DCS: BS2 graphics -- with the times, or ahead of the times?

[Stretch]

The reason I ask is because I bought a top-of-the-line computer a year ago, and of course like everyone else I saw a big dip in frame rates between BS1 and BS2.

 

With BS2, on a big (campaign) mission, graphics on full, no AA, 1680x1050, frame rates are around 10-15 when not directly looking at The Big Battle and they can dip below 1 when looking at it.

 

So that's fine, I've just dialed it back from max for now. My question is -- is this normal? Is BS2 so advanced that even a year-old super-gaming-rig would choke with max graphics settings?

 

(i7 920 @ 3.15, HD 5870)

[kylania]

Sadly, though you might have purchased your PC within a year the processor and graphics card are "old" and "slow" by now. :)

 

The ATI HD 5870 came out more than two years ago. It's quite a bit slower than the latest ATI HD 6990.

 

Your i7-920 was originally released in 2008. If you wanted a recent one you'd have to get something like the i7-980 or one of the 2nd generation i7s like the i7-2600K.

 

Sadly, when it comes to PC, unless you're dropping several grand on the latest and greatest, everything we buy is obsolete when we get it.

[Arclight]

No kidding. Just ordered 2500K today, early next year Ivy Bridge rolls out. Technology only stays current for 6-12 months with these things.

 

Not to say it becomes obsolete by that point, but still. Things move fast. :noexpression:

[sobek]

[...]

 

Well, you have to look at it differently. The engine is certainly capable of tearing any machine that a mere mortal can afford to shreds. I kid you not.

 

The job of the devs is to balance those graphical features (for example, drawing distance) with the power of current hardware in mind.

 

The slider ranges that you see in the options are not the entire range the engine is capable of. It is just what the devs thought might make sense at this point in time with current hardware. When you come to realise this, there is no more "i should be able to max this out on my machine" because even when you max out everything, the engine might still be capable of a LOT more.

 

So the max settings are chosen by the devs to always let some room for the next generations of more powerful hardware. Don't feel bad just because you can't run everything maxed. Just balance image quality with FPS and if you don't reach a point where you are satisfied, you might have to think about upgrading.

[tietze]

The ATI HD 5870 came out more than two years ago. It's quite a bit slower than the latest ATI HD 6990.

 

Sorry a bit OT, but isn't the HD 6990 a dual GPU board? AFAIK DCS does not really take advantage of that yet or am I wrong? In that case there wouldn't be much difference between a HD 6990 and a HD 6970.

[kylania]

In that case there wouldn't be much difference between a HD 6990 and a HD 6970.

 

Not sure, I just compared the performance matrix for the two cards, but even the 6970 would be years ahead (literally) of the 5870. :smilewink:

[Erforce]

Just wondering how many cores DCS can use? maybe i'm doing something wrong, i see only 45% on monitoring, roughly 1cpu(dc) @ max and 1 idle.

DCS engine is designed to take advantage of future hardware, but as far as i can see, we're not rushing the 5Ghz barrier, but the 'morecoresyoucanaddbetteris" with subroutines to best handle HD conversion...

 

I noticed looking a sunrise is... OMG and laggy (10-20)

And i didn't tested heavy engagement yet :)

 

For GPU, i can't hear my Ati's Turbine when playing. old 4890 still do great at idle !

Ok, it's my good old 2x core2 Xeon E5150... and the HDR effect ;)

[tietze]

Not sure, I just compared the performance matrix for the two cards, but even the 6970 would be years ahead (literally) of the 5870. :smilewink:

 

Yup the 6970 provides not a tiger leap, but better performance overall (review, =on&prod[4824]=on"]toms charts). It is much better with tessellation and the fact that it has 2gb vram as default makes it a good choice for the memory hungry DCS engine.

Edited November 9, 2011 by tietze
typo

[spikenet]

Is BS2 so advanced that even a year-old super-gaming-rig would choke with max graphics settings?

 

I would say the GFX are well behind what we are seeing in most FPS games, look at BF3 its gorgerous and runs at a good framerate on modern computers.

 

Obviously with Sims there is alot more happening behind the scenes that the "scripted" FPS games dont do. I dream of the day we have Crysis/BF3 GFX whilst maintaining the realism and 60FPS (a dream?). The engine is the key! I doubt BS2 engine is pushing the modern card anywhere near its true potential.

[gagipro]

I've got no problem with my configuration ...

 

Using 6200*1200 -> The engine consumes 2.2 GB VRAM !

 

All GPUs are running above 50% in tri sli.

[TAIPAN_]

I've got no problem with my configuration ...

 

Using 6200*1200 -> The engine consumes 2.2 GB VRAM !

 

All GPUs are running above 50% in tri sli.

 

Is that with HDR on or off?

Other settings on high?

 

What FPS are you getting?

[gagipro]

Is that with HDR on or off?

Other settings on high?

 

What FPS are you getting?

 

HDR ON

Everything on high

 

Don't know about FPS but it's quite playable (like A10C). Will check this evening for FPS! I will do some tests like playing with MSAA/shkval res/water/blur/civ traffic ...

[Conure]

If you would like to see a beautiful game engine, I'd suggest giving Rise of Flight a ago. I'd hate to see what the RoF engine + DCS avionics would do to a cpu, but it wouldn't be pretty..

 

However I'm sure it'd still be a hell of a lot better than the FSX engine!

