SLI Optimization on A3 Alpha

[Darthwaveous 10]

Hello guys. I’m thinking about grabbing me another GTX 670 to run in SLI because running across 3 monitors was kicking my single GTX 670’s butt. I had to drop the graphic settings down to normal or just go to one monitor(1080p on high) to keep my frame rates between 60-40. I was wondering what frame rates everyone who has SLI rigs or 3 monitor rigs are getting. The new card would definitely help out with cranking the graphics in other games but I was wondering if it would help out any with A3 Alpha? Thanks in advance.

[grillob3 11]

I notice that using one card or two has about the same performance! SLi does work, i can see both cards working at the same usage around 30-50% on msi afterburner. But when i disable sli, one card will work at 90-100% giving me about the same performance! this is on gtx680 @1320/1750 SLI i73930k @4.8 ram 16gb@2133 and 2 SSDs.

[Leon86 13]

This game is very, very cpu hungry, like all the other arma games, might want to doublecheck if it was indeed your gpu holding you back.

running on 3 monitors is heavier on the cpu as well because of all the extra objects and buildings visible.

[Darthwaveous 10]

I notice that using one card or two has about the same performance! SLi does work, i can see both cards working at the same usage around 30-50% on msi afterburner. But when i disable sli, one card will work at 90-100% giving me about the same performance! this is on gtx680 @1320/1750 SLI i73930k @4.8 ram 16gb@2133 and 2 SSDs.

Thanks for responding. I think I'll just go ahead and wait for my birthday in May to get another card 670. Right now the only thing that seems to be kicking my card's butt is Cyrsis 3 and A3 Alpha. Considering next month taxes are due I'll think I wait till they get the SLi optimization working better along with the other bugs.

[brightcandle 114]

I get better frames and slightly higher utilisation by doing two things:

1) Setting the SLI to Alternative Frame Render 2

2) Set maximise performance

(1) increases utilisation a bit but (2) is necessary because the cards downclock in the game because of the low utilisation. This configuration outperforms single card by about 40% but its not great scaling.

[-=seany=- 5]

Be aware that Multi Gpu is possibly causing flicker with "Picture in picture" displays. It will probably will be fixed but better to know anyway.

[WalkerDown 1]

Turn on the GPU utilization overlay (whatever you use) and you'll notice that your gfx's aren't used at all.. mine (two 570s) are used by 40% .. and the CPU is used around 35% .. so you can't really optimize anything, the game has some poor performance due to the delayed rendering and no optimizatoin, coz it's alpha.

[oo para oo 13]

So there is hope for sli and better framrates? Enjoying arma 2 more I think it looks better.

[-lordsoth- 15]

I have 2x670 spanning across three 24inch monitors and in the 10 minutes I played last night fraps was telling me about 25fps on max everything. Still ran ok but not ideal fps for this game. seeing it is alpha I very much doubt that nvidia has created an sli profile for it yet so there is plenty of room for much increased fps in the future.

[-=seany=- 5]

Actually, we first found out about Arma3 due to Nvidia creating a Arma3 gpu profile over a year ago! :D

For MultiGPU it says Nvidia Recommended (Custom). When I turn my SLI indicators, they are nearly maxed out. If you do anything too cpu intensive they will drop of course. So it seems SLI is well supported, apart from the flickering bug.

[oo para oo 13]

How can nvidia of created driver profiles for arma 3 a year a go, we are only in alpha now...

[-=seany=- 5]

eerr what do you want me to say :) ? Maybe beacuse developers give games to Nvidia to test and create profiles for before the public release? Would make sense, no?

Also, alpha was ready a good while ago

[Mr_Pix 0]

I ran the first couple of minutes of the Infantry Showcase, then tabbed out. I have my settings on the highest they will go, apart from Shadows on High, PP=Off and Drawdistances on approx. 1600, 800,100, vsync is off.

