8700m GT SLI Help

Hey guys. I have an Asus G70 with a Core 2 Duo T9300 with twin 512mb not 256mb 8700m GT SLI. My questions are as follows. My asus drivers are old. There's no updates. They were versing 175.15.6464. In benchmarks, it runs 3d mark poor with sli, and scores 28k points. Without sli it scores 31k points. In 3d mark05 it scores 8k points without sli, and 15 k with. When i installed latest driver from nvidia, 186 it scores 28k points without sli in 3d mark 01, but the scores are same with 3d mark05. Why did new drivers drop 3d mark01 score? ? Also, is it better to play games with or without sli? Does vista 64 improve game play. I have vista 32. Does aa and vsync make a difference with gaming performance. Should i turn it on or off? Does physx help or should i turn it off? Thanks in advance guys

 

Full specs.
Intel core 2duo t9300 2.5ghz with 6mb cache
4gb ddr2 ram 800
2x 320gb hard drive in raid0
2x 512mb 8700m gt Sli
windows vista ultimate 32

 

Umm, i don't know the usual scores in 3dmark01,03,05... You should use atleast 3dmark06, and i think that machine would get 9k+ with SLI vs around 5k+ without it... Obviusly is better to play with SLI enabled as you'll get performance from 2 cards instead of just 1... If you're getting problems with SLI enabled, make sure that:

1.- SLI is enabled in the Nvidia Control Panel
2.- Under 3D Settings, Global Config, SLI Rendering Mode leave it Nvidia Recommended
3.- Still in 3D Settings, open the other tab, the program config, and make sure for each game that the SLI rendering mode is Nvidia Recommend (SLI).
4.- If you're still getting same or worse framerates with SLI On and Off, change the Nvidia Recommend (SLI) to Force Split Frame Rendering Mode 2...

About Vsync, that just cap your FPS to the Monitor Refresh Rate... In games where you get more than 60 FPS, use it to cap to 60, and save some temps... In games where you don't reach the 60 FPS mark, it will eliminate any tearing effect you could be seeing... So in all, i think it would be good to leave it on...

PS: Reinstall drivers just to be sure everything is working OK... Uninstall, run a driver cleaner program (Driver Cleaner works for me), delete with the program everything NVIDIA related, and then install the new drivers...

 

Thanks for the lightning quick response. The sli is working, and game play is smooth in call of duty 4 and need for speed shift, only i get the occasional 1sec glitch, is this normal? Is there a way to test frames when playing games? My screens native resolution is 1900x1200. Should i play games at that resolution? Would it be ok to run old drivers cause it works 100 percent, gets the same or better benchmarks ? Or do newer drivers help? Just installed fifa 10, its not running as smooth as i would like, read, like ps3

 

3DMark 2001 is no longer relevant, it is too CPU dependent (my score went from 19000 to 31000 when I upgraded from a T5450 to a T9500).

But yes, please play in SLI. With the newest drivers, it will always give you more performance than a single card (mind you, it won't be twice as fast, but still quite a bit faster).

 

For testing frames there's a simple program called Fraps... I use Rivatuner because is alot better (give you FPS, Temps for GPU, CPU, Memory Use, etc) but is "harder" to set up (nothing out of this world), check this guide...

Well i think 1920x1200 is too much for the 8700's... I'll try lowering to at least 1680x1050...

Newest drivers are not always the best ones... But Drivers too old aren't either... The 186.81 are really good, so stick with them...

And about FIFA... Well it's a bad coded game... It doesn't run "smooth" either on my system even when the framerates stay at 60 all the time... It has really bad problems with sttutering... (at least Fifa09 was like that)