test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

SLI issue... am I missing something?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited February 2011 in Graphical and Sound Issues
Hi there,

I'm running a dual EVGA NVIDIA GTS 250 SLI setup, Windows 7 64 bit. My graphics drivers are at the most current as of this posting (266.58) and I'm having a strange issue with Star Trek Online exclusively. If I turn on SLI and run STO, the game will run fine until it attempts to render the first 3D images, which is the character select screen. Then my PC seems to be losing power... I say this because my internal case LEDs dim and there is an audible clicking sound as if one of my HDDs momentarily loses power. The game freezes, sometimes allowing me to alt-tab and kill the process which restores things to normal, sometimes hitting me with a BSOD and hard crash. The game runs fine if I go in the NVIDIA control panel and disable SLI, so it's clearly related to SLI being enabled.

I'm only having this problem with Star Trek Online. I play a tremendous amount of games (I write reviews for a gaming website), and have tested about a dozen today alone to try and replicate the issue but I can't, from older games to the most recent. I've checked all my driver and BIOS versions and I'm completely current. I've reset all my graphic settings in the NVIDIA control panel to default and reinstalled the drivers just to ensure it's not something there. I tried setting an SLI profile within the NVIDIA control panel for STO, but the settings there don't seem to impact the issue in any way.

I'm convinced it's something faulty with STO or some setting in there, but I don't know what to try. I have tried running STO at the lowest possible graphic settings but even then it fails. Normally I run everything with maximum game details. I don't know when the problem started exactly, as I normally run SLI on all the time but believe I had forgotten to re-enable it for a couple weeks after a driver update. It may have been something introduced with the Season 3 patch, but I don't know.

Any advice would be great, and I'd be glad to try anything I might not have thought of. I built this PC myself and I'm running plenty of wattage for my power supply, and like I said all the other games I've tried work with SLI enabled, just not STO. Thanks for any help you can offer!
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2011
    BSOD, could be a hardware issues and if this happens when SLI is enabled that would be the first port of call. Have you tried re seating your cards, SLI bridge, PCI-e power connections and fans to see they are coolling well.


    What your system spec:

    PSU brand and model, amps on the 12Volt rail? You can use software to check the tolerance but I use a digital multimeter
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2011
    A friend of mine was having SLI issues with STO from day one. He's a hardware retailer always using the latest stuff, he hasn't found a resolution yet. If you're running a 2 cards SLI setup try using one as PhysX only card.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2011
    Most likely that your 2 cards are drawing enough power from your psu to make the whole machine woozy...

    Good thumb rule when you choose a PSU...

    1. Find a PSU calculator and check how much power you need to run your rig... (there's one on Antec's website)
    2. Get a PSU with TWICE that power. (PSU perform their best at 50% load)

    If you got a 550W PSU it means It "can" distribute 550 watts of power at most... but will be strained... if your rig usually draws 400W of power... getting a 750 - 850 watts power supply is a smart thing.

    hope that helps.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2011
    My power supply is more than adequate, and yes I've reseated everything. Like I said, the issue exists with Star Trek: Online exclusively. I find it really strange that STO causes my computer to essentially brownout with SLI turned on, but runs fine with it disabled. I can run all sorts of other games with SLI at full detail and no issues occur. For example, I just played through Dead Space 2 on max detail with SLI enabled and experienced no issues whatsoever. I have dozens of newly released PC titles that I've gone through while writing reviews in the past 6 months and STO is the only one with this happening.

    Thanks for the replies though, I was hoping perhaps it was a setting somewhere I missed or a driver issue but I'm leaning towards a fault in the graphics code handling SLI in STO causing my video cards to draw excess power to compensate, similar to the issue reported in beta with framerate not being limited and going through the roof prompting them to add the framerate cap setting under graphics options. Hopefully they resolve it sooner than later.
Sign In or Register to comment.