BF2 FPS etc.

Flask

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
242
I currently am using an MSI NX7900GT on the following components.

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.3 Venice core.
3GB's of Corsair XMS Low Latency 2 cache ram.
Antec TrueControl 550W PSU
320 Seagate HDD SATA 16MB Cache w/ perp recording technology.
Asus A8N-SLI motherboard.

I see no reason on why I should be getting 34-46FPS in BF2 with these stats.

I might as well re-roll back to AGP and go back to my ATI 9800PRO 128....It did a hell of a lot better than this piece of junk.

Let me know what you guys think.
 
What settings are you running the game at?

i have sli'd 7900gt's on a X2-3800+ at 2.8ghz and i run it at 1920X1200 w/ all the settings turned up 4xaa 16xaf and supersampling on and i get around 60-90fps.

Give us more info as to what your game settings are set to as well as your monitor res.
 
Something must not be right, I have 7800GS AGP 512MB with a AMD64 x2 3800+ and I play in 1680x1050 between 65-95fps...
 
Drivers? Motherboard BIOS? Also im some what interested in your PSU how meny AMP's are on the 12volt? And is it stable? What are your clock speeds? You are right, you sould not be getting those kinds of frame rates, with that kind of setup. For now try turning up your screen rez. and see what happens.


-Proxy
 
my 7900gt in sig gets 60-90 fps with all settings on high as well at 1920x1200 res in bf2.. something is not right with your system.
 
yah mt 7900gt runs bf just fine...50-100fps with 1280 X 1024 4x AA, Ultra High Settings on everything and 100% view distance

How are u measuing FPS? withe console command? fraps? run fraps and see what your average is.
 
I'm running FRAPS, and thats the average that I get is 35-50ish.
 
Well, I dont mean to flame but... instead of sitting around and rubbing in his face that there is something rong like 5 times, when it's obvious... Let's try and help this guys out eh'? try doing what I said abouve. Try new drivers/ M/b BIOS's, have you done any type of "tweeking" or OCing?

-Proxy
 
Nahh, no overclocking etc.

I honestly am using this card just as it came, which should be enough.

This PSU makes me wonder though that it might not be supplying enough juice. I mean it is 550W, but its 2 years old as well.

This is the 4th card I have been through..

Before I rebuilt this system, I had a P4 3.0E with the same PSU and tried the AGP 7800GS and that ran like CRAP as well, slapped in the 9800PRO 128 I had before and that did MUCH better than the 7800GS.

Now I have been through 3 different 7900GT's as well in this comp.

2 eVGA's giving me issues in the same catagory, and now this MSI.

I think it's not the cards, its something in my system and the only thing old in this new rig is the PSU.
 
eastvillager said:
Blow away your bf2 profile directory. allow bf2 to recreate it.

disable vsynch

Yeah, vsynch slaughters FPS. Also again check your PSU, a lot of new high end cards are picky about power SLI or no SLI.


-Proxy
 
What drivers are you running for your videocard? What are your GPU Temps? How many sticks of ram do you have in?
 
Go with 2 gig not 3 gig of ram and see what happens.........
 
No need for driver cleaner, this is all a fresh install and no messups on that.

As far as the ram is concerned, that should be far from the issue from my understandings, but I can give it a try.

What about my PSU, is it not good enough?

I cannot find any stats really on it as far as the rails go, but I just wonder if it isnt getting enough juice.
 
ive been having problems since i got 7900gt sli 1 month ago. my fps with sli in bf2 is 35-130. then when i disable sli i get between 50-90 fps. both running game at 1600by1200 full everything. all games ive played soo far have not benefited from sli but FEAR. ive been having this lower minimum fps but higher maxium fps with sli problem for soo long when 2 card is enabled i get a higher minimum but a lower max fps. called evga support 5 times already they have no idea. tried soo many things i dunno whats goin on this is driving me crazy!!!!!!!!
 
Flask,

Take this approach:

Remove everything from your system you don't absolutely need. DVD drive, secondary HD's, floppy drive, etc. All you should have left is video card, sound card, maybe half your ram (no less than 1.5GB though, we are talking BF2 here :rolleyes: ). Try that and see if there's any change.

I was recently experiencing a similar issue....low fps with a 6600GT (my temp card), way lower than it should have been in BF2 running med settings at 1024. Turned out it was my secondary HD! I can't completely explain why, but my computer must have been accessing it. Once I unplugged it my fps literally doubled and I didn't get any more lag spikes. Good luck!
 
Roman79 said:
Flask,

Take this approach:

Remove everything from your system you don't absolutely need. DVD drive, secondary HD's, floppy drive, etc. All you should have left is video card, sound card, maybe half your ram (no less than 1.5GB though, we are talking BF2 here :rolleyes: ). Try that and see if there's any change.

I was recently experiencing a similar issue....low fps with a 6600GT (my temp card), way lower than it should have been in BF2 running med settings at 1024. Turned out it was my secondary HD! I can't completely explain why, but my computer must have been accessing it. Once I unplugged it my fps literally doubled and I didn't get any more lag spikes. Good luck!

Wow, I don't think I have ever heard of a HDD being the cause of low FPS. Thats very strange.


