DX11 for Crysis 2 does not seem to be optimized for SLI. Crysis 2 with DX9 ran my cards with balance temps. Both cards were only off by 3-5 degrees. Now with DX11 my primary card is 10-15 degrees higher on stock settings. When I OC my cards today the primary peaked 97 degrees 20 degrees higher than my secondary card.

I ran 3DMark 11 with more intense graphics settings and the same OC setting range from 67-73 degrees, in which both cards were only off by 3-4 degrees.

Is anyone seeing these major temp differences in your SLI or Cross Fire setups ?

In none of my games are my temps so off regardless if its DX11 or DX10. Crysis 2 DX11 is putting more work on the primary card instead of having a near balance work load it obvious by the temps

Well the new DX11 effects tax the GPU much more so that's probably what you're seeing.

Whats your specs? also whats your mobo and are your gpu's right next to each other? or is there a space? 97 deg is def way too hot. I have 570 sli and my top card always runs hotter than my bottom card (albeit my bottom card is my primary gpu and also has a zalman vf3000 gpu cooler). my bottom card doesnt go above 45 but my top card gets up to about 70. When i have the dvi plugged into top card with top as primary my top card gets closer to ~75. 97 degrees sounds like something wrong - sure your gpu fan working? - you doing anything special with nvidia control panel settings?

You need to have a fan placed over your Gpu's if you SLI/CF that heat from thet bottom card just rises into that top card. One fan solves everything, any size can work

AMD 970 Phenom II X4 4.0 OC (Stock Voltage)
MSI NF980-G65 (Mobo)
MSI GTX580 Twin Frozr (x 2) SLI
Corsair Dominator GT 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 (BEMP)
WD VelociRapotor 10k RPM (x2)

Additional Info:
Full Tower Thermaltake Sword M Case
Ambient Temps are alwayy 65-70.
Home AC vent is blow right on the case
I am connecting through HDMI
All fans on the VCs are running at 85% which is max

The GPUs are not right next to each other they are spaced between the 2nd SLI slot. SO in other word my Mobo is Tri SLI supported, SLI 1, SLI 2 & SLI 3. SLI 1 and SLI 3 are being used for SLI only. SLI 2 is empty.

My primary card in SLI 1 has never ran this hot. It doesnt on no other game or Benchmark. It only happned when running DX11 in Crysis 2. The temps are abnormal. All the pressure is on the 1st card. Like I said 3DMark 11 are maxed out everything which puts more burden on my cards and the work load is equally shared. I can even OC on my card in 3DMark 11 and come no where newr what I am doing on stock with Crysis 2 in DX11. DX11 in Crysis 2 is not sharing the work load evenly or even near. Its more like 70-80% on the primary.

DX11 for Crysis 2 does not seem to be optimized for SLI. Crysis 2 with DX9 ran my cards with balance temps. Both cards were only off by 3-5 degrees. Now with DX11 my primary card is 10-15 degrees higher on stock settings. When I OC my cards today the primary peaked 97 degrees 20 degrees higher than my secondary card.

I ran 3DMark 11 with more intense graphics settings and the same OC setting range from 67-73 degrees, in which both cards were only off by 3-4 degrees.

Is anyone seeing these major temp differences in your SLI or Cross Fire setups ?

In none of my games are my temps so off regardless if its DX11 or DX10. Crysis 2 DX11 is putting more work on the primary card instead of having a near balance work load it obvious by the temps

are you playing with vSync?

^ no

^ no

I run Quad SLI GTX 590; with out vSync temps rise quickly, and GPU 1 was 10 degrees hotter than the others. I was getting killer fps, from 100-200 at ultra. Temps kept me concerned, so went back to vSync ON. Everything is normal now.

Plus when I use my .avi recorder during matches, I still stay at 60 fps. Dunno, maybe it's just my machine.

Sultaan, I think you should know the master card always runs hotter, i'm not so sure about a 20 degree gap, but just do what i do, turn up the fan speed, and if thats not enough, put a fan in front of the cards to blow air out the back.


