Battlefield 3 RETAIL Performance Thread

djay · 3 Nov 2011 at 00:52

I purchased another 5870 from the MM so i could run Crossfire. I found that i could play BF3 for around 40minutes then it would become a slide slow, massive stuttering it became unplayable.

I installed the MSI Afterburner app and recorded a log of the temps and gpu usage whilst playing and when the stuttering began, the second GPU was slowing down to around 25% usage.

Uninstalled the 11.10 Drivers and went back to 11.9 and it is now working perfectly. Thought i would put this up as it was driving me mad and it may help someone else.

'Wes · 3 Nov 2011 at 07:54

djay said:
Uninstalled the 11.10 Drivers and went back to 11.9 and it is now working perfectly. Thought i would put this up as it was driving me mad and it may help someone else.

Thanks for that, i'll test this out later when i get home from work, i've been rather skeptical about the 11.10 drivers lately.

Are you running a CAP as well?

elrasho · 3 Nov 2011 at 08:49

This is strange, everyone seems to be getting different results with similar hardware setups but different drivers. I'm running the game fine using 11.10 preview 3 drives but others with CF 5850 get stuttering and so go back to 11.9 to fix this. This inconsistency is getting me worried about ATI drivers.

Random Guy · 3 Nov 2011 at 08:55

From the [H] Benchmark Article above:

To test the single player campaign in Battlefield 3, we first played through the game in its entirety. At the end of testing, we found that the first complete mission, Operation Swordbreaker, offered the most challenging graphics and lowest performance

This is very disappointing as it does not take Multiplayer performance into account.

Is there a way of displaying average FPS using a console command? I can then tell everyone how my GTX 480 SLI gets along in 2560x1440 with all settings at 'High' (apart from texture at 'Ultra', MLAA 'Off', and Post-AA 'High') in Multiplayer Conquest-64...

ChrisD. · 3 Nov 2011 at 08:59

Use MSI Afternurner, or open the console and enter Render.DrawFps 1

I personally prefer MSI Afterburner, as you can display FPS, temps, usage, or whatever you specify.

Random Guy · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:02

Okay, just had another look at the article and I should have read it to the end:

Stay tuned, as we dive into multiplayer performance and image quality in a separate evaluation.

Doh! Disregard my earlier statement!

@MilanoChris: The Render.DrawFPS command only displays the average FPS in the last second, not the average over your session. The CTRL+ALT+S option in the Beta was great because it gave you the max, min and average FPS.

Does Afterburner actually provide an in-game overlay for FPS?

ChrisD. · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:06

Yes, it shows constant FPS.

You can customise what it shows, and if you have a G15 or similar, you can put stuff on the LCD screen.

Random Guy · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:08

Excellent! Will be having a look at this tonight I think.

EDIT: Although....is it showing average FPS or just FPS at the moment?

Stimpy_7 · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:28

Hi all,

Have the stuttering issues been fully worked out with the 5970 specifically? Anyone still having problems?

Cheers

'Wes · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:39

elrasho said:
This is strange, everyone seems to be getting different results with similar hardware setups but different drivers. I'm running the game fine using 11.10 preview 3 drives but others with CF 5850 get stuttering and so go back to 11.9 to fix this. This inconsistency is getting me worried about ATI drivers.

I know what you mean, people are experiencing very good things from the 11.10 drivers and CAP 4 app, yet i'm not, it's rather weird.

spookywillow · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:53

Irish_Hawk said:
Thanks for the help Spooky.
Think I'm gonna try remove the second card completely, and see if it reduces the strain on my CPU/PSU even more than disabling it.
Then try get steady settings in BF3.

does it run ok in SP with both cards?

sedmonds · 3 Nov 2011 at 10:56

Performance on Battlefield 3 - my results.

Resolution 2560x1600
GFX: 2x6950 @ 950/1375
CPU: 2600k @ 4.8GHZ

Settings: Automatic (pretty much almost all ultra except for a couple of high settings), not at my PC at the moment, but can probably post a screenie later with the correct settings.

FPS generally is between 60-100, normally sitting around 70 (Multiplayer on 64 player servers).

VRAM usage hovers around 3.1GB over the 2 cards. (so around 1.5GB each).

Driver: AMD 11.10 WHQL, CAP 4, wonderful drivers, no crashes at all in several hours of gaming.

Random Guy · 3 Nov 2011 at 10:59

sedmonds said:
Performance on Battlefield 3 - my results.

Resolution 2560x1600
GFX: 2x6950 @ 950/1375
CPU: 2600k @ 4.8GHZ

Settings: Automatic (pretty much almost all ultra except for a couple of high settings), not at my PC at the moment, but can probably post a screenie later with the correct settings.

