Poor performance?

[Fishbreath]

I know BS2 is a pretty demanding sim, but at the same time, I'm not sure I'm wringing as much performance out of it as I can. My system:

 

i5 2500k (4GHz)

2xRadeon HD 6970

16gb RAM

 

BS2 is installed on a 7200rpm drive. I've verified that the processor is running at full tilt during gameplay with CPU-Z, so I'm not being limited by that. Everything in the Catalyst Control Center profile for DCS.exe is set to performance, using the 12.8 driver. In the free flight instant action mission, I see 30 fps paused at the start--that's at about 300 meters, with no AI or physics calculations going on. Changing graphics settings has bought me about 10 fps (I get five *fewer* FPS with Crossfire enabled than I do with it disabled, and my graphics settings are roughly midrange; tree view distance is 4000m and clutter is off). That said, 30 fps in free flight means about 20 fps in a mission with a moderate number of units, which is on the very low end of the framerates at which I can control a helicopter.

 

Is anyone else using HD6xxx cards, or Radeon cards at all? Is it a problem with the 12.8 drivers? Are there any other tweaks I can try? I saw the post in the A-10C performance forum about graphics driver tweaks, which I've made, and I saw the tweak thread in the BS problems forum, which mostly focused on multi-monitor setups. Looking at the performance other people report, though, I feel like I'm seriously underperforming compared to how I should be.

[algerad3]

I am using two 5770 in xfire mode with catalyst 12.1

I get 27 fps with everything set to high and with traffic enabled.

I was as shocked as most people when I saw my fps. I might get ten more fps with xfire off , not much more than that. (all this in instant action.)

Let me try free flight in high and I will get back.

[BigfootMSR]

Search the forums, there are lots of tweaks and guides out there. My suggestion would be to turn civ traffic off. MSAA no higher than X4.

 

On that end, there are many factors during certain missions that can cause significant slow down. For instance, sunset sierra is like a slide show to most right now. Cause? unknown. Could be the AI, or any number of factors.

 

Anywho, to sum this up before this becomes another major FPS vent thread, check the forums for lots of hints, tweaks, and guides to increase FPS.

[D3vastator]

have a look at my thread for optimization settings.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=94178

 

the key here is to get a constant 30 fps and lock them there, this way you dont get the dipping and fps fluctations which causes the loss of smoothness.

[Fishbreath]

I can get a solid 30ish fps in the cockpit (and 60fps in external views) if it's not a complicated scene (e.g. one of the fast missions in the northeast plains). Trees seem to cause problems, and come to think of it, I bet civilian traffic is a big driver of my framerate problems (set to Low for me). That's a lot of extra traffic to worry about.

 

When I get home I'll turn that off and fiddle with things some more, and if I get something satisfactory I'll report back here. Thanks for the input.

[Fishbreath]

Well, that's is the best I can do without sacrificing visual quality. Water and civvy traffic to low and HDR off, 4x MSAA, no TSSAA, and everything else to High/On. Tesselation in the Catalyst Control Center is off, and most other things are set to the performance end of the slider.

 

My benchmark is Sukhumi free flight, quickly diving diving down at the factories dead ahead, then flying at 50m over the city and turning on the Shkval. I get 30fps at the top of the dive, 34 in the dive, 25 over the city, and about 23 with the Shkval on. Here's hoping DCS: Nevada brings some of the Crossfire improvements it might.

[Bee_Sting]

I don't think that the DCS games will ever support dual gpu cards.If you are going to run DCS world on high setting get a solid card with atleast 2gs of vram.

[Erforce]

That's why ED should definitely take a loor into their code.

I'm waiting for Intel Haswell architecture, and everytime, they're saying it's a processor for ultra-book.

With low overcloking capabilities, low frequency, i truly wish theses awesome games will take part into the reality of computing.

Free Flight shukumi drops from 30 to 14-16fps and it's only a city... with a 3,3Ghz core2 and 4890 (a very good card which doesn't support Dx11)

Edited September 18, 2012 by Erforce

[Pyroflash]

That's why ED should definitely take a loor into their code.

I'm waiting for Intel Haswell architecture, and everytime, they're saying it's a processor for ultra-book.

With low overcloking capabilities, low frequency, i truly wish theses awesome games will take part into the reality of computing.

Free Flight shukumi drops from 30 to 14-16fps and it's only a city... with a 3,3Ghz core2 and 4890 (a very good card which doesn't support Dx11)

 

Your system is woefully out of date. To expect good FPS you must have at least some sort of Core I series processor (1st gen I7 at 3.0 GHz I'd say) with a 5870+ AMD/475+ Nvidia card, and 6 GB of RAM.

 

Expecting anything more than what you are getting with your current hardware is probably unrealistic.

 

Multiple GPU implementations would not help very much in this case, as there really isn't any way to take advantage of them in the current application. Granted the application could be optimized to use more processor threads, but that wouldn't help your current issue very much.

[Fishbreath]

To expect good FPS you must have at least some sort of Core I series processor (1st gen I7 at 3.0 GHz I'd say) with a 5870+ AMD/475+ Nvidia card, and 6 GB of RAM.

 

For price/performance for Black Shark 2, at least, I don't think you can do much better than an overclocked i5 2500k, 8Gb of whichever RAM you prefer, and a Geforce 560 Ti 448 (similar benchmarks to my 6970, cheaper, runs BS2 better if performance threads are to be believed). Honestly, if I were building my PC again, I would have gone with Nvidia cards, not least because SLI seems to actually improve framerates for people.

[Erforce]

Pyro, actually, i've played almost every demanding games since 6 years, and i always limit the framerate to 60fps, in high-ultra mode.

The next step will be ArmA 3, and i'll see at this moment. But, keep in mind Intel and AMD stopped the Ghz rush, welcome in the core war !

So yes, i have only 13.3Ghz (2x2x3,3) with my Xeons compared to CoreI hyperthread, but i won't buy a cheap overclockable PC only for BS.

I've told myself : OK, i'll change it when its time come. But during years, i didn't saw more poor performances, but higher CPU optimizations. (ex : Crisis2, R.A.G.E., Skyrim which took 300-400% load charge and not a single lag, the only sad thing is UI are designed for consoles)

When i see BS2 topping at 115% and my GPU making icecubes, it's killing me slowly.

If it was a GPU problem, be sure i would have rushed a retail store. But when i see "My i5 OC @ 4.8Ghz" then... that's why i'm waiting the next Xeon Haswell, which i know i will not be able to OC.

 

That's why i truly wish ED will take a look in their code pretty soon.

Other than that, flying a desertic area with some random dumb AI, the game is very candy eyed :-D

[Fishbreath]

My final update: turning mirrors off bought me an easy 10-15% improvement in framerates. I cracked 40 fps in my artificial benchmark, stayed in the 27-30 range flying over Sukhumi, and never went lower than 25fps with the Shkval on and pointed at a column of smoke.