GTX 1070 and GT 1030 with 6 displays FPS issue?

Hi,

I´m not sure if I haven an issue but I have the feeling something is wrong here. I am running 3 27” WQHD displays at a total resolution of 7680 x 1440. With good settings I´m getting 40-45 FPS (cockpit view) which is OK for me at this resolution. Once I add my 3 small displays to export the DDI´s and AMPCD in the Hornet my FPS drop down to around 30 FPS. So far so good, this ends up in a resolution of 10240 x 1440 and an FPS drop is reasonable. As I have 6 displays in total now I have 4 of them connected to my main GPU (GTX 1070) and 2 of the small ones to my second GPU (GT 1030). The second one is only to have 2 additional ports available. Now I was playing around with some graphics settings and I do not see any differences in FPS when I add or remove a setting. I added MSAA, SSAA and Cockpit Global Illumination and only reduced the shadows to flat wthout any change in FPS (see also attached picture with my settings). And when I´m enabling the mirrors I also see no FPS drop, it is still at 30 FPS. When I look into the sky it raises to 45-50 FPS, so it does not seem to be capped at 30 FPS. Vsync is turned off and I also tried to turn it off and on and off again. In on the FPS is the same but looking into the sky raises it to 38 FPS only.

Could it be the small GPU which is slowing down the system? I would test it but I have no other GPU available and wouldn´t buy one as long as I have no indication it could improve the situation. And this is exactly the reason why I´m posting this. Maybe someone in this forum has an idea if this is OK and I cannot await something better at this resolution or if really the small card is kind of a show stopper.

Maybe also the display cables could play a role, so I will add them here:

GTX 1070

Display port --> 27”

HDMI 1 --> 27”

HDMI 2 --> 27”

DVI --> 8” (I use an HDMI-to-DVI cable, card is DVI, display HDMI)

GT 1030

HDMI --> 8”

DVI --> 8” (I use an HDMI-to-DVI adapter, card is DVI, display HDMI)

Any information is very much appreciated?

Thanks,

Xoxen

Edit: GPU usage without MSAA and SSAA and Cockpit global illumination is GTX 1070 (99%), GT 1030 (30%), with those turned on GTX 1070 (99%), GT 1030 (60%), The RAM of the GTX 1070 is at 7,7 GB out of 8 GB, the GT 1030 at 0,2 GB out of 2 GB.

You might be running out of CPU what is your CPU usage here?

Yes adding another GPU will depending on your CPU/Motherboard will also share the PCIe bandwidth.

Besides the PCIe bandwidth story I just read yesterday that if you have two different cards working together their VRAM doesn't stack but both cards use 2x the smaller VRAM (or even only 1x the smaller VRAM which I doubt but is a possibility) and this could indeed be a nasty bottleneck because of the big difference between 1030GT and 1070 GTX.

Edit: Which doesn't make sense if you consider the VRAM usage values you get to be 100% correct. SLI with two different cards isn't ideal in any case, even with these numbers I wouldn't dismiss the thought the smaller card is restricting the whole system somehow.

You might be running out of CPU what is your CPU usage here?......

I only checked with the Windows Task Manager and there seems to be some clearance to full load. Two cores are running at appr. 70% each.

Besides the PCIe bandwidth story I just read yesterday that if you have two different cards working together their VRAM doesn't stack but both cards use 2x the smaller VRAM (or even only 1x the smaller VRAM which I doubt but is a possibility) and this could indeed be a nasty bottleneck because of the big difference between 1030GT and 1070 GTX.

 

Edit: Which doesn't make sense if you consider the VRAM usage values you get to be 100% correct. SLI with two different cards isn't ideal in any case, even with these numbers I wouldn't dismiss the thought the smaller card is restricting the whole system somehow.

PCIe bandwidth wasn´t on my list so far but would make sense. No clue how to test this. The VRAM values came also from the task manager, I could double check with MSI Afterburner.

Edit: MSI Afterburner confirmed the data. The BUS usage also is displayed and is 25% for the GTX 1070 and 50% for the GT 1030.

...

