Titan Black Stutter

[Sovaron]

So I've been having this bizarre problem since I upgraded to a pair of GTX Titan Blacks. Every now and then, I experience a strange system stutter, where everything pauses for around half a second or so. This occurs in games and in Windows, and I cannot for the life of me work it out. I've tried switching SLI on and off, does it regardless, I've swapped the cards over so as to test them individually, still does it. I'm at my wit's end with this issue, it's extremely frustrating. Any help offered would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jay Lavistria]

Is your PSU giving enough power to power BOTH titans?
Are you updated on drivers?
Did you clean up old drivers (if you came from AMD)
Is the SLI bridge on securely?
Is your CPU at a fair temperature? A complete freeze could mean a CPU hiccup.

 

[Sovaron]

It's not the CPU as the temps are fine on that, my PSU is an xfx pro 850w XXX edition, semi modular, which I've been told is fine for powering both titans. The bridge is on just fine, I have two of them on actually.

 

[Jay Lavistria]

Please uninstall all things related to NVidia, and reinstall.

 

[Sovaron]

Please uninstall all things related to NVidia, and reinstall.

Done that, along with several reformats. It's such an odd problem, I was running two 670s in SLI prior to this, and never had any issues.

 

[Jay Lavistria]

Hmm...downclock the titans by 100 MHz.

 

[Sovaron]

Hmm...downclock the titans by 100 MHz.

Just tried that, still the same issue. Argh!

 

[17seconds]

Turn on Adaptive VSync?

 

[Shaun o]

I take it you have checked that the cards are not reaching close to 90c.
Otherwise, core down clocking is happening.

And as a small note 42a is required from the 12v power rail for a Titan black card
For two 84a would be required. double the amp req.
You may have the wattage, but if you ain`t got the amp`s its the cause.
Did you factor in two cards at 42a each drawing off the 12v rail.
because your running off a single rail rated at 70a.

I just have a feeling, don`t forget titan blacks have double point precision so you should disable that option in the NVC.
Because current games don`t use it. waste of gpu power.

 

[Sovaron]

Pretty sure that double point precision is disabled by default, I'll check it though. With regards to the power, are you sure you need double the amperes for a second card? Looking at PSUs that can deliver 84 amps or more pushes me right into 1000W-1200W territory, which seems like overkill, especially as people run three of these on 1200W. Additionally, I've now tried removing one of my titans, and this alleviates the problem, so it has something to do with having them both at the same time.

 

[17seconds]

Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:
•GeForce GTX Titan Black - On your average system the card requires you to have a 600 Watt power supply unit.
•GeForce GTX Titan Black SLI - On your average system the cards require you to have a 900 Watt power supply unit as minimum.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_titan_black_windforce_review,8.html

 

[Sovaron]

Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:
•GeForce GTX Titan Black - On your average system the card requires you to have a 600 Watt power supply unit.
•GeForce GTX Titan Black SLI - On your average system the cards require you to have a 900 Watt power supply unit as minimum.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_titan_black_windforce_review,8.html

Mmmh, might have to bite the bullet and get a beefier PSU, then. Was trying to avoid that as I'm broke for the next two weeks!

 

[Sovaron]

Heh, just been running off the single card for a while, and lo and behold, same problem.

 

[17seconds]

Did you try Adaptive VSync?

 

[Sovaron]

I did not, though I fail to see what difference it might make.

 

[17seconds]

It depends on the conditions, but it's purpose is partially to reduce stutter when regular VSync is used at FPS levels below 60.