifacts dont know if it scales or not
Bridge Commander did not scale
Legacy did scale but not by a huge margin

 

[MichaelD]

Is this thread strictly about SLI/XFire (i.e. two physically separate cards) or does it apply to multi-GPU card (i.e.3870X2) as well?

I'm really considering getting a 4870X2 but want to know what possible problems I'm in for. AFAIK, the driver itself must have a SLI/XFire profile for a specific game, correct?

Great thread; good luck with it!

*edit*
Was so busy reading all the replies, I didn't read the initial post in it's entirety.

one of the most important things going forward with crossfire and sli becoming more important to the strategy of NVIDIA and AMD (especially with single card multigpu soluitons on AMD's end) is broad compatibility.

OK...I know there's a few folks with 9800X2s here...post, please.

 

[Harmattan]

I have two machines: one with 2x 8800 GTX SLI and another with 2x 4870 Crossfire. Here are the issues I experience that are directly caused by a dual card setup:

Portal - SLI with vsync disabled causes audio looping (only partial lines of dialog play) problems in-game. Once V-sync is enabled, this issue goes away.

The Witcher- SLI and Crossfire crash the game at the first menu.

Mass Effect- FPS in the Citatel Tower is unplayable. Once SLI/Crossfire is disabled, FPS is normal in this area (although the FPS in the rest of the game is reduced with only a single card)

I have had no issues with SLI or Crossfire in these games (these are the games I've tested on both machines):

HL2, Episode 1, Episode 2
Sins of a Solar Empire
Crysis
M&M: Dark Messiah
Nevewinter Nights 2
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Company of Heros
Age of Conan

I'm not sure how well these game scale with dual cards, but do think it worth mentioning the above issues/errors in any article on SLI and Crossfire scaling. Please note these are all full retail copies of these games.

 

[CP5670]

Mass Effect- FPS in the Citatel Tower is unplayable. Once SLI/Crossfire is disabled, FPS is normal in this area (although the FPS in the rest of the game is reduced with only a single card)

This sounds like another example of the inconsistent performance I was referring to earlier. It can be very hard to predict or explain these kinds of framerate drops, since there doesn't seem to be anything in that area that is different from the rest of the game.

 

[HumblePie]

Originally posted by: CP5670

Mass Effect- FPS in the Citatel Tower is unplayable. Once SLI/Crossfire is disabled, FPS is normal in this area (although the FPS in the rest of the game is reduced with only a single card)

This sounds like another example of the inconsistent performance I was referring to earlier. It can be very hard to predict or explain these kinds of framerate drops, since there doesn't seem to be anything in that area that is different from the rest of the game.

I have 4850 CF and turned off the cap and smoothing in ME. I was topping out normally at 80 FPS or so. That majority of the time I was running around 55 to 64 FPS. My low end was about 15 though on the really BAD planets such as the ice ones with a huge blizzard blowing. Not sure what the deal was but my FPS on the planets with blizzards or duststorms or comet storms would drop the FPS to almost unplayable FPS. I never had any problems at the Citadel Tower though. Only those 3 or 4 planets or so, which are optional in the game anyhow.

 

[mhouck]

Originally posted by: HumblePie

Originally posted by: CP5670

Mass Effect- FPS in the Citatel Tower is unplayable. Once SLI/Crossfire is disabled, FPS is normal in this area (although the FPS in the rest of the game is reduced with only a single card)

This sounds like another example of the inconsistent performance I was referring to earlier. It can be very hard to predict or explain these kinds of framerate drops, since there doesn't seem to be anything in that area that is different from the rest of the game.

I have 4850 CF and turned off the cap and smoothing in ME. I was topping out normally at 80 FPS or so. That majority of the time I was running around 55 to 64 FPS. My low end was about 15 though on the really BAD planets such as the ice ones with a huge blizzard blowing. Not sure what the deal was but my FPS on the planets with blizzards or duststorms or comet storms would drop the FPS to almost unplayable FPS. I never had any problems at the Citadel Tower though. Only those 3 or 4 planets or so, which are optional in the game anyhow.

Just to continue with the Mass Effect Citadel issue. The rest of the game plays great but the 9800 GX2 has horrible fps in this one area. The rest of the citadle is fine the rest of the planets run fine. I have not yet tried to run as a single card to see the difference but just wanted to confirm it's not just one instance

 

[taltamir]

check your CPU usage at citadel tower, I found it is severely CPU limited, if SLI adds CPU overhead then it could mess things up in the already CPU limited citadel tower.

 

[ajaidevsingh]

My second list:-

Gothic III had bad dots coming up every now and then!!
MechWarrior 4 was full of errors objects turned odd colour, etc
Trackmania did not scale at all but no errors
The Regiment did not scale also i also did have problems with the door's in the first level!!

 

[Harmattan]

Originally posted by: taltamir
check your CPU usage at citadel tower, I found it is severely CPU limited, if SLI adds CPU overhead then it could mess things up in the already CPU limited citadel tower.

Nope, definitely not the CPU, and definitely not in my case. There is a known issue with the Citadel Tower area and SLI - there are posts all over the support site citing this. The only current solution is to disable SLI.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Last time I checked CF doesn't scale properly in Jericho and won't run Stalker at all. Also it won't run AA in Bioshock when single cards will.

As for SLI, there are a few case I've seen where 9800 GX2 configurations (single or dual) fail outright to run some tests at 2560x1600 with high levels of AA (i.e. the score is zero because they crash).

Stalker : fixed in Cat 8.7
Jericho : Fixed in Cat 8.7
DX9 Bioshock : works fine
AA works under All Unreal 3.0 game in DX9...

Any games in UE 3 games with DX10 and you have a AA problem

well there aren't may UE3 games that support DX10 but few like bioshock do.


http://www.computerbase.de/art..._clive_barkers_jericho

==============
Clive Barker's Jericho 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF:
ATi Radeon HD 4870 X2 : 39,7
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 SLI : 35,1
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 : 22,7

Stalker 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF:
ATi Radeon HD 4870 X2 39,7
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 SLI 25,1
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 22,7


As for UE3 DX10 support , ATI driver engineer are working on it, the problem lies in UE3 they claim but they say its doable.


Well name any games you guys want and i can find out , i have both sli and cf ;!

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
...and AFR input lag too.

err thats a whole another cookie that will takes years and years to bring to totally un noticeable level. I don't think the problem can be ever solved but it will be fixed like latency issue with LCD. Anyways CF and SLI are pretty useless if they can't run games 45FPS @ 2560x1200 otherwise you do notice shutter. I can notice shutter in few games like Crysis , to solve that i have to run it lower res and reduce some setting to medium.

 

[bryanW1995]

keeping on amd's ass about having strong crossfire drivers for ALL games and not just a few that are common in benchmarks = good

writing a 4870x2 review article that appears to have been edited by rollo = bad