MSI Z170A M5 - problems with SLI

[Netherwind]

Hi.

I used to have a 3570K on a MSI Z77A-GD55 but unfortunately that motherboard died so I decided to upgrade to Skylake (6700K) on a Z170A-M5. I also own two MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G but for some strange reason I get poor SLI performance in all games compared to my old system. It feels like something is holding them back when in SLI mode since they work perfectly and perform excellent when installed separatly. My 3570K was clocked at 4,3GHz and I managed to OC the 6700K to 4,6GHz.

I've tried doing the following:
¤ Tried two different SLI bridges
¤ Tried both SLI connectors
¤ Bought a brand new PSU (EVGA Supernova G2 850W)
¤ Reinstalled Win10 twice
¤ Reinstalled VGA drivers several times
¤ Updated BIOS to latest version
¤ Disabled XMP
¤ Disabled Hyperthreading

Here are some benchmark comparisons at 1440p and highest possible settings:
Witcher 3 : Wilderness 32fps (6700K) vs 75fps (3570K)
Thief : Avg 85fps (6700K) vs 111fps (3570K)
Metro LL : Avg 76fps (6700K) vs 108fps (3570K)
3DMark FS : Graphics score 20972p (6700K) vs 24080p (3570K)

Complete specs:
Intel 6700K @ 4,6GHz (46x100 BLCK, 1,350 Vcore, Turbo Boost disabled)
Corsair H110i GT
MSI Z170A Gaming G5
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR42666MHz, XMP profile enabled (connected to DIMM 2 & 4)
MSI GTX 970 Gaming G4 in SLI mode
EVGA Supernova G2 850W
Samsung 850 EVO, Samsung 840 EVO, Corsair Force 3, WD Green (Connected to SATA_3,4,5,6), Optiard DVD-RW (SATA_1)
Razer Blackwidow Chroma, Mionix Naos 5000, Func MS260, Creative T20
Acer XB270HU

Witcher 3 GPU load values are the following (according to MSI Afterburner):
GPU1: Power 53%, Temp 62C, Load 57%, Volt 1.175, Core clock 1491MHz
GPU1: Power 54%, Temp 52C, Load 52%, Volt 1.212, Core clock 1491MHz
CPU Load is 13-39% across all cores

I've already found a few people on other sites with the same problem (though with ASUS boards) so this problem must be tied to the chipset, or a driver or something. Oddly enough I've also found a review of the 6700K plus 970SLI where they managed to get them running just fine.

This is driving me crazy since I really have no idea what would be the problem.

 

[bleucharm28]

I ain't no tech pro but maybe disable XMP profile and see if that makes a difference.

actually set everything to default.

and maybe use Dimm slot 1 & 3; don't think that part really matters.

very well could be chipset/driver issues.

 

[Netherwind]

I ain't no tech pro but maybe disable XMP profile and see if that makes a difference.

actually set everything to default.

and maybe use Dimm slot 1 & 3; don't think that part really matters.

very well could be chipset/driver issues.

Tried that (as I mentioned in my post) but setting CPU and RAM to default does not help. And even if it would it wouldn't really be an option.

DIMM slot on the other hand matters, the manual says that it's extremely important to use DIMM 2 and 4 when using two sticks of RAM.

I definitely think that chipset or BIOS is simply not mature yet.

 

[gothuevos]

Any update on this issue?

Would hate to wait all this time simply to find a 6700k and then wait another x months for SLI to work properly. Nice launch, Intel.

 

[gothuevos]

Also, do you have a sound card or other PCIe cards that might be taking up lanes and bottlenecking GPU performance?

 

[Shmee]

What drivers were/are you using, and what OS were you running on the old board?

 

[gothuevos]

Does that motherboard use a PLX chip? I remember reading something in a recent z170 motherboard review (forget which one) that mentioned some boards with a PLX chip for more PCIe lanes could run into latency problems.

OP, maybe try freeing up whatever other devices you have that might be using PCIe lanes, make sure your cards are in 8x/8x and then repeat.

Also, your 3dmark scores are SLI vs SLI, correct? Did you install chipset drivers (not sure if this is necessary with Windows 10 but worth a try).

I'm really interested in this - I have an SLI build on z170 just waiting for a 6700k to show up. This would be beyond ridiculous if SLI didn't work out of the box.

 

[Netherwind]

Also, do you have a sound card or other PCIe cards that might be taking up lanes and bottlenecking GPU performance?

Nope, using the integrated audio.

What drivers were/are you using, and what OS were you running on the old board?

I've tried both 353.65, 355.60 and I've used DDU to update.
Currently using Windows 10 but I used Win 10 on my old board and things worked well at that point.

Does that motherboard use a PLX chip? I remember reading something in a recent z170 motherboard review (forget which one) that mentioned some boards with a PLX chip for more PCIe lanes could run into latency problems.

OP, maybe try freeing up whatever other devices you have that might be using PCIe lanes, make sure your cards are in 8x/8x and then repeat.

Also, your 3dmark scores are SLI vs SLI, correct? Did you install chipset drivers (not sure if this is necessary with Windows 10 but worth a try).

I'm really interested in this - I have an SLI build on z170 just waiting for a 6700k to show up. This would be beyond ridiculous if SLI didn't work out of the box.

I have no idea if the M5 has a PLX chip but when I googled, the only time it was mentioned was on the much more expensive Xpower Titanium board.

I don't know which other things would be using up PCIe lanes? All I've got are 3 SSDs, 1 HDD and one optical drive, that's it. Also some peripherals like keyboard, mouse and Corsair Link.

Yes, I've only compared SLI to SLI. Check this out:
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/5761882/fs/2818229
I installed the latest chipset drivers that are on the MSI website.

Thing is, it might just aswell work for you. Problem is it's a lottery if it will work or not.

Edit - I'm not allowed to send PMs yet so here is what you wanted to know.

I got to try a beta BIOS from MSI but that didn't help at all.

Here is the working 970SLI Skylake review : http://www.nordichardware.com/Proce...r-av-skylake/Speltester-med-GTX970-i-SLI.html

Here are some other threads that talk about the same problem:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2765306/sli-performing-bad-brand-system.html
https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.asp...age=en-us&board_id=1&model=Z170-DELUXE&page=1
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=401782
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...i-broken-in-windows-10-/post/4640797/#4640797

 

[gothuevos]

Thanks for checking back in - sorry the system is giving you such problems.

Did you ever try installing Win 8.1? There are more than a few people having issues with SLI and Windows 10 if you do a quick google search. And NVidia's drivers have been somewhat lackluster lately. I think it might be more of a Windows 10/NVidia issue rather than a problem with Skylake/z170.

 

[Netherwind]

Hey again.

No I've not tried that since the MSI rep tried two different mobos (M5 and M7) paired with 970s and a 6700K and Win10 SLI worked great on both occasions. Indeed nVidia has really been slacking of late with SLI which is why I'm thinking about getting a 980Ti instead.

 

[JumpyTech]

Hey again.

No I've not tried that since the MSI rep tried two different mobos (M5 and M7) paired with 970s and a 6700K and Win10 SLI worked great on both occasions. Indeed nVidia has really been slacking of late with SLI which is why I'm thinking about getting a 980Ti instead.

I have the same motherboard but with two 980 Ti's in SLI. The FPS im getting are also sub par when compared to other 980 SLI setups. Have you had any luck resolving this?

For example, heaven bench at 1920x1080 Ultra gets me ~120fps when it should be ~170. Firestrike graphics score is also low .