-Proxy
 
Proxy said:
Wow, I don't think I have ever heard of a HDD being the cause of low FPS. Thats very strange.


-Proxy

A fragmented drive messes up BF2 pretty bad, because it loves to cache stuff and read the profile directory often. If you've got any kind of issue accessing the drive quickly and transparently, your FPS is going to suffer in BF2.
 
What I don't understand is that if you enable Coolbits and look at the default clocking on a 6600GT it's like 300/600 or something ridiculously low like that.

I'm trying to figure out how people who don't know about it are going to be able to have in-game performance close to those that do.

Wouldn't that lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration on the non-Coolbits people because they don't have their cards clocked faster?

Does NVidia ramp up and down the clock speed based on the need of the game? It didn't look like that was what the factory default would do though.
 
charliemike said:
What I don't understand is that if you enable Coolbits and look at the default clocking on a 6600GT it's like 300/600 or something ridiculously low like that.
...
Does NVidia ramp up and down the clock speed based on the need of the game? It didn't look like that was what the factory default would do though.

My 6600GT will clock down when in 2D mode to 300MHz, then back up to 500MHz when playing a game; I assume they all do this. This is not apparent when using coolbits (at least for me I still see 500MHz), but can be seen using Rivatuner.
 
Proxy said:
Wow, I don't think I have ever heard of a HDD being the cause of low FPS. Thats very strange.


-Proxy

Yeah it's a first for me too, especially considering it is only a storage drive; no game files on there. What tipped me off was when I accessed a folder on the drive my computer would freeze solid (mouse, kb, even sound), then after about 5 seconds it would un-freeze. BF2 started to do this at the begining of every round (remember, no BF files on this drive) then go back to normal...but my fps was abnormally low.

Anyway, Flask let us know how you make out.
 
remove any firewall and/or antivirus software as well if you are running any, make sure only the processes needed are running on startup. Make sure your case is well ventilated also so rule out heat problems. If you suspect the power supply see if you can borrow a buddies and give it a go if that is an option.
 
Something that I want to include that has been an issue in the past was that I tried a 7800GS AGP card on my old comp with this same PSU 550W Antec, and I had the SAME issues. My ATI 9800PRO 128 out performed the 7800GS.

I think there is something wrong with this PSU.

I am going to test some things and removing some of the items sucking power.

Let me know what you all think.
 
I really think you should run CPU-Z and see what your memory settings are like.
Running 3GB of memory will most certainly screw your timings up and dual channel also.
I had sorta the same problem with my 2GB of ram. I had them in slots 1 & 3 like most mobos for dual channel, but it was coming up in 166mhz!! Soo I RTFM and found out for my mobo to run dual channel I must have the sticks in slot 1 & 2. This improved my memory bus speed thus also improving my BF2 fps. I use Fraps btw.
Currently it is still running a little slow with almost everything maxed out.
This is my 7900GT system and I had to turn down to 2xAA and med dynamic stuff to get decent fps on sharqi 45-60fps. Still not good considering you guys are getting 80-90.
This is on a 1280 x 1024 LCD.

You really also should use a good map to base your FPS on. On Karkand with my 7900GTX and everything maxed out non ultra settings I avg 80-90 fps. On Sharqi I get 70-90 depends on where you are on the map. This is on a 1920 x 1200 LCD.

GL with your settings.
 
what about the driver settings for your video card? Do you have the AF and AA jacked up in the Geforce Control panel as well as inside the game? Sometimes games want to contrl the filtering and the best thing to do is set AF and AA to "application controlled" (or whatever it says)
 
Well as far as the ram goes, it does state different times.

I bought the same exact ram, which is kind of silly, and I made sure that it was all the same timing. I don't understand why it is comming up like that.

Its states:

Total on the memory tab I have 3072 MBytes of ram in dual channel and @ 105.0 MHz frequency.

Slot 1: 1024 MBytes
Frequency - 200 MHz
CAS# Latency - 3.0 <---This is suppose to be CAS Latency 2
RAS# to CAS# - 3
RAS# Precharge - 3
Tras - 8

Slot 2: 1024 MBytes
Frequency - 200 MHz
CAS# Latency - 3.0 <---This is suppose to be CAS Latency 2
RAS# to CAS# - 3
RAS# Precharge - 3
Tras - 8

Slot 3: 512 MBytes
Frequency - 166 MHz / 200 MHz
CAS# Latency - 2.0 / 2.5
RAS# to CAS# - 3 / 3
RAS# Precharge - 3 / 3
Tras - 7 / 8

Slot 4: 512 MBytes
Frequency - 166 MHz / 200 MHz
CAS# Latency - 2.0 / 2.5
RAS# to CAS# - 3 / 3
RAS# Precharge - 3 / 3
Tras - 7 / 8
 
lots to read but yeah, what about the PSU not giving enough power. Or something real simple in the BIOS we are overlooking. Hope u fix it dude because it'd be ashame to not play well with that card.
 
Yeah, it's fustrating trust me.

This is either 2 things that I have narrowed down.

The ram is either off in time, or its the PSU. None of these issues started in either machine until I used these two components.
 
