First of all, I'm really sorry if Tom ends up answering this because I know he's busy etc, but this has been driving me batshit crazy for the last month or so. Recently built a new gaming PC. AMD 8150 at stock 3.6 GHz, some old Kingston 1333 MHz 4 GB RAM, an ASUS Sbaerooth 990X Mobo, basic 500GB HDD and 2 ASUS 550Ti's in SLI. Now, I like to play BF3 a lot. But the thing is, it stutters like MAD. I got the perfoverlay graph up, and according to a forum post, if the gpu gets higher than the cpu, it's bottlenecking. When it spiked, the GPUs would fly up, and it seemed to be dragging up the CPU with it. Is this definitely a bottleneck? It only happens in BF3, playing on High settings. Is it because of the 1 GB VRAM? Or is there something else wrong? When I turn the textures down to lowest I can run t 50 FPS constant at 1920x1080, but I really wanna play at max or atleast high. I was hoping I'd get about the same performance as a 570 when I got them up to 1GHZ, but nope, they stutter and spike like mad. So, is it the GPUs fault it's lagging? if that's the case and nothing to be done, I'm gonna save up and get myself a nice 7950, this is kinda a worse case scenario though and I'd rather find a fix for this instead. Thanks for any advice.
Bulldozer chained down?
- Thread starter Pedwar
- Start date
Couple of things:
When you say "spike" do you mean the framerate increases or decreases or the graphics usage? If the graphics usage is 100% then that is the rate limiting factor, if the CPU is at 100% on most of the cores then that is the limiting factor. BF3 is known to be a big VRAM hog, so it could be the 1GB VRAM limit, although I would check your RAM usage, as that will be used up significantly by the graphics memory being shadowed. I play on a 1GB 5970, and that hasn't lagged etc. due to the VRAM.
Have you tried updating the graphics drivers? Does the slowdown happen immediately or after playing for a time (in which case check the temperatures). Have you tried overclocking the CPU to see if that is a problem?
Final point, could you use paragraphs, or at least space your post out a bit so that we can read it more easily.
When you say "spike" do you mean the framerate increases or decreases or the graphics usage? If the graphics usage is 100% then that is the rate limiting factor, if the CPU is at 100% on most of the cores then that is the limiting factor. BF3 is known to be a big VRAM hog, so it could be the 1GB VRAM limit, although I would check your RAM usage, as that will be used up significantly by the graphics memory being shadowed. I play on a 1GB 5970, and that hasn't lagged etc. due to the VRAM.
Have you tried updating the graphics drivers? Does the slowdown happen immediately or after playing for a time (in which case check the temperatures). Have you tried overclocking the CPU to see if that is a problem?
Final point, could you use paragraphs, or at least space your post out a bit so that we can read it more easily.
When I say spike I mean a drop from about 50 to 1-5 FPS. It's horrible. When this happens both CPU and GPU's get nearly 100% usage, but GPU is usually biggest. I get these spikes randomly. It doesn't matter if there's an explosion or anything. Other than that, the CPU is usually pretty stable on the perf graph, about 40% usage in task manager, but the GPU's are constantly up and down on MSI afterburner and the perf graph, so I'm guessing it is the GPUs.
I did have the CPU at 4GHZ and it seemed to be fine(Max temp at 60 degrees on Prime95) but I guessed I didn't need it because I do have 8 cores, but this didn't give any noticable changes to the issue, also using stock cooler so didn't want to risk it.
The RAM could be the problem actually. When I play it's usually on 3.75 GB, and it's not the fastest either, plus it's quite old.
I do have the latest BETA drivers from nvidia, these don't seem to help at all though. I've also messed with the control panel settings to max performance, but still I get spikes.
PS. When the game spikes, the perfoverlay graph shows the CPU and GPU flying off the screen, it's such a large increase. But the GPU is always highest, and according to a forum post, this means it's causing the bottleneck. Also when it's not spiking, the CPU is pretty constant and stable, while the GPU is all over the place.
I did have the CPU at 4GHZ and it seemed to be fine(Max temp at 60 degrees on Prime95) but I guessed I didn't need it because I do have 8 cores, but this didn't give any noticable changes to the issue, also using stock cooler so didn't want to risk it.
The RAM could be the problem actually. When I play it's usually on 3.75 GB, and it's not the fastest either, plus it's quite old.
I do have the latest BETA drivers from nvidia, these don't seem to help at all though. I've also messed with the control panel settings to max performance, but still I get spikes.
PS. When the game spikes, the perfoverlay graph shows the CPU and GPU flying off the screen, it's such a large increase. But the GPU is always highest, and according to a forum post, this means it's causing the bottleneck. Also when it's not spiking, the CPU is pretty constant and stable, while the GPU is all over the place.
