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

[xarot]

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

[CSN7]

xarot wrote:

In case I can't get my 7900X sold locally I might end up trying the tuning plan, last time my 5960X was the worst chip I've seen on any forums and I ended up getting an average chip (still much better) from Intel.

I'd really like to know how you did that?! How exactly does it work? Because I usually end up losing the silicon lottery and get ass chips every time.

[Korth]

Bash4Sure wrote:
I'd really like to know how you did that?! How exactly does it work? Because I usually end up losing the silicon lottery and get ass chips every time.

Intel Performance Tuning Protection Plan
FAQ
"Allows a single replacement for your qualified processor, in addition to your standard 3 year warranty."
"The Performance Tuning Protection Plan is an additional plan that a customer can purchase to cover processor failures caused by operating the eligible processor outside of Intel’s published specifications."

You "Purchase a Plan" for your processor and you register your processor.
Cost ranges from $10 for an old Pentium G3258 to $79 for the latest i9-7900X.

The Plan is a one-shot deal for only one processor. You can't purchase multiple Plans for a single processor. You can't use (or "save") the Plan with a different processor of the same model. The Plan can't be transferred to another processor. The Plan isn't valid on replacement processors.

You always have (3-year) Intel warranty vs defects in workmanship, flawed parts, etc, with or without the Plan.
And of course if you wreck the processor with a botched install or botched overclock then you're outta luck and Intel categorically won't replace it.

But the Plan allows you to swap your processor once - you send it to Intel, they send you a replacement - usually for no reason other than unhappiness over your silicon lottery ticket.
You obviously wouldn't swap an epic part, you may or may not want to swap an average part, you haven't got much to lose by swapping a lemon part. Intel is trying to force people to somehow buy the Plan before any overclocking can be attempted on a new processor - but they haven't locked it in just yet, you can still not waste any money on the Plan (because you're satisfied with your part) and only purchase the Plan with intent to use it (because your part overclocks are disappointing.

I've used the Plan before, swapping an average CPU for another average CPU, yay. Other people have reported awful, average, and awesome results with the Plan. Many have speculated about exactly what Intel does with all the perfectly functional (if unspectacular overclocking) processors the Plan harvests.

[valzero]

Korth if you find an answer please write it here. This is driving me crazy.

[valzero]

Are we ever going to get an answer to this problem? Called tech support and nothing after an hour and change.

[Menthol]

LiveOrDie wrote:
SLI on pascal is a waste of time and X299 is a waste of money for hardly no gain.

That may be more true than false, performance on the X299 platform will improve over time for sure, Intel's sales rely on it, sli may or may not improve by much, it depends on if it's profitable enough for Nvidia, re sellers can't keep cards in stock as is and it is so game dependent

[Vlada011]

LiveOrDie wrote:
SLI on pascal is a waste of time and X299 is a waste of money for hardly no gain.

X299 is not so bad at all. Nice single threaded performance, nice ROG motherboards will show up soon.
Only whole picture is not so nice because Intel used thermal paste.
But because high Turbo clock anyway no place for some huge OC.
If someone have enough money and chance to find i7-7820X or i9-7900X on Silicon Lottery with replaced paste, they use MX-4, Gelid and Grizzly, stable on 4.8GHz example that's pure win.
Skylake X on 4.8GHz is like Broadwell on 5.0GHz plus amazing memory results near 100.000 MB/s.
It would be much better without thermal paste. i7-7820X have only 28 PCI-E lanes, but PCH have 24 more.
I understand that X299 not worth for people with i7-5960X or i7-6900K, but upgrade from other models is very nice upgrade.

[DonReuss]

Vlada011 wrote:
X299 is not so bad at all. Nice single threaded performance, nice ROG motherboards will show up soon.
Only whole picture is not so nice because Intel used thermal paste.
But because high Turbo clock anyway no place for some huge OC.
If someone have enough money and chance to find i7-7820X or i9-7900X on Silicon Lottery with replaced paste, they use MX-4, Gelid and Grizzly, stable on 4.8GHz example that's pure win.
Skylake X on 4.8GHz is like Broadwell on 5.0GHz plus amazing memory results near 100.000 MB/s.
It would be much better without thermal paste. i7-7820X have only 28 PCI-E lanes, but PCH have 24 more.
I understand that X299 not worth for people with i7-5960X or i7-6900K, but upgrade from other models is very nice upgrade.

I was on an old 5yr old Sandy Bridge-E hex-core i7-3930K ASUS RIVE X79 and wanted to upgrade to something newer. I was going to go to an i7-6950X on X99 platform. But looking at pricing it's way cheaper ($999 vs $1499) and future proof as X99 is now dead(nothing new will come) to go ahead and jump onto the X299 platform. So I bought an i9-7900X and ASUS Strix X299-E Gaming board. I am very pleased with how it's working to see that my idle temps are ultra low compared to my old 3930K, 27-30C vs 39-41C with the same cooler sameday, just cleaned and reused, and this is in an upstairs very warm room of 82-85F ambient temp. Now i haven't had this up and running but just couple hours and still installing programs and drivers, I'll do some syn-bench tests here in a bit and see where the temps go from there.

Rig: i9-7900X, ASUS Strix X299-E Gaming, 32GB(4x8) EVGA DDR4 3000Mhz Cl-15, EVGA Classified Supernova 1500W, EVGA 980Ti Classified, MSI 980 Gaming 4G, Corsair H110, CoolerMaster COSMOS II, (3) ASUS VG248 144Hz 1080, Samsung 55" 7000series 4K

[onmybikedrunk]

Hey all I just wanted to let you guys know that I finally got a response from Nvidia after being elevated to their top tier support. This was their response:

Hello Danny,

We have an open bug for the reported issue. Nvidia is working with the x299 board vendors to make sure they get optimized. No ETA of a fix right now.

Regards,
Josh H.
NVCC

Seems like it's on their radar. We'll see how long it takes to issue a fix! Thanks for everyone's hard work!

[Menthol]

Intel sells a performance tuning plan for a small fee in case the chip dies from overclocking or anything else, not just for exchanging a poor performing chip that still meets Intel specs.
You can purchase pre binned delidded chips from SiliconLottery.com , a couple hundred over retail but in my mind money well spent

It just is not looking all that good of an upgrade from X99 at the moment

[xarot]

I can see similar issues reported here: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1017324/sli/x299-low-sli-scaling-and-bugs/

I opened a ticket to NVIDIA and they are investigating. But I don't know if this is something NVIDIA needs to fix or is there something to fix in the UEFI/BIOS too.