670 SLI and 1440P

Rusty0611 · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:20

SkodaMart - Snodge has one single 670 not two yet.

No-one is doubting an i7 helps with two GPUs - LtMatt is talking about one GPU.

LtMatt · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:23

Yes Rusty is correct, sorry should have made it clearer.

Anyway my point was, i don't believe there is any bottleneck whatsoever with a single card and an 2500k in battlefield 3.

If someone can prove different, then please do so as id be interested to hear about it.

SkodaMart · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:25

Rusty0611 said:
SkodaMart - Snodge has one single 670 not two yet.

No-one is doubting an i7 helps with two GPUs - LtMatt is talking about one GPU.

If an i5 CPU limits your framerate to 50fps with two cards, surely it will also limit you framerate to 50 fps with a single card?

I am referring to action scenes in BF3.

If you can get higher than 50 fps with the same CPU and a single card please feel free to explain.

SkodaMart · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:27

LtMatt said:
Yes Rusty is correct, sorry should have made it clearer.

Anyway my point was, i don't believe there is any bottleneck whatsoever with a single card and an 2500k in battlefield 3.

If someone can prove different, then please do so as id be interested to hear about it.

No the card and the CPU should be well matched, with this I agree.

There will be times when the GPU limits fps and there will be times when the CPU limits fps but it will be well balanced.

ninjah · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:30

Snodge said:
Hiya my rig's spec is in my sig I was wondering how I'd get on with two 670's overclocked on a 1440p monitor?

I play bf3 in sli with gtx670 wf3 @ 1440p and 120hz I can say it run perfect on my system with everything on ultra. According to your spec it should fine.

SkodaMart · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:32

ninjah said:
I play bf3 in sli with gtx670 wf3 @ 1440p and 120hz I can say it run perfect on my system with everything on ultra. According to your spec it should fine.

But you have an i7

ninjah · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:49

SkodaMart said:
But you have an i7

Your CPU is the next generation from mine which mean you have better physic score than mine.

Snodge · 30 Oct 2012 at 12:52

Should probably be the case

JamesM · 30 Oct 2012 at 13:01

One card will not be bottle necked by a 2500k, whether it's a 7970 or 670+.

1080p is bottle necked by two cards on a 3750k however, you will notice an improvement with an 3770k (maybe a overclocked 2600/2700 too however I haven't tested this so can't confirm).

I need to get a new monitor to make use of the remaining GPU usage tbh

Snodge · 30 Oct 2012 at 13:02

What games are you playing?

Kaapstad · 30 Oct 2012 at 13:05

ninjah said:
Your CPU is the next generation from mine which mean you have better physic score than mine.

The reason i7s run BF3 better with Multi GPUs is that they use hyperthreading. It does not matter if they are first, second or third generation or SB-E.

JamesM · 30 Oct 2012 at 13:11

Snodge said:
What games are you playing?

BF3, MOHW, Metro, Dirt 3, F1 2011, World of Tanks, Borderlands 2 are some.

Still don't get 100% GPU usage on both cards at 1080p, plus fps drops in BF3 sometimes hit 70. Running one card and it runs at 99% usage constantly.

ninjah · 30 Oct 2012 at 14:41

Kaapstad said:
The reason i7s run BF3 better with Multi GPUs is that they use hyperthreading. It does not matter if they are first, second or third generation or SB-E.

But of course..... I completely forgot about the hyperthreading.

Devion · 30 Oct 2012 at 15:48

It is absolute rubbish that he should upgrade his CPU. Especially when it comes to BF3, there is no CPU botteneck. Even among budget CPU's! http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-4.html

And hyper threading has NOTHING to do with gaming performance, in most cases the performance DROPS, it is merely for compiling, audio en video editing etc.. If you dont believe me, check this out: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Core-i7-Nehalem,2057-12.html Same is applied for BF3.