Could you upload screens of data for the GPU(s) at best while testing the DCS scene you mentioned in the first post? VRAM usage GPU1 and 2, Utilization GPU1 and 2 and so on? The screen you posted is just CPU data.

GTX 1070 and GT 1030 with 6 displays FPS issue?

70% on the cores likely the problem. and the limit of your cpu

you don’t usually see 100% because the software usually has to stop processing for small amounts of time (the 30%) to read more data from ram or disk and to write the computation result somewhere.

Could you upload screens of data for the GPU(s) at best while testing the DCS scene you mentioned in the first post? VRAM usage GPU1 and 2, Utilization GPU1 and 2 and so on? The screen you posted is just CPU data.

You find them attached.

70% on the cores likely the problem. and the limit of your cpu

 

you don’t usually see 100% because the software usually has to stop processing for small amounts of time (the 30%) to read more data from ram or disk and to write the computation result somewhere.

This would mean than an Overclocking should show me a gain in FPS if you are right. Something I could test quiet easy.

...

The platform itself (chipset, RAM and CPU together) isn't the fastest either indeed.

This would mean than an Overclocking should show me a gain in FPS if you are right. Something I could test quiet easy.

Try this. The screens for the GPU values do look weird to me because of the shared VRAM e.g. how is 2GB and 8GB = 16, 18 and 24GB VRAM (bottom left and one column right of it)?

Overclocking to 4,6 GHz (from stock 4,4 GHz) didn´t change a thing. Still 30 FPS. Regarding the RAM values of the GPUs I´m also wondering....

Edit: At least I was able to figure out that using my iGPU Intel HD 4600, which I used before some issues with the intel driver, brings only 20 FPS. An indicatin that a faster GPU brings more overall speed. My next step will be buying a GTX 1050 TI or GTX 1060 to make some trials. If it fails I will sell it again. Hopefully my power supply will make it. It has 550W (be quiet! Straight Power 10).

Hi all,

I did some further observations and pressing CTRL+Paus 2x brings up some further information instead of the FPS only. I saw a video memory usage of 10.850 MB, so much more than displayed in task manager or Afterburner). As my video card only has 8 GB I wonder if it uses the RAM from my PC. The second card has 2 GB but this is not used as displayed in one of the attached pictures.

My next plans are:

- Installing a GTX 1050 TI to see if there is a difference in FPS when I put it in. I already purchased it and am waiting for delivery.

- If this fails I tend to convert to a video card with higher amount of memory, e. g. a GTX 1080 TI or the new Radeon VII.

I´m already flying for quite a long time with 30 FPS so I´m not in a hurry. I´ll keep you informed, maybe the one or the other finds this interesting.

Xoxen

Would be interesting to see how a Radeon VII and your existing 1070 run together with so many displays. Wouldnt be a trivial every day setup so you'd be mostly on your own.

Still, interesting setup.

It's most likely the "lack" of VRAM, especially on textures on "High", 512 resolution and additional displays.

Would be interesting to see how a Radeon VII and your existing 1070 run together with so many displays. Wouldnt be a trivial every day setup so you'd be mostly on your own.

 

Still, interesting setup.

Hi BitMaster,

I don´t know if I will ever be able to test this combination. Buying one card equals selling the other. Or the long awaited lottery winnings will finally come ;)

First of all I will start with the GTX 1050 TI which is not really fast but compared to the GT 1030 already much better.

To be honest I´m already looking for a GTX 1080 TI, but my wife needs to be convinced first that I can´t live any longer without. I have to say that I got a 2 year hardware-buying ban from her after I bought the GTX 1070 and 3 27" displays. But it´s over since last month ;) I´m ready to go.

Xoxen

Edit: OK, got my GTX 1050 TI today and I am.......very disappointed. No difference in FPS at all.

Hi folks,

some time ago I posted here. In the meantime, after getting cheated buying the first 1080Ti I finally got one. I went from 30 FPS to 41 FPS, so 25% increase. Strange thing is, that the 1030 now is at 70% usage. The 1080Ti is still at 99% like the 1070 before. I guess the amount of pixels suck up a lot of GPU power. The RAM usage also is at 11GB most of the times, so the extra RAM might also be part of the increase. Maybe this helps others when they want to upgrade.

Xoxen