Upgraded to HD 6770 still getting FPS in teens

[doright]

I recently upgraded from a HD 4670 1MB to HD 6770 1MB. GPU-Z shows the GPU load staying at 60% or less, CPU usage stays around 75% (Athlon II x2 2.9GHz, Mem usage stays around 3GB out of 4GB. I've tried changing screen resolution from way down to up to 1600 x 1200. Graphics settings were changed from Low to High, vsync on/off, trees slider both ends, mirrors on/off, TSSSSSsssAA on/off, MSAA varied... in other words the usual suspects were fiddled with resulting in very little difference.

 

In reading some of the threads I also tried setting MaxFPS down from 130 to 30 then to 20. No difference.

 

 

I have even uninstalled and reinstalled A-10C and the ATI drivers. No change.

 

 

As a test Orcs Must Die! running maxed out does load the GPU 100%, and both CPU cores are grasping for breath too. Looks nice, good twitch response release of vid card testing frustration.

 

So any other useful suggestions would be appreciated.

Edited April 23, 2012 by doright
changed HD 4870 to HD 4670. oops

[ralfidude]

Well you failed to see that GPu doesnt matter in this game.

 

Well it does but.. not really, not as much I should say as the CPU.

 

 

To get better FPS in DCS, you need to increase the frequency of your CPU. 2.9GHz will do you no justice here. Get it well beyond that nearing 4.0GHz and you will see a great increase in FPS.

 

 

Im at 3.2 and I get moments when I look at one part of the map and it's like 19 FPS, but I look in the other direction and I get 60FPS... It's sad, but that's where the sim stands right now. Something to do with the explosions.

[doright]

Something to do with the explosions.

 

I did notice that looking at the external view of a ground vehicle if there was no smoke in the scene the fps went up to close to 60. GPU-Z would report 99% gpu load then gpu temp and fan speed would follow. As soon as I rotated the view so smoke was in the scene frame rate would drop dramatically, no surprise that frame rate would drop. But oddly the GPU load would also drop dramatically followed by gpu temp. That isn't what I would expect.

 

overclocking my cpu slightly did improve frame rate very slightly. Not sure it's worth the time and lock up frustration to go further down that road. Maybe I just need to spend that time getting some 30mm trigger therapy instead of worring about frame rate. Usually smooth enough to be enjoyable.

[jeffyd123]

i had a better AMD than that with 4 gig of ram and every time i went in strafing the sim started to slide-show.

 

went to an i5, 8 gig of ram (and video upgrade) and its smooth now. its much more enjoyable

[CAT_101st]

Running AMD 1100T @4Gh (stock CPU cooler) on a saber tooth 990FX board with 8gb of 1866. Video is only a EVGA 465GTX SC stock. My low side of FPS is 29 high is 80 avrg about 38 in combat. My last system only got half that with same video card AMD 940 @3.5 6GB ram

[BIGNEWY]

I am running a ATI 6770 and have no issues fps 25 - 70 depending on the mission. Make sure you have crossfire disabled in ccc ( even if you are not using it ) :)

[112th_Rossi]

I have a 2.8Ghz Phenom II X6 with a 6970 2GB, get a steady 30fps or more.

[AtaliaA1]

Doright Your issue is positively the CPU. Your AMD Athlon II x2 2.9GHz is in need of a change, its operating frequency and L2 and L3 Chache size is your problem. Upgrade as soon as feasable for your economic situation, with those three items in mind. Operating Freq. L2 and L3 Chache Sizes in mind.

[Aries]

I had Core2Duo E8400 clocked to 4Ghz and then the CPU was dying, while 6950 2GB never crossed 80%... Then I bought Core i5 2500K clocked it to 4.4Ghz and the situation reversed - now the CPU never crossed 30%-40% on any core and the graphics card was dying at 100% load... LOL... now I should have bought a stronger graphics card but due to financial crap by the world around, had to go for a 6770... and sell the 6950 one (which had the shitty white flashing boxes anyway)...

 

Now I play on a little lower settings with HDR off, and get the same shitty 25 FPS on takeoff and 30-50FPS ingame... as with the 6950... bah... there is no good combination... u can wait for it to get 10 years old like Lock On and then you will be able to play it "fluently"...

