33fps for SC2 on 5870...upgrade?

[DragonReborn]

Hey all, you can see my current rig in my signature. Pretty much awesome except the 5870 is getting a bit long in the tooth. My main issue is that I have a tri monitor setup: Dell 3007 in center flanker by two Asus 24's. The Dell obviously runs at 2560x1600 res so I need a beasty video card.

I mainly play SC2 and Skyrim on my PC and i've noticed lately really crappy performance on both. maybe it's recent drivers or maybe I just finally noticed it. either way, i really need over 60fps in sc2 at 2560x1600. I don't have any AA/MSAA turned on.

Requirement: I need to have all of the same type of video card. I don't want to mix nvidia and amd to drive the monitors. So currently i have a 5870 for two of the monitors and a 5450 driving the last one.

I am very interested in getting the new GTX 680 but I'm pretty sure it can't drive all three monitors (since the asus nor the dell have displayport).

any ideas/advice?

thanks!!

 

[skipsneeky2]

If a livable downgrade in game settings doesn't give the performance you need,a upgrade you must have indeed.

 

[DragonReborn]

ha, fair enough. ok, so can the gtx 680 rock my tri setup? maybe with some displayport to dvi adapters?

 

[Aikouka]

What about a DisplayPort adapter to handle the last monitor?

 

[DragonReborn]

i heard you needed an "active" adpater and people complained?

 

[nenforcer]

You should be getting double the FPS if not higher with your existing setup

http://www.techspot.com/review/305-starcraft2-performance/page10.html

There must be something wrong with your configuration or the 2 ASUS monitors are bogging the Dell down.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Your card isn't the problem something else is causing it.

Unless you're talking about desert strike, in which case no change will help you.

I did a custom map (marines I believe, tons of units, large fight) benchmark with my i5 and a single 470 and at all times the i5 was bottlenecking.

(test)

Check your gpu usage, chances are it's going down as your fps do. In which case your only real option is overclocking your cpu further.

 

[soccerballtux]

yeah cpu probably not fast enough.
Thank blizzard for their horrible game architecture?

 

[Stuka87]

Uh guys, his sig says he has a 4.5GHz 2600K. I doubt he is having CPU issues.

 

[KingFatty]

Your CPU and GPU should get better results. Can you do an experiment?

I wonder if the presence of the 2nd video card somehow messes up the full capability of your 5870 and CPU? I wonder if you could try removing the 2nd card, and disconnecting all but one monitor from the 5870, and rebooting so you just have one 5870 and one monitor. Then maybe it will run at its full capability?

Or, run a utility to show the GPU % used over time, and another for the CPU % used over time, and see if either hits 100%. Maybe it is the CPU, or maybe there is some pattern where both the CPU and GPU dip down at a certain point?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Your CPU and GPU should get better results. Can you do an experiment?

I wonder if the presence of the 2nd video card somehow messes up the full capability of your 5870 and CPU? I wonder if you could try removing the 2nd card, and disconnecting all but one monitor from the 5870, and rebooting so you just have one 5870 and one monitor. Then maybe it will run at its full capability?

Or, run a utility to show the GPU % used over time, and another for the CPU % used over time, and see if either hits 100%. Maybe it is the CPU, or maybe there is some pattern where both the CPU and GPU dip down at a certain point?

How is an i7 going to hit 100% usage in a dual threaded game?

Virus maybe?

It's possible the OP is running 4v4 or custom maps, in which case the almighty sandy bridge is going to get smoked.

 

[felang]

Not a big SC2 fan but from what I've heard it is not well optimized and only uses two threads or CPU cores, basically it's impossible to have a smooth experience with any system if there's a lot of action going on. But yeah, overclocking the CPU should help, although 4.5 ghz is already plenty.

 

[DragonReborn]

yep, thanks for the suggestions guys. I would hope a 2600k at 4.7 is fast enough to play SC2!! =)

I completely uninstalled my 12.1 drivers and installed 12.2 and it seems like the fps is closer to 50-60 now. odd, must have been a glitch.

definitely playable but would really love to have MIN fps over 60 rather than low 50's.

 

[Quantos]

Balla is very correct, in some maps, it seems virtually impossible not to lag. Especially at the end of some maps, with tons of units involved. My setup is a bit old, but usually it has no issues with SCII (normal game). In some custom games, though, it's going to lag a lot. We're talking single digits FPS. Of course I don't have the latest CPU, but it shows the difference involved from normal game to some custom games.

 

[Wall Street]

Probably not what you want to hear, but turn Physics to Off and the frame rates won't drop as much when a ton of units die and the rag-doll physics kick in.

 

[FalseChristian]

I think if you had 3 GTX 680's in Tri-SLI you might see at least a 2% improvement.

 

[DragonReborn]

I think if you had 3 GTX 680's in Tri-SLI you might see at least a 2% improvement.

ha, i doubt that.

seems like the 680 almost triples the 5870: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-review/14

 

[hawtdawg]

Those 2 games are both CPU bottlenecked.