Ratdude's Main Rig V6

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

That wasn't on the final setup either. Running off a single clay pigeon HDD... among other things optimized later. But the GPU scores were doubled, which indicates that SLI was making a substantial difference, at least in that case.

For the record, I just catzilla'd it in it's final form:



A bit better... not as good as this thread's actual system (per a prior post) but the GPU scores are what made it worth building. For games that are more GPU intensive this isn't a bad setup... which WOW certainly isn't. Dunno. It ran well and I happened to have half the hardware sitting (and I needed another win10 capable workstation anyway)... but that's for that system's thread; I need to figure out where my pics went (or why I never posted them)...

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Clearly, that build was a case of I want the PC built this way, because I want to burn some money rather than doing something that made sense for his application.

probably he is thinking that the most powerful computer will last a long time before needing an upgrade, so it could be that he likes holding on to a system for as long as possible before upgrading because its too slow.

however, the problem with that logic nowadays is that modern junk doesnt last, so the mobo, video card or psu will fail in a few years, so that puts a spanner in the works of what he's trying to do...

thats why i get all my stuff used and second hand now. aint paying top dollar for junk that doesnt ever last long. besides being kinder on my wallet, getting used stuff also helps to reduce e-waste and is good for the environment.

next, regarding multi-gpu systems, i also have to agree with ratdude that they arent dead because multi-gpu gaming systems can now be re-purposed to mine cryptocurrency. with the price of bitcoin hitting 50 grand, its getting more lucrative to mine cryptocurrency again.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Indeed. Have to check carefully each game you want to play and see how it does - that means not only average framerates, but also frametimes. There are games out there that will pump out really high average FPS, but the low FPS dips and frametimes can be full of spikes, which can make the performance choppy. And SLI can actually make that worse in some of them.


WoW, from what I know, is a fairly-well optimized game... and not to mention quite old, so of course it's going to run on that 970. Question is, are there any benefits from the SLI or not. I would try it with one card and then SLI and compare FPS and frametimes, as mentioned above (MSI Afterburner is a good tool for that... though Fraps will still do in a pinch.)

If not getting any benefits, you're just burning extra power and heating up components more in the system, potentially decreasing their useful life... not to mention paying extra for electricity.

I know it's not a game, but I did several Catzilla benchmarks... from that system's thread (which I never posted the finished build, apparently???):

Was finally able to run catzilla…

Single GPU system (the mismatched evga gtx 970 SSC) for comparison (dual low voltage xeon hapertowns):



SLI is indeed working... almost double in the gpu parameters. Yay?

That wasn't on the final setup either. Running off a single clay pigeon HDD... among other things optimized later. But the GPU scores were doubled, which indicates that SLI was making a substantial difference, at least in that case.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as Nvidia and OEMs supports it, it can't be dead... practicality aside.

[momaka]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

It's not worth the $$ for only a ~1.2-1.5 increase in performance.

That's if you're lucky.
Most games these days don't even optimize for SLI anymore or any multi-GPU setup.

In other words, SLI is... dead, Jim!

I've heard some games have issues with it, or just run worse

Indeed. Have to check carefully each game you want to play and see how it does - that means not only average framerates, but also frametimes. There are games out there that will pump out really high average FPS, but the low FPS dips and frametimes can be full of spikes, which can make the performance choppy. And SLI can actually make that worse in some of them.

Ran fine on WoW when my wife runs it on her SLI setup (dual GTX 970's).

WoW, from what I know, is a fairly-well optimized game... and not to mention quite old, so of course it's going to run on that 970. Question is, are there any benefits from the SLI or not. I would try it with one card and then SLI and compare FPS and frametimes, as mentioned above (MSI Afterburner is a good tool for that... though Fraps will still do in a pinch.)

If not getting any benefits, you're just burning extra power and heating up components more in the system, potentially decreasing their useful life... not to mention paying extra for electricity.

But I get ya... you just like building systems in a certain way, and that's the way it is. On that note, the most impractical system I ever built was a few years back when I used to work at MC - had a guy buy a bunch of hardware and ask to assemble it for him. System had a top-shelf (back then) 2011 gaming board, most expensive CPU that could fit said board, maxed out RAM, and 2x GTX 1080 TI is SLI (and these had just come out a few months prior, so they were expensive as heck and hard to get too!) But then he brought his older PC and asked if I could just transfer the HDD from that into the new system with the working Windows 10 and all. I was like and told him it probably wouldn't work, but he still wanted me to try. So I did and... it actually worked - at least Windows 10 booted to desktop OK... which is all he wanted me to do (he said he would install the drivers himself and whatnot.) I asked him why not at least clone the old HDD (an older mechanical spinner) to a new SSD and get some speed increase while at it. He said this was his desktop PC he uses for surfing and office work. Me:
Clearly, that build was a case of I want the PC built this way, because I want to burn some money rather than doing something that made sense for his application. He was a very vocal guy too, so I didn't ask that many questions afterwards. Customer is always right, after all, right?

She's fixed. Serial trick again.

That's always good to hear.
Well... until next time, at least.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Glad she's going again!

...and I do understand the "I know it's not practical, but I'm doing it just for the hell of it" mentality. I'm a charter member of that club!

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

It's not worth the $$ for only a ~1.2-1.5 increase in performance. I've heard some games have issues with it, or just run worse

Ran fine on WoW when my wife runs it on her SLI setup (dual GTX 970's).

