BF3 compare poses question?

[HisSvt76]

Pretty simple look at the numbers for bf3 on the 2 machines i have here specs in my sig. both running bf3 on high preset at 1080p res from this i'm wondering if i have the wrong cards in the wrong systems?? Both system using new beta drivers from NV/AMD i know i read somewhere that NV scale better and amd card perform similar with lower or higher specs machines so i guess im wondering if the NV card performs like it does on that AMD system would it surpasse the amd card in the intel system? might have to swap and try but figured i would get some other educated opinions before i swap and play with stuff. Also keep in mine the amd machine is ddr2 800 vs the intels ddr3 1600.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=26b5af07b8ad9f3b&resid=26B5AF07B8AD9F3B!320&parid=26B5AF07B8AD9F3B!120&authkey=!AKop5Vla_1hvQto

 

[Frito]

frame rates are not going to tell us very much about what components are performing better on each system

what you should do if you want to find out open the console with the ~ key in game and type
Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1

this will display a performance graph in the bottom left of your screen with numbers below it

looks like this

what this graph and numbers represent are how long it is taking each subsystem to render frames in ms, yellow is CPU green GPU. lower is better because that means its taking less time to render frames. the graph also works the same way, lower is better, whatever line is higher is what is limiting your frame rate (cpu is often the bottleneck unless your running very high graphic settings) so in the graph you see above my CPU is limiting my 560 Ti's from going above 106 fps in that particular screen shot

 

[coolpurplefan]

I didn't really understand that file and what it means...

 

[HisSvt76]

frame rates are not going to tell us very much about what components are performing better on each system

what you should do if you want to find out open the console with the ~ key in game and type
Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1

this will display a performance graph in the bottom left of your screen with numbers below it

looks like this

what this graph and numbers represent are how long it is taking each subsystem to render frames in ms, yellow is CPU green GPU. lower is better because that means its taking less time to render frames. the graph also works the same way, lower is better, whatever line is higher is what is limiting your frame rate (cpu is often the bottleneck unless your running very high graphic settings) so in the graph you see above my CPU is limiting my 560 Ti's from going above 106 fps in that particular screen shot

I have done that ill run again and post those but i remember them both having the 2 lines mixing together alot

 

[HisSvt76]

I didn't really understand that file and what it means...

they are the fraps framrates in the same level same time run on each macnine then there min avg and max numbers.

 

[Frito]

I didn't really understand that file and what it means...

they are frame rate numbers from FRAPS.

the first few lines are min,max, averages

also to the OP it appears you have V-SYNC on. you should turn it off if you want the best performance and lowest amount of input lag. (esp important for multiplayer, single player by all means use v-sync)

 

[Frito]

I have done that ill run again and post those but i remember them both having the 2 lines mixing together alot

if they are staying with each other then that means they are performing pretty equally, the only thing you can do then is lower graphics settings so that the CPU becomes the bottleneck that way you know your video card is not slowing you down then overclock/upgrade your CPU to further increase frame rates

as for what video card you should run in the i7 system, the 6870 is probably the faster card, its newer than the 460, the only way to know for sure what one performs better in each system is to do benchmark runs with each card in each system. comparing entire systems to each other will not give you the answers you seek but clearly the intel system is performing faster, probably due to the CPU.

 

[Met-AL]

frame rates are not going to tell us very much about what components are performing better on each system

what you should do if you want to find out open the console with the ~ key in game and type
Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1

this will display a performance graph in the bottom left of your screen with numbers below it

what this graph and numbers represent are how long it is taking each subsystem to render frames in ms, yellow is CPU green GPU. lower is better because that means its taking less time to render frames. the graph also works the same way, lower is better, whatever line is higher is what is limiting your frame rate (cpu is often the bottleneck unless your running very high graphic settings) so in the graph you see above my CPU is limiting my 560 Ti's from going above 106 fps in that particular screen shot

Good info Frito, thanks.

 

[HisSvt76]

here are the shots
intel first 2 then amd second 2

 

[Frito]

the intel system has v-sync on for sure and overall its performing pretty good keeping the game at 60 fps the spikes in performance are probably from too high of a graphics setting or some other external issue (program in the background using CPU perhaps?) though it looks pretty normal to me. the reason both are locked together is because v-sync is on.

the AMD system is being held back slightly by your GPU so lower the settings and it will perform better.

