8800 SLI and Everquest 2.. :(

[VW_Factor]

Figured I would toss my observations in here, because there is some sort of issue here with this game.

Yeah, this rig is a little long in the tooth (why I didnt toss some gtxs at it) however..

A64X2 4600 @ 2.9ghz on an MSI K8N Neo4 SLI Plat. board.

Running a single 8800GTS 320 runs great. I was running 7800gtx sli before, which ran great as well. (Yeah, I know the game is CPU limited, I know that better than most).

However, tossing in my second 8800GTS 320 I get horrible stuttering and pausing, in the most mundane of areas. Everything or nothing can be going on, and it seems that the game can grind to a halt for a second or two.

This is REGARDLESS of graphics settings. Even at the extreme performance, where everything is turned down, it will still manifest itself.

I can set the game to run without SLI and use the single card. It will still exhibit the issue. It however DOES NOT happen when I physically remove the card from my rig, and run just the single.

I have zero issues thus far with any of the other games I have installed on my machine. Ranging from BF2, CS:S, etc, etc.. All the way to Bioshock, they all run great with this rig and these two cards in SLI. However the bread and butter game, EQ2, is not much fun with these two cards atm. Im tired of shutting down my machine to remove the second card just to play this game.

Ive gone through a lot of setup and diag over here. Even nuked and paved Windows, to no avail. Forgot to mention, running Windows XP SP2. (edit)

Whats up nVidia? Do we have a beta driver lurking somewhere that we can test out for EQ2?

[Uber_Tiny]

I wonder if there could be something in the bios controlling the card slots, or a bad mobo causing the issue. Just makes no since why just placing another card that is not being utalized into the other slot causes it to react like that.

[VW_Factor]

I wonder if there could be something in the bios controlling the card slots, or a bad mobo causing the issue. Just makes no since why just placing another card that is not being utalized into the other slot causes it to react like that.

I wondered that myself, however.. Everything else, every other game Ive tossed at it, works wonderfully.

[Uber_Tiny]

Are you sure EQ2 isn't the prob?

[infowar]

after all of the problems ive heard with sli and crossfire there is really little reason i'd want to PAY for that. ive seen it make the hardest core fans turn into cursing lunatics damnng the video card company.
besides, most of the games i play wouldn't take advantage of such a setup, and it seems like by the time issues get sorted there are new single cards out that are a better deal for the performance.
was it really much better with the sli voodoo cards? i didn't play games back then, but people always speak fondly of having it.

[Rollo]

after all of the problems ive heard with sli and crossfire there is really little reason i'd want to PAY for that. ive seen it make the hardest core fans turn into cursing lunatics damnng the video card company.
besides, most of the games i play wouldn't take advantage of such a setup, and it seems like by the time issues get sorted there are new single cards out that are a better deal for the performance.
was it really much better with the sli voodoo cards? i didn't play games back then, but people always speak fondly of having it.

I don't know where you get this stuff- I've been running NVIDIA SLI since there has been NVIDIA SLi and have had very few issues with it. (even QUAD SLi!)

As far as EQ2 goes: VW- just edit your SLi profile for that game to use single card, not Sli. IIRC, "4" is the "no SLi" value. You don't need SLi for EQ on a 8800GTS, again IIRC, that game is totally cpu bound these days. (not a MMO fan, so I don't notice info on games like this much)

ChrisRay is a huge MMO guy, and very knowledgeable about SLi and MMOs, you might try contacting him at SLIzone.com for more detailed information on the subject.

Hope this helps!

[VW_Factor]

I don't know where you get this stuff- I've been running NVIDIA SLI since there has been NVIDIA SLi and have had very few issues with it. (even QUAD SLi!)