I run 2x 680 4GB in Surround across 5910x1200

Both GPUs maxxed out occaisionally, and topped out at 3002MB of vRAM Framerate was around 40fps (bottomed out at around 35 and maxxed at 55fps)

Looked stunning and felt quite smooth considering (note I highlighted the setting that really got me to this, on defaults, max was 32fps and about 60% GPU usage...)

yellow line = Looked up at sky (shot to 60fps)

red line = saving mission

blue line = tabbed out to write this

EDIT: Just finished the mission after tabbing back in, I'm sure glad I went for the 4GB cards... the first time I have seen 3274MB of vRAM usage since buying them last year!

Edited March 6, 2013 by Mr_Pix
added lines and explanations

[dwaight 17]

Yeah same x2 680's lightnings both overclocked.. there's like some seconds of 99% usage then dissapears to 15% / 30% / 40%..

[Mr_Pix 0]

Yeah same x2 680's lightnings both overclocked.. there's like some seconds of 99% usage then dissapears to 15% / 30% / 40%..

not often dipping below 75% here... averaging 85% unless it is saving.

[dwaight 17]

not often dipping below 75% here... averaging 85% unless it is saving.

Weird

[grillob3 11]

Yeah same x2 680's lightnings both overclocked.. there's like some seconds of 99% usage then dissapears to 15% / 30% / 40%..

What driver are you using? Mr_pix is using 314.07 he is getting better usage than me! i am on 313.96...that was better for arma 2 and crysis 3 for me than 314.07/314.14 ( that is probably better for arma 3)!

[dwaight 17]

not often dipping below 75% here... averaging 85% unless it is saving.

Weird

---------- Post added at 23:02 ---------- Previous post was at 23:00 ----------

What driver are you using? Mr_pix is using 314.07 he is getting better usage than me! i am on 313.96...that was better for arma 2 and crysis 3 for me than 314.07/314.14 ( that is probably better for arma 3)!

Im using latest Drivers.

[andressergio 1]

I have to beasts GTX680 runing at 1320 core in SLI and game uses 33% of each so i guess is badly optimized for SLI, aslo if i turn off many features it still a heavy consumer

Hope devs make this a very good game optimizing SLI

Thanks

Sergio

[Mr_Pix 0]

I have to beasts GTX680 runing at 1320 core in SLI and game uses 33% of each so i guess is badly optimized for SLI, aslo if i turn off many features it still a heavy consumer

Hope devs make this a very good game optimizing SLI

Thanks

Sergio

Try Drawdistances on approx. 1600, 800,100

[WalkerDown 1]

Mr_Pix.. the fact is that our gfx's are used by 1/3 of their power, so reducing the drawing distance won't help at all.. i've tried to go from max to min settings, to obtain a better/worse graphic but maintaining the same FPS (same for the CPU), so it's not a matter of settings VS power but of game optimization/GPU usage.

[Mr_Pix 0]

Mr_Pix.. the fact is that our gfx's are used by 1/3 of their power, so reducing the drawing distance won't help at all.. i've tried to go from max to min settings, to obtain a better/worse graphic but maintaining the same FPS (same for the CPU), so it's not a matter of settings VS power but of game optimization/GPU usage.

Sorry, I don't understand.... mine are used 85% on both GPU's average....not 33% maybe you have the 2GB versions and are hitting the limits.... on the highest settings my pair of 680's use well over 3GB of vRAM, so I'm not limited at the moment. Edited March 13, 2013 by Mr_Pix

[Leon86 13]

Mr_Pix.. the fact is that our gfx's are used by 1/3 of their power, so reducing the drawing distance won't help at all.. i've tried to go from max to min settings, to obtain a better/worse graphic but maintaining the same FPS (same for the CPU), so it's not a matter of settings VS power but of game optimization/GPU usage.

Arma only uses 2 cpu cores effectively, sometimes 3, but it really doesn't scale that well with cores. If you have 2 powerfull gpu's you'll be cpu bottlenecked more often than not.

Viewdistance is the cpu killer, reducing it will give you more fps and probably higher gpu load.

[tet5uo 4]

I have 3 GPU's

In arma 3 there is absolutely no difference between 1 GPU or 3 GPU's unless you're running some ridiculous 3 screen resolution of 5760x1080.

The game just can't make use of high GPU power in most cases.

[bar10dr 10]

Isn't SLI usage also a driver issue, I know nvidia releases driver updates now and again to make SLI better in specific titles