During the fall of 2012 I completed a first time PC build. Since then, I have not been absolutely certain on whether my system is performing as it should in intensive games including the Crysis series and Battlefield 3. If my system is underperforming I am suspecting a hardware issue with my motherboard. More specifically, the 16x PCI-E slot where my Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 Dual-X graphics card w/ 3GB of VRAM is plugged in.
Once I started gaming on my new PC, I encountered some unusual performance snags in Half-Life 2 and other source games at max settings, 8x SSAA, 16x AF, and 1920x1200 resolution. The most glaring was at one specific point in Ravenholm where performance significantly decreased. I found this to be unusual given the games age and specs of my PC. None of the games I had on my machine at the time were particularly demanding, the most demanding game was probably either Mass Effect 2 or Portal 2. I glossed over these issues until I bought the Crysis Collection during the Steam 2012 Autumn sale. It was once I started playing Crysis it was clear something was wrong. Until this point I did not bother to use FRAPS or other methods to gauge fps. Once I did, I was stunned to find I was getting a mediocre fps mostly in the 30s in Crysis 1 at the maximum graphics settings, 4x SSAA and 1920x1200 resolution. Crysis 2, Crysis Warhead, Unigine Heaven Benchmark, and Battlefield 3 (once I got my hands on a copy). Also displayed disappointing results. After communicating on a different computer enthusiast fourm about my problems, I followed their advice I got a replacement graphics card from Sapphire only to find no improvement. Having up to date drivers and BIOS did not help either. If the graphics card is not bad, the other possibility that was brought up was a bad or failing PCI-E slot on my ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard.
Thankfully, I found out that I did not have to replace my motherboard, at least not yet. I went into the Catalyst Control Center and switched my Anti-Aliasing method from Supersampling to Multisampling resulting in a massive performance increase. The Battlefield 3 campaign, runs at a brisk and buttery smooth frame rate at maximum settings with 4x MSAA and 16x AF at 1920x1200. On the level Operation Swordbreaker, the frame rate usually hovers in the 60s or 70s, goes as high as the very low 90s and drops in one section into the 50s. . Despite the performance I am getting in BF3 campaign, performance in the Crysis series remains disappointing. Right now Crysis 1 shows fps in the 40s most of the time, will sometimes dip into the 30s, and may go as high as 60 fps during gameplay (60fps does not happen often in Crysis 1). The game is running at max settings with 8x MSAA and 16x AF at 1920x1200. The level Second Chance in Crysis 2 at very beginning the runs buttery smooth with 60+ fps until I step outdoors where fps then hovers in the 40s most of the time. I did not progress very far into the level given that I have not yet completed Crysis 1 and Crysis Warhead. I do not know about the effect of AA and AF settings in Crysis 2 given the lack of in-game options for them and not knowing if the desired AA and AF settings are applied when forced through Catalyst Control Center. Running the GPU benchmarks for Crysis 2 & Crysis Warhead have made things more confusing and inconclusive. Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 seems like it might be right within the ballpark, but I need to be fully sure. The benchmarks provided by online publications are also adding to my confusion whether I am getting the proper performance. This is all further compounded by youtube videos from users claiming to be getting higher fps in the crysis games than what I am getting. Shouldnt I be getting more in the ballpark of these users are getting even though I am playing at a slightly higher resolution? (1920x1200 vs. 1080p). Here are the links those videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df0lxJTVbFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-XGYNaLsUY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XHjUWztgzs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDUohfnrws
Turning Down MSAA to 4x did hardly anything to improve performance in the Crysis series. I am not entirely sure of performance in BF3 either, especially multiplayer where in one game on a large outdoor map, the game would run mostly in the 50s below what some other people where claiming to getting in multiplayer games such as in these videos that are linked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWsjQINgXLg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty2MC3p_lLo
In closing I do realize that the Crysis series and Battlefield 3 are highly demanding of even the highest end PC hardware. Crysis 1 has been said to be poorly optimized even by developer Crytek. However, I am still very baffled and disappointed about the performance I am getting given the evidence leaning towards my system underperforming. If my PC is indeed underperforming, I need some help finding the root cause, so I can fix it. If there is hardware problem I am leaning towards the possibility of a problem with my PCI-E 16x slot given that I already had my graphics card replaced (although this was before I disabled supersampling AA). My BIOS and drivers are completely up to date. Any help is greatly appreciated.
