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Advice on GPU + 120Hz

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Posts
4,838
Location
Cheshire
Hello,

I have a rather faithful 5970 which when paired with my Benq 120Hz monitor played BFBC2 easily at 120fps. This was an absolute joy.

I am pretty good at FPS games in general, and do notice input lag and refresh, so consider these more important that maxing the settings to Ultra. So I'm pretty clued up on input and display components. I never use crap stuff in this department.

With BF3 I can only get consistently above 60 fps on High settings with 0xAA, so I have locked it at 60fps (GameTime.MaxVariableFps 60).

But now I'm really not enjoying the 60fps and feel I can't get the balance of dropping graphics anymore to be pleasing on the eye. Plus, being a reasonalbe player I don't like the fact I can't have at least 2xx AA to ensure I see enemies clearly in the distance.

So will a single 7970 or 680 get me up to 120fps if I keep the graphics at high, hbao + 2xAA? I don't mind my current settings, but definitely want to enable some AA and hit 120fps. I have not seen a review that will confirm this, although I haven't looked too hard if im honest.

My PSU is a very good one (BeQuiet) but only 750W. I new this was a bit skimpy when I bought it 3 years ago (didnt have any other instock when I bought all the components) but with gfx requiring less and less power I'm hoping I can cfx/sli anyway now.

Any advice/expeirence would be much appreciated.
 
From what I am aware no GPU will play BF3 at 120FPS constantly. Thing is, no one really tests these games at odd settings like the ones you wish to run it at.

The 7950 can pretty much do what both of the others do if you overclock it, so only look to the 680 and 7970 if money is no object.
 
I am getting around 95-100fps average on majority of maps on Ultra without 2x or 4xMSAA though the motion is a lot better than some anti aliasing i think...with 4xMSAA it's about 70fps average or around that so 2x is probably like 75-80.(not tried it yet much as i just usually go with 4xMSAA if i am going to enable it)
 
Depending on maps i get between 80-150fps with a single 7970 @1125/1575. That's @1080 with high presets.

The exception being "Strike at Karkand" get terrible frames on that, dunno why...but i hate playing on that map.
 
To the best of my knowledge no single GPU today can deliver consistent 120fps performance in BF3 at maximum settings for a typical (1080p) resolution.

I expect you would need a minimum of GTx680 SLI or 7970 CF, but CPU capability also directly impacts minimum FPS, which will be your issue.

A single GTX680 or 7970 is more than capable of exceeding 120fps maximum at 1920x1200 with all settings on maximum, but the minimum FPS will be around 50.

Since you'd need two cards to get the level of performance you're looking for you might also find things a bit tight no your PSU, I'm not sure. It's probably OK, but others may have a different view.

Personally I run a single GTX680 with an i5-750 @ 4GHz on an 8 year-old Enermax Liberty 620W PSU which has been absolutely faultless (WHY do OCUK not sell them any more? Surely one of the best PSU manufacturers out there!) and it's perfectly happy, but I wouldn't want to load it with a second card.
 
If you are a competitive gamer, and play BF3 on medium/ high mix, may I suggest a 680gtx.

I have recently acquired one and play BF3 with the fore mentioned settings and enjoy 120-160 FPS with my i7/680gtx combo on my 120mhz monitor.

These figures are in a 64 man Caspian Border Server (WonkaWarriors).

Hope it helps.

AM
 
It might seem like a silly suggestion but i thought competitve gamers turned details down in game deliberately to remove clutter from your view.

If that is the case anything from a 480 upwards can run 1080p @ 120Hz on medium.

I run either high or medium on my o/c'ed 480 to keep frame rates up and either enjoy the view or get serious!:cool:

Sadly your 5970 is probably just VRAM limited.
 
If you are a competitive gamer, and play BF3 on medium/ high mix, may I suggest a 680gtx.

I have recently acquired one and play BF3 with the fore mentioned settings and enjoy 120-160 FPS with my i7/680gtx combo on my 120mhz monitor.

These figures are in a 64 man Caspian Border Server (WonkaWarriors).

Hope it helps.

AM

This is great news. I only have a 750w and I know it will drive 2x 680 but probably not 2x7970.
 
It might seem like a silly suggestion but i thought competitve gamers turned details down in game deliberately to remove clutter from your view.

If that is the case anything from a 480 upwards can run 1080p @ 120Hz on medium.

I run either high or medium on my o/c'ed 480 to keep frame rates up and either enjoy the view or get serious!:cool:

Sadly your 5970 is probably just VRAM limited.

We do. Well, I'm not really competitive - I did a little bit back in my early 20's.

Problem is AA...and I think nvidia are better at this.

Defo VRAM limited at the moment (my 5970 is the 1GB version).

Think I'll pick up 1x680 this weekend, and then get another when prices fall.

Either way I'm sure I'll be getting improvements.


I notice that the 680 only comes with 2GB! I guess this is fine for a few years at 1080p.
 
From what I am aware no GPU will play BF3 at 120FPS constantly. Thing is, no one really tests these games at odd settings like the ones you wish to run it at.

The 7950 can pretty much do what both of the others do if you overclock it, so only look to the 680 and 7970 if money is no object.

ive seen some streams online where ive seen the guy constantly above 120 adk gamers or something on twitch tv
 
I second the above, like you I'm using a 120Hz monitor and am sensitive to fps drop / input lag. My spec is in my sig and even on a modest "High" setting with occlusion effects disabled it's still not a *solid* 120fps. On large 64 player maps it dips to 60ish (shock horror)

Waiting for whatever comes after 7990 :)

::edit:: at 1080p. I do have an eyefinity setup but forget it for BF3, nowhere near enough horsepower
 
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I second the above, like you I'm using a 120Hz monitor and am sensitive to fps drop / input lag. My spec is in my sig and even on a modest "High" setting with occlusion effects disabled it's still not a *solid* 120fps. On large 64 player maps it dips to 60ish (shock horror)

Waiting for whatever comes after 7990 :)

::edit:: at 1080p. I do have an eyefinity setup but forget it for BF3, nowhere near enough horsepower

Change of mind. OC are out of stock, so i wont bother this weekend driving round to them. Think ill wait forthe prices to drop amd just get 2 680s in a couple of months.

Hopefully at high and 2xAA ill get my 100+ frames.


Shame that 2 generations on and im having to step down in quality of play.
 
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