[Mustang]

One thing to bear in mind, a HD6770 is essentially a rebadged HD5770 so the performance won't be that great over your previous 4870 - infact there might be instances where the 4870 will outperform your new card (6770 - 128bit memory bus, 4870 -256bit memory bus)

 

A good example here of a comparison http://www.hwcompare.com/5720/radeon-hd-4870-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-6770-1gb/

Edited April 23, 2012 by Mustang

[BIGNEWY]

I am going nvidia next time lol

[mmaruda]

Thumbs up for a CPU-bound game engine running on a single core in 2012 :)

 

I wonder if they intend to do something about in the next DCS release, since hardware producers make their money of mobile platforms these days, not gaming rigs built to handle a not so popular simulation. No one seems to expect Ivy Bridge to outperform SB significantly, if at all, AMD dropped out of desktop CPU's and Intel's next release will be server CPU.

 

So maybe ED could finally do something about smoke and clouds being CPU bound and the water being rendered all the time below the landscape? I'll just hint, that releasing a product where the recommended system specs do not give you a solid 30FPS at medium detail is not very encouraging for the customer, when purchasing further products is at hand. And as for LOMAC, try running it now with a Su-25 mission close above ground (spoiler: don't even dream about a solid 60 FPS).

[doright]

Right before doing a huge face palm for not finding this out before I plunked down the $, I remember I looked on the tom's hardware site and got a card 5 steps up in their hierarchy. So I pulled the old card from the 'accumulate dust until totally obsolete pile' and saw it was a 4670 not 4870. Must of been four digit number brain hangover from researching so many different cards.

 

Overall I'm happy that I can run A10C maxed out graphically at the same frame rate I got before at between low and medium settings. Best of all it doesn't slide show anymore flying close to smoke. Just publicly scratching my head about why frame rates didn't go up.

 

CPU limited may be the answer put at this point I rather spend my time and money tinkering with making a pit rather then beating bits and bytes into subservience.

 

One thing to bear in mind, a HD6770 is essentially a rebadged HD5770 so the performance won't be that great over your previous 4870 - infact there might be instances where the 4870 will outperform your new card (6770 - 128bit memory bus, 4870 -256bit memory bus)

 

A good example here of a comparison http://www.hwcompare.com/5720/radeon-hd-4870-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-6770-1gb/

[ralfidude]

Running a pit? You sir will have external monitors running, FURThER decreasing your FPS because of it.

 

I am waiting for the IVY bridges to come out, then I will upgrade my mobo and cpu then, but until then... meh.... I hope that we get word of the Jet by then... F18 or F16 here we come!!

[Yellonet]

DCS is CPU heavy and that's not because it's a badly written sim - which it is not - but because there's loads of calculations being down in areas that has nothing to do with graphics. Unlike many "simpler" games, calculations are constantly being done for movement of units, weather, instruments, flight models and much much more, and that has nothing do do with graphics and can't be done through the GPU.

 

To be honest the Core i3 isn't a "gaming" CPU, the i3 series is on the lower end of the spectrum of the new Intel CPU's.

It's most probably the CPU holding you back, in part it will be busy with the calculations mentioned above while at the same time it might not be powerful enough to get the most out of the GPU.

[hayesj23]

there's loads of calculations being down in areas that has nothing to do with graphics. Unlike many "simpler" games, calculations are constantly being done for movement of units, weather, instruments, flight models and much much more

 

or, you know, calculating the flight plan my ai wingman needs to take to crash right into me. :noexpression:

[Slayer]

I did notice that looking at the external view of a ground vehicle if there was no smoke in the scene the fps went up to close to 60. GPU-Z would report 99% gpu load then gpu temp and fan speed would follow. As soon as I rotated the view so smoke was in the scene frame rate would drop dramatically, no surprise that frame rate would drop. But oddly the GPU load would also drop dramatically followed by gpu temp. That isn't what I would expect.

 

overclocking my cpu slightly did improve frame rate very slightly. Not sure it's worth the time and lock up frustration to go further down that road. Maybe I just need to spend that time getting some 30mm trigger therapy instead of worring about frame rate. Usually smooth enough to be enjoyable.

 

I had the exact issue you describe. There is a fix for that.check these 2 threads

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=76046

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=68060