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Tearing and Flickering in SLI

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited February 2010 in Graphical and Sound Issues
So I just built a new system and took STO out for a spin on it couple days ago and noticed some unusual tearing and flickering from loading screen on, I did some testing, disabled SLI and it ran fine, enabled SLI and it started again, with SLI enabled switched to windowed mode and ran fine, abot 60 fps in windowed mode since it is v-synced. I know there are some issues with the Nvidia drivers, but after talking to Evga, they seem to think that the game is not compatble with SLI? Anybody else having SLI issues or even crossfire?

Heres my system stats:
2x EVGA GTS250 (196.21 on all)
GT 8600 dedicated PhysX
MSI - mobo nvid 980i/hybrid SLI
AMD 965 Black 3.4ghz
4x2g Greil BD 2000
Mach 1 1220W PSU
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I am having the exact same problem except with Crossfire. Running in Crossfire it almost looked like a 16 bit game. I had some serious flickering and tearing along with graphics glitches (pixelated auras around everyone, talking heads being completely white...). As soon as I disabled Crossfire everything looked like it should.


    System specs:
    i7 920@3.6 GHz
    6 Gigs DDR3
    2 5870's Crossfired
    Windows 7 64 bit
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    So its not just me then....I guess EVGA was right maybe its STO's code... does anyone know for sure?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Something's majorly fishy about this game and the way it works with nVidia cards. In beta it worked great with my 8500GT. I upgraded to a 9800GTX between beta and retail just to prevent the little bit of FPS drop-off I was getting (Mostly in ground combat), and now I've got a whole crapload of issues.

    I'm just going to go way back in time and try the old Omega drivers...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    /bump cuz Im still having the issue....anyone have a solution, EVGA is not helping much
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    you guys sure this game is ready to be sli enhanced, even if it says it does usually takes a new patch. not having any issues with my built comp (9800 gtx+)

    edit: and im running this at max setting without issue..... i hope your monitors are over 22 inches... othwise you dont even need sli
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    you guys sure this game is ready to be sli enhanced, even if it says it does usually takes a new patch. not having any issues with my built comp (9800 gtx+)

    edit: and im running this at max setting without issue..... i hope your monitors are over 22 inches... othwise you dont even need sli


    No Im not sure this game is sli enhanced yet, which is why I am posting here... if I run off one card my game is fine too with everything maxed... but in SLI it looks like TRIBBLE... yours is fine, are u running in sli or single card?

    What I would like to know is there anybody running this game in SLI in FUllscreen without any problems? And if so whats ur specs/drivers and are u using a custom sli profile.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I have SLI
    I also have this issue

    I also have this issue on Avatar, CS Source (in menu text) and I have noticed it nowhere else.

    It appears on STO and Avatar mainly on certain blue textures and opr menu items but on CS:Source it is on the orange menu
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I went from a 9800GT 512MB to dual GTS 250 1GB's in SLI, performance has done nothing but gone up for me. Running at max settings @ 1920x1200.

    One weird thing though...is that on occasion the game crashes to the desktop saying that there is insufficient video RAM, and even says there's like a gig and half available in the error message itself. Really weird...but so far it doesn't happen often enough that it's really annoying.

    EDIT: Running the 196.xx nvidia drivers as well.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Running BFG GForce GTX 295 1792MB in SLI and never had a problem with tearing till the last patch. Now it's every where but sector space.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Prodigal wrote:
    I went from a 9800GT 512MB to dual GTS 250 1GB's in SLI, performance has done nothing but gone up for me. Running at max settings @ 1920x1200.

    One weird thing though...is that on occasion the game crashes to the desktop saying that there is insufficient video RAM, and even says there's like a gig and half available in the error message itself. Really weird...but so far it doesn't happen often enough that it's really annoying.

    EDIT: Running the 196.xx nvidia drivers as well.

    Are you running any SLI profiles with STO??
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    So after doing some research with multiple cards, I think I've tracked down what's killing dual GPU users like us.

    1. No, this game is not optimized for SLi. So you either have to create a profile for it, or disable one of the cards.

    2. If you do force SLi, I would suggest NOT using the latest drivers. This game is very very very very very poorly designed when it comes to using current technology. Heck, my 8800 ULTRAS aren't even CURRENT and static images (like clouds in space) flicker randomly.

    V-Sync seems to help a bit. Nothing major, but it does help. I did some reading over at www.guru3d.com (love that site) and apparently the 186.xx version of drivers is what we're looking for. Give some of the betas a shot as well.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Currently running Nvidia GTX260 in SLI mode. I have everything set to max settings and I am having no trouble with tearing or flickering under the 196.21 drivers. However I did explore a bit upon seeing others problems and discovered that if i do not enable vsync to limit the frame rate to my monitor refresh rate i do experience the problems you all describe.

    If you havent tried I would suggest doing so as the game is running smoothly and looks great for me in SLI.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    FYI: STO IS optimized for SLI:

    "Question: Is Star Trek Online compatible with SLI or Crossfire technology?
    Answer: Yes. The Cryptic engine takes advantage of multi-GPU setups. In some systems this will provide a significant performance increase, while other systems may be limited by other non-GPU factors and not see a benefit from multi-GPU. If at any time you experience major graphical issues with SLI or crossfire enabled make sure to try disabling multi-GPU functionality in the Nvidia control panel/Catalyst controller. Always ensure you are using the recommend drivers for Star Trek online that are obtainable through Nvidia or ATI. These are the only supported driver distributers for Cryptic products."