When the resolution is this high, it doesnt matter if you replace your CPU with a monkey, the game will always be GPU bound. Ofc. exception are with CounterStrike 1.6, but with this rig were are talking about Crysis 1/2, BF3 etc..

Best thing to do is to get a GTX670 extra if your current card cant handle it, your CPU is FINE(Yes even with dual card setup) and people who think otherwise are ill-informed.

Kaapstad · 30 Oct 2012 at 16:56

Devion said:
It is absolute rubbish that he should upgrade his CPU. Especially when it comes to BF3, there is no CPU botteneck. Even among budget CPU's! http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-4.html

And hyper threading has NOTHING to do with gaming performance, in most cases the performance DROPS, it is merely for compiling, audio en video editing etc.. If you dont believe me, check this out: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Core-i7-Nehalem,2057-12.html Same is applied for BF3.

When the resolution is this high, it doesnt matter if you replace your CPU with a monkey, the game will always be GPU bound. Ofc. exception are with CounterStrike 1.6, but with this rig were are talking about Crysis 1/2, BF3 etc..

Best thing to do is to get a GTX670 extra if your current card cant handle it, your CPU is FINE(Yes even with dual card setup) and people who think otherwise are ill-informed.

I dont recall mentioning that the OP replaced his CPU. Having said that BF3 is one of the few games that makes use of the extra cores/threads available on an i7. There are several people on these forums who have compared the i5 and i7 in the same rig and have found an improvement with multi GPUs. Have you tried this ?.

I found it interesting looking at the first link you provided, this is the first thing it said.

Moving onto Battlefield 3, we get a single-player test that puts a much stronger emphasis on graphics performance, though a capable CPU is much more necessary for a smooth multi-player experience.

The second link I belive was from 2008 and the only way BF3 would have been relivant is if they were running the system with a crystal ball in an expansion slot.

Best thing to do is to get a GTX670 extra if your current card cant handle it, your CPU is FINE(Yes even with dual card setup) and people who think otherwise are ill-informed.

Yes the next step would be to look at adding another GTX 670. The only problem then would be that GPU usage in BF3 would probably drop. This is where adding an i7 to the system would increase GPU usage. Whether the increased usage is worth it is really up to the user.

Finally I belive you are the one who is ill-informed.

By the way welcome to these forums, this is a great place to learn stuff.

Rusty0611 · 30 Oct 2012 at 17:09

Devion said:
Best thing to do is to get a GTX670 extra if your current card cant handle it, your CPU is FINE(Yes even with dual card setup) and people who think otherwise are ill-informed.

Actually you are - I upgraded from an i5 2500K/680 SLI combo to an i7/680 SLI combo. Same Windows install, same drivers... old CPU out, new CPU in... overclock applied.

GPU usage up from 80-85% in BF3 to 95-99% at 5760*1080 resolution. I didn't test fully at 1920*1080 but as JamesM reports - his minimums were higher with the i7.

If you're going to be so eccentric in your post you should at least ensure that you're right

.

Cleeecooo · 30 Oct 2012 at 17:39

Devion said:
It is absolute rubbish that he should upgrade his CPU. Especially when it comes to BF3, there is no CPU botteneck. Even among budget CPU's! http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-4.html

Wait, I thought we were talking about the differences between a 2500k and 2600k... that link doesn't bother with i7s

Also:

we won't be able to draw any conclusions using Battlefield 3's campaign.

On top of that, you say:

your CPU is FINE(Yes even with dual card setup)

When you can't back it up with data from your link which says:

All test systems employ the fastest single-GPU graphics card available, AMD's Radeon HD 7970.

Finally, as Rusty said, a few users on this forum have said they were CPU bottlenecked.

TL;DR: You're horribly wrong.

Devion · 30 Oct 2012 at 17:46

Kaapstad said:
I dont recall mentioning that the OP replaced his CPU. Having said that BF3 is one of the few games that makes use of the extra cores/threads available on an i7. There are several people on these forums who have compared the i5 and i7 in the same rig and have found an improvement with multi GPUs. Have you tried this ?.

