GTX 680 Dirt 3 performance

[stev1212]

Hey guys, My GTX 680 has trouble running dirt 3 at ultra settings with FXAA @ 1080p.

SPEC:
AMD FX8120 @3.65GHZ
GTX680 @ 1GHZ
8 GIG 1600MHZ ram

These specs should be more than enough for this game and yet mine runs between 40-50 fps. Seriously so confused. My drivers are all up to date and with this being a racing game it pretty much NEEDS 60fps.
Any ideas?

 

[stev1212]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/03/22/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-2gb-review/10 I should be getting this.

 

[stev1212]

Hi guys, Yes im using adaptive V-SYNC and FXAA in the nvidia control panel. Crysis 2 runs fine at max settings with the high res pack installed.

I looked at GPU-Z while dirt was running and the 680 only seems to go up to 1006MHZ for about 40 seconds then it starts under-clocking itself to 700-800mhz, I dont understand why it's doing this. My cpu usage is between 30-50% the entire time so it shouldnt be a CPU problem. And just out of interest i turned all AA off and my frame rate was the same!? It doesnt matter if i run 8xaa or FXAA or no AA my frame rate is just consistently bad.
It's almost like the 680 is intentionality holding the game at the 45fps mark.

 

[stev1212]

It doesn't work like that. You CPU got 8 cores, and Codemaster's racing games tends to run only in 3 threads...so it's pretty much down the the performance of 3 cores ut of 8 of the 8120.

As for the GTX680 downclocking, it could be just that the dynamic overclock feature of the GTX680 kicking in...because of there isn't enough workload (CPU not giving the GPU enough jobs at a fast enough rate and mixed with the use of vsync) for it to even see the need to run the GPU at stock clock (bare in mind what I said about my mate's overclocked GTX560Ti 2GB is already capable of doing constant 60fps on Ultra and 8xAA, but with only rare occasion of dipping down to 52fps on his i3 2120).

But in benchmarks the 8120 has never been beaten by an i3? This is so frustrating it's unreal haha. Gtx 680 and my brothers 6950 runs dirt 3 better.

 

[stev1212]

To benchmark DiRT 3 you need to disable V-sync to see what the max. and min. framerates are at your chosen settings by the way. If you're forcing Adaptive V-sync then you're maximum framerate will be capped to 60 fps (on a 60 Hz display).

The behaviour you're describing above is due to using Adaptive Performance which means that if the game is running at 60 fps on a 60 Hz display with v-sync enabled then the driver will drop the clocks to reduce power consumption (since high clocks aren't needed to maintain 60 fps at that point). It'll then raise the clocks when more performance is needed.

To avoid this I'd suggest setting the Global profile's performance to "Prefer maximum performance" or, if you prefer, set it only for the DiRT 3 profile. The card will still drop down to 2D speeds on the desktop but during games it'll run at full 3D speeds.

Thanks pal, il bench it now and give you the results.

 

[stev1212]

Total frames: 7729
Average FPS: 70
Minimum FPS: 44

Thats with ultra pre-sets 4xaa no v-sync. Honestly dont know whats causing this. At the beginning of the benchmarks when you see all the cars on the line waiting to go even then my FPS sits at 55. Thats when the cars aren't even moving!

 

[stev1212]

Wrongly or rightly, if the OP paired his 680 up with an i5 he'd get what he wants

I dont think it's my 8120. All the bencmarks for the 8120 get AT LEAST 60FPS with a worse GPU. Im getting barely 50 when it's running with a 680. So something else is going on here.

Not to mention mines OC'd

 

[stev1212]

You want to ignore what I say...fine, but do yourself a favor...either:
a) use something like MSI Afterburner to display GPU usage while you bench (I'm willing to bet it is NOWHERE close to 100%)
b) overclock your CPU to see if frame rate improves on the same bench

...both will confirm if your 8120 is holding back your GTX680 or not. And I don't know what's so difficult...when you lower all the graphic settings and still pretty much get the same frame rate, it's clearly points that the CPU is the bottleneck easy enough...

And for your reference, i3 2100 is roughly on par with the Phenom II X4 980 (3.7GHz) for gaming (faster in games that use less than 4 cores), and both of them are faster than Bulldozer at 3.6GHz (around as fast as Phenom II at 3.2~3.3GHz) on gaming.

Right i installed afterburner and the 680 sits at 60% load give or take 3-4% here or there. That was with 4xaa 1080p ultra presets.

 

[stev1212]

Gonna take the 8120 to 4ghz, see what happens. BRB.

 

[stev1212]

4ghz Made 0 difference. After doing some research it seems that games that only use 2-3-4 cores do not perform well on BD at all. But games that take advantage of all cores IE: BF3, crysis 2 perform very well. That would explain my crysis results being 70fps+

Looking at task manager dirt 3 only ever loads up 3 cores and even then the CPU load sits at 30%

Also because of bulldozers architecture being 2 cores per module i think the fact DIRT is using both cores of one module and one core in another is introducing latency.

Just my 2cent.

 

[stev1212]

Id be tempted if it wasnt for the fact this system is only a week old ahah!

 

[stev1212]

More fool you.
You can DSR it.

Doesn't DSR only work in the first week?

 

[stev1212]

7 working days, the day after delivery as far as I'm aware.
OCUK have a 14 day DSR though.

Not sure why you built a BD rig for gaming?

In the hope that future games will be very threaded much like BF3 is

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

 

[stev1212]

Will i have to pay the shipping costs to get it back to them?

 

[stev1212]

You do realize you've linked to a page where the i3 is besting the FX8 right?

AHAHAH christ so i have. Gotta love copying the wrong link and making a fool of yourself.
I've just emailed OCUK about returning the system. I ordered the system on the 30th and it arrived on the second but had to go back to them due to damage on the case. They wont count the 4 repair days as part of my DSR time limit will they?

 

[stev1212]

Well surely im just as entitled to return a full system as i am a monitor?

 

[stev1212]

Have to just see what they say. Cheers for your help anyways

 

[stev1212]

& I really dont know whats going on with dirt. It seems to me to be some weird driver issue.

 

[stev1212]

You're likely out of the time frame.
You win some you lose some.

They've emailed me back and are happy to refund the system for me.

 

[stev1212]

That's awesome news!
Make sure you go for an i5 system.
If you can build it yourself, it'd help.

Am i looking at much of a saving if i build it myself?