My PC specifications
Intel Core i7 3770k
Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC Dual X 3GB
Cooler Master Hyper 612 CPU cooler
Corsair Vengeance 16GB LP
SeaSonic Platinum 860 PSU
Corsair Carbide 500r Case[FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="][/FONT]
Once I started gaming on my new PC, I encountered some unusual performance snags in Half-Life 2 and other source games at max settings, 8x SSAA, 16x AF, and 1920x1200 resolution. The most glaring was at one specific point in Ravenholm where performance significantly decreased. I found this to be unusual given the games age and specs of my PC. None of the games I had on my machine at the time were particularly demanding, the most demanding game was probably either Mass Effect 2 or Portal 2. I glossed over these issues until I bought the Crysis Collection during the Steam 2012 Autumn sale. It was once I started playing Crysis it was clear something was wrong. Until this point I did not bother to use FRAPS or other methods to gauge fps. Once I did, I was stunned to find I was getting a mediocre fps mostly in the 30s in Crysis 1 at the maximum graphics settings, 4x SSAA and 1920x1200 resolution. Crysis 2, Crysis Warhead, Unigine Heaven Benchmark, and Battlefield 3 (once I got my hands on a copy). Also displayed disappointing results. After communicating on a different computer enthusiast fourm about my problems, I followed their advice I got a replacement graphics card from Sapphire only to find no improvement. Having up to date drivers and BIOS did not help either. If the graphics card is not bad, the other possibility that was brought up was a bad or failing PCI-E slot on my ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard.
Thankfully, I found out that I did not have to replace my motherboard, at least not yet. I went into the Catalyst Control Center and switched my Anti-Aliasing method from Supersampling to Multisampling resulting in a massive performance increase. The Battlefield 3 campaign, runs at a brisk and buttery smooth frame rate at maximum settings with 4x MSAA and 16x AF at 1920x1200. On the level Operation Swordbreaker, the frame rate usually hovers in the 60s or 70s, goes as high as the very low 90s and drops in one section into the 50s. . Despite the performance I am getting in BF3 campaign, performance in the Crysis series remains disappointing. Right now Crysis 1 shows fps in the 40s most of the time, will sometimes dip into the 30s, and may go as high as 60 fps during gameplay (60fps does not happen often in Crysis 1). The game is running at max settings with 8x MSAA and 16x AF at 1920x1200. The level Second Chance in Crysis 2 at very beginning the runs buttery smooth with 60+ fps until I step outdoors where fps then hovers in the 40s most of the time. I did not progress very far into the level given that I have not yet completed Crysis 1 and Crysis Warhead. I do not know about the effect of AA and AF settings in Crysis 2 given the lack of in-game options for them and not knowing if the desired AA and AF settings are applied when forced through Catalyst Control Center. Running the GPU benchmarks for Crysis 2 & Crysis Warhead have made things more confusing and inconclusive. Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 seems like it might be right within the ballpark, but I need to be fully sure. The benchmarks provided by online publications are also adding to my confusion whether I am getting the proper performance. This is all further compounded by youtube videos from users claiming to be getting higher fps in the crysis games than what I am getting. Shouldnt I be getting more in the ballpark of these users are getting even though I am playing at a slightly higher resolution? (1920x1200 vs. 1080p). Here are the links those videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df0lxJTVbFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-XGYNaLsUY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XHjUWztgzs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDUohfnrws
Turning Down MSAA to 4x did hardly anything to improve performance in the Crysis series. I am not entirely sure of performance in BF3 either, especially multiplayer where in one game on a large outdoor map, the game would run mostly in the 50s below what some other people where claiming to getting in multiplayer games such as in these videos that are linked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWsjQINgXLg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty2MC3p_lLo
In closing I do realize that the Crysis series and Battlefield 3 are highly demanding of even the highest end PC hardware. Crysis 1 has been said to be poorly optimized even by developer Crytek. However, I am still very baffled and disappointed about the performance I am getting given the evidence leaning towards my system underperforming. If my PC is indeed underperforming, I need some help finding the root cause, so I can fix it. If there is hardware problem I am leaning towards the possibility of a problem with my PCI-E 16x slot given that I already had my graphics card replaced (although this was before I disabled supersampling AA). My BIOS and drivers are completely up to date. Any help is greatly appreciated.
My PC specifications
Intel Core i7 3770k
Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC Dual X 3GB
Cooler Master Hyper 612 CPU cooler
Corsair Vengeance 16GB LP
SeaSonic Platinum 860 PSU
Corsair Carbide 500r Case[FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="][/FONT]
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