SLi Guide (Installing, Troubleshooting + Increasing Performance)

[Loggie]

Good guide, but I am still not getting game performance improvement with SLI even after following the recommendations in your guide (Vista 32 Home Premium). That includes trying all the recent drivers from LaptopVideo2Go. The single most helpful post that improved game performance for me was the Virtual Memory option (allocating the amount of HDD space reserved for virtual memory).

Also, I wish people would post game fraps instead of 3dMark06 scores when comparing performance with SLI for different settings. 3DMark06 is meaningless.

[Stone825]

@Chaz - I don't mind if you link it there, sounds good.

[Stone825]

Hmm Loggie. What games are you looking at for SLi performance increases? UT3 doesn't like SLi too much, but like CS:S loves it.

[Grey728]

Great guide man ^^

[Loggie]

Hmm Loggie. What games are you looking at for SLi performance increases? UT3 doesn't like SLi too much, but like CS:S loves it.

I have tested Crysis (Demo), FS X, TombRaider Anniversary, Doom3 to name a few. The Crysis game has two built in benchmarks that I used to compare fraps with and without SLI enabled-no difference. I have tried all three SLI settings-
Split Frame, AF1, and AF2 and I don't see any difference in game performance.
I get good performance with just one 7950 so I can wait until Vista SP1 which will hopefully fix the SLI problem.

[KockM]

Hey Stone I followed your guide B and tried out Alternate Frame Rendering 2 instead of Single GPU and had an increase in FPS in games, but a lower 3dMark06 score. I had a 8200 with single gpu and a 7900 with the AF2

[KockM]

I just got the 169.09 drivers for Win XP SP2 and my score improved 200 pts on 3dMark06. I think you should link those drivers instead of 169.21 for XP. They seem to be not that great.

[brks]

I just got the 169.09 drivers for Win XP SP2 and my score improved 200 pts on 3dMark06. I think you should link those drivers instead of 169.21 for XP. They seem to be not that great.

The .09 drivers are well regarded and widely acknowledged as being the best drivers for SLI in XP.

[Inkjammer]

The .09 drivers are well regarded and widely acknowledged as being the best drivers for SLI in XP.

I will concur on this. They also seem to be the best on average with Vista as well for overall performance and compatibility. I've been running them for Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3 and Call of Juarez with excellent performance in both XP and Vista (I've tested all my games in both my OS partitions to see performance differences. The XP/Vista differences still amaze me).

[Grey728]

I'm playing Bioshock a lot lately, and it seems like EVERY driver beyond 169.01 makes the game stutter like mad.. like caching within the level. I do get better performance with 169.09 with other games but if you're like me and are playing Bioshock at the moment, try 169.01.