rFactor 2 with SLI and triple screens - tips for good performance?

Billy Pilgrim · Mar 27, 2014

I'm getting a three-screen setup and will be using two GTX 780 GPUs.

I've heard that rF2 doesn't perform well with SLI and triple screens. But I'm really hoping to play rFactor2!

Is there some way to make it work well in SLI? With high settings and good fps across three screens?

I did find this btw:
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.p...-w-Multiview-otherwise-OK-w-triples-or-single
which seems to be a possible solution. Is that the best there is?

Billy Pilgrim · Apr 18, 2014

pingpong said:
Hello

In the latest build 660, when using Nvidia inspector, the Rfactor2 SLI profile does not give any advantage, neither does using the Windows System Assessment Tool profile anymore.

I tinkered around and got all my SLI advantage back by using the Crysis 2 profile. Simply look at the profile for Crysis 2(another DX-9 game) note the SLI profile number and set the same in the rfactor2.exe profile.

Works great for me, all my framerates came back.

That's great news!
Could you give some info on your system's specs, screens/resolution? And what results are you getting (settings and fps)?

Blkout · Apr 18, 2014

pingpong said:
Hello

In the latest build 660, when using Nvidia inspector, the Rfactor2 SLI profile does not give any advantage, neither does using the Windows System Assessment Tool profile anymore.

I tinkered around and got all my SLI advantage back by using the Crysis 2 profile. Simply look at the profile for Crysis 2(another DX-9 game) note the SLI profile number and set the same in the rfactor2.exe profile.

Works great for me, all my framerates came back.

Is this the same as what martcerv posted earlier in this thread? He already stated that you can use an alternate SLI profile but there's some texture flickering issues by using it. Do you find the Crysis 2 profile to be any different?

Chris Partridge · Apr 18, 2014

Yup -- you can certainly use different profiles but they each come at a cost to the increased FPS. Flickering etc...

Blkout · Apr 18, 2014

Chris Partridge said:
Yup -- you can certainly use different profiles but they each come at a cost to the increased FPS. Flickering etc...

That's what I figured. If it was just as easy as using a different SLI profile, then Nvidia would have already had a working profile.

pingpong · Apr 18, 2014

My system specs are:

Core I7 3770K @ 4.9 Ghz, 16gb Ram, 2 x GTX Titan SLI.
I am outputting to a triple screen monitor 5040 x 1050

I use almost all the setting at their highest, excepts shadows which gives a weird artifact on the ground textures. In Inspector, I use 8x multisampling and 8x Sparse grid AA, pre-rendered frames to 1, and 16x AF.

I posted the above message because the Windows System Assessment profile seemed to stop working with the latest Beta Build, sending my frame-rates back down, so I went looking for another profile that would give an SLI advantage again.

With the standard rfactor2 profile I was getting 35fps, Now I am over 60 (I have it locked to 59 fps, so I don't know how much higher it goes).
There is some flickering, and it *may* be a little better with this profile that previously(or I am hallucinating).

I know the games is not well optimized, but I make it as good as I can get it, since I enjoy it so thoroughly. For me RF2 has the most immersive driving/racing experience.

Billy Pilgrim · May 8, 2014

martcerv said:
I did find a setting that kind of works with NV inspector forcing NV bits 0x00500005 (Windows System Assessment Tool) this gives much better performance in SLI but it has some texture flickering. Not as bad as I remember in earlier build but still a little annoying. I think turning off HDR may solve that flicker issue.

This has got me single kart on track 107fps in one card and 187fps in SLI pretty much the same from cockpit view and also tv cam view.

Back of 29 kart grid FPS single card 44.8fps and SLI 62fps so unlike the default RF2 profile that actually makes it worse this tweak gets SLI working.

As I am a single screen user I cant say how that will translate to triples but at least I found a way to get SLI to work so I am happy about that. Here are some screens showing my SLI on and OFF tests the images arent labeled but if you see GPU 2 with much lower load and lower clocks this indicates SLI is off and just set to single card mode.

https://www.mediafire.com/?c08s9h5tt9rj780

In your screenshots, what is the program that's running in the top left of the screen (program showing gpu, cpu load etc)?

otta56 · Jul 8, 2014

With Build 770 0x02F06005 might also work. I was able to set all options to maximum in rF2 (Level 3 AA) with HDR + multiview using 3x Nvidia Titans @ 7980x1440 @ 60 fps. There are some flickering textures and some stuttering. It is still better than the stock profile though which had the same flickering and stuttering but 19-20 fps with HDR+multiview.

Billy Pilgrim · Dec 16, 2014

I'm resurrecting this thread in case rFactor 2's been optimised for sli since July.

Can anyone say if sli performance has improved recently in rFactor 2?

PhilT · Feb 1, 2015

I've been testing the demo over the last couple of days as I was thinking about purchasing and came across this thread as I've been hitting the frame rate drop when using SLI.

I have dual GTX 680s running on a Dell u3415w 3440x1440.

With SLI, max settings and 2xAA I was getting around 25fps dropping to 17 in some places. Turning off SLI got me 45-55fps.

I've just downloaded nVidia Inspector and set the SLI compatibility bits to 0x00500005 (Windows System Assessment Tool) as previously recommended here and got 65-75fps. Unfortunately this causes the previously mentioned flickering, mainly on the cockpit.

I'm going to fiddle around with some settings to see if I can fix this but I'm not sure I could drive it like this and therefore I'm not sure I'd buy it either.

Gijs van Elderen · Feb 1, 2015

PhilT said:
I've been testing the demo over the last couple of days as I was thinking about purchasing and came across this thread as I've been hitting the frame rate drop when using SLI.

I have dual GTX 680s running on a Dell u3415w 3440x1440.

