2x gtx980's in SLI causing 3dsmax 2014 viewport issues

[stevesideas]

Is anyone else using a similar configuration ? View ports are really playing up now !

I was hoping to use SLI to speed up the viewport performance and also for vrayRT performance. For games it works well but I cannot detach the sli cable every time I need to use max.

[Franx]

SLI isnt supported by Max, so no viewport speed-ups there. And RT doesnt require SLI either.

[stevesideas]

Looks like I have to turn off SLI when using max from the nvidia control panel. Oh well. I didn't buy it for this reason really but it would just have been nice.

[cheerioboy]

So in the GPU Benchmarks when they say they're using multiple GPUs, it's through DR with other machines? Seems like there's never been a good reason for SLI...

[Franx]

RT will use all the gfx cards present in your system, it just doesnt need SLI enabled to work.

[cheerioboy]

So could you set them up in SLI anyways? Or would you have to install them separately and have one card be the dominant for all display, viewport, etc. and the second card would only kick in for vray RT work? This is good to know since I was looking to build a new desktop rig.

[Franx]

Unless you really need SLI for gaming, just leave it out. Might cause issues as Steve is experiencing. For the viewports, it depends on which monitor is hooked up to which card.

[stevesideas]

You can have the cards set up as SLI in terms of hardware but you can disable it in the nvidia control panel for max usage. Then you can use it for vrayRT as two GPU's.

Gaming does seem to be the only reason to have SLI enabled.

[savage309]

So in the GPU Benchmarks when they say they're using multiple GPUs, it's through DR with other machines? Seems like there's never been a good reason for SLI...

No need of DR, no need of SLI.
Just start V-Ray and it will use of the GPUs that are in the system (if you want to choose which devices to use, there is a tool named ocldeviceselect.exe (works for CUDA and OpenCL) that comes with the V-Ray installation, which lets you to do that).

[stevesideas]

Well. After a complete uninstall of the drivers and re-install of latest drivers I can now have the system in SLI all the time without impact on the 3dsmax viewport. Maybe I had a dodgy setting in the nvidia control panel.