Sli Gtx 970s Starting With High Fps Then Drops Super Low

[Aj Koepf]

hello all thanks for checking out my thread, earlier today i purchased my friends old gtx 970 from him, therefore i would then be able to sli using both 970s that i had. after hooking both up to my pc using the right slots so my pc detected them, as well as use the sli bridge. after setting everything up in the nvidia control panel, i proceeded to load up a game. the first game i tried was GTA5. as soon as i loaded in i was pleased with the performance getting around 130fps, about 10 seconds later my fps dropped down to around 40 and stayed there, i tried running the benchmark and it did the same thing, as soon as the scene loaded in, fps was high then it quickly dropped even though both gpus were maxing out. and i even went on to try running the 3d mark benchmark and it did the same thing.... is there something i might be missing? i see on youtube all kinds of people running sli gtx970s and getting good fps and it doesn't drop out for them... if there is anything anyone could recommend to me please help it would be sooooo appreciated.

Full pc specs below

-Msi gaming 7 x99 mobo
-intel core i7 5820k 3.8ghz
-16gb ddr4 2400mhz ram
-2x Gtx 970 Evga, one non oc, one FTW edition (ive been told that doesn't matter)
-Evga gold rated 750 watt power supply

other note - this i dont think could be a problem, but i am using a spare 600 watt power supply to power the second gtx 970 until i can buy another cable for my main power supply

 

[PatrioticPickle]

Both of the GPUs need to be clocked the same otherwise there will be stuttering and inconsistencies.
What are the temps like of the 2 cards

 

[Aj Koepf]

Both of the GPUs need to be clocked the same otherwise there will be stuttering and inconsistencies

i thought that my pc would automatically downclock one of them to make it even? could i change this manually?

 

[Aj Koepf]

Both of the GPUs need to be clocked the same otherwise there will be stuttering and inconsistencies.
What are the temps like of the 2 cards

and the temps are both fine they stay at 65-70c

 

[PatrioticPickle]

Both of the GPUs need to be clocked the same otherwise there will be stuttering and inconsistencies

i thought that my pc would automatically downclock one of them to make it even? could i change this manually?

No, both cards will just try and clock as fast as they can on their own as every Nvidia GPU does on its own.

You will need to change it using a overclocking tool such as MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision.

 

[Aj Koepf]

Both of the GPUs need to be clocked the same otherwise there will be stuttering and inconsistencies

i thought that my pc would automatically downclock one of them to make it even? could i change this manually?

No, both cards will just try and clock as fast as they can on their own as every Nvidia GPU does on its own.

You will need to change it using a overclocking tool such as MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision.

so once i do that, my problem should be fixed?

 

[PatrioticPickle]

It should certainly improve frame rates and times. I'd first grab MSI Afterburner, enable the on screen display monitoring for both GPUs usage and clocks, run a game and see what both cards are clocking to in both memory and core clocks.

 

[Aj Koepf]

It should certainly improve frame rates and times. I'd first grab MSI Afterburner, enable the on screen display monitoring for both GPUs usage and clocks, run a game and see what both cards are clocking to in both memory and core clocks.

so essentially i got msi afterburner and the card are default running over 100mhz different speeds, should i just go ahead and downclock the other one now?

 

[Aj Koepf]

It should certainly improve frame rates and times. I'd first grab MSI Afterburner, enable the on screen display monitoring for both GPUs usage and clocks, run a game and see what both cards are clocking to in both memory and core clocks.

ok so after some testing, it did nothing at all, even with making both gpu clocks and memory speeds the same, it didnt help, any other suggestions?

 

[Aj Koepf]

It should certainly improve frame rates and times. I'd first grab MSI Afterburner, enable the on screen display monitoring for both GPUs usage and clocks, run a game and see what both cards are clocking to in both memory and core clocks.

ok so after some testing, it did nothing at all, even with making both gpu clocks and memory speeds the same, it didnt help, any other suggestions?

 

[PatrioticPickle]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

 

[Aj Koepf]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

ok, i will try that and let you know what happens

 

[Aj Koepf]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

so i fully reinstalled the drivers for the cards, re tryed playing some games, still the same thing. the only possible other thing i think it might be would be maybe i could try moving the cards around on different pcie slots and see if that does anything... do you think that would have any effect at all?

 

[PatrioticPickle]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

so i fully reinstalled the drivers for the cards, re tryed playing some games, still the same thing. the only possible other thing i think it might be would be maybe i could try moving the cards around on different pcie slots and see if that does anything... do you think that would have any effect at all?

What board do you have?
EDIT: Just saw you have a Gaming 7 X99 board.
The first and second slot is where the cards should be ( I assume you already have them in this position)

 

[Aj Koepf]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

so i fully reinstalled the drivers for the cards, re tryed playing some games, still the same thing. the only possible other thing i think it might be would be maybe i could try moving the cards around on different pcie slots and see if that does anything... do you think that would have any effect at all?

What board do you have?
EDIT: Just saw you have a Gaming 7 X99 board.
The first and second slot is where the cards should be ( I assume you already have them in this position)

I actually have them currently in the first and 3rd slot, I will try changing them

 

[Aj Koepf]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

so i fully reinstalled the drivers for the cards, re tryed playing some games, still the same thing. the only possible other thing i think it might be would be maybe i could try moving the cards around on different pcie slots and see if that does anything... do you think that would have any effect at all?

What board do you have?
EDIT: Just saw you have a Gaming 7 X99 board.
The first and second slot is where the cards should be ( I assume you already have them in this position)

One other think I completely forgot to mention is currently I am running my secondo gpu on a seperate power supply, as my current one doesn't have enough cables, I ordered another one, but would that be causing issues?

 

[PatrioticPickle]

Right, the next step would be completely removing all the Nvidia Drivers and reinstalling them when both of the cards are connected, then re enable SLI and try again.
I am speaking only from my experience in AMD Crossfire, I would think that there are similarities in getting the 2 setup. AMD has a few driver issues when running crossfire, which usually requires a clean install of the drivers when both cards are plugged in.

so i fully reinstalled the drivers for the cards, re tryed playing some games, still the same thing. the only possible other thing i think it might be would be maybe i could try moving the cards around on different pcie slots and see if that does anything... do you think that would have any effect at all?

What board do you have?
EDIT: Just saw you have a Gaming 7 X99 board.
The first and second slot is where the cards should be ( I assume you already have them in this position)

One other think I completely forgot to mention is currently I am running my secondo gpu on a seperate power supply, as my current one doesn't have enough cables, I ordered another one, but would that be causing issues?

Yeah I did see that you mentioned that. I am not sure if that would affect anything as I have never seen it being done, haha. It could be something to consider though. I'd wait til you get the new cable for your existing PSU then test it.