Horrible Frame Variance BF4 r9 290 Crossfire

J

jaju123

n00b
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
Messages
26
Hey guys,

Basically I've been having a problem with really unsmooth gameplay due to high frame variance in Battlefield 4, and I am unsure what exactly causes it. Changing the settings makes it better but not eliminated. 100 fps feels like 40fps, and I don't know how I can fix it. I've tried all kinds of BIOS settings, different drivers (on 14.2 now), checking the game files, mantle or directX (makes no difference) and all kinds of stuff. I even removed my Pcie Sata 6 card because I thought it might steal some lanes or something...
Do I have a PCI express 2.0 bottleneck because I'm running at x8 x8?

Here are some screenshots of the issue:
http://imgur.com/a/LO1rc

Full specs:
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.8 GHZ
Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler
MSI Z68a-GD65 (G3) Motherboard
16GB (4x4GB) 1600mhz G-Skill DDR3 RAM
2x AMD Radeon R9 290 Crossfire
Asus Xonar Essence ST Soundcard
Corsair AX850 PSU
Cooler Master HAF X Case

Drives:
Samsung SSD 830 256GB Boot drive
Samsung SSD 840 250GB
Crucial M4 256GB SSD
2x OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSDs
2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD
 
Yeah one card works fine - I knew that already. Unfortunately it is only a problem with crossfire :(
 
OmgitsSexyChase said:
It could be pcie 2.0, have you tried reinstalling drivers?
Click to expand...

Yeah I have tried :(
This problem only seems to be BF4 btw though. Other games like Max Payne 3 have some frame rate drops for a while but I don't know if that's PCIe related.
The problem also becomes much worse when seeing smoke effects and particularly explosions etc.
 
Im juat guessing in the dark here, but do you have a kill a watt meter, maybe your computer is reaching the limit of that psu,

I have a I7 [email protected]
8gigs of ram
256 840pro ssd
2x r9-290x

And that eats up 700 watts, so I imagine all those extra harddrive, and a 2500k probably brings your power draw pretty high
 
Power draw will just make the system crash or shut off, it won't cause variance in frame times. Although that system is definitely close to the 850W mark under load, I would consider an upgrade for the peace of mind.
 
Yeah I should be able to afford a 3770K pretty soon since my mobo supports PCIe 3.0. I am not sure if it will fix the problem but it might give some extra FPS anyway!
Also other games are fine, but I know that different games give different loads on the PCIe bus.
 
Rizen said:
Power draw will just make the system crash or shut off, it won't cause variance in frame times. Although that system is definitely close to the 850W mark under load, I would consider an upgrade for the peace of mind.
Click to expand...



you'd be surprised what power draw can do, while I doubt it would affect frame times also I've had it make computers lag up bad yet still work just like everything is in slow motion
 
jaju123 said:
Hey guys,

Basically I've been having a problem with really unsmooth gameplay due to high frame variance in Battlefield 4, and I am unsure what exactly causes it. Changing the settings makes it better but not eliminated. 100 fps feels like 40fps, and I don't know how I can fix it. I've tried all kinds of BIOS settings, different drivers (on 14.2 now), checking the game files, mantle or directX (makes no difference) and all kinds of stuff. I even removed my Pcie Sata 6 card because I thought it might steal some lanes or something...
Do I have a PCI express 2.0 bottleneck because I'm running at x8 x8?

Here are some screenshots of the issue:
http://imgur.com/a/LO1rc

Full specs:
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.8 GHZ
Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler
MSI Z68a-GD65 (G3) Motherboard
16GB (4x4GB) 1600mhz G-Skill DDR3 RAM
2x AMD Radeon R9 290 Crossfire
Asus Xonar Essence ST Soundcard
Corsair AX850 PSU
Cooler Master HAF X Case

Drives:
Samsung SSD 830 256GB Boot drive
Samsung SSD 840 250GB
Crucial M4 256GB SSD
2x OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSDs
2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD
Click to expand...

Are you running the game in borderless mode, cos i get the same. Trying running it in proper full screen mode.
 
jaju123 said:
Yeah it is in fullscreen exclusive mode :p
Click to expand...

Ah no idea then mate. Its funny because the same thing happens to me if i run in borderless mode at 1440P/1080P. I wonder if it is pci-e related to be honest. I'm on pci-e 2.0 x8 x8 as well. However full screen is fine for me, really smooth. A friend was having similar issues, but since he got a x16 x8 pci-e 2.0 board he says its better now, but still not perfect. Not totally convinced its a pci-e issue though tbh.

Have you checked to make sure both slots are running x8 x8 while gaming using gpu-z? Maybe remove all other cards from your mobo as well. Double check bios settings too and make sure you're using the latest bios etc.
 
I doubt its PCI-E releated, Ive ran 3 7970s on PCI-E 2.0 at 1440P with no Problems. When is the last time you did a Fresh install of windows? Maybe BF4 is corrupt, Have you tried to repair it or check if there are problems?
 
Hmm I have ordered a 3770k, which I managed to find on Amazon UK for only £160 new somehow... epic. Maybe it will fix the problem, maybe not. I'll probably reinstall windows then anyway.

I also did try repairing BF4 ofc many times, which didn't help at all, and tried default BIOS settings. I'm on the latest BIOS for my board as well, but it hasn't really been updated by MSI for a while.

I haven't reinstalled Windows since I changed my GPUs from Nvidia (2x GTX 680s) to AMD. I don't see how that could cause an issue though, since I have removed all driver remnants with DDU etc.

