Battlefield 4 CPU performance: Win 7 vs Win 8.1, up to 50% more fps

[SPBHM]

RenderDevice.Dx11Enable 0 --> Not useful since the game is DX11 native. Only way to run it (at least BF3 did) in DX9, is using a DX9 card.

I would guess 0 means off, 1 would be enabled? no idea, but BF3 does not support DX9, it's dx10 and dx11 mode, and I think this command forces it to "dx10 level (like a GTX 280 would use)" on dx11 hardware?

anyway, "fps max" is always a good command, and "showfps" to,

I like playing with the max frames rendered ahead option, but yes... I wouldn't touch the rest, I tried his settings (+ low) and performance was a little higher, but the game was really ugly

 

[inf64]

these settings (forced dx10? no AO? and so on) + low preset make the game looks really, really bad, I'm not seeing the point, the game should run with high preset with a 6870 and 900p, based on what I'm seeing with a 5850, and if you are going to as low as 30 because of the CPU anyway.

It's not the CPU . When I lower details and/or resolution (to something less than native 14x9) my fps increase . The GPU is pegged at full 100% all the time and my fps don't change much if I downclock from 4.3Ghz to 3.5Ghz. The CPU is fine, the problem is the GPU. Check the Gamegpu.ru and see that even 7770 is scoring considerably better than 6870. It's GCN vs VLIW and optimizations in the engine (for GCN).

PS I don't see much of a change in visual fidelity with these changes to be honest. Looks almost the same to me.

 

[PPB]

I'm really GPU bottlenecked too, 99% at all times. CPU usage not so much, 60% over all my 4 modules.

 

[inf64]

I get 80-90% on 2 modules (PD). GPU is pegged at 100% ALL the time lol and my fps scale (upwards) if I disable/lower gfx settings like details and resolution. CPU downclocking is not doing much for the fps(CPU util. is maybe a bit higher at 90-95% when it's sitting at 3.5-3.6Ghz instead of 4.3Ghz). I still haven't tried the game after the patch, maybe it's much better.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I'm really GPU bottlenecked too, 99% at all times. CPU usage not so much, 60% over all my 4 modules.

What card you running?

 

[PPB]

6850 @ 850 core

 

[SPBHM]

It's not the CPU . When I lower details and/or resolution (to something less than native 14x9) my fps increase . The GPU is pegged at full 100% all the time and my fps don't change much if I downclock from 4.3Ghz to 3.5Ghz. The CPU is fine, the problem is the GPU. Check the Gamegpu.ru and see that even 7770 is scoring considerably better than 6870. It's GCN vs VLIW and optimizations in the engine (for GCN).

PS I don't see much of a change in visual fidelity with these changes to be honest. Looks almost the same to me.

Game GPU tested with ultra settings


a 6870 should be enough for high at 1400x900, going down to 30 with lower than low settings sounds like some problem, not normal behavior for a 6870.

I'm trying high with no tweaks with my 5850 with a similar res and that's what I'm seeing, high is OK, medium is easy for this level of GPU and res (slow quad core/dual core will be a clear bottleneck on the heavier areas)

and if you can't notice the visual quality difference

 

[PPB]

Im losing 10 FPS at most going from Low to Ultra. Extrapolations from what was tested at Game GPU with ultra to what should be running at low are useless, since there is almost nil scaling (cept with Resolution scale, but that is spected because its like applying SSAA ) between settings.

HBAO alone could eat like 25 FPS in BF3, now there is a chance that it might even give you FPS instead of running it OFF, lol.

 

[pcslookout]

I hope Ultra quality looks better in the final game.

 

[inf64]

Ok a small update from me . I don't know what DICE fixed in the game but it's a game changer now. My fps is now basically doubled. Yeah you read that right lol, i have 40-46fps at the minimum side of things while before it was more like what I get at best (with occasional jumps to 50 or so but that was at closed areas before). Now 40-46fps with all medium settings and without any user.cfg modifications. The GPU usage is again pegged at 100% and now my GPU temps climb even higher, to ~78C! MY CPU usage is basically the same 80-90% (total). No more stuttering at the start of each match, loading times are super quick for me now( I have regular HDD Mind you), no more crashes, fps dips to unplayable regions etc. My GPU Vram usage is ~950MB, almost filled it up

Now I get comparable performance to what I had in BF3 while looking better at the same time (gfx wise). I'm amazed now lol, I will skip the GPU upgrade for now (was thinking of 7870 @ 170 euros, basically almost 2x the perf. of 6870 if you OC it by ~10%). Now I'm set for probably the heaviest game on the hardware(disregarding Ghosts as I don't play cod). Good job DICE

My system:
Windows 8 Pro
4.3Ghz 2 module/4 thread 750K(PD)
Asrock FM2A75 Pro4
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz
PowerColor 6870 1GB (slightly OCed)

 

[pcslookout]

Ok a small update from me . I don't know what DICE fixed in the game but it's a game changer now. My fps is now basically doubled. Yeah you read that right lol, i have 40-46fps at the minimum side of things while before it was more like what I get at best (with occasional jumps to 50 or so but that was at closed areas before). Now 40-46fps with all medium settings and without any user.cfg modifications. The GPU usage is again pegged at 100% and now my GPU temps climb even higher, to ~78C! MY CPU usage is basically the same 80-90% (total). No more stuttering at the start of each match, loading times are super quick for me now( I have regular HDD Mind you), no more crashes fps dips to unplayable regions etc.

