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Asus Strix X299-E very low SLI scaling after going from X99 to X299

xarot
Level 11
I posted this question on NVIDIA forums too but perhaps there's a chance someone else might have the same issue. I cannot tell if this a UEFI or driver problem?

I have a strange problem with Strix X299-E motherboard and SLI with the latest NVIDIA driver 384.76 (actually, with any driver but the X299 platform is brand new and hit retail around week ago so I guess this is the correct to use).

The thing is, SLI scaling is only around 45 % to 75 %, usually sits around 60 to 66 % per card only. The 1080TI cards and PSU have been working perfectly fine on old X99 before I swapped the motherboard and CPU. Everything else is the same. I have tried Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 to no avail, changed all UEFI settings, checked PCIe lane speeds, tried HB and single SLI bridges, disabled G-Sync, disabled V-sync, changed game settings, disabled antialiasing, updated UEFI, changed motherboard voltages and what else. Nothing else to try I guess.

Only some titles like Metro 2033 seem to work somewhat normal, the rest don't. Even Fire Strike 1.1 doesn't but then again Fire Strike Ultra does? In Fire Strike 1.1 combined test the scaling is around 35 % per card and the scores are way off. 😞

Setup:
i9-7900X
Asus Strix X299-E motherboard
64 GB DDR4-3200 MHz (yeah, a single kit, CMD64GX4M8B3200C16)
Asus Strix 1080 TI OC SLI
Asus motherboard bundled HB bridge
Corsair AX1500i
Asus PG279Q G-Sync
Main: i9-10980XE - Rampage VI Extreme Encore - 64 GB G.Skill Trident Z Royal 3600 CL16 - Strix RTX 3090 - Phanteks Enthoo Primo - Corsair AX1500i - Samsung 960 PRO 1 TB + Intel 600P 1TB - Water cooling
HTPC: i7-6950X - X99-M WS - 32 GB G.Skill RipjawsV DDR4-2400 - GTX1050TI - Bitfenix Pandora - Corsair AX860 - Intel 750 400 GB + Samsung 1 TB 850 EVO
All around: i9-7980XE - Rampage VI Extreme - 64 GB G.Skill 4000 CL18-19-19-39 - Strix RTX3090 - Phanteks P500A - Samsung 960 EVO 512 GB - Water cooling
445 Views
90 REPLIES 90

valzero wrote:
I can hardly wait to stop googling this EVERY DAY.


You could bookmark the Nvidia driver page so you don't need to Google it.

Korth
Level 14
... and your current NVIDIA software should inform you when a new version is available.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

Every update since launch broke my SLI so that's pretty pointless to do. I have to find out the driver number with the fix before installing it.

Mikan02
Level 7
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1022132/geforce-drivers/official-385-28-game-ready-whql-dis...
Changes and Fixed Issues in Version 385.28
The following sections list the important changes and the most common issues resolved in this version.
This list is only a subset of the total number of changes made in this driver version.
The NVIDIA bug number is provided for reference.
**
> [SLI][Intel X299]: Low GPU usage resulting in poor performance occurs with the X299.[200331424]
**

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

Hope it helps
🙂

Mikan02 wrote:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1022132/geforce-drivers/official-385-28-game-ready-whql-dis...
Changes and Fixed Issues in Version 385.28
The following sections list the important changes and the most common issues resolved in this version.
This list is only a subset of the total number of changes made in this driver version.
The NVIDIA bug number is provided for reference.
**
> [SLI][Intel X299]: Low GPU usage resulting in poor performance occurs with the X299.[200331424]
**

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

Hope it helps
🙂


YES! Finally. The results look good! I only tested a few games but finally this seems to be a good fix. Thank you Nvidia! That wasn't so bad now was it?

Raja
Level 13
Yeah, aside from people assuming it was a UEFI (board) issue, it wasn't too bad at all. 😉

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Yeah, aside from people assuming it was a UEFI (board) issue, it wasn't too bad at all. 😉


From consumer perspective it's hard to tell how the process of supporting and validating SLI on a board and UEFI works and since I was perhaps one the first ones jumping on this platform and seeing this issue, I thought it was a good idea trying to troubleshoot this here as well.

It seems at first, NVIDIA didn't have a clue about the origin of the issue either :rolleyes: (their own drivers). Thanks for explaining the process anyway. Let's move on. :cool:
Main: i9-10980XE - Rampage VI Extreme Encore - 64 GB G.Skill Trident Z Royal 3600 CL16 - Strix RTX 3090 - Phanteks Enthoo Primo - Corsair AX1500i - Samsung 960 PRO 1 TB + Intel 600P 1TB - Water cooling
HTPC: i7-6950X - X99-M WS - 32 GB G.Skill RipjawsV DDR4-2400 - GTX1050TI - Bitfenix Pandora - Corsair AX860 - Intel 750 400 GB + Samsung 1 TB 850 EVO
All around: i9-7980XE - Rampage VI Extreme - 64 GB G.Skill 4000 CL18-19-19-39 - Strix RTX3090 - Phanteks P500A - Samsung 960 EVO 512 GB - Water cooling

xarot wrote:
From consumer perspective it's hard to tell how the process of supporting and validating SLI on a board and UEFI works and since I was perhaps one the first ones jumping on this platform and seeing this issue, I thought it was a good idea trying to troubleshoot this here as well.

It seems at first, NVIDIA didn't have a clue about the origin of the issue either :rolleyes: (their own drivers). Thanks for explaining the process anyway. Let's move on. :cool:



Well, at least you know now. If SLI is active on the board, the onus is on the driver.

What you were getting was a typical support reply that is designed to keep some ambiguity in the chain and create an inflated air of co-work between vendors - for an issue that ultimately lies with one party.

Yeah SLI still working like crap. 7820x 4.8GHz 4000MHz quad channel ram. Tested GTA V, FAllout 4, Witcher 3, Deues Ex mankind. Only Far cry primal seems to be working for me so far.

I used DDU to uninstall the driver in windows safe mode then installed the driver as a "clean install".

385.28 driver

Let me go disable things in bios like xarot mentioned.

valzero wrote:
Yeah SLI still working like crap. 7820x 4.8GHz 4000MHz quad channel ram. Tested GTA V, FAllout 4, Witcher 3, Deues Ex mankind. Only Far cry primal seems to be working for me so far.

To be fair, you need to compare tested SLI performances on these games (GTA V, Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Deus Ex) on X299-E vs other X299 motherboards and other non-X299 chipsets (X99, Z270, Z170, Z97, etc) before concluding that weak SLI scaling is based on X299-E.

The NVIDIA driver is a big component of this performance. And it's somewhat specific to each chipset/processor architecture.

But the games themselves often have lousy SLI implementations which make poor use of multi-GPU resources.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]