 

[HisSvt76]

the intel system has v-sync on for sure and overall its performing pretty good keeping the game at 60 fps the spikes in performance are probably from too high of a graphics setting or some other external issue (program in the background using CPU perhaps?) though it looks pretty normal to me. the reason both are locked together is because v-sync is on.

the AMD system is being held back slightly by your GPU so lower the settings and it will perform better.

both have vsync on i set them both to the same default high setting in the game for this compare , both systems have same stuff running. maybe the spike are from intel turbo boost the AMD chip runs @3ghz constant??

 

[Exeodus]

At 1080p, the GPU is more of the limiting factor. For example, one of my rigs has a 2500K, and I was using two GTX460's in SLI. These were the 768MB models. Even with the 2500K, I could not run at High settings because of the GPU memory bottleneck. I just changed it to a 6870 1GB, and it runs at High settings flawlessly.

 

[Frito]

both have vsync on i set them both to the same default high setting in the game for this compare , both systems have same stuff running. maybe the spike are from intel turbo boost the AMD chip runs @3ghz constant??

no, turbo on intel CPU's does not cause the spikes, too high of settings and too slow of a system in general for the settings cause them. the AMD system is not keeping the game at 60 FPS and that is why they are not locked together v-sync only works if your gpu/cpu can keep the game above 60 fps

 

[Frito]

here is an example of a CPU being too slow for the system

(this is my 2500k with 2 cores disabled and downclocked to 3.4 ghz no turbo)

also note spikes are normal when there is movement/action going on. large sudden changes in performance indicate problems like running out of VRAM or system RAM

 

[HisSvt76]

here is vsync off again intel first then amd

 

[Frito]

yea, looks pretty normal, the large spikes are probably from texture loading or similar. i have not played single player much with the graph on but that is my guess. do you notice slow downs when the spikes happen?

single player is easier on systems in general but will have times were scenes are loading, more bad guys show up etc that could cause these sorts of spikes. overall it looks like both systems are pretty well matched for the video cards they are running, your i7 system looks like v-sync is still stuck on though maybe its set in the nv control panel?

 

[HisSvt76]

yea, looks pretty normal, the large spikes are probably from texture loading or similar. i have not played single player much with the graph on but that is my guess. do you notice slow downs when the spikes happen?

single player is easier on systems in general but will have times were scenes are loading, more bad guys show up etc that could cause these sorts of spikes. overall it looks like both systems are pretty well matched for the video cards they are running, your i7 system looks like v-sync is still stuck on though maybe its set in the nv control panel?

vsynv is off on the intel and just to clarify the the intel sytem has the 6870 the amd has the 460

 

[Frito]

vsynv is off on the intel and just to clarify the the intel sytem has the 6870 the amd has the 460

yeah i know.

to answer your main question looks like the 6870 is faster than the 460 and it should be afaik so having it in the i7 machine makes the most sense.


as for how to get either one performing better as i said earlier lower graphic's settings and overclocking the CPU's will accomplish this to some extent without upgrading anything, otherwise i would look into upgrade the video card probably on the i7 system, the cpu is fine just overclock it to get more headroom.

 

[HisSvt76]

ok now here is the intel system with HT off and speed locked @ 3.2ghz

Intel again 3.2 oc but with HT on

 

[HisSvt76]

Last post so i went ahead and swapped the cards and the results were about what i was thinking . The GTX 460 in the intel system almost matched the HD6870 card it was on the average only 6 fps slower on the high side the minimum was the same and the max was the same.

Intel w/ HD6870
Min Max Avg
34 63 53.443

Intel w/ GTX 460
Min Max Avg
33 63 47.487

sticking with the AMD card in the intel system the board supports crossfire maybe pick up another 6870 if the price is right.

 

[Frito]

yeah some people have reported that HT makes the frame rate erratic in BF3. my 2500k doesn't have it so i could not comment on this, seems it removed a lot of the spikes in your perf graph but those major ones are still there and they appear to be in a timed pattern maybe a background program using the CPU every so often like an anti-virus?

 

[HisSvt76]

yeah some people have reported that HT makes the frame rate erratic in BF3. my 2500k doesn't have it so i could not comment on this, seems it removed a lot of the spikes in your perf graph but those major ones are still there and they appear to be in a timed pattern maybe a background program using the CPU every so often like an anti-virus?

the game isnt stuttering so not sure but i did get those spikes to go away by turning off motion blur.

 

[Frito]

the game isnt stuttering so not sure but i did get those spikes to go away by turning off motion blur.

ahh cool, yeah i hate motion blur and don't have it on normally in my system either. as long as its running smoothly i think your good to go