GPU heating and SLI problems

[StephanFoldvik]

Hi.

Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong section.

Specs:

Gtx 690
ASUS Maximus V Formula
i5-2500k
8gb ram

1.My problem starts within 1 minute of launching this game.
2. *One* of my GPUs insists on doing all the work while my other GPU stays idle. (I'm using afterburner to monitor my GPU activity).
3. It reaches more than 90 degrees celsius.

I'm playing with every setting maxed out. V-sync and triple buffering are also enabled. No frame rate issues whatsoever. My drivers are up to date.

Is this a common problem for people playing this game? I really can't see any reason as to why this game should demand so much of my (one) GPU ...

By the way: I can see several people complaining about the same thing in the Legend of Grimrock 1 forums.

[badhabit]

Is this a common problem for people playing this game? I really can't see any reason as to why this game should demand so much of my (one) GPU ...

By the way: I can see several people complaining about the same thing in the Legend of Grimrock 1 forums.

Yes, to say it openly, overheating issues are common for the Grimrock engine (happened also for LoG1). Monitor the FPS (setting "debugInfo = true" in the grimrock.cfg) and reduce too many generated FPS to the suitable number and reduce by that the GPU burden and heat by setting "maxFrameRate" smaller than the bit exessive preset 120 fps.

SLI seems to be not directly supported but can be enforced as reported here. SLI "load balancing" should also reduce/solve your temperature problem.

[StephanFoldvik]

...

Thanks for the reply. Nothing seems to help. As for SLI load balancing: I have no idea what that is, and a quick search on google makes me hesitant to the idea of tinkering with it as it seems complicated.

Are the developers taking this issue seriously? Maybe it'll get fixed in a patch or something. Do you think it would harm my GPU in the long run playing the game with temps above 90?

[JohnWordsworth]

Make sure that you definitely have v-sync enabled and the frame-cap set to 60 - it will prevent the game from just rendering as many frames as possible! V-Sync can cause issues if your FPS drops below 60, but you can actually enable "Adaptive VSync" in the newer Nvidia Control Panel which will enable V-Sync when the frame rate is over 60fps (preventing unecessary use of your GPU) and disable it when the frame-rate drops below 60.

[Dr.Disaster]

Unless one has a 120+Hz 3D display and runs LoG2 in 2D there is no need to set a frame-cap.
Enabling Vsync and Tripple-Buffer is all it takes in general.

[badhabit]

...

Thanks for the reply. Nothing seems to help. As for SLI load balancing: I have no idea what that is, and a quick search on google makes me hesitant to the idea of tinkering with it as it seems complicated.

Are the developers taking this issue seriously? Maybe it'll get fixed in a patch or something. Do you think it would harm my GPU in the long run playing the game with temps above 90?

sorry, bad wording, meant that SLI would solve your overheating problem as the load is balanced evenly between two GPUs. Infact, I don't know either how to enforce SLI (don't have a SLI setup) but you could send a message to Ashtray who reported this working.

About if this taken seriously by the developers? hmmm, all I can tell is that performance and overheating problems existed back to Log1 and were reported several times ... I guess the developers hoped for technical progression, that with faster becoming hardware all performance problems are solved. But as Log2 is more compelx and bigger & has a retro audience the progression of hardware was not enough... to be fair, Petri did some optimizations for Log2 and implemented even a internal profiler, but my guess is he didn't took a look on a very broad HW range. (I'm often (half-)joking with fellow developers that programmers should not get the best rig in the office but the worst, to force them eat their own dog food and do serious optimizations.)

About the question if running near 90°C is problem, I think all modern GPUs throttle down at overheating... you have also some influence over that by the driver powermanagment options ...e.g. performance profiles etc. So, it is not nice ("roaring fans", power bill etc) but should not instantly destroy your hardware.

My recommendation is, sent AH an email support request for your issue(s), underlining by that the seriousness of this issues for you (and others). I guess, many reports like that are required.... Also, someone could ask AH/Petri if he can release the Profiler so that the community can help finding & debugging the game performance wise.

PS: Hansmuff gave another hint on working SLI with some driver options via "NVIDIA control panel and forced "Alternate Frame Rendering 2" for LoG2".