Need help getting SLI to work.

[Grit]

Is there anyway to get SLI/Crossfire to work in Windowed mode? Alternatively, is it possible to be in Full-screen and alt-tab without generating the DirectX error that closes FFXIV.

Last I checked, to get SLI running in windowed mode you don't have to do anything except have the latest drivers. Just make sure SLI is ON in your Nvidia FFXIV profile options.

Crossfire is another matter.. and I don't have any experience with ATI cards to help you with that.

There is not a way to run FFXIV in full-screen mode and use alt-tab without crashing. However, there is a way to make windowed mode border-less. I'll have to refrain from posting that information, but you could find it with a google search.

[Loth]

Is there anyway to get SLI/Crossfire to work in Windowed mode? Alternatively, is it possible to be in Full-screen and alt-tab without generating the DirectX error that closes FFXIV.

Grit already answered most of your questions, so just to add to that, crossfire only works in fullscreen mode.

[Aurelien]

Let me try rephrasing the questions:

1> FFXIV crashing when you alt-tab in Full Screen mode, is it a limitation of FFXIV or is it a DirectX issue? I do not have this problem playing other games in Full-screen mode, ie. World of Warcraft
2> FFXIV does not work with Crossfire in Windowed mode, is it a limitation of FFXIV or is it a AMD Catalyst driver issue?

[Loth]

Let me try rephrasing the questions:

1> FFXIV crashing when you alt-tab in Full Screen mode, is it a limitation of FFXIV or is it a DirectX issue? I do not have this problem playing other games in Full-screen mode, ie. World of Warcraft

This is a FFXIV coding issue, that they should be able to "easily" fix.

2> FFXIV does not work with Crossfire in Windowed mode, is it a limitation of FFXIV or is it a AMD Catalyst driver issue?

This is a driver issue, it is simply the way crossfire works.

[Bittereye]

The driver that was released months ago that has a FFXIV SLI profile does not work correctly so, yes, you will still need to use a program called SLI Tool and use the Crysis, Crysis Warhead or the Crysis 2 profile (from the latest SLI profile update). I have tried many times to get the original SLI profile to work without using SLI Tool and it never works out. Example: When I use the driver alone with no edits, the game will run in SLI mode just fine UNTIL a spell is cast. Once any spell is cast, my game starts to chug really bad, almost unplayable. I tried every tweak in the profile. I did start to see a little difference with the 'max frames render ahead' option. When going back to the Crysis profile, the game ran perfectly aside from server side lag (wish they would fix this). Now when doing this hotfix, you will notice (at least I do) that when going into a cutscene the image flickers very badly when fading from one scene to another. Im not talking about fading to black then to the next scene. They use a scene, keep that scene and fade into the next scene while being able to see that previous scene. Looks cool when it doesnt flicker. Single GPUs work just fine on this but when using SLI during cutscenes (getting on the boat to and from LL) you will see the flickering. Nvidia and SE need to get together and work on a better SLI profile. The GPU's are never being used at 100%. I see anything from 30% to sometimes 75%. Most of the time its at 60%. In town, it drops to the high 20's or low 30's. Which explains the lag.

My rig:
Windows x64 Ultimate SP1
6gigs DDR3 Corsair RAM
Intel Core i7 950 @ stock
2 x EVGA 480 GTX's
EVGA SLI FTW3 Mobo
Running game at 2560 x 1440
1200W PSU Thermaltake

Hope this helps. Good luck and here's hoping that SE contacts NVIDIA on multi GPU optimizations.

[Grit]

You're right that SLI causes some graphic glitches during cutscenes. I experience this with the Crysis profile as well.

The FFXIV profile works fine for me when casting spells.. no problems there.

[Bittereye]

Did some tests on the spell effects issue. I discovered that you can use the latest nvidia drivers with no SLI Tool profile needed and the latest SLI profile update 7. However, the Depth of Field option is causing the spell effect lag issue Turning this feature off yields near perfect performance even when casting spells. Cutscenes do not flicker either (this is with or without depth of field). I love depth of field and its a real shame that I have to turn it off to have the spell effects work like they should. Hopefully someone knows a workaround to enable Depth of Field and still be able to cast spells with no lag.

[Loth]

As long as I am running with at least 2xMSAA I have no problem with the basic driver and SLI.
With VSYNC enabled I am running at anywhere between %99 and %30 utilization of both GPUs (almost identical usage of both) depending on how much is needed to render the frames.

In my quest for optimal framerate, I have disabled Depth of Field, so I can not comment on whether that is causing issues or not, but as I wrote earlier in the thread, there seem to be issues with running SLI and no AA, at least on my setup.