GTX 690 and BF3

D

dblinkhorn

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 5, 2010
Messages
100
My system specs:

i5 2500k @ 4.6ghz
16gb ram
256gb SSD
GTX 690


For some reason, even with the lowest possible settings in game @ 1080p I can't max out 120fps on my 120hz monitor. My average on lowest possible settings is around 90fps and my average on highest possible settings is around 70fps. My GPU usage according to Riva Tuner is usually around 65-80% on lowest possible settings for each GPU.

Is this normal? Am I being bottlenecked by my CPU? What kind of hardware does it take to max out 120fps or at least raise my average to above 100fps in this game?
 
what you're describing sounds like a cpu bottleneck, but a 2500K at 4.6 is not going to be an issue here. my next suggestion would be to ensure SLI is enabled (is that required on dual-gpu cards like the 690?). BUT even half of your 690 should perform better than 90fps on low settings. so i'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here for ideas but maybe try uninstall/re-install of drivers?
 
Something's wrong. I'm getting 75 to 135 FPS like no tomorrow on all medium settings at 2560x1440.
 
Yeah I'm stumped as well. Riva Tuner is indeed showing that both of the GPUs on the card are operating and the Nvidia control panel is showing that multi-GPU mode is enabled. I'm stumped....
 
You're using 320.18 WHQL drivers, right? Try disabling one GPU and see how much of a FPS drop you get or to see if it's the same FPS. This would be interesting to see.

EDIT: By disabling a GPU, obviously disable SLI.
 
I get a steady 120 fps with a 2500k @4.2 and a 7950. You probably have a weird sli or power issue.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
You're using 320.18 WHQL drivers, right? Try disabling one GPU and see how much of a FPS drop you get or to see if it's the same FPS. This would be interesting to see.

EDIT: By disabling a GPU, obviously disable SLI.
Click to expand...

I'm using 320.00. Would that really be the cause? It definitely feels like some kind of bottleneck because going to absolute max settings doesn't change the FPS that much, but it does a bit.

EDIT: I got the latest drivers and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Although I have now seen that my CPU usage is pretty much 90-100% most of the time? Is that normal? Could this really be the bottleneck?
 
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Hmm.. Probly a shot in the dark, but check if any process' eating up your cpu you dont recognize then?
 
Was your previous card an AMD and if yes, did you completely re-install windows before you installed the Nvidia card?
 
Did you change the power settings in the nvidia control panel from adaptive to prefer maximum performance?
 
I think it's a CPU issue, Dblinkhorn.

I basically have the same setup and I find that lowering settings in games does not improve my framerate. I have never pin pointed the issue but it is very frustrating.

I wish I had a an x79 and a 3930K to test it out on.


What I have tested:

- Updated to the latest drivers. Never had AMD cards prior.
- NV Control Panel set to maximum performance.
- Neither CPU or GPU reaches high usage.
- I've ran Heaven benchmark with and without SLI and that seems normal. SLI is significantly better. Nearly double the score.
- Swapped out SLI bridges, no effect.

The games that receive the least impact when changing the graphics are BF3, PS2, and Crysis 3.

I'm completely lost.
 
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I have a GTX 690 with a Haswell 4770K, no overclocks, new system only a couple of weeks old. I had Afterburner running the last time I played BF4 just for curiosity, it was in the single player campaign, and I was getting an average of about 125fps constant.
Using latest official driver, settings as standard.
 
MrGoodKat44 said:
Did you change the power settings in the nvidia control panel from adaptive to prefer maximum performance?
Click to expand...

Yes, but it didn't help, and I then changed it back to adaptive because I read that this doesn't actually affect real-world performance and basically just causes the GPU to idle much hotter since it won't down clock as much.

Rogue007 said:
I have a GTX 690 with a Haswell 4770K, no overclocks, new system only a couple of weeks old. I had Afterburner running the last time I played BF4 just for curiosity, it was in the single player campaign, and I was getting an average of about 125fps constant.
Using latest official driver, settings as standard.
Click to expand...

I should also specify that this lower-than-expected fps problem usually seems worse when I am playing on a full or nearly full 64-player map. My single player FPS is significantly better which leads me to suspect a CPU bottleneck even more.
 
No it cannot and simply cannot be a bottleneck if you're at 4.6 GHz with a GTX 690. Unless you're lying about your overclocks, and it's actually at 4GHz or something. Sandybridges aren't that weak today.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
No it cannot and simply cannot be a bottleneck if you're at 4.6 GHz with a GTX 690. Unless you're lying about your overclocks, and it's actually at 4GHz or something. Sandybridges aren't that weak today.
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I'm not lying about my overclocks, lol. CPUID confirms 4.6Ghz while running Prime95. My GPU usage for each core rarely goes above 80% even on all ultra settings.
 
Well, allright have you seen this thread? Maybe you could try the CPU unparking trick so that it forces the game to use all cores and your FPS might be in the sweet spot again.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
Well, allright have you seen this thread? Maybe you could try the CPU unparking trick so that it forces the game to use all cores and your FPS might be in the sweet spot again.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried that either but I've also read mixed reviews about whether it actually makes a difference. However, while running BF3 all 4 of my CPU cores are at or near 100% usage when playing, so would 'unparking' even make a difference?
 
dblinkhorn said:
I haven't tried that either but I've also read mixed reviews about whether it actually makes a difference. However, while running BF3 all 4 of my CPU cores are at or near 100% usage when playing, so would 'unparking' even make a difference?
Click to expand...

I have thought about unparking as well. I also messed around with the High Precision Event Timer. That did nothing.
 
