Red Dead Redemption 2 - SLI support - Windows 7

[Laithan]

Hi all... if you don't have RDR2 and you don't have SLI you are likely not going to be familiar with this topic and the various hacks/workarounds posted on the interwebnets. The short version of a long story here is that RDR2 does not support SLI (officially, at this time). RDR2 for PC does NOT include a DX11 API, the options are limited to DX12 and Vulkan only and of course for Windows 7 that means only Vulkan...

 

SLI - Getting SLI to work with this game has been fairly challenging. We can see that many have been able to get it to work with NVIDIA Inspector hacks (there are several) and 100% of the time the success has only been with the Vulkan API. There is a video showing it running with (2) 970's... so someone was able to use Maxwell... most others seem to be using Pascal based GPUs with some using Turing. Everyone with any success getting SLI to work has only used the Vulkan API...Windows 7 is supported by Vulkan. None of them specified the O/S, assume it was 10... but would it matter? Vulkan is Vulkan?

 

The different options covered in many other forums are (in short):

(1) Modifying a specific (hidden) unknown option with NVIDIA inspector

(2) Importing a custom game profile with NVIDIA inspector

(3) Importing a replacement for the existing Red Dead Redemption 2 game profile with NVIDIA inspector

(4) Removing the RDR2 profile with NVIDIA inspector and adding the RDR2.exe to the GTAV profile essentially making it think the game is GTAV

 

None of these worked for me...

 

I just read some rumors (no idea if there is any truth) that NVIDIA is using driver-level blocks to prevent SLI from working rendering game profile hacks useless... so now it is not working for anyone with recent drivers installed either (can anyone confirm this?). I sort of doubt this is the case but

 

I wanted to see if anyone else out there actually got SLI to work with RDR2 under Windows 7 and how did you do it and what drivers are you using?

If nothing else possibly determine that Windows 10 (AND Vulkan) is a pre-requisite for the SLI hacks to work...

 

As a reminder, this is a quote from Khronos: "The multi-GPU specification is very definitely NOT tied to Windows 10, and that it is possible to implement the Vulkan multi-GPU extension on any desktop OS, including Windows 7, 8.x, and 10 and Linux."...

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

[ENTERPRISE]

This is odd, I read from a couple of sources that RDR2 supports SLI out of the box, granted they did not state any pre-requisites for it to work but find it confusing as to why it would not function under Vulkan on Windows 7. On the same token Nvidia have nothing to gain by blocking SLI on Windows 7 for this title. I have never heard of them doing this.

 

I am not saying they aren't but fail to see the logic.

 

Did a little search and found an interesting thread, I would suggest taking a read.

 

So yes, a rollback to Nvidia Driver 441.08 with Vulcan activated gets SLI to work. The problem is that it doesnt work so well. I only get 30% load on each card. Frame wise, this gets you to 40 fps with two 1080tis. It isnt so bad if you have vsync and triple buffering on but at least it works. With a single card I was getting 15-20 fps. It's pretty playable with the way I set it up, and keep in mind this is 4k ultra settings everything. Give it some time, keep a sharp lookout in the community, and we should be able to find a better fix in the future for this game. Hope it helped for those of you out there.

 

Edit:Driver version is actually 441.08

 

https://amp.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/ds1fjb/sli_fix_for_red_dead_redemption_2_on_pc/

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[Laithan]

Thanks!

 

I'm on 441.66 currently so I'll try to roll back to 441.08 and report the results...

 

EDIT: Sadly, so far it didn't help.. I tried after rolling back to 441.08 (clean install) to just run the game.. 1 GPU utilized so then I tried several of the hacks via NVIDIA Inspector and tried a few of my own and still never got the 2nd GPU to be used. I didn't try the GTAV profile trick (to add RDR2.EXE) yet so I'll try some more things over the next days and see if I can make any progress.

 

Appreciate the help

Edited December 29, 2019 by Laithan

[ENTERPRISE]

Happy to help, let me know how you get on. I will have another dig on the web to see if I can find anything, must be others struggling with the same issue.

[ENTERPRISE]

@Laithan

 

Ok, so as an update. I had a little search on the web and apparently some people had some luck importing this profile (As attached) into Nvidia Profile Inspector and using it with RDR2 (not sure if this is the profile you have already tried). However you would get flickering in cut scenes BUT apparently it has been reported you can mitigate the flickering by disabling "Thread Optimization" in the Nvidia control panel. I would try this with the drivers mentioned previously/first set of drivers Nvidia released for RDR2 as it looks like the initial drivers had SLI working, but then something happened in later driver sets, this is what I gather after some reading.