[TAIPAN_]

ROF is beautiful, although the side effect is that you can't have as many AI objects as DCS. It models so much physics and sends it all across the network too. When planes are destroyed, the position of every little piece of canvas floating through the air is transmitted to all clients, and they see them in exact position and movement.

[Dejjvid]

Gonna build my new computer tonight.

 

GTX580

i7 2600K

16GB Ram

SSD drive.

 

I report back if i don't brake the mb when installing the fan... ;)

[Krippz]

Gonna build my new computer tonight.

 

GTX580

i7 2600K

16GB Ram

SSD drive.

 

I report back if i don't brake the mb when installing the fan... ;)

 

 

Best of luck.

[Conure]

Gonna build my new computer tonight.

 

GTX580

i7 2600K

16GB Ram

SSD drive.

 

I report back if i don't brake the mb when installing the fan... ;)

 

Enjoy :) it's easier than you think and you'll be hard pressed to break things! Remember to discharge static before touching anything, touch a radiator or the case regularly!

[sobek]

If your heatsink has preaplied thermal paste, don't forget to remove the protective plastic before you bolt it on, i know a guy who fried a CPU like that. :)

 

PS: Wasn't me. ;)

[Xxx]

The reason I ask is because I bought a top-of-the-line computer a year ago, and of course like everyone else I saw a big dip in frame rates between BS1 and BS2.

 

With BS2, on a big (campaign) mission, graphics on full, no AA, 1680x1050, frame rates are around 10-15 when not directly looking at The Big Battle and they can dip below 1 when looking at it.

 

So that's fine, I've just dialed it back from max for now. My question is -- is this normal? Is BS2 so advanced that even a year-old super-gaming-rig would choke with max graphics settings?

 

(i7 920 @ 3.15, HD 5870)

 

There is nothing old and slow about your computer!

 

The A10 and now, the BS2 game engine is using 1 core to run the entire shooting match. It uses 1 more core to run the sound. Now if you have a 6 core super fast CPU, 4 of your cores are just not being used by the sim.

 

The GPU is more heavily used in A10 and BS than FSX, which as we all know hammers the life out of the CPU alone. So a fast GPU will help our case. In the end, we are asking a lot of code to run fast down a single core.

 

A10 and BS are the finest Simulations of Flight and Battlefield interdiction.(IMHO) I would love to see a re code using all the cores our multi core CPU's have:)

 

In the meantime......Keep buyin' them and promotin' them. Then we will get a Fast Jet sim with multi core functionality:D SU35.......:smilewink:

 

Regards.

[gagipro]

HDR ON

Everything on high

 

Don't know about FPS but it's quite playable (like A10C). Will check this evening for FPS! I will do some tests like playing with MSAA/shkval res/water/blur/civ traffic ...

 

Is that with HDR on or off?

Other settings on high?

 

What FPS are you getting?

 

HDR ON

Everything on high

 

Don't know about FPS but it's quite playable (like A10C). Will check this evening for FPS! I will do some tests like playing with MSAA/shkval res/water/blur/civ traffic ...

 

I checked :

 

TEXTURES : HIGH

SCENES : HIGH

CIV TRAFFIC : HIGH

WATER : HIGH

VISIB RANGE : HIGH

HEAT BLUR : ON

SHADOWS: HIGH

6020x1200

512 every frame

MSAA : 16XQ

HDR : NORMAL

 

FULL SCREEN

COCKPIT SHADOWS ON

TSSAA ON

 

FRAPS reports 40 FPS without drops INSTANT ACTION BESLAN TAKEOFF.

 

Haven't done any BS2 optimisations (remove some msaa, play with res cockpit stuff) yet except default zoom for surround gaming.

[Dejjvid]

Everything on max. Trees 15000mm, 1024 every frame. etc. etc. etc.

 

Lowest frame drop was 48. It's as smooth as it can be. Now i gtg go to sleep.

 

 

GTX 580

16Gb RAM

Sata 3 SSD

i7 2600K 3.4GHz (untouched).

 

And i managed to assemble it without destroying anything, what a miracle.. ;)

 

Create a mission and link it here if you want me to test it.

 

Edit: Average fps is around 60, so i guess i have vsync on.

[Krippz]

If your heatsink has preaplied thermal paste, don't forget to remove the protective plastic before you bolt it on, i know a guy who fried a CPU like that. :)

 

PS: Wasn't me. ;)

 

 

Yeah I made that mistake with a build two years ago; I wondered why the idle temp on the CPU was 57-celsius :music_whistling:

[TAIPAN_]

Looks good gagipro! Those 3GB 580s will come in handy.

 

I have a 1.5GB and I can see it maxing out the memory now in Black shark 2, it never did in Black Shark 1.

 

Some say SLI doesn't help, but it looks like it must in your case

 

I'll wait until next year for a Nvidia 680 before cranking up the shkval on another screen yet.

[spikenet]

doesnt this game benefit from a high-end CPU/RAM setup rather then graphics card? I've got 2 3gig Q6600 PC's, one running a 8800GT the other a ATI6970 and they both do pretty much the same framerate.

 

My next purchase will definately be a 2600K and lots of RAM.

[Smokin Hole]

I have a 2008 Mac Pro running 2.6 Xeon dual quad cores and a 512k ATI 4850. At medium settings with HDR BS2 runs fine. Frames dip down into the low 20s with skhval but that's to be expected. I do feel that A10 runs a little faster but I can't be certain that this isn't due to different type of flying.