Overclocking 8800GT SLi

[mark986]

Hey Guys,

Couple questions. For SLi setup, I read somewhere that it's best to remove one card and overclock them one at a time. Is that necessary? What program do you recommend using? I read stuff about Rivatuner but I didn't read anything about it supporting Vista.

Thanks! :beer:

[leftheaded]

i used nTune from nvidia to oc mine. don't know much about overclocking myself so i'm curious to see what others will say too..

[mark986]

Yea I read about nTune.. just curious if there's a better program since I'm running SLi setup and if it's actually necessary to oc one at a time.

[sHape oF gReY]

Stay away from nTune, it is riddled with problems. As far as OCing goes, use RivaTuner to OC your cards and ATITool to test for stability. Also you can loop 3DMark canyon flight 8-12 times, it seems to stress the card pretty nice too.

Now for OCing SLi. Your OC will only be as fast as your weakest card. So for example if one tops out at 700/1750/960 and the other at 750/1836/980 you will only be able to run it at 700/1750/950 speeds. If you want to know which card is slowing you down then you can take one out and OC each one individually otherwise there isn't much point to take em out.

~cheers

[sHape oF gReY]

Also play around with linking and unlinking shaders from core when using RivaTuner. Some people have been able to get higher clocks when they are unlinked.

[mark986]

I haven't taken a look at rivatuner in depth, so I'm assuming it shows both cards if youre using an SLi setup? Do you know it 3dmark06 stresses the card as good as the old versions? Since that's what I use when also testing my cpu overclocking.

[sHape oF gReY]

I haven't taken a look at rivatuner in depth, so I'm assuming it shows both cards if youre using an SLi setup? Do you know it 3dmark06 stresses the card as good as the old versions? Since that's what I use when also testing my cpu overclocking.

RivaTuner will show one set of sliders for both of the cards, basically as if you only had one card. As for 3Dmark 06, canyon flight does pretty good to stress test the card. Just loop it about 10 times, if it passes it should be good.

[mark986]

Alright, thanks a lot man. I'll let you know how it goes in a couple days.

[Rattle]

rivatuner doesnt work for SLI overclocking, the only thing I know of that overclocks both card in SLI is ntune. I dont know about vista. Ntune sucks though to be honest, I would clock them individually and find out what they are good for then flash them.

If they are vanilla GT's a good place to start is 650/1625/1900

[mark986]

Hmm that sucks. I didn't want to have to do them individually but that's how I figured I've have to do it since each of the cards most likely won't have the exact same settings.

Edit: I did get mix ppl saying I could use rivatuner for both cards. ?

[Rattle]

try it, it used to work but I havnt had it work with any of the G92's
GT or GTS

unless there's a registry edit I dont know about.

[mark986]

Yea I'll give it a shot when the new machine arrives and keep you posted. What version did you try?

[Rattle]

2.06

i;m 100% positive it doesnt work though

[desipher]

How do I know if Ntune is succesfully overclocking both my cards? I have two MSI 8800GT's and I don't see how I can control both cards under Ntune. Do I increase both the cards with one slider?

[Rattle]

yes one slider in ntune.

you can use gpu-z to see clocks on both cards.

in xp you can use the monitor in rivatuner and switch between display adapter in the drop down box. this does not work in vista 64, riva only sees one card. In xp riva sees both cards but wont OC both.

[mark986]

What are the cons if I decide to go ahead and use ntune?

[Rattle]

no cons it just not as good as other programs usually. plus the extra ntune services running. all in all not a big deal, when they update rivatuner to work with sli with these cards you'll never use anything else again really.

[mark986]

Well hopefully that happens in the next couple days.. (I can only wish)

[Rattle]

what are your system specs? in all honesty unless your running higher than 1680x1050 or you have a cpu at 4.0ghz+ there's really no need to OC 8800 SLI

[Hardass]

what are your system specs? in all honesty unless your running higher than 1680x1050 or you have a cpu at 4.0ghz+ there's really no need to OC 8800 SLI

Unless you are Benching.:)

[Rattle]

I'd rather be gaming :) and I think this is the OP's main focus here.

[Hardass]

I'd rather be gaming :) and I think this is the OP's main focus here.

Just making a statement, there are other options.:) I prefer gaming use myself, but will try a little bench run now and again.

[Rattle]

Same here, what my original statement meant is that I dont see much improvement at all when i OC my SLI setup, especially in 05 and 06. The are very close to stock card 3dmarks.
My system at sig specs simply cannot push 05 and 06 scores higher than when the cards are stock, low res bottlenecking and cpu limitation.

When I game at 1680x1050 and I OC my cards, Is see additional FPS (not that its needed) so my line of thinking is the higher the res the more difference you will see in overclockign the card because more load is on them at higher res.

SO unless you got a super cpu or a quad for 06 or your gaming 1680x1050 or higher there's really no point in OC'ing 8800 SLI.

[mark986]

Well I'm just running a Q6700 at almost 3.5 stable (still trying to figure it out). 3.3 is where I'm at right now but maybe youre right. I won't bother with the cards. Crysis still needs to release their update anyways to fix their SLi issues.

[Rattle]

with my setup with very high config for XP, I get 30fps with one card and 50fps with 2 in the gpu benchmark. 1680x1050 no AA

I think SLI works fine in the game considering the difference i get, The sli fix is BS they are promising performance that is never going to happen. Play the game thru and put it on the shelf. The SP wasnt that enjoyable anyway aside from the gfx and the MP sucks.
Go get COD 4 and have some real fun.