Verdun is shaping up to be an amazing game with great gameplay and nice graphics. Due to the game still being in Early Access and changing constantly, there is no official SLI profile yet for the game. This results in the game not being able to utilise the full potential of SLI rigs.

After some experimentation, I was able to create a working SLI profile that nearly doubled the fps on my own system. I used to get around 40 to 80 fps depending on the amount of action. With my SLI profile, my fps went up to around 80 to 175. I also played a few matches online and my fps never dipped below 60, even during intensive fights.


This small guide will help you harness the power of SLI for Verdun.

Before we go into detail, be sure to always run the latest drivers for your video card(s). You can always find the latest drivers on http://www.geforce.com

Next, we'll need only one tool to help us enable SLI, namely nvidiaInspector. After downloading, simply extract the contents of the archive to a folder of choice, and start "nvidiaInspector.exe".

You can download the latest version here: http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/nvidia_inspector_download.html


To check if the fix worked, you could use the ingame fps counter. But while this will give you a good idea if the fix works, you'll need a more specialised tool to see if the game is using both of your cards (or all three or four if you own a tri/quad-sli system). There are several free tools that you can use to display all kinds of data about your GPU onscreen, and I've added some of the more popular ones to the list below:

EVGA Precision X
>> Download: http://www.evga.com/precision/
>> I personally use this one myself. It has a handy OSD (On-Screen Display) option that offers an overlay with whatever info you want about your GPU's during gameplay.
>> You don't need to own a EVGA card to download this, but you will need to register on the site.

MSI Afterburner
>> Download: http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/
>> Offers the same functionality as Precision X.
>> You don't need to own a MSI card to download this. No registration needed as far as I know.

To enable SLI for Verdun, we'll need to create a custom profile with nVidia Inspector. The steps below will guide you through this process.


STEP 1: Run nvidiaInspector, and click on the Driver profile settings button (little button with the wrench and screwdriver icon next to your current driver info)



STEP 2: Click the "Create new profile" button (4th button on the toolbar, the little orange sun-like icon) and enter the name for your new custom profile.



STEP 3: Click on the "Add application to current profile" button (6th button on the toolbar, with the little green plus sign on) and locate the Verdun executable. This can usually be found the the following folder:
>>> [Steam install folder]\SteamApps\common\Verdun



STEP 4: Scroll down to SLI section, and change the following settings:
>>> Number of GPU's to use on SLI rendering mode = SLI_GPU_COUNT_TWO (ofcourse, if you own more than 2 cards, change this setting to the appropriate one)
>>> SLI rendering mode = SLI_RENDERING_MODE_FORCE_AFR2

You can also optionally set the following settings, although these normally won't do much on their own (these usually only seem to work in an official profile):
>>> nVidia predefined number of GPU's to use on SLI rendering mode = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_FOUR (you could set this to "TWO" or "THREE" depending on your setup, but the drivers are smart enough to automatically choose the right number when using these "predefined" settings).
>>> SLI rendering mode = SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_FORCE_AFR2



And that's it! The above settings should force the game to use SLI and give you a nice fps boost.

There a some further tweaks we can do, but these are entirely optional.

For example, I like to play with vsync on to keep the framerate constant and also "spare" my cards a bit (anything about 60fps is overkill imo). Normal vsync however can butcher your fps if you drop below 60 fps, causing stuttering. nVidia solved this problem with their "adaptive vsync" technology that keeps all the good things from normal vsync but without the drawbacks.

So one of the first things I usually do when I start playing a game is force adaptive vsync in its profile. You can do this by altering the following settings in the Common section of the profile (see also screenshot below):
>>> Vertical Sync Tear Control = Adaptive
>>> Vertical Sync = Force on

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to use adaptive vsync, be sure to turn vsync off in the ingame settings or you will experience problems!


Another tweak I usually make is forcing the drivers to use all the power they can handle. Usually with default driver settings your cards will only use whatever power they need at the exact moment they need it. While your cards might conserve some energy that way, I've noticed that in some games this caused fps drops whenever something graphically intense happened. This seems mainly because the drivers have no way of anticipating when exactly they'll need more power, thus drawing not enough power when it's actually needed. Of course, as always: YMMV.

The simple tweak below has helped me get a smooth and constant 60 fps in quite a few games in the past (also in the Common section of the profile):
>>> Power management mode = Prefer maximum power



And finally, you'll see that a lot more settings are available in nVidia Inspector. You can force better antialiasing for example, or add better looking ambient occlusion. Discussing all possible tweaks would take us a bit too far in this guide, so I'll leave it to you to experiment with the other settings. But if you do experiment a bit and stumble across a good tweak, don't hesitate to let me know in the comments.

If you've used nVidia Inspector before, you might have noticed that we didn't set SLI compatibility bits in the profile. This is intentional!

I have experimented with different compatibility bits used by other (Unity) games, but the game seems to run the smoothest without setting any compatibility bits.

This might ofcourse change with newer drivers, but if that happens I'll update the guide.

While the above fixes will help you enable SLI, there is one small catch you should be aware of: as I have already mentioned, when you update your GPU drivers there is a big chance that the Hard Reset profile will be reset or that your custom profile gets deleted.

If this happens, you have two options:
1. Simply repeat the steps above to re-enable SLI.
2. Before installing the new drivers, export your custom/changed profiles with nvidiaInspector. You can import them again after the driver has been installed.



If nVidia however already added an official profile in the update, then you should be set without having to manually create a new custom profile (or import your exported custom profile). Plus, with an official profile there is always a chance that the game will run even better than with a custom one.

To give you and idea about what boost you can expect, I've added two screenshots below. These were taken with the following settings:
>>> Resolution = 1920x1200
>>> Shadows = High
>>> Antialiasing = On
>>> Vsync = Off
>>> Other options (AO, DOF, HDR,...) = Off

With the custom profile, my ingame FPS have doubled. Also notice that both cards in my setup are being fully used by the game.


BEFORE: (+-95% usage on card, other card sitting idle)


AFTER: (+-95% usage on each card)


PS: While the screens are taken in the settings menu, the increase in fps is the same while actually playing. I've yet to see a dip below 60fps since I've enabled the custom profile.