I found it interesting looking at the first link you provided, this is the first thing it said.

Rusty0611 said:
SkodaMart - Snodge has one single 670 not two yet.

No-one is doubting an i7 helps with two GPUs - LtMatt is talking about one GPU.

Phunky said:
Bit too vague with the CPU types really, could have been a first gen i5 and second gen i7 which would see huge performance boosts.

They were suggesting there was a difference, there isn't. What forum members experienced here is cognitive dissonance or just a new reinstall after upgrading there CPU. It's your word VS professional review. If you are an owner of an expensive and fast CPU, you will seek validation aka cognitive dissonance.(Not saying you do, but most people do)

Gaming wise, there is no benefit between an I5 2500 or I7 2600 or newer generations. On the topic multiplayer experience, yes I read that, but there shouldnt be a difference. It is more likely that singleplayer will be more CPU bound because of the extra AI calculations.

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

Kaapstad said:
The second link I belive was from 2008 and the only way BF3 would have been relivant is if they were running the system with a crystal ball in an expansion slot.

*Facepalm* You have no idea what HyperThreading is for do you? It doesnt matter if it was from 1992. HyperThreading is NOT going to increase your performance in a gaming. This has to with internal working of HyperThreading and the overhead that it has. Native multicore can help by taking over tasks like Windows etc. in the background. NO game out there has true support for multicore for singlethreaded applications like games.

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

It's a pure marketing trick.....

Kaapstad said:
Yes the next step would be to look at adding another GTX 670. The only problem then would be that GPU usage in BF3 would probably drop. This is where adding an i7 to the system would increase GPU usage. Whether the increased usage is worth it is really up to the user.

Sorry lad but you are really off here.

If not demanding a full 100% load with two cards, yes his GPU usage could go down as he has "horsepower" to spare. However adding a faster CPU will NOT lower GPU usage. GPU and CPU has completely different threads aslong if they dont bottleneck each other, there should be no difference. Something else is most likely influencing your performance.

Rusty0611 said:
Actually you are - I upgraded from an i5 2500K/680 SLI combo to an i7/680 SLI combo. Same Windows install, same drivers... old CPU out, new CPU in... overclock applied.

GPU usage up from 80-85% in BF3 to 95-99% at 5760*1080 resolution. I didn't test fully at 1920*1080 but as JamesM reports - his minimums were higher with the i7.

If you're going to be so eccentric in your post you should at least ensure that you're right .

Anandtech, Tom Hardware statistical approach vs cognitive dissonance on your side.....

Now you dont have to be a scientist to see which is more reliable.....

Cleeecooo said:
Wait, I thought we were talking about the differences between a 2500k and 2600k... that link doesn't bother with i7s
Also:
On top of that, you say:
When you can't back it up with data from your link which says:
Finally, as Rusty said, a few users on this forum have said they were CPU bottlenecked.
TL;DR: You're horribly wrong.

Check out the new link I put up in reaction to one of the poster before you.

You really have very poor understanding of hardware performance...(i5 vs i7 in gaming.....do you even READ reviews mate?)

Rusty0611 · 30 Oct 2012 at 17:50

Devion said:
What forum members experienced here is positive feedback or just a new reinstall after upgrading there CPU.

Rusty0611 said:
I upgraded from an i5 2500K/680 SLI combo to an i7 3770K/680 SLI combo. Same Windows install, same drivers... old CPU out, new CPU in... overclock applied.

Wrong.

Kaapstad · 30 Oct 2012 at 18:00

Sorry lad but you are really off here.

If not demanding a full 100% load with two cards, yes his GPU usage could go down as he has "horsepower" to spare. However adding a faster CPU will NOT lower GPU usage. GPU and CPU has completely different threads as if they dont bottleneck each other, there should be no difference.

My CPU @4.0ghz has no problem driving 4 GPUs upto 98% efficiency in BF3 are you telling me if I was to change to a faster CPU like an overclocked i5 I could get equal/better performance in BF3.