Now I get comparable performance to what I had in BF3 while looking better at the same time (gfx wise). I'm amazed now lol, I will skip the GP upgrade(Was thinking of 7870 @ 170 euros, basically almost 2x the perf. of 6870 if you OC it by ~10%). Now I'm set for probably the heaviest game on the hardware(disregarding Ghosts as I don't play cod). Good job DICE

Same here but at all details on Ultra, 4x AA and AF on High.

Also HABO is enabled in Nvidia control panel with Quality.

All that getting 60 to 70 fps with a single GTX 770 and i5 2500k in Battlefield 4!

 

[pcslookout]

inf64 what do you get when the building is falling down and you watch it?

 

[SPBHM]

Im losing 10 FPS at most going from Low to Ultra. Extrapolations from what was tested at Game GPU with ultra to what should be running at low are useless, since there is almost nil scaling (cept with Resolution scale, but that is spected because its like applying SSAA ) between settings.

HBAO alone could eat like 25 FPS in BF3, now there is a chance that it might even give you FPS instead of running it OFF, lol.

I notice a considerable GPU load decrease form high to medium here, but again, I'm using a slow CPU.

sure, res and msaa are the bigger problem.

anyway, the X4 not being the bottleneck with low settings for the 6870 sounds strange, even on the 32p test the 4.5GHz trinity does not look great
http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/chaostheory/2013/10/bf4_beta/charts/bf4_cpu_radeon.png

 

[PPB]

Ok a small update from me . I don't know what DICE fixed in the game but it's a game changer now. My fps is now basically doubled. Yeah you read that right lol, i have 40-46fps at the minimum side of things while before it was more like what I get at best (with occasional jumps to 50 or so but that was at closed areas before). Now 40-46fps with all medium settings and without any user.cfg modifications. The GPU usage is again pegged at 100% and now my GPU temps climb even higher, to ~78C! MY CPU usage is basically the same 80-90% (total). No more stuttering at the start of each match, loading times are super quick for me now( I have regular HDD Mind you), no more crashes fps dips to unplayable regions etc. My GPU Vram usage is ~950MB, almost filled it up

Now I get comparable performance to what I had in BF3 while looking better at the same time (gfx wise). I'm amazed now lol, I will skip the GP upgrade(Was thinking of 7870 @ 170 euros, basically almost 2x the perf. of 6870 if you OC it by ~10%). Now I'm set for probably the heaviest game on the hardware(disregarding Ghosts as I don't play cod). Good job DICE

My system:
Windows 8 Pro
4.3Ghz 2 module/4 thread 750K(PD)
Asrock FM2A75 Pro4
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz
PowerColor 6870 1GB (slightly OCed)

That encourages me to try W8 or W8.1. Ima try it when I have spare time.

 

[pcslookout]

I forgot I have 4 GB of video ram.

 

[pcslookout]

My fps doubled if not tripled going to Windows 8.1. Especially my minimum fps.

 

[Ed1]

Good news, thanks for posting this.
For people who like to tweak more here is what you might want to try adding to your user.cfg file in the bf4 beta directory:
I can play with these settings(in game low preset, 14x9 resolution)) with my 6870 1GB card, 8GB DDR3 and 750K@4.3Ghz. The fps is between 30 and 59. Note that there is occasional stutter on game start and it lasts around 30 sec to 1 minute (like the game is preloading textures or something in Vram). After that all is fine. I play in Windows 8 which is MUCH better for me than Windows7 SP1.

I have never ever seen my GPU stressed so much before like I do in this game. The GPU temps are easily 5-8 degrees higher than in anything I have ran on it before (didn't try mining and similar stuff tho). In Win8 with above config file CPU usage is ~80-90%.

I can not find user.cfg . there is a Prosave_profile file but those settings are not listed .
Do we have to add this file and if so does it go in root folder with bf4.exe ?

 

[tweakboy]

This is BS, I dont believe it nor will I try it.

 

[PPB]

You have to make it with notepad. Just open Notepad, paste all that stuff into it, save as user.cfg. Then copy it to main game folder (the one with the executable).

This will spare you the trouble of having to imput those commands in console every single round (yep, I said, round, not game session, the console in these 2 games is THAT lame).