Also, y'all know me... some of these things are more in the category of "because I can" and less "because I should".

---

She's fixed. Serial trick again. Forgot that I have to connect as soon as it powers up and answer the prompts very, very quickly.

Why am I such a freaking IDIOT?

[Uranium-235]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

is SLI really even a 'thing' anymore? I rarely see people doing it now.

It's not worth the $$ for only a ~1.2-1.5 increase in performance. I've heard some games have issues with it, or just run worse

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

is SLI really even a 'thing' anymore? I rarely see people doing it now.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Alternatively, I'm keeping my eyes open for an X9DAX series board. They're EEATX like the X8DAH I have now, and will do LGA2011 V2 CPUs (Ivy bridge). In theory my RAM would move over (would need to get two more modules to make the channels line up), and possibly my dynatron coolers as well (supposedly LGA2011 uses the same setup, only with an integrated backplate). Now If I can catch a board for less than $170 (the current common price for the cheapest variant on eBay).

Actually, if anything, I'd want to go for an X9DAE. Sure, it wouldn't fill my case, but the CPU layout matches my air duct a lot better, and according to SM it supports SLI!... the latter is what sets it apart from the X9DAI and X9DA7 workstation boards

Oh the trouble I could get myself into... Although if anything, that would be an upgrade for my wife's dual opteron (2000 series) which is already SLI'd. Right now the boards are unobtainium (other than the $600+ scab sellers).

Back to fixing what I got...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

I've done bricked her again... in a vain attempt to try get some less obnoxious fan curves, I decided to update the BIOS (which was already updated! )... and also the CPU microcode. BAD idea to do on the same boot... corrupted the BIOS checksum per hooking up over a null serial cable.



Sadly, all it's doing is giving that message with no way to tell it to shut up and take a new file.

Somewhere I probably have the new chip I bought several years ago... maybe. It's been a long time...

Alternatively, I'm keeping my eyes open for an X9DAX series board. They're EEATX like the X8DAH I have now, and will do LGA2011 V2 CPUs (Ivy bridge). In theory my RAM would move over (would need to get two more modules to make the channels line up), and possibly my dynatron coolers as well (supposedly LGA2011 uses the same setup, only with an integrated backplate). Now If I can catch a board for less than $170 (the current common price for the cheapest variant on eBay).

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

I think the issue is Novabench, not the system.

Ran catzilla, and got a very good score:



I've been getting scores in the 11000-13000 range on my other GTX970 based systems... this one is the fastest, and the benchmark shows it.

Go figure.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

No, it is not for Vistas sake: it is so that if you have a third party driver it will be newer than the Windows in-box driver.
And so Windows should not try to overwrite it with the in-box driver.
P.S: This worked fine up until the train-wreck known as Windows 10.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Windows is using default drivers dated to 2006.

Windows, since Vista, usually shows 2006, even Windows 10, for Vista's sake! LOL!

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

...and Intel has none listed for windows 10, nor does SM. It uses dual Intel 5520 chipsets. Windows is using default drivers dated to 2006.

However, I did some digging and apparently the windows 7 drivers are also marked for windows 8 and 8.1... and successfully installed.

Rebooting, will try again.

Nope, no change in FPS.

Might need to scour the BIOS settings... this is lame.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Possibly a chipset driver issue.

...and Intel has none listed for windows 10, nor does SM. It uses dual Intel 5520 chipsets. Windows is using default drivers dated to 2006.

However, I did some digging and apparently the windows 7 drivers are also marked for windows 8 and 8.1... and successfully installed.

Rebooting, will try again.

[diif]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

Possibly a chipset driver issue.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

While working on another build, I've discovered an issue:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?p=955091

The issue is my GPU is lagging/bottlnecking like a SOB. I've played musical GPUs, and the issue is the system, not the GPUs.

In novabench, I should be getting around 60FPS... I'm getting around 13-15. consistently.

Also, I'm having intermittent keyboard lag, but I suspect that might be a logitech unifying issue. I might swap the keyboard and mouse for wired units as a test to see if anything changes.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

For a variety of reasons, I moved this system to windows 10 tonight.

Good news:

-Activation worked out.
-Most things work out of the box.
-Once I installed classic shell and reconfigured some things, it seems to be OK to use.

Bad news:

-Intel network teaming is not supported. Not that I was really gaining anything from using such. Bummer though.

If this works I may do the same with my other systems new enough to be compatible... I remembered what happened when XP lost support... at least for me stuff seemed to get infected a bunch all of the sudden (don't know why, I don't go to BS sites or the like). Hence why I migrated to W7 at that point.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

I wouldn't say that....more along the lines of what diif said... They aren't targeting the gamer crowd, and hence, not a lot of demand for SLI support amongst their target audience. I was only doing it to tinker around....I had no intention of actually using that system for anything gaming and/or productive.

It was the directory the X58 drivers are in on their web site, LOL

[diif]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V6

I did read of people BIOS modding the liscenses in... but that screams trouble. I've already fought the BIOS gods and lost on this board, and I don't quite have the cojones to go there, especially since it's not a well documented mod and I'm not an x86 assembly expert.

If it ain't fucked, don't fix it and post #15 suggests ; the unlucky fairies come to play quite often/the devil makes work for idle hands.

I've only known one person with an SLI installation. I don't remember the cards but there was lots of faff getting it set right and the gains weren't great.