 

This may give you SLI without any issues, the only caveat is among my reading the OS was never mentioned so this fix may be a goer on Windows 10 and not Windows 7, but its worth a blast anyway.

 

Furthermore, not sure if this servers as any decent reference but someone on YT managed to get their TITAN RTX in SLI working using the 441.20 drivers

 

 

Also mention an SLI fix for black screens on load in the comments :

Red_Dead_Redemption_II.zip

[Laithan]

Thanks so much. Still fiddling, reading and testing but still haven't ever been able to get both GPUs working. I tired that profile you attached and it made no difference sadly. I thought Vulkan libraries were included with NVIDIA drivers these days but wondering if I need to look down the Vulkan rabbit hole...

[ENTERPRISE]

Thanks so much. Still fiddling, reading and testing but still haven't ever been able to get both GPUs working. I tired that profile you attached and it made no difference sadly. I thought Vulkan libraries were included with NVIDIA drivers these days but wondering if I need to look down the Vulkan rabbit hole...

 

That is a shame. Yes Vulkan libraries are included in the driver download. However you can get Vulkan as a separate download (From what I believe) from the Nvidia Developers Site : https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver

[Laithan]

Happy New Year!

2 0 2 0

 

Again thanks so much for your kindness and assistance. I ended up giving 441.71 a spin and that didn't seem to help either. I did of course try forcing AFR1 and AFR2 via the CP so I will see if I can add RDR2.EXE to the GTAV profile again after I delete the RDR2 profile first.

 

I am currently using NVIDIA Inspector v1.9.7.3, I am not sure it matters but could try updating to v1.9.7.8

 

EDIT: v1.9.7.8 gave me issues, went back to v1.9.7.3

 

Walked through all reported solutions again, tried the Sajin profile the JustusLM profile, the GTAV profile hack... multiple drivers... I am beginning to think that there's no hope for SLI with Windows 7 and Vulkan.

 

Tried the 0x20247E01 value to 1, nothing.

"This setting appears to control the vulkan mgpu state with 0 = default, 1 = mgpu on, and 2 = mgpu off.

the setting id is shared with the only other mgpu vulkan game in existance Strange Brigade which defaults to 1."

 

 

Trying 441.20 again now

Edited January 1, 2020 by Laithan

[ENTERPRISE]

No problem at all Good idea with altering the SLI processing type. As for Nvidia Inspector, unsure what others have been using when modifying the game profiles to get RDR2 working, certainly no harm in using the most up to date version.

 

 

[Laithan]

Nothing at all helps, I gave it my best. I did read someone else having the same issue with Windows 7, so at least I am not alone. Perhaps in time there will be additional patches to address the issue.

[ENTERPRISE]

Nothing at all helps, I gave it my best. I did read someone else having the same issue with Windows 7, so at least I am not alone. Perhaps in time there will be additional patches to address the issue.

 

It's possible but I am going to say the likelihood of that happening is reduced due to the fact Win 7 is EOL. Support for the OS on all levels is being scales back, I see no reason for game developers to not follow suit in all honesty. Its a bummer but moving forward, Windows 10 is likely your best shot for game support, especially with SLI etc. I loved Windows 7 but eventually you are forced off of it one way or another eventually.

[schuck6566]

Nothing at all helps, I gave it my best. I did read someone else having the same issue with Windows 7, so at least I am not alone. Perhaps in time there will be additional patches to address the issue.

 

This might help explain why some are able to get it working but you're not even using the same methods. a quote from the article I'll link--->"the methods to use LDA Implicit or Explicit multi-GPU modes in Windows 7 and 8.1 are very different to Windows 10, which makes this a lot simpler to implement in the APIs that ship on them. The Windows Driver Development Model (WDDM) version 2.0 in Windows 10 powers this, because it plugs into everything to do with rendering graphics on your display" https://www.nag.co.za/2017/03/24/the-vulkan-api-will-allow-crossfire-and-sli-on-any-os-with-caveats/

[ENTERPRISE]

Nothing at all helps, I gave it my best. I did read someone else having the same issue with Windows 7, so at least I am not alone. Perhaps in time there will be additional patches to address the issue.