Also I think that 7970s may not have this issue if it is indeed due to PCIe bandwidth, as they still have the crossfire bridge and not XDMA like the r9 290s :)

Any other help would be appreciated, otherwise I will see how the situation improves with the 3770k :)
 
R290's no longer use the crossfire bridge, they use the PCIE bus to talk to each other. So there is a considerable jump in bandwidth need compared to previous cards. edit: I see you already know this now. H's R290 crossfire review said 2 cards use 750W so your 850W should be enough.
 
From AMD XDMA page:

XDMA is designed for optimal performance with systems running PCI Express 2.0 x16 (16GB/s), PCI Express 3.0 x8 (16GB/s), or PCI Express 3.0 x16 (32GB/s).

Let's see if that makes a difference when my 3770k comes (early next week).
 
something is wrong somewhere in your system. BF4 under mantle is liquid smooth - smoothness I have not witnessed in ages. It could be your monitor - high latency and response time, running 60 Hz. I don't know what monitor you use. I am using the 144hz Asus.
 
What settings are you running in-game and what resolution? Are you doing anything with resolution scale? I'm not having any issues running 2x 290x's on a P67 chipset (which I believe is limited to 2x 8 pcie 2.0)

1. Did you run DDU to remove all AMD and NVIDIA drivers prior to installing the 14.2's? If not, do this first and reinstall the driver.
2. Use the command render.drawscreeninfo 1 and confirm that the game is seeing 2 GPUs and is using the API you think it is using.
3. Anytime you change settings, you'll need to exit the game and reload. I suggest going into the test range to change your settings, save, exit, then rejoin the map you want to test. Mantle does NOT like having its settings changed and will crap a brick if you don't exit/reload.
 
jaju123 said:
From AMD XDMA page:

XDMA is designed for optimal performance with systems running PCI Express 2.0 x16 (16GB/s), PCI Express 3.0 x8 (16GB/s), or PCI Express 3.0 x16 (32GB/s).

Let's see if that makes a difference when my 3770k comes (early next week).
Click to expand...

Keep us updated please, id like to know if this cures the problem.
 
David_Schroth said:
What settings are you running in-game and what resolution? Are you doing anything with resolution scale? I'm not having any issues running 2x 290x's on a P67 chipset (which I believe is limited to 2x 8 pcie 2.0)

1. Did you run DDU to remove all AMD and NVIDIA drivers prior to installing the 14.2's? If not, do this first and reinstall the driver.
2. Use the command render.drawscreeninfo 1 and confirm that the game is seeing 2 GPUs and is using the API you think it is using.
3. Anytime you change settings, you'll need to exit the game and reload. I suggest going into the test range to change your settings, save, exit, then rejoin the map you want to test. Mantle does NOT like having its settings changed and will crap a brick if you don't exit/reload.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've seen other people without the problem on PCIe 2.0, however they've all been running with i7 processors rather than i5. Could that make a difference?

1. I always use DDU between driver updates.
2. I use that command too, and it does show 2 GPUs! :)
3. Yeah like I said before, the issue occurs at its worst when using ultra settings, and when on low the problem is pretty much gone. It still exists on medium though, too. And yeah, resolution scale is untouched!

Thanks for your help guys! Idk what else to do than try the 3770k xD
If that doesn't work I will just cry.
 
Well, it looks like they sent me a 4770K instead of a 3770k. I guess I won't complain - got a new motherboard coming tomorrow (a gigabyte Z87X-SLI) so hopefully all will be well :)

Will report back if it works or not! :p
 
Lol... the Z87X-SLI and 4770K didn't fix the issue hahahaahha.
I'm reinstalling windows now to see if that will fix the problem.
 
So reinstalling windows + formatting everything, and upgrading to haswell didn't work! Still the same issue!
ahaahahahah
 
Does anyone else have any ideas? I am still having this issue and it seems to also be affecting some other titles such as Diablo 3 :(
 
can you record a video of what you are talking about? because the fps is never steady , it changes all the time depending on how much there is to draw, also post a screenshot of your crossfire utilization though few minutes of gameplay
 
OP install Windows 8.1? I have basically the same setup and I am not having any problems on Win8.1 with my 290X CF setup. BF4 in Mantle is the smoothest gameplay I have seen.
 
also the stuttering could be caused by the ulps, supposedly the ulps issues were fixed a while back but it doesn't hurt to check
 
I am running 290's in crossfire and play bf4 often; I have 0 issues with it, and never actually had any. there are other issues somewhere in your system.
 
bigbeard86 said:
I am running 290's in crossfire and play bf4 often; I have 0 issues with it, and never actually had any. there are other issues somewhere in your system.
Click to expand...

Do you have small green bars when you type 'perfoverlay.drawgraph 1' or the thick green ones like I do? It really sucks :(
 
Man this is a long time problem for you.
Well can you try this.Running R9 290 Crossfire here.

Install beta drivers 14.4 I always turn off framepacing in CCC.
Make a user.cfg file and add this line in user.cfg (RenderDevice.FramePacingMethod 1)
Place the user.cfg in the folder where the game is installed and has the BF4.EXE
Also you can add any BF4 command.

Setting Siege Of Shanghai



Ingame Siege Of Shanghai-FPS 100+

 
I had the same problem OP describes until I used Mantle. Made everything run as smooth as a baby's smooth bottom smoothly
 
I have this problem in many other games with crossfire on, I don't think it happens with mantle though.
 
Vielgus-Kutas said:
that would mean you need a more powerful cpu
Click to expand...

Well it happens with both mantle and directx in battlefield 4, and the green lines become thicker and the frame variance higher when I enable additional effects such as MSAA. On medium and high the problem is much better. but it never goes away entirely and on ultra it is unplayable.
I don't think my CPU is at fault, as I have a 4770K running at 4.5 ghz. There are barely any better processors out there except for Ivy-E.
 
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