Help on what my options are w/current system

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kjdocs

n00b
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Sep 12, 2008
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I have a (i think) 4 year old xps 730. I have pasted the output of cpu-z for my current system specs.

I mainly play games, currently BF3. I live in Monroe, la.

I might have $300 for upgrades in the next 30 to 45 days.

I'm going to be doing a new gaming build in the feb/march time frame, so any upgrades should be usable in the new system (1155 w/2600 or 2500k, not sure on the cpu).

BF3 plays ok for about an hour on my current system, then the fps dump and i have to close game and restart. All temps seem ok. Thinking maybe the 4GB of ram or the hd is the bottleneck.

Thoughts?

GPU is Nvidia (not an oem straight from nvidia) gtx 560 ti


CPU-Z 1.49 report file

Processor(s)
Number of processors 1
Number of cores 4 per processor
Number of threads 4 per processor
Name Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Code Name Yorkfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9450 @ 2.66GHz
Package Socket 775 LGA
Family/Model/Stepping 6.7.7
Extended Family/Model 6.17
Core Stepping C1
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 3480.3 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 8.0 x 435.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1740.2 MHz
Stock frequency 2666 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T
L1 Data cache (per processor) 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache (per processor) 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache (per processor) 2 x 6144 KBytes, 24-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Chipset & Memory
Northbridge NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI SPP rev. B1
Southbridge NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP rev. A3
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 4096 MBytes
Memory Frequency 696.1 MHz (5:8)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 8.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRCD) 11 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 11 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 27 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 37 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T
System
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Name XPS 730
System S/N JXDS5H1
Mainboard Vendor Dell Inc.
Mainboard Model 0F642F
BIOS Vendor Dell Inc.
BIOS Version 1.0.4
BIOS Date 06/24/2008
Memory SPD
Module 1 DDR3, PC3-8500G (533 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Samsung
Module 2 DDR3, PC3-8500G (533 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Samsung
Module 3 DDR3, PC3-8500G (533 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Samsung
Module 4 DDR3, PC3-8500G (533 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Samsung
Software
Windows Version Microsoft Windows Vista (6.1) Ultimate Edition (Build 7600)
DirectX Version 10.0
 
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If you plan on doing a larger upgrade in the future, the best thing to upgrade right now would be the GPU (since memory, etc will get changed out with the big upgrade). So for $300 you can grab a 6950 2GB or a 560 Ti 448 Core, which will also work well in the new machine. However, your best bet is probably to just wait and do the whole upgrade at one time, so you can better assess your budget/take advantage of price drops. You might be able to afford more card in 3 months.
 
Thanks for the feedback, though i have a 560 ti :)

I thought maybe my memory was holding me back, but when i did some research my page file isn't every being hit, and i see peak mem usage ab 3.4 GB

I think right now my biggest issue is cpu, my q9450 is running about 97 to 98 percent when in game (BF3).
 
kjdocs said:
Thanks for the feedback, though i have a 560 ti :)

I thought maybe my memory was holding me back, but when i did some research my page file isn't every being hit, and i see peak mem usage ab 3.4 GB

I think right now my biggest issue is cpu, my q9450 is running about 97 to 98 percent when in game (BF3).
Click to expand...

Oh, your post says GTX 260 Ti. I just assumed you meant GTX 260, not GTX 560 Ti.
 
Hmm....the FPS dump is an odd issue. If it plays fine for an hour and then the FPS drops, it may be something else entirely. Might be OS, driver, or background app related.

However if you can, see if you can OC that that Q9450 to 3Ghz or higher and that should increase performance.
 
I have the 9450 at 3.4ghz.

Any higher then she starts to BSOD.

my noobish guess is i'm cpu bound.....
 
While there is a CPU limitation going on, that itself is not causing "the fps dump and i have to close game and restart" issue you're having. They're not related AFAIK. As noted earlier, it sounds like it could be OS, driver, background app related, or even game issue.

But just to be clear, did the 3.4Ghz OC improve performance and alleviate your "FPS dump" issues?
 
I had been really changing the in game graphics a lot when the fps drop was occurring. I stopped with all the changing and settled on a profile and it seemed to stabilize.

I was just trying to push the ingame settings to that which nvidia says i should get w/560 ti (until it dawned on me that the rest of my PC might be the issue).
 
Your hardware seems fine for running BF3. What resolution are you running? Possibly something causing you to max out VRAM? That would cause massive FPS drops, but normally BF3 is pretty tolerant of VRAM and doesn't usually just tank. Maybe monitor VRAM usage (via Afterburner, or some other utility) while playing?
 
Are you playing single or multiplayer? if multiplayer, do you notice any pattern during these fps dumps (explosions, collapsing buildings, lots of people, flashlight/laser glare)?
 
Foreman -- I am running 1920 x 1200. And yeah, it is maxing out the vram for sure (afterburner).

I notice that my worst issues occurred with Ambient Occlusion set to HBAO (fps would drop strangly after first time i died and had to re-spawn). Once i settled on SSAO it has been stable (though still using up all the gpu memory). Still after an hour or two of constant playing it will (fps) get bogged down. Basically have to exit and go back in via origin or even sometimes i just reboot just for good measure.
 
Are temps still around 70 when the fps drops? Settings alone shouldn't result in a drop in fps after a few hours, that sounds more like a memory leak or GPU/CPU clocking itself down when they get too hot. Use HWMonitor and get a log of temps while you play, also check your bios/afterburner settings, see if there's anything set to underclock your hardware when the temps reaches a certain point.

You could try ramping up the RPM on your fans, see if it makes a difference.
 
I know I've seen other people complaining about similar issues (performance drops after time), but heck if I can remember what ended up being the cause/solution. Really does seem like a memory leak or something similar - have you tried closing your browser after you launch the game (alt-tab out and close it)? I have heard some people say that closing the browser fixed performance issues for them.
 
Forceman said:
I know I've seen other people complaining about similar issues (performance drops after time), but heck if I can remember what ended up being the cause/solution. Really does seem like a memory leak or something similar - have you tried closing your browser after you launch the game (alt-tab out and close it)? I have heard some people say that closing the browser fixed performance issues for them.
Click to expand...
My brother did have performance issues with the browser opened. However we just switched browsers altogether: Firefox uses quite a bit of VRAM compared to Google Chrome comparing GPU-Z numbers. And this is something I noticed on both our systems. As such, once he shuts down Firefox and used Google Chrome for Battlelog, his performance went up and stabilized. So in his case, Firefox itself was the issue: it just sucked up much needed VRAM.

Also make sure that no flash player is running in one of the browser windows as that also affects performance.
 
Yeah Firefox seems to use progressively more RAM as time passes; When I have it open for a day or so I sometimes find it using up 512+ MB of RAM. Hasn't been an issue however since i've upgraded to 16GB of RAM. Also make sure you update your Firefox, newer versions have made significant improvements on RAM usage.
 
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