5970 Good average fps but low lows

[Duke_]

Hi all,

Any ideas on why I'm getting high highs, good averages & low lows for the framerates in BF3? The game certainly slows down when lots of buildings and smoke are around - is it time for an upgrade already!?

I'm running a ATI 5970 @ core 900, Memory 1200 and BF3 is set to ultra but without any 'post' effects on. Resolution 1900x1200. The card is the Sapphire OC version with 1GB Vram per gpu.

Thanks for your help, any other info you'd like please shout.

Spec:
3930k @4.2Ghz
16GB 1833 RAM
Vertex 2 SSD

Temps
5970 ~50C
CPU ~40C

Framerates:
Min 21, 18, 20
Max 201, 158, 200
Av 95, 90, 97

 

[BS Dave]

Vram? My 7970 uses 1500mb at 1680x1050 on ultra. i know that might not be what it "needs" but try experimenting with 2xMSAA and 4xMSAA and see if that helps

 

[:(Rhodri:)]

What drivers and caps are you running? That makes a huge difference with the 5970 I find. I'm running the same clocks as you and never dip below 60 at 1920x1080. What AA are you using?

 

[Marine-RX179]

I think you might be getting micro-shutter? Try use some software (such as MSI Afterburner) to cap the max frame rate to 60fps (standard moniters can't displayer higher than 60fps anyway) and see if it helps.

And definitely don't use higher than 2xMSAA, as 1GB VRAM won't be enough for it. Use FXAA only if you can.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Didn't the 5970 always have considerable lows at times though? I remember upgrading to a 6990 from my 5970 - I didn't expect to notice a difference, but I was shocked at how much smoother things became.

 

[Duke_]

Thanks for all the early replies, more info:

BF3 settings
AA deferred - off
AA post - off
motion blur - off
Anisotropic filter - 16x
Ambilent occlusion HBAO

Catalyst version 12.3, CAPs - the one before 12.6 (I assume 12.5!)

All settings on application preference
Tesselation optimised
Texture filtering quality set to quality
Surface format optimisation - off (not sure why I had this off, is it any good?)
Mipmap detail - Quality
Vertical refresh off

AA - Quality, Super Sample AA

 

[arc@css]

I haven't played BF3, but if possible try selecting HDAO, which is more suited to ATi / AMD gpu's. If I recall rightly, HBAO is for nVidia gpu's.