As far as EQ2 goes: VW- just edit your SLi profile for that game to use single card, not Sli. IIRC, "4" is the "no SLi" value. You don't need SLi for EQ on a 8800GTS, again IIRC, that game is totally cpu bound these days. (not a MMO fan, so I don't notice info on games like this much)

ChrisRay is a huge MMO guy, and very knowledgeable about SLi and MMOs, you might try contacting him at SLIzone.com for more detailed information on the subject.

Hope this helps!

Ive talked with ChrisRay a bit in PMs about the issue. He gave me a profile to try out, which helps performance, but doesnt do anything for the stuttering.

Regardless if I tell the drivers to not use SLI and to use a single GPU, it still stutters and pauses. It only plays smoothly if I physically remove the card from my machine.

Thus far, Ive ruled out all hardwares. I can SLI 7800s in the slots, and it works great. (so its not the mobo) Ive done PSU to make sure I have enough juice. Ive tried numerous drivers. Ive nuked windows and done a fresh install. No joy either way.

Its a pain to turn off the machine, and remove the card to play this game.

[VW_Factor]

Just tried the new beta driver (I know its mostly because of Bioshock, but really, I can hope).. Still no difference. Why oh why.. I love my EQ2, and I hate having to remove a card to play it.

[Rollo]

Just tried the new beta driver (I know its mostly because of Bioshock, but really, I can hope).. Still no difference. Why oh why.. I love my EQ2, and I hate having to remove a card to play it.

Try what I said, edit the profile in the nvapps.xml.

Switch the "Value=2430401" to "Value=4" and try that.

[VW_Factor]

Try what I said, edit the profile in the nvapps.xml.

Switch the "Value=2430401" to "Value=4" and try that.

Yes, the single GPU setting.. I know.. In case you missed it. I tried that.

[Uber_Tiny]

This is really a strange issue you are seeing. Only EQ2 and only when you have both cards physically in the PCIE slot.

I would say that it may just be a bad board. But.....it's only in that game. Which is what makes this extremely strange. I have ran out of any ideas on what would cause this issue. I hope we can figure it out for you and then be able to spread the word. But till then you have a pain in the arse PC right there.

[VW_Factor]

Well.. Its fixed.... Sorta.. With the last two beta drivers (the WHQL drivers wont work it) what I can do for a work around is this.

Instead of just telling the game profile to use a single GPU, I have to break the SLI link completely with disable SLI, under the set SLI configuration. I must restart after doing this (not really a huge deal, a lot easier than a complete shutdown to remove the card) and then EQ2 runs fine. When playing other games, I can re-enable the SLI link, then restart again.

Im thinking its just something odd with this motherboard, not letting the drivers more easily "do their job" in deciding to use SLI or not. Im not totally sure. However, this way does work. I just wish I could use SLI-AA in this game.

Anyway, that is my progress thus far through troubleshooting, and I dont mind this so much, as its not quite a hassle at all.

[Hexen525]

This is not a new thing by any means. The nVidia forums are full of issues with the 8800 cards(pick one, any of them from the 320MB GTS to the Ultra) running SLI in EQ2. Strangely, some ppl are having no issues while others are having complete crap. It does seem to happen(at least most posted) on AMD CPUs than C2D CPUs. Not saying this is the cause, just something I've noticed in the posts. I've been hesitent to add SLI to my rig for this very reason(EQ2 junkie and proud ). I have the 2nd card(8800GTX) sitting here(from my other computer not being used), I just need to snag an SLI Bridge from ebay or something.

EQ2 runs like a raped ape for me with a single card, was only thinking SLI since I tried the Crysis demo(wow, talk about a system hog, worse than WiC). I don't mind the idea of disabling SLI, but I refuse to remove a card to play EQ2.

[VW_Factor]

Thus far its worked out to where removing the card is not required. You do have to break the software SLI though. (disable completely) As telling the game profile still to use a single card has zero effect.

Ive tried with Vista and XP, and although Vista seemed a bit better as far as the hitching and stuttering, it was still there. Ive tried on different platforms, upto a C2Q. Its still present.