 

This might help explain why some are able to get it working but you're not even using the same methods. a quote from the article I'll link--->"the methods to use LDA Implicit or Explicit multi-GPU modes in Windows 7 and 8.1 are very different to Windows 10, which makes this a lot simpler to implement in the APIs that ship on them. The Windows Driver Development Model (WDDM) version 2.0 in Windows 10 powers this, because it plugs into everything to do with rendering graphics on your display" https://www.nag.co.za/2017/03/24/the-vulkan-api-will-allow-crossfire-and-sli-on-any-os-with-caveats/

 

Nice find !

[Laithan]

Is what it is... Thanks guys. I understand the forced obsolescence and not much can be done. Sad times IMO.

 

Editorial comment: (since I think the thread is dead anyway lol, Rant=Enabled)

I'm on Windows 7 intentionally and have no plans of abandoning it any time soon (patched or not) and I am part of an army of people that agree. What is funny is that Windows7 has actually GAINED users from 2018 - 2019 if this source is accurate. And the TOTAL windows 7 users overall is only now for the first time less than windows 10, but essentially still evenly split. That's a lot of "customers" still running Windows 7... all this after 5 years of Windows 10 being available, FORCED down the throats of "most" that didn't know any better and being sold with all new computers... 5 years later only now just breaking beyond the half way point as far as market presence? That's historic resistance actually... and IMO, for many very valid reasons.

 

I would argue that Windows 7 support should still be alive and the community and presence remain considered extremely healthy.. The lack of security patching is really going to be the only true motivator (and now SLI support in RDR2... grrrr) but with regard to games and potential customers it shouldn't matter at all.

 

[ENTERPRISE]

I for one understand 100% why people wish to remain on Windows 7, as a platform it is great and a lot less intrusive and I shared the ''Oh no Windows 10'' feeling for a little while even though I had adopted it early on, simply because I wanted to try it out. These days I am less ''Oh no'' about it all. Granted Windows 10 is still more intrusive than Windows 7, even after Microsoft made amendments to that side of thing but having said that, I found a decent balance between Win 7 and Win 10 and that was simply to either A. Install Win 10 and use utilities such as Winaero to customize my experience and shutdown annoying aspects of Windows 10 (Including the majority of the telemetry) or B. Use NTLITE to strip out Windows 10 components and fully customize it so it is as close to Windows 7 as you can get it.

 

The good thing about that is you can get it close to Win 7 while retaining the more up to date goodies which as we have experienced, goes a fair way to decent game support.

 

Windows 7 is still fine the majority of users wanting it for Office Tasks and Gaming (to a point) but I could not justify using it anymore due to the lack of support for it from MS as well as it is showing its age in some aspects, perfect example is your situation. Responsible companies certainly should not be using it, especially if they have not purchased any form of extended support.

 

Progress, not always great but not always bad lol.

[Andrew]

the options are limited to DX12 and Vulkan only and of course for Windows 7 that means only Vulkan...

 

It actually does do DX12 on Windows 7/8/8.1. When I was looking through the files for it on the day it released, it does install "12on7" by default which is the Microsoft official fix (if you can call it that) to get DX12 programs to work on 7, 8 and 8.1.

[Laithan]

That's a great point and ties into this conversation well because the only reason this was done (and proves it could have been done all along...) was to allow support for World of Warcraft. I can only assume Blizzard somehow had enough of a say to convince Microsoft to "give in" but I don't know the true story.

 

Sadly I don't think it is a full implementation of DX12 seems WOW is the only game to utilize the limited libraries at this time that I am aware of (Maybe the new Gears also?). I was hoping I could at least run 3DMark DX12 benchies, nope. I can select DX12 in Red Dead Redemption 2 but it crashes to a black screen.

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Laithan

[ENTERPRISE]

Did you ever manage to get this working ? Moving to Windows 10 anytime soon lol

 

[schuck6566]

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-sli-and-amd-crossfire-is-dead-but-should-we-mourn-multi-gpu-gaming

[Laithan]

Did you ever manage to get this working ? Moving to Windows 10 anytime soon lol

 

 

I sort of gave up trying... it seems clear that whatever implementation RDR2 uses, Windows 7 (at least appears) is incompatible with SLI in Vulkan and for all others it is a PIA.

 

I use Winblows 10 at work and even the corporate version is something that I just can't seem to... well prefer over Windows 7 even without getting into the telemetry saga. I could be stuck in my ways but IMO it is just easier and less steps, less poking around - to do just about anything.

 

My next desktop O/S might just be Linux if things keep progressing in the direction they are. I currently run more Linux servers than I do windows.

