Poor BFBC2 performance with xfire'd 4850s

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QFT

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Aug 5, 2011
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"Poor" meaning "only marginally better than with a single 4850"

I haven't had performance issues in L4D2, TF2 or Just Cause 2. But BC2 kind of crawls, and that's My Game :)

My setup:

C2D E8400 @ 3GHz (stock speed)
8GB RAM
Win 7 x64
In crossfire:
MSI HD4850 512MB
XFX HD4850 1GB
(both have the same clock speed)

In BC2 multiplayer with one card, I get somewhere like 30-50FPS with medium-high-ish settings, at or below 1440x900

With crossfire, it's about the same. The only observable improvement is that I can bump it up to 1680x1050 and take *less* of a hit than with a single card, but it's still bad enough that I usually play in 1440x900. Also, in xfire I can get 70FPS when I'm just looking at a wall or something. But add in any action, or put me in a snow level, and I'm chugging around in the 30FPS range for most of the battle, and it stutters when there's close explosions around.

I've also noticed that my processor stays pretty much pegged during BC2 gameplay, but I've read articles saying that an E8400 shouldn't bottleneck Xfire'd 4850's in BC2.

I've tried messing with the DX setting in the game's config file, messing with all kinds of in-game video settings, and can't figure it out. I'm running the latest AMD drivers and the game is updated through Steam.

Any ideas?
 
Or, overclock the living stuffing out of your dual core, if you are so inclined. It won't help too much, but it will palliate the situation somewhat.
 
Definitely CPU limited. I had a similar problem with BFBC2 about 2 years ago on my 4850 CF system when it still had a Phenom X2 in it. I upgraded to a PII X4 955BE and my frame rates nearly doubled.
 
Thanks. I'd read a great article saying "as long as you have a core2 around 3GHz it doesn't really matter" but apparently that was incorrect.

I'm thinking of getting a 2.66GHz Q6600 on the cheap to replace my 3GHz E8400. Think that'll do the trick, and likely keep BF3 playable when that comes out?



edit: here's the article in question: http://www.techspot.com/article/255-battlefield-bad-company2-performance/page7.html
Note the last paragraph:
So again, a decent dual core processor such as a Core 2 Duo E8xxx or Phenom II X2 should be enough to get the most out of your graphics card in this game. While it is quad-core optimized, the game is not demanding enough on the CPU to warrant it based on what I have seen so far.
Click to expand...

Guess they were wrong about that! I'll go find a quad core.
 
QFT said:
I'm thinking of getting a 2.66GHz Q6600 on the cheap to replace my 3GHz E8400. Think that'll do the trick, and likely keep BF3 playable when that comes out?
Click to expand...


Yeah, a used Q6600 is probably the most cost effective way to get satisfaction from your current situation. You should still overclock that a little to about 3200MHz or so.

As for BF3, I assume your native res is 1680x1050, I think it should be OK if you adjust the settings (hopefully you can keep it somewhere around medium).
 
I think a Q6600 or any LGA 775 quad core is a huge waste of money. First, they're pretty expensive, and second, they generally suck (especially the Q6600). Save your money for a 2500K and a cheap P67 motherboard -- you can get both of them at Microcenter for well under $300, which is about as much as a Q9550.

In the interim, overclock your CPU. An E8400 @ 4.0 ghz -- which is achievable by most chips -- shouldn't have much trouble with BFBC2.
 
I have a buddy who will give me a spare Core2Quad. Not sure which one it is yet but I'm sure it'll do the trick.

If I were to buy one, they're not $300... I can get them used for $50-100

Within a year or so I'll probably put together a new rig. But not right now.
 
I nearly doubled my FPS in BC2 with my e8400/HD6850 by simply overclocking the e8400 to 3.7Ghz.
 
my e8400 @ 4ghz was still a bottle neck in bc2. shit ran 100% all the time on both cores and i could never get more then like 35-40fps with a 4870x2 and SLI 8800 GTX's on medium settings. if thats playable for you then do it, but i need a steady 60fps for any first person shooter.

id save your money as some mentioned and plan an upgrade, bf3 will crush the 775 architecture imo
 
I upgraded from my q6600 because it was bottlenecking BC2. I upgraded to an i7 2600k and my fps doubled in full multiplayer games. I hate to say it, but don't waste your money on a 775 at this point -- save for a new platform.
 
My history and testing with BFBC2 + Ati in multiplayer 32 player servers:

6870 x 1 + 3.8ghz Core 2 = 25-45fps @ 19x12 max settings 95-100% usage both cores, 90-100% usage GPU
6870 x 1 + 4.2ghz i5 (Dual) = 30-50fps @ 19x12 max settings 95-100% usage both cores, 90-100% usage GPU
6870 x 2 + 4.2ghz i5 (Dual) = 35-75fps @ 19x12 max settings 95-100% usage both cores, 45-75% usage both GPU
6870 x 2 + 3.5ghz i7 (quad) = 65 - 200fps @ 19x12 max settings 25-45% usage each core, 45-75% usage both GPU

(note that some of the older fps numbers are estimates from memory)
 
Good info. For now I think I'll just stick with the "free" C2Q I'm getting from a buddy, which will hopefully give me a decent boost to make things more playable at 1680x1050 (my native res).

In a year I'll just upgrade the whole box when I can get Ivy Bridge
 
BC2 is heavily CPU dependent but even with that change you may still run into problems, in which case I'll mention the following:

Keep in mind you've got mismatched cards with 512mb on one, and 1GB on the other. Crossfire will only run as fast as the slowest card, and that includes VRAM, so you're running 512mb regardless of your 1GB card.

You may have the raw processing power in crossfire but not the VRAM to deal with increased visual settings.
 
You are absolutely correct. Fortunately BC2 doesn't use over 512MB of VRAM on just one monitor (if what I've been reading is correct).

Really, I had the 512MB card for the last couple years, and picked up the 1GB card for $40 a couple months ago for the expressed purpose of crossfiring them to get me another year of acceptable gaming performance. It seems to be working out pretty well for most games; BC2 is an exception, apparently due to the CPU bottleneck.
 
I would sell your lga775 stuff and get a 2500k and OC, you would probably end up breaking close to even if you sell the 8GB of DDR2, the prices on that stuff is nuts.
 
Results:

Acquired Q6600 from friend, installed, got about a 30-50% framerate boost. Not perfect, but WAY better than before. Actually playable now.

Next step may be to get a better case for airflow, a nice CPU cooler and overclock it. Thanks for the help guys, most of you were on the money.
 
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