Stupid question but it appears that nobody has asked this yet; what kind of PSU do you have? We'd want to know if the 690 was getting enough juice to function at 100%. Also did you ever try disabling SLI to see if FPS was the same or not?
 
Mr. Stryker said:
Stupid question but it appears that nobody has asked this yet; what kind of PSU do you have? We'd want to know if the 690 was getting enough juice to function at 100%. Also did you ever try disabling SLI to see if FPS was the same or not?
Click to expand...

I did disable SLI and I did indeed take an FPS hit, about 30%. Also, I'm running a Corsair Professional Series Gold 750-Watt PSU. This problem definitely has to do with 64-player games, as my single player frames are way better even using all ultra settings.

EDIT: After some further testing with one GPU disabled, I actually get about the same FPS on lowest settings, but on ultra settings I really see the difference between SLI and one GPU (i.e. SLI = ~90-100fps average, single GPU = ~70-80fps average)
 
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dblinkhorn said:
I did disable SLI and I did indeed take an FPS hit, about 30%. Also, I'm running a Corsair Professional Series Gold 750-Watt PSU. This problem definitely has to do with 64-player games, as my single player frames are way better even using all ultra settings.

EDIT: After some further testing with one GPU disabled, I actually get about the same FPS on lowest settings, but on ultra settings I really see the difference between SLI and one GPU (i.e. SLI = ~90-100fps average, single GPU = ~70-80fps average)
Click to expand...

Still, lowering the settings should be giving you a frame boost. Something is holding it back.

Do you have dual monitors?
 
dblinkhorn said:
I did disable SLI and I did indeed take an FPS hit, about 30%. Also, I'm running a Corsair Professional Series Gold 750-Watt PSU. This problem definitely has to do with 64-player games, as my single player frames are way better even using all ultra settings.

EDIT: After some further testing with one GPU disabled, I actually get about the same FPS on lowest settings, but on ultra settings I really see the difference between SLI and one GPU (i.e. SLI = ~90-100fps average, single GPU = ~70-80fps average)
Click to expand...

A 64 player game is very cpu intensive, i think you may be getting the best frames possible
 
Vram may be an issue too. Even at 1080P, Bf3 can eat up vram. I know my fps increased going from a 670 to a 7950. Before, I could not get a constant 100 fps and now it runs at 100-120 fps with the majority of the time being 120 fps.

I don't play many 64 man servers though. I find that just like in PS2 that when it gets too crowded in areas, the game slows down period. Try 32 man servers or even 48 and see if there's a difference.
 
spaceman said:
Vram may be an issue too. Even at 1080P, Bf3 can eat up vram. I know my fps increased going from a 670 to a 7950. Before, I could not get a constant 100 fps and now it runs at 100-120 fps with the majority of the time being 120 fps.

I don't play many 64 man servers though. I find that just like in PS2 that when it gets too crowded in areas, the game slows down period. Try 32 man servers or even 48 and see if there's a difference.
Click to expand...

I have 2GB versions of 680's. Never even hit 75% usage before.
 
Domini said:
A 64 player game is very cpu intensive, i think you may be getting the best frames possible
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From what I've been reading in other place, that seems to be the consensus. On 64-player maps, even the best hardware struggles to keep up. It definitely seems like a CPU problem, though.
 
dblinkhorn said:
My system specs:

i5 2500k @ 4.6ghz
16gb ram
256gb SSD
GTX 690


For some reason, even with the lowest possible settings in game @ 1080p I can't max out 120fps on my 120hz monitor. My average on lowest possible settings is around 90fps and my average on highest possible settings is around 70fps. My GPU usage according to Riva Tuner is usually around 65-80% on lowest possible settings for each GPU.

Is this normal? Am I being bottlenecked by my CPU? What kind of hardware does it take to max out 120fps or at least raise my average to above 100fps in this game?
Click to expand...

Not sure the specs you describe entitle you to 120fps. That may just be beyond the capability of this generation of hardware based on how the software is written, how it takes advantage of multiple cores, ect. Generally speaking those kinds of frame rates are not realistic on any setup.

How does Crysis 3 run?
 
Run Techpowerup.com's GPU-Z and see if your 690 is running at x16 or x8, or even x4 and I would be concerned. Tried the second PCI-E slot? The other 63 players on the map, I'm sure they're running on worse hardware and I never see people complaining in the chat. I play 64 player maps all the time and see FPS hits very rarely even when I had an i7 970 hexcore at 3.5GHz.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
Run Techpowerup.com's GPU-Z and see if your 690 is running at x16 or x8, or even x4 and I would be concerned. Tried the second PCI-E slot? The other 63 players on the map, I'm sure they're running on worse hardware and I never see people complaining in the chat. I play 64 player maps all the time and see FPS hits very rarely even when I had an i7 970 hexcore at 3.5GHz.
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It's running at x16. I haven't tried another PCI-e slot yet. I have noticed that even on TF2 I will get FPS drops into the 80fps range when there is a lot of action on the screen, but it's not my video card struggling because it never goes above about 50% usage on that game, even during the FPS hits. I think a lot of games actually are CPU limited when it comes to trying to maintain 120fps constant.
 
dblinkhorn said:
It's running at x16. I haven't tried another PCI-e slot yet. I have noticed that even on TF2 I will get FPS drops into the 80fps range when there is a lot of action on the screen, but it's not my video card struggling because it never goes above about 50% usage on that game, even during the FPS hits. I think a lot of games actually are CPU limited when it comes to trying to maintain 120fps constant.
Click to expand...

Yup. Try PS2 which is a REALLY cpu limited game. Only runs on 1 core.
 
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