Master&Puppet
New member
I think it could be your ram, vram or both!
Firstly - 4gb of memory could be a factor on high settings. Make sure all non essential applications are shutdown before you run bf3. If you are getting lots of HDD activity then grab yourself another 4gb of ram. 8gb is the accepted standard these days. (I'm assuming you are running 64 bit os).
Secondly your system is better than mine - newer amd cpu and better gpus but I do have 16gb of ram so that definitely isn't a limiting factor. I'm fine on max settings (without AA on) so I can't see why you wouldn't be able to do the same. BF3 will pull 1.4gb vram at max settings and if the card isn't big enough you'll get the stutter.
Personally I'd turn off MSAA and all that other stuff but leave everything else maxed out and see what happens. Then if you are still getting stutter I'd increase your ram. That should solve it I'd expect.
Firstly - 4gb of memory could be a factor on high settings. Make sure all non essential applications are shutdown before you run bf3. If you are getting lots of HDD activity then grab yourself another 4gb of ram. 8gb is the accepted standard these days. (I'm assuming you are running 64 bit os).
Secondly your system is better than mine - newer amd cpu and better gpus but I do have 16gb of ram so that definitely isn't a limiting factor. I'm fine on max settings (without AA on) so I can't see why you wouldn't be able to do the same. BF3 will pull 1.4gb vram at max settings and if the card isn't big enough you'll get the stutter.
Personally I'd turn off MSAA and all that other stuff but leave everything else maxed out and see what happens. Then if you are still getting stutter I'd increase your ram. That should solve it I'd expect.
A - slow ram - probs needs the timings setting manually.
b 2x 550 -? wtf do you expect from SLI'ing low end cards! thats why its always better to buy one big one
b 2x 550 -? wtf do you expect from SLI'ing low end cards! thats why its always better to buy one big one
Hmmm, I think I'll take your advice on that and buy some new RAM, it's really cheap nowadays anyway. 4GB isn't gonna be enough for much longer either so might aswell upgrade now. Is it a good idea to have 2 separate pairs of memory? Currently I have 4 1GB sticks in dual channel memory. Could I remove 1 pair and replace with 2x4GB sticks? I could also force the memory of the older sticks to be 1600MHz if needed.
Also, does anyone know if this is a bottleneck at all? I saw that AMD recommended to pair the 8150 it with a 6990, but I just don't have the money for that. Would my system be a lot better and more compatible with a 7950 perhaps?
I'm definetly gonna be getting new RAM soon anyway, but yeah, what are your views on getting a 7950 in future, or is there a better card that'd give me better value?
Also, does anyone know if this is a bottleneck at all? I saw that AMD recommended to pair the 8150 it with a 6990, but I just don't have the money for that. Would my system be a lot better and more compatible with a 7950 perhaps?
I'm definetly gonna be getting new RAM soon anyway, but yeah, what are your views on getting a 7950 in future, or is there a better card that'd give me better value?
demonking
New member
yes
550ti is to be frank the best of the worst in the 5 series likewise 560's are worst of the best working up 570 mid and 590 the best.
i would be willing to make a sizable bet that a single 7950 would beat the crap outta your 2 550ti's
i doubt your CPU is the problem here. i have an old 955 phenom and i can play BF3 on high- ultra settings no problems
get some new ram is the best advice (and more of it) then if that don't help look at getting a new GPU
i actually doubt its the graphics card here that is the problem.
I could play BF3 on high with 2 450s in SLI so you would imagine 2 550tis would out perform those.
Having said that, you probably do want a graphics card update anyway, and a memory upgrade, and hey memory is cheap
I could play BF3 on high with 2 450s in SLI so you would imagine 2 550tis would out perform those.
Having said that, you probably do want a graphics card update anyway, and a memory upgrade, and hey memory is cheap
S_I_N
New member
2x4GB will be better than 4x2Gb sticks anyday. oc ur proc to 4GHz if its that easy to do MHz beats cores for gaming. Go that route first and see what ur game play is like. if not upgrade to a higher end gpu I dont mean highest just higher than what ya got. I run a 570GTX with the normal 1.25Gb of memory and i see it hitting real close to max alot. So if your gonna upgrade ur gpu look for the most vram ya can get. I'd say a 2.5Gb 570GTX or 3GB 580GTX
GuyIncognito
New member
The cpu is probably not the problem:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/11/amd_bulldozer_fx8150_gameplay_performance_review/2
550ti's are relatively slow:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...0-nvidia-geforce-gtx-550-ti-1gb-review-8.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/11/amd_bulldozer_fx8150_gameplay_performance_review/2
550ti's are relatively slow:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...0-nvidia-geforce-gtx-550-ti-1gb-review-8.html