I have noticed on my personal machine that if I do not load the AMD Dual Core Optimizer the stuttering will happen less often. However, when it does, its severe, I get a good pause of 3 seconds or so at times. I have a feeling that if SoE reversed those changes they made around LU9 concerning dual core CPUs, that this may not be an issue. I will be looking at this a little more closely.

At any rate. It appears that nVidia just doesnt give a shit, and is likely going to move on to different things with different drivers.

So, atm, Im stuck with just disabling SLI in the set SLI configuration for playing EQ2. At least I dont have to remove my card anymore. Its easy enough to re-enable the SLI for playin some Bioshock or what have you. As the setup performs excellent otherwise.

[Hexen525]

The 169.04 drivers are out now, do they help any? Plz keep us informed as I will have my SLI rig up and running within the next month or so.

[VW_Factor]

The 169.04 drivers are out now, do they help any? Plz keep us informed as I will have my SLI rig up and running within the next month or so.

I havent tried these yet. I know most of these betas are for the new 8800GT otw out.

Im still contemplating a stepup to these. Not because of EQ2, but because they are supposed to be better than the 8800GTS 320s eh? What would you do?

[Hexen525]

Hehe, from the reviews I have read, the 8800GT is better than the 640MB 8800GTS. There is a post on another forum telling ppl to sell their 8800GTS cards while they still can and get thee 8800GT card. I would try the new drivers out and see what happens. They seem to be pretty solid drivers for me. They boosted fps in a few newer titles like ET:QW, WiC, Crysis, etc.... The 8800GT card is not going to affect your SLI issues any I would think. I've seen ppl with Ultras down to the 320MB GTS card with SLI issues in EQ2. I am running a single 8800GTX on an EVGA 680i-SLI board with a 3.0GHz Quadcore and I am worried about SLI with EQ2.

EQ2 was built on Hyper-Threading with Intel, yet they removed it from the code right when AMD released the X2 series(go figure, pay off from Intel?). And SLI has always been a bit of a stretch. I had 2x 256MB 6800 XTreme in SLI for a bit with an AMD Athlon X2 4600+ and noticed no real benefit over a single 256MB ATI Radeon x800Pro. If you look closely at the profile, it recommends a single GPU running for EQ2. The only way I got it working good was to use my SLI in the AA mode. I think EQ2 is just coded really bad.

Edit: Maybe not, I am doing my first raid(labs run) with these drivers and I am getting some random hitching(like from back in the day of the first few 8800 drivers). Not happening a lot, but it is happening.

[VW_Factor]

I dunno about the HT thing. The game ran great when the EQ2 didnt force itself onto one core of a multiple core CPU (or HT). I know this as I played with both an Intel and X2 at the time. There were some issues that people had, so it was solved with the process being forced onto one core. I had been using personally at home an X2 for about 4 months at that point.

I wouldnt expect the 8800GT to solve the EQ2 issues either for SLI. SLI isnt a huge gain in EQ2. Never was, nor will be I dont think (without a major game change). I will say though, that when I used an X800 and moved to a 7800 it was a pretty decent gain in certain settings I could run. The X800 vs. the 6800GT's of the time I can see would be pretty equal in EQ2 as far as benefits, let alone SLI.

Just bothersome that the 6x and 7x series have very minimal issue in the game with SLI, yet the 8x series, there is somethign wonky goin on with SLI.

The benefit of SLI in the game is very minimal if at all. (like 5fps if that with most settings) It was just troublesome to have to physically remove the card from my machine to get it to run correctly. It took a little time, however the drivers now allow to just disable SLI in the set config section in the drivers, and the game acts properly as it should. Its merely just a few extra seconds to disable it in drivers. I do wish that I could set it in the game profile instead to use a single card instead.

Small troubles to get smooth gameplay. Not a huge deal at this point.. Just wish that I didnt have to disable SLI to play a game I play more often than not. Its still nice to fire up a game like Bioshock and have an awesome experience.