I run Quad SLI GTX 590; with out vSync temps rise quickly, and GPU 1 was 10 degrees hotter than the others. I was getting killer fps, from 100-200 at ultra. Temps kept me concerned, so went back to vSync ON. Everything is normal now.

Plus when I use my .avi recorder during matches, I still stay at 60 fps. Dunno, maybe it's just my machine.

And you still love to use your FY don't you?

To the OP:

I believe the job of "balancing" a workload to both cards is function of the driver and not the game...have you by chance changed drivers or updated the SLI profile to one different that that which worked fine with 3dmark11. Also i noted that the twin frozr is not a reference style cooler, it dumps the majority of the hot air back into the case..so common sense and physics tells us heat rises and whatever hot exhaust comes out of the bottom card is recycled into the higher card (primary) thus your difference in temps. I would dare say that crysis 2 dx11 stresses the cards more since it runs continuous unlike benchmarks which have sections in which the next scene is loading and it is not doing much, allowing the card a "breather". For a real workout try running something like prime 95 and heaven benchmark looped....or even the 3dmark11 looped if it will allow you to. This will allow the temps to build up over time just like if you were stressing the complete system in a game during hours of play. If you still have a variation of temps you need to look at case airflow and see if you have any hot spots due to insufficient exhaust fans, thus allowing the hot air to be trapped and Hot spots to develop. Ultimately it seems like this is a hardware issue either from insufficient airflow or faulty components. I highly doubt a game would make one card hotter than the other, more likely the driver as i stated earlier. If you read this article on SLI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface ...it states that there are multiple ways of rendering a scene. You may want to change the setting to AFR...alternate frame rendering, since that would seem to provide the most balanced approach to splitting up workload between the 2 cards. Also have you tried flipping the location of the cards to see if the bottom card then becomes the hotter one to rule out a poor heatsink/gpu fit or faulty gpu/temp sensor.

Sultaan, I think you should know the master card always runs hotter, i'm not so sure about a 20 degree gap, but just do what i do, turn up the fan speed, and if thats not enough, put a fan in front of the cards to blow air out the back.

Yes I know the primary card always runs a little hotter than the other(s)
10-20 degrees difference is not normal
I have one 120mm pushing air directly to the front of the cards

This is my case:



I gto soo much room in that thing I can have a dance party in it

To the OP:

I believe the job of "balancing" a workload to both cards is function of the driver and not the game...

Yes of course, in this particular case the current SLI drivers does not seem to be optimized for D2 DX11

have you by chance changed drivers or updated the SLI profile to one different that that which worked fine with 3dmark11.

I have the latest nVidia drivers installed. nVidia's last SLI profile update is for Crysis 2 demo that is now already included with driver series after the release of C2

Also i noted that the twin frozr is not a reference style cooler, it dumps the majority of the hot air back into the case..so common sense and physics tells us heat rises and whatever hot exhaust comes out of the bottom card is recycled into the higher card (primary) thus your difference in temps.

Yes I am aware of the card's heat exchange dynamics. As you can see above I have the TT SwordM full tower case. I have the case setup with and in and out vacume which leave littleheat to be idle in the case.

Prime 95 is for CPU benching. I have used "Furmark" and 3DMark 11 maxed out and my temps are evenly balanced. I get Primary card 86 degrees and Secondary card 81 degrees from Furmark maxed.

Now I am starting to suspect my Rad for my CPU might be the deal. It could be possible when my CPU temps go up running DX11 in C2 the intake on the Rad blows in right over the primary car. I have a new H70 sitting hear for month, to replace my current H50, I havent installed yet. I will install it but relocate it to the upper part of the case instead of the side near the cards.

I have found the problem to the abnormal over heating issue on my primary card. The MSI Twin Frozr II has two fans. One of the fans on the right wing have stopped working. It feels as though the fan has seized up as though something got caught in the motor. Will try to rebuild it, if not I will have to order a new fan from MSI