FPS generally is between 60-100, normally sitting around 70.

Driver: AMD 11.10 WHQL, CAP 4, wonderful drivers, no crashes at all in several hours of gaming.

Single-player or Multi-player?

sedmonds · 3 Nov 2011 at 11:05

Random Guy said:
Single-player or Multi-player?

Multi-player (64 player servers).

JaffAWood · 3 Nov 2011 at 11:07

sedmonds said:
Performance on Battlefield 3 - my results.

Resolution 2560x1600
GFX: 2x6950 @ 950/1375
CPU: 2600k @ 4.8GHZ

Settings: Automatic (pretty much almost all ultra except for a couple of high settings), not at my PC at the moment, but can probably post a screenie later with the correct settings.

FPS generally is between 60-100, normally sitting around 70.

Driver: AMD 11.10 WHQL, CAP 4, wonderful drivers, no crashes at all in several hours of gaming.

This makes me sad.... Dont get me wrong im pleased for you BUT i play @ 1920/1080 on high, shadows on medium (i had to turn the auto down) with the xfire 6950's im getting between 20-40 MAYBE 50 if i look at the sky... How CPU limited is this game..?

spec in sig, using 11.10 WHQL, CAP 4.

ashmanuk67 · 3 Nov 2011 at 11:20

sedmonds said:
Performance on Battlefield 3 - my results.

Resolution 2560x1600
GFX: 2x6950 @ 950/1375
CPU: 2600k @ 4.8GHZ

Settings: Automatic (pretty much almost all ultra except for a couple of high settings), not at my PC at the moment, but can probably post a screenie later with the correct settings.

FPS generally is between 60-100, normally sitting around 70 (Multiplayer on 64 player servers).

VRAM usage hovers around 3.1GB over the 2 cards. (so around 1.5GB each).

Driver: AMD 11.10 WHQL, CAP 4, wonderful drivers, no crashes at all in several hours of gaming.

WOW what a great overclock :eek:

I have a Q5550 @3.4Ghz so your thing is pretty cool

Most of the time i am around the 70 mark i have gone down to as low as 34fps

gets rather leggy around that part of the map?
I do believe there is some work to be done on BF3 side and its not all down to the graphics drivers.
Have to say i have been playing First Person Shooters for years and i am getting soooo much fun out of this game and i love the way people are using thr PRONE position that one bit alone ads so much to the dynamics of the game, I think my children have forgotten who there DAD is

djay · 3 Nov 2011 at 11:28

'Wes said:
Thanks for that, i'll test this out later when i get home from work, i've been rather skeptical about the 11.10 drivers lately.

Are you running a CAP as well?

Hi, no, i did try it with 11.10 but since removing them and going back to 11.9 i'm not using one. Played MP last night for a good 2 hours and it ran fantastic, no stuttering and both GPU were maxed out.

sedmonds · 3 Nov 2011 at 11:59

JaffAWood said:
This makes me sad.... Dont get me wrong im pleased for you BUT i play @ 1920/1080 on high, shadows on medium (i had to turn the auto down) with the xfire 6950's im getting between 20-40 MAYBE 50 if i look at the sky... How CPU limited is this game..?

spec in sig, using 11.10 WHQL, CAP 4.

As far as I've been able to figure out, its very graphics intensive but is probably wanting a fair amount of CPU also. I've so far not looked at the CPU usage I'm running at with BF3, but I'll have a look this evening- chances are though considering you too are running 2x6950s that its the CPU holding you back. - Have you tried some monitoring software to check?

Swagger187 · 3 Nov 2011 at 12:12

MilanoChris said:
Use MSI Afternurner, or open the console and enter Render.DrawFps 1

I personally prefer MSI Afterburner, as you can display FPS, temps, usage, or whatever you specify.

How do you get MSI afterburner too show your Directx version next too FPS. I can only see FPS and temp etc.

JaffAWood · 3 Nov 2011 at 12:27

sedmonds said:
As far as I've been able to figure out, its very graphics intensive but is probably wanting a fair amount of CPU also. I've so far not looked at the CPU usage I'm running at with BF3, but I'll have a look this evening- chances are though considering you too are running 2x6950s that its the CPU holding you back. - Have you tried some monitoring software to check?

Well the gpu's sit around 30-50% each. The CPU is high, bumbles along between 90-100% not on full 100% though (like rage, lol)...

I tried disabling xfire last night however no real differance in FPS, did feel SLIGHTLY smoother tho (which made me even more sad!)

I am praying it is just the CPU bottlenecking me as i can just slot in a Phenom 965 into my board to sort the issue if not im gonna have to spend hundreds of pounds on bulldozer... and have 2/3 of a PC to try and sell on!