Help with upgrade for BC2

[ixelion]

So my current system doesn't give me the frame rate I want in BC2, all other games play very well. Occasionally my frame rate will drop to low 30s and 40s, and it gets really annoying.

Now the thing is, I JUST upgraded like 6 months ago, and I don't feel like doing it all over again with i7, unless y'all think it would be a dramatic improvement, my current system:

e8400 3.0Ghz stock (not into oc'ing)
4890
4GB value ram

So I was thinking a Q9400 2.66Ghz, would this be an improvement? It is lower clocked then the e8400. What about the Vid card? it seems to be great for everything else, Just Cause 2 runs like a dream it's just the min frame rate in BC2 (I have done all the tweaks btw)

Any suggests would be appreciated

 

[TheStu]

What resolution? I have a similar setup, and according to my friend, BC2 runs like silk. He did turn the shadows way down though.

 

[CraigRT]

What res are you running?
I would think your current system should run it fine honestly.
Unless you are maxing out res/AA etc.

 

[ixelion]

Sorry forgot to mention 1680x1050, I also have lots of stuff on low, it does run well nut it's not "ideal" meaning I would like a higher min frame rate, I find that when there's a lot of particles on the screen things dip a little, debris, dust, explosions etc.

 

[mfenn]

A 4890 can handle the game on high at 1680x1050, no problem. So, it sounds like you're CPU bound. The physics are of a big battle are probably taxing your CPU, causing low min FPS.

Check out the benchmarks here. This is with an overclocked i7. Can you do a FRAPS run and tell us how you compare to those?

The main problem is that putting money into an LGA775 system seems like a waste, especially since you have such a high-clocked dual core. Further complicating the problem is that switching to Intel's newest platform would require you to get DDR3.

 

[ixelion]

According to that bench, on medium I could be getting an average of 60fps with an oc'ed i7 920.

I can tell you that on medium with E8400 it's more like an average of 45-50.

I think this convinces me that for an appreciable upgrade I would have to go i7, and I will probably have to aim higher than the 920 - man this game is really cpu bound isn't it?

EDIT:

I just found this bench which contradicts my first thought, apparently this isn't much difference between an e6600 and an i7 920??????

http://translate.google.cz/translat...ompany-2-fyzika-predevsim?start=5&sl=cs&tl=en

And Also form techspot:

Here is the same Core i7 920 processor with two cores disabled as well as HyperThreading. As you can see neither core is maxed out, but the CPU utilization is much higher. So again, a decent dual core processor such as a Core 2 Duo E8xxx or Phenom II X2 should be enough to get the most out of your graphics card in this game. While it is quad-core optimized, the game is not demanding enough on the CPU to warrant it based on what I have seen so far.

But none of this makes sense since BFBC2Game.exe is always at 95%-98% CPU utilization while occasionally hitting 100% briefly on my system, and this is on an empty server! surely this is a CPU bottleneck?

 

[Detoyminador!]

I'm running the same CPU as you but mine is overclocked @ 3.6Ghz. When the game first came out is was really struggling with my Zotac 8800GT AMP! card this was with settings low/medium. I then purchased a ATI HD5870 I maxed and enabled out all my settings and it ran smooth as at 1920x1200. Not sure what FPS it's running at.

I recently started getting artifacts in all games with my card now and I'm waiting on a replacement, hope BC2 had nothing to do with it.

Why not try upgrading to a quicker video card.

 

[mfenn]

According to that bench, on medium I could be getting an average of 60fps with an oc'ed i7 920.

I can tell you that on medium with E8400 it's more like an average of 45-50.

I think this convinces me that for an appreciable upgrade I would have to go i7, and I will probably have to aim higher than the 920 - man this game is really cpu bound isn't it?

EDIT:

I just found this bench which contradicts my first thought, apparently this isn't much difference between an e6600 and an i7 920??????

http://translate.google.cz/translat...ompany-2-fyzika-predevsim?start=5&sl=cs&tl=en

And Also form techspot:



But none of this makes sense since BFBC2Game.exe is always at 95%-98% CPU utilization while occasionally hitting 100% briefly on my system, and this is on an empty server! surely this is a CPU bottleneck?

If both cores are maxed out (95-98% counts as maxed out), then you are CPU bound. You have to remember than an i7 is much faster clock for clock than an E8400. So, a theoretical 3.0GHz i7 dual-core would be faster than your E8400.

I would say that you probably don't need a 920. I have an 860 and a GTX 260 C216 and I can play BFBC2 all high (except HBAO) no problem. My FPS preferences may not be as stringent as yours, but I would suspect that an OC'ed i5 750 would do exactly what you want.

 

[mrfatboy]

Bc2 is optimized for quad core. Look at a q9550. Microcenter had them for $180 last week.

 

[ixelion]

There is no microcenter in Canada, on a side note I used the Bench data to compare e8400 and q9550 for another multi-threaded game, Far Cry 2 and there should be an appreciable difference that should translate to BC2, so I ordered one.

 

[imaheadcase]

I look at CPU when playing BC2 on BG15 keyboard screen on my quadcore and it really uses it more than I thought it would.