 

[Laithan]

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidi...lti-gpu-gaming

 

Sad times.. I get it though, the frametimes can be problematic. Lots of recent games (and basically all ID games) do not support SLI.

 

It is really such a bad time to lose the "2x" performance if you can afford it option... We are a time where more than ever, we NEED all of the graphics muscle we can get. 4K/60 is nice but let's be honest we all really want 4K/120Hz or 144Hz and there is no single card even remotely close to doing that. Everyone is basically stuck at 1440p/1080p until GPUs catch up. We are already seeing 8K coming to market (waaaay too early) and even a 2080Ti would fall to it's knees unless it was @ 30fps...

 

Seems like a bad time to "kill off" or not find/design ways to re-invent multi-GPU support... after all the latest APIs DX12 and Vulkan were both designed to provide new ways to utilize Multi-GPU support.. why go through all the work (years) to design and build it into the latest APIs just to kill it off before mainstream adoption. A bit odd I methinkx.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Laithan

[schuck6566]

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidi...lti-gpu-gaming

 

Sad times.. I get it though, the frametimes can be problematic. Lots of recent games (and basically all ID games) do not support SLI.

 

It is really such a bad time to lose the "2x" performance if you can afford it option... We are a time where more than ever, we NEED all of the graphics muscle we can get. 4K/60 is nice but let's be honest we all really want 4K/120Hz or 144Hz and there is no single card even remotely close to doing that. Everyone is basically stuck at 1440p/1080p until GPUs catch up. We are already seeing 8K coming to market (waaaay too early) and even a 2080Ti would fall to it's knees unless it was @ 30fps...

 

Seems like a bad time to "kill off" or not find/design ways to re-invent multi-GPU support... after all the latest APIs DX12 and Vulkan were both designed to provide new ways to utilize Multi-GPU support.. why go through all the work (years) to design and build it into the latest APIs just to kill it off before mainstream adoption. A bit odd I methinkx.

 

The RTX cards are using NVLink instead of SLI and it'll be up to the games to have support for it in them.Seems like the game companies are just cutting as many corners as possible since more sales seem to go to consoles now adays.

 

[Andrew]

I think getting SLI to work in RDR2 is hit or miss. I've heard some people say they got it working no issues, and others saying it doesn't work at all no matter what they do. SLI is pretty much dead imo. It's been slowing dying for a few years now, we have single graphics card GPUs these days that are more than good enough for 1440p 120Hz/4K 60fps in pretty much any game.

[ENTERPRISE]

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidi...lti-gpu-gaming

 

Sad times.. I get it though, the frametimes can be problematic. Lots of recent games (and basically all ID games) do not support SLI.

 

It is really such a bad time to lose the "2x" performance if you can afford it option... We are a time where more than ever, we NEED all of the graphics muscle we can get. 4K/60 is nice but let's be honest we all really want 4K/120Hz or 144Hz and there is no single card even remotely close to doing that. Everyone is basically stuck at 1440p/1080p until GPUs catch up. We are already seeing 8K coming to market (waaaay too early) and even a 2080Ti would fall to it's knees unless it was @ 30fps...

 

Seems like a bad time to "kill off" or not find/design ways to re-invent multi-GPU support... after all the latest APIs DX12 and Vulkan were both designed to provide new ways to utilize Multi-GPU support.. why go through all the work (years) to design and build it into the latest APIs just to kill it off before mainstream adoption. A bit odd I methinkx.

 

I always have to take those articles with a pinch of salt as I have heard the SLI/Xfire is dead thing far too many times and it still goes on lol. Granted there needs to be more support than there is and game developers do need to stop cutting corners. I guess what it comes down to is money, they want to get their product to market ASAP and for them not having multi GPU is a small price to pay. Unfortunately it is a little bit of a falsehood as some of their customers are going to want to use their games to the max which is where SLI/Xfire shines, but they will have stopped their customers from doing that. Kind of a vicious circle really.

 

I do not use the console argument because in all reality implementing multi-gpu into titles will not effect console one bit as it is all down to programming, a small switch in software is all that is needed and would not negatively impact the console market...vice versa for titles being ported from console to PC. I digress, there is still a place for multi-gpu but whether or not in will remain in the pro market more than the gamer market...only time will tell.

[The Pook]

if you want to ditch SLI then I'd gladly accept the unused 2080 Ti :applaud:

 

I haven't ran multi-GPU for many-a-year now but my issue never was support, it was with the frame time/pacing issues. I remember BF4 in particular scaled pretty well but the game felt terrible with Crossfire.