    From: http://www.startrekonline.com/support/tech

    I am running STO on a Firebird 802 with 2 GeForce 9800 S in SLI and I have not had any tearing, or Flickering, or hitching, or any other graphic problems. I am running Forceware 190.38 and getting 35-50 FPS @ 1920x1080 all settings on High.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    So after doing some research with multiple cards, I think I've tracked down what's killing dual GPU users like us.

    1. No, this game is not optimized for SLi. So you either have to create a profile for it, or disable one of the cards.

    2. If you do force SLi, I would suggest NOT using the latest drivers. This game is very very very very very poorly designed when it comes to using current technology. Heck, my 8800 ULTRAS aren't even CURRENT and static images (like clouds in space) flicker randomly.

    V-Sync seems to help a bit. Nothing major, but it does help. I did some reading over at www.guru3d.com (love that site) and apparently the 186.xx version of drivers is what we're looking for. Give some of the betas a shot as well.


    Agree with you pretty much 100%. I am I'm not having the troubles with flickering since enabling v-sync. I have setup a specific STO profile in the nvidia control panels. Also enabled the framerate max in the STO options too as I am not convinced even forced graphics options are working 100% under the game. I will say since swapping my single GTX 280 out and replacing it with the 2 GTX 260 in SLI my mouse cursor likes to play funny tricks from time to time. Under the GTX 280 i had zero issues until it decided to blow a head gasket and force me to have EVGA send me a new one.(love EVGA's support) Did STO cuase my GTX 280 to fry....... I cant say. Curiously prior to playing STO i never had a problem.....hardly proof positive either way.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    There is 3 possible solutions to your problem wrath.

    1: Create a profile, setup SLI to forcing Alternative Rendering 2, if you use Alternative Rendering 1 it's gonna flicker because its a so called split rendering, each card renders 1 picture each. The 2nd alternative doesnt give you any flicker.

    2: Download a SLI profile patch from www.nvidia.com, it contains a SLI profile for STO, along with alot of other games.

    3: Turn on V-Sync, and make sure you enable Triple Buffering also if you have v-sync on.


    Hope it helps.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I too am having flickering and tearing problems but I do not think I use nor run SLI. I run a Dell dimension E521 with AMD 64 3800+ Processor, with a 512MB PCI ExpressTM NVIDIA® GeForce® 7300LE TurboCache 4 gigs of RAM.

    Up until a couple days ago I had no problems playing. I had to Lower a lot of video settings but i got the game to play even though technically the video card is below specs for the game. I did try to upgrade to a GeForce 9500, but the card would not fit due to the fact the mother board heat sink was where the video card's heat sink needed to be, but as I said the 7300 managed to do the job. So I'm open for suggestions what if anything I might be able to do with the system I currently have. I also checked it on other games and it seems to only have this problem with STO currently
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    FYI: STO IS optimized for SLI:

    "Question: Is Star Trek Online compatible with SLI or Crossfire technology?
    Answer: Yes. The Cryptic engine takes advantage of multi-GPU setups. In some systems this will provide a significant performance increase, while other systems may be limited by other non-GPU factors and not see a benefit from multi-GPU. If at any time you experience major graphical issues with SLI or crossfire enabled make sure to try disabling multi-GPU functionality in the Nvidia control panel/Catalyst controller. Always ensure you are using the recommend drivers for Star Trek online that are obtainable through Nvidia or ATI. These are the only supported driver distributers for Cryptic products."

    From: http://www.startrekonline.com/support/tech

    I am running STO on a Firebird 802 with 2 GeForce 9800 S in SLI and I have not had any tearing, or Flickering, or hitching, or any other graphic problems. I am running Forceware 190.38 and getting 35-50 FPS @ 1920x1080 all settings on High.

    But the only problem with that is, I can run at the same resolution (1080p on a 47 inch tv), max everything, get the same fps, with only 1 9800gtx in my pc. SLI, and the 9800gtx's have sucked since day one! I've never gotten any better performance with SLI than I could get with a single card. Actually, the only time I see less than 60fps is walking on sol starbase.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    GenEricII wrote:
    But the only problem with that is, I can run at the same resolution (1080p on a 47 inch tv), max everything, get the same fps, with only 1 9800gtx in my pc. SLI, and the 9800gtx's have sucked since day one! I've never gotten any better performance with SLI than I could get with a single card. Actually, the only time I see less than 60fps is walking on sol starbase.

    The game needs a SLI Proflie to see any improvements.

    And running max everything with a 9800GTX doesnt happen, you would be lagging crazy, even mine lags with everything completly maxed out, the post processing alone kills your cards performance, soft particles would be the final blow to it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Skuggan wrote:
    The game needs a SLI Proflie to see any improvements.

    And running max everything with a 9800GTX doesnt happen, you would be lagging crazy, even mine lags with everything completly maxed out, the post processing alone kills your cards performance, soft particles would be the final blow to it.

    Well I don't know what to tell you, I'm doing it, at 60fps. 1 card, qx6850 cpu, 4gb ram. It does happen, it is happening in my home right now. Don't call someone a liar when you obviously don't know what you're talking about. The 9800 series performance can be bottlenecked by your cpu, if you have an older cpu, I could see why you're having poor framerate issues. Also "lag" is caused by internet connection speed and packet routing (networking) issues, not graphics issues.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    So after 2 weeks of banging my head against the wall, I finally got a Tech at EVGA who actually knew stuff!!!! He recommended that I try a different SLI bridge, so I did, and the game runs beautifully in SLI now. I read in alot of forums on EVGA and NVIDIA that SLI bridges were not needed anymore, however, Tosh from EVGA informed me that with high bandwidth cards the SLI bridge is very important. So if anyone is having a similar issue, try your SLI bridge.
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