This sounds like not enough stable power to your system not just your card, also, get mem-test. Make a bootable floppy with mem-test on it and run it at start up. If you have just the slightest hick-up in memory or your memory slots this will find it. If it comes up clean then it would half to be the PSU.


-Proxy
 
Were you using 3gb of RAM with the 7800GS? What about the 9800?

Do you know anyone who has a PSU they can lend you just to test it?

The first and the easiest test would be to try it with simply 2gb of ram, preferably 2x1gb - if you have.

After that, post up your findings and we'll take it from there.
 
I would agree you should pull out those 512 sticks of ram. Then make sure you are running your ram in 1T. Just run with 2 megs and it is more than plenty.

I also noticed when you stated: "Total on the memory tab I have 3072 MBytes of ram in dual channel and @ 105.0 MHz frequency." This leads me to believe you may have something messed up in your bios settings. Your ram is actually underclocked. If you have your multipliers and dividers set properly your ram should not be running less than 200MHz.

I keep thinking about your video drivers and settings. I don't think you have mentioned which version of drivers you are using yet. Or at least I didn't see it if you did. I am using 91.31 and I found a pretty large fps increase since going to these new 90.xx drivers. Just make sure you check the option to use "classic mode". Double check all of your settings to make sure everything looks right. One mistake in your settings can kill your fps.

I would suggest installing coolbits 2.0. This will give you an option in your driver settings of "how many frames to render ahead". Default is 3 (at least it is for me) but you should try bringing this number down to 1. This also gave me better performace.

Also, when you open your task manager after you boot, how many running processes do you have. If you have a bunch of extra crap running in the background your fps will suffer.

I tend to think your PSU is not the problem. Just a gut feeling but I could be wrong.

I feel your pain man. I hope some of my suggestions help.
 
This does help BIG time, and let me do as you said and I will get back with you on my findings.
 
reddhaus said:
I would agree you should pull out those 512 sticks of ram. Then make sure you are running your ram in 1T. Just run with 2 megs and it is more than plenty.

I also noticed when you stated: "Total on the memory tab I have 3072 MBytes of ram in dual channel and @ 105.0 MHz frequency." This leads me to believe you may have something messed up in your bios settings. Your ram is actually underclocked. If you have your multipliers and dividers set properly your ram should not be running less than 200MHz.

I keep thinking about your video drivers and settings. I don't think you have mentioned which version of drivers you are using yet. Or at least I didn't see it if you did. I am using 91.31 and I found a pretty large fps increase since going to these new 90.xx drivers. Just make sure you check the option to use "classic mode". Double check all of your settings to make sure everything looks right. One mistake in your settings can kill your fps.

I would suggest installing coolbits 2.0. This will give you an option in your driver settings of "how many frames to render ahead". Default is 3 (at least it is for me) but you should try bringing this number down to 1. This also gave me better performace.

Also, when you open your task manager after you boot, how many running processes do you have. If you have a bunch of extra crap running in the background your fps will suffer.

I tend to think your PSU is not the problem. Just a gut feeling but I could be wrong.

I feel your pain man. I hope some of my suggestions help.

Man, you guys hit this right on the nose I think.

Took out those 2 512's and I went up to 59-70 FPS with people around and vehicles etc, and 70-100 FPS with not much around.

Starting to sound better?

Also that frequency on the ram went up to 210.0 MHz

How should I set this timing in BIOS? Not really familiar with messing with timing, but it says on newegg.com and on the box that it is suppose to be 2-3-3-6

How can I make it 2-3-3-6?

CPU-Z says 2.5 / 3-3-8-11 Not sure what that is all about.
 
This is about the best guide for overclocking cpu's and ram. It is pretty much a must read in my opinion.

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027479689&postcount=2

For setting your ram timings you will want to specifically look at this link. It like a picture by picture guide. Just click on the next image button to see each step.

http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTEwOTkwNjI3NktQNTdodzVDZlpfM18yX2wuZ2lm

I would only change timings you listed. Don't mess with all the other stuff until you become more familiar with them.

Good Luck
 
Your welcome.
Yea I fixed my RAM and I get the same FPS as you do with 1280 x 1024.

Your RAM timings are fine you would not notice 1 or 2 FPS difference.
your actually auto OCing I think since your FSB is at 210.
Look into turning that off and do everything manually.
And yea check out those OC guides.
I learned what I know from reading here and on DFI-Street even though I don't own a DFI board.
 
Flask said:
Man, you guys hit this right on the nose I think.

Took out those 2 512's and I went up to 59-70 FPS with people around and vehicles etc, and 70-100 FPS with not much around.

Starting to sound better?

Also that frequency on the ram went up to 210.0 MHz

How should I set this timing in BIOS? Not really familiar with messing with timing, but it says on newegg.com and on the box that it is suppose to be 2-3-3-6

How can I make it 2-3-3-6?

CPU-Z says 2.5 / 3-3-8-11 Not sure what that is all about.


Much better, Running four sticks of ram is something that can really fuck up your clock speeds. Go into your bios and lower the timings, slowly. Also make sure you have the latest drivers for your videocard.
 
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