 

[inf64]

I notice a considerable GPU load decrease form high to medium here, but again, I'm using a slow CPU.

sure, res and msaa are the bigger problem.

anyway, the X4 not being the bottleneck with low settings for the 6870 sounds strange, even on the 32p test the 4.5GHz trinity does not look great
http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/chaostheory/2013/10/bf4_beta/charts/bf4_cpu_radeon.png

7970 Ghz edition is ~2.3x faster card than 6870. I don't know how you can draw concusions about my CPU being a bottleneck with 6870 while looking at 7970GHz ed. charts (from dodgy website imo).
I'm telling you what I see in game. My GPU usage is pegged down to 100% while my CPU is 80-90%. My perf. scale up and down when changing the in-game details(resolution) while touching the CPU has no such effect (maybe a few fps at best-nothing I can notice).

@ pcslookout

I played mostly domination and a few conquest matches(32 slots) but I haven't seen it fall after the patch. I will try to join 64slot server on conquest and stick near the skyscraper to watch it fall down (just for you ).

Now the only command left that is useful from the user.cfg file I listed is the drawfps command.

small edit:

All above with resolution scale at 120% . I forgot to mention this. It looks a little bit better than 100% and I have only 1 or 2 fps "penalty". 6870 is working out every single euro and now is doing extrawork for all the crappy games I played that underutilized it before .

 

[Stuka87]

So anybody seeing faster frame rates with Windows 7? I am not going to install Windows 8, and it still pisses me off to no end that the latest DX is Windows 8 only.

 

[pcslookout]

WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapEnable 0 --> Ok this one might give you one fps or two, but it was mostly used in BF3 to distinguish better enemies inside buildings.
WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapResolution 128 --> If res at 256 was crappy, I cant imagine what 128 would do, lol.
RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 0 --> Only useful if you are using Vsync. If not, you are just adding another buffer for no reason, loading the VRAM even more is not advisable, specially if you are running something like 1GB on FHD
RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit 0 --> This one is a tricky one, depends heavily on the CPU and GPU config you are using. Some people will see advantages running as high as 3, others would have a better experience running it disabled (0). Default is -1 (which means, it's handled by the driver config).
WorldRender.DxDeferredCsPathEnable 0 --> This is a dead command, was useful in BF3 to gain up to 10 fps in exterior scenes. On interior scenes it borked your performance with high zoom scopes (Metro im talking about you)
PostProcess.DynamicAOEnable 0 --> If you disable AO in video settings, this isnt needed.
WorldRender.TransparencyShadowmapsEnable 0 --> Might handle you a FPS or two.
WorldRender.MotionBlurEnable 0 --> If you put 0% blur in video settings this isnt needed.
RenderDevice.Dx11Enable 0 --> Not useful since the game is DX11 native. Only way to run it (at least BF3 did) in DX9, is using a DX9 card.
GameTime.MaxVariableFps 70 -->This caps your FPS, dont use it at 70 if you are running 120hz monitors (anyways I doubt anyone would get steady 120 fps in this beta, lol).
WorldRender.FxaaEnable 0 --> If you set AA post Off in video settings, this isnt needed. I like FXAA injector's better, it was a lot more customizable (hope they dont ban you for using it in BF4)
PerfOverlay.drawfps 1 --> Shows fps.

That doesn't do anything.

It causes BF4 to crash more than anything. I wouldn't mess with those.

 

[pcslookout]

So anybody seeing faster frame rates with Windows 7? I am not going to install Windows 8, and it still pisses me off to no end that the latest DX is Windows 8 only.

I went back to Windows 7 64 bit to see. A little.

Though no where near as much as double and even triple as much fps I get in Windows 8.1 64 bit compared to Windows 7 54 bit.

 

[SPBHM]

7970 Ghz edition is ~2.3x faster card than 6870. I don't know how you can draw concusions about my CPU being a bottleneck with 6870 while looking at 7970GHz ed. charts (from dodgy website imo).
I'm telling you what I see in game. My GPU usage is pegged down to 100% while my CPU is 80-90%. My perf. scale up and down when changing the in-game details(resolution) while touching the CPU has no such effect (maybe a few fps at best-nothing I can notice).

your are using much lower settings, which means a great reduction in GPU load, which helps to compensate for the slower VGA, but the point is slower card is not going to speed up things, and if you are using the settings you described on that post (lower than low, 1400x900) I would expect the VGA to not be the main problem, based on what I can see with a similar VGA,


"dodgy website" based on what?

 

[inf64]

Yeah Windows 8 runs this game MUCH better than Win7. Tried it myself. 8.1 supposedly will bring even better performance, it's a free upgrade for previous Windows 8 owners (17th can't come soon enough lol).

@ SPBHM

Based on the fact they are not techreport or AT or THG.
I'm telling you what I see in the game. It's your choice to trust me or not. Means zero difference to me to be honest. I'm GPU bottlenecked, saying it for 100th now... I wish I had bought 7870 by now, inserted it in my system and compared the two(on the same patch). Now there is no need, but sooner or later I will buy something in that range and I can come back to this topic and compare with 6870s numbers. According to your "theory" I should be devastatingly bottlenecked with my weakish CPU. I think I wouldn't be bottlenecked nearly as much .