With SLI, max settings and 2xAA I was getting around 25fps dropping to 17 in some places. Turning off SLI got me 45-55fps.

I've just downloaded nVidia Inspector and set the SLI compatibility bits to 0x00500005 (Windows System Assessment Tool) as previously recommended here and got 65-75fps. Unfortunately this causes the previously mentioned flickering, mainly on the cockpit.

I'm going to fiddle around with some settings to see if I can fix this but I'm not sure I could drive it like this and therefore I'm not sure I'd buy it either.

SLI with triple screens are OK. There is an advantage, but not the best one.

SLI with a single screen doesn't work with rF2.

Best thing to do is leave SLI on but set the 2nd card to physx or SLI off.

SLI profiles and optimizations are maybe by Nvidea not the game developer.
IMO: SLI is not always the best way to upgrade your PC.

A single GTX 680 should do it's job OK with rF2. But you can't max out all graphic settings, i think.
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...st-w-practically-no-image-quality-loss.97303/

PhilT · Feb 1, 2015

Well I seem to have it working now. Turned on software sync and maxed out the AA. Little to no flickering. 55-59fps. Very playable now.

PhilT · Feb 1, 2015

SLI wise it was a pretty good option at the time. However, I am thinking about upgrading but I'm a bit stuck as my case is a custom build and it's gonna be a tight fit to get a 9 series card in as they're a bit longer.

PhilT · Feb 1, 2015

Also others have mentioned using sparse grid supersampling. I've noticed this makes things pretty bad flicker-wise. Multi or super sampling seems okay. I've got mine set to 4x supersampling currently.

Adam Jonas · Feb 2, 2015

The SLI profile what nVidia recommends for the rFactor2 is very bad. One of my friend has 2 GTX 660 in SLI, and he needs to use the F1 2010 (!!!!) SLI profile to have the best performance for the triple screen setup.

So I recommend you to try out some SLI profiles which is for other games.

Ho3n3r · Apr 10, 2015

Billy Pilgrim said:
What do you reckon:
When would you expect rFactor 2 to be optimised for SLI/CF? How long does that sort of thing take in the world of pc race sims?

Would you expect it to be optimised in, say, six months, 12, 18, never?

Well, 1 year later I think we can positively say never.

Ari Antero · Apr 14, 2015

SLI is never black and white and if you are waiting that Nvidia or ISI is going to make setup to our spesific hardware just to klick and play you are never going to bee able to play any game with NVIDIA SLI gaming PC. All supported games from Nvidia gives gaining a significant performance boost when running an NVIDIA SLI gaming PC and all games are also working with NVIDIA SLI gaming PC supported or not and it is up to you to make this to happen.

rFactor2 is Nvdia supported game and ISI claims that SLI increases latency , SLI latency isn't a big deal at higher framerates and it is not the cause why NVidia profile (rFactor2 Mod Mode.exe) created 2011-09-22 make`s rFactor2 unplayable, if you read an official NVidia documentation for developers It points clearly that SLI performance is not being only based in GPU drivers but the game programming aswell, I have also been in contact with NVidia support about rFactor2 SLI performance and I got this reply from NVidia:
"Thanks for reporting this issue. I see some similar reports, and have passed along your information for further investigation. However the game itself is poorly optimized for multiple GPUs, in which case there wouldn't be much we could do on our end. Since you say that your system works well in SLI on other games, that is the most likely explanation."
Why don`t rFactor2 work with SLI ?, latency, I dont think so , it is game programming, ISI dev`s must do they job before SLI is going to work.

NVidia profile is created 2011-09-22, yes 2011, please guys turn on the heat in ISI forums about SLI, but remeber to bee carefull out there, 11 misslikes from ISI fanboys is ISI`s 107% rule can make you clobaly ignored, how do I know this?,........yes right answer

Ari Antero · Apr 18, 2015

Update 31 (Build 946) Changelog

GRAPHICS:
————-
– Optimized single-pass HDR for multiview.

I have huge fps drops with multiview Build 946.
Does anybody else have same experience with SLI, multiview and HDR on?

Spinelli · Apr 24, 2015

SLI is pretty much broken in GSC, rFactor 1, rFactor 2, etc. unless you play in 3D, then you get some very nice scaling.

- http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/21360-RFactor-2-Benchmark-780-Ti-1x-2x-GPU-(SLI)-1x-3x-monitors-(Surround)-2-3D-Vision
- http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/rfactor-2-benchmark-780-ti-4930k-1x-2x-gpu-sli-1x-3x-monitors-surround-2d-3d-3d-vision-2.91750/

If you pump in a lot of super intense forms of AA from the NVidia control panel / Inspector then that may be able to hide the broken SLI of the game itself because that should be helped by SLI regardless of the game itself's good/bad SLI support.

I forgot to mention one more thing...The lower the two reflection options are set in the RF2 GFX settings, the better SLI will work. Try disabling them or setting both to low and 2D SLI will work a bit better. You can clearly see proof of this in the "Reduced" graphics settings benchmark in my tests.

Billy Pilgrim · Mar 22, 2016

Hi there
Another year's gone by and I'm wondering if there's been any improvement running rFactor2 with SLI and triple screens.

Have ISI managed to optimise this game for SLI or is it still as bad as it was?

I have two GTX 780s.

Ari Antero · Mar 23, 2016

Billy Pilgrim said:
Hi there
Another year's gone by and I'm wondering if there's been any improvement running rFactor2 with SLI and triple screens.

Have ISI managed to optimise this game for SLI or is it still as bad as it was?

I have two GTX 780s.

Try this with SLI Compatibility Bits: 0x02D04005: http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/rfactor-2-build-1052-released.117224/page-2#post-2181685