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Is BF3 a power virus?

Jacky60

Jacky60

Golden Member
BF3 makes all my GPU's run at pretty much 96-100% all the time. I have to throttle back from 880 to 830 and still they get to 100c-max 105c. Thats with MSAA and ultra settings everything maxed but it suggests the game is 'overworking' the cards somehow OR has very upwardly scalable GPU demands i.e.It can look better than it does currently on my rig. Will vertical synching help cool things down by keeping things reasonable not 160fps?
 
power virus? That term is ridiculous...just cause a game or app can render objects, textures, shaders etc and push your card really hard, that does not make it some type of card killer.

Now, BF3 loads up 99% GPU usage almost all the time. It's pushing current cards to the limits. You should not have to throttle if it doesn't crash or give rendering artifacts/errors. Have you tried adjusting fan profiles to spin the fans up higher? There is really nothing to worry about, the 6990 cards heat up like an oven anyway, all dual GPU cards do. My GTX 295 was getting over 100c when I had that installed.
 
What are your fan settings at?

I run 2x 4870x2. It doesn't get much more toasty than that. I have my custom fan profile set to hit 100% fan at 80C, and surprise surprise, it almost never goes above that.

If you are using automatic fan control, consider manual adjustment instead. From the card manufactures standpoint they prefer to make their cards quieter rather than run cooler. They get good reviews for having a quiet card and when it dies a year or two later you have to give them more money, that's a win/win for them. Even worse are the people who manually set their fan to some low value like 40%, claim it's better somehow, then complain when their cards overheat.

Also, your case airflow (Do your cards have room to breathe?) as well as your ambient temperatures obviously come into play here and can make more difference than any other variable.
 
You're fortunate.

I get good 95%+ scaling in single-player across all 3 of my GPUs, but in multiplayer I get terrible scaling; as low as 55% and usually around 70%.

If I disable one card and use two though I get 95%+. I'm wondering if I am getting CPU limited in multiplayer for 3 GPUs. Once I get my motherboard in and get my new CPU installed, looking forward to seeing if I get better scaling with 3 cards.

Hopefully it is a CPU thing and not a driver issue.
 
Grooveriding said:
You're fortunate.

I get good 95%+ scaling in single-player across all 3 of my GPUs, but in multiplayer I get terrible scaling; as low as 55% and usually around 70%.

If I disable one card and use two though I get 95%+. I'm wondering if I am getting CPU limited in multiplayer for 3 GPUs. Once I get my motherboard in and get my new CPU installed, looking forward to seeing if I get better scaling with 3 cards.

Hopefully it is a CPU thing and not a driver issue.
Click to expand...

What CPU you on at the moment?

Single player is GPU bound, multiplayer (especially 64 player servers and full) will crush a CPU not up to the task.

Especially since you have tri-SLI, as that's very tough on a CPU since so many bits are shuffling around like mad.

If it's an Intel and recent model, try disabling HyperThreading. It could help boost GPU utilization. I had to just to make sure I didn't see any weird motion issues... it wasn't microstutter but it was a very weird and related issue - things in motion speed up and slow down repeatedly, doesn't feel like stuttering as it looked smooth, but had a weird visual "feeling" going on. No HT fixed that up, and I've heard of disabling HT helps with utilization of multi-GPU systems in some cases.

My 2600K @ 4.8ghz happily complies with 64p MP, complete with all the explosions and chaos displayed in almost maxed Ultra settings (no MSAA, dropped World Mesh down to High) with 2x 560 Ti 2GB cards. Rarely dips below 60fps (v-sync).
 
destrekor said:
What CPU you on at the moment?

Single player is GPU bound, multiplayer (especially 64 player servers and full) will crush a CPU not up to the task.

Especially since you have tri-SLI, as that's very tough on a CPU since so many bits are shuffling around like mad.

If it's an Intel and recent model, try disabling HyperThreading. It could help boost GPU utilization. I had to just to make sure I didn't see any weird motion issues... it wasn't microstutter but it was a very weird and related issue - things in motion speed up and slow down repeatedly, doesn't feel like stuttering as it looked smooth, but had a weird visual "feeling" going on. No HT fixed that up, and I've heard of disabling HT helps with utilization of multi-GPU systems in some cases.

My 2600K @ 4.8ghz happily complies with 64p MP, complete with all the explosions and chaos displayed in almost maxed Ultra settings (no MSAA, dropped World Mesh down to High) with 2x 560 Ti 2GB cards. Rarely dips below 60fps (v-sync).
Click to expand...

Have an i7 920 @ 4.2. I don't think it is up to the task.

Will see how a 3930K @ 4.5 does. 😀
 
The trailer graphics look better than the game from what I seen on youtube and it looks like the same old BF2, run n gun - *un-enthusiastic* yaaaaay :T

My point is, do companies make the trailers graphically better than the actual game on ultra super duper extreme turbo high-high settings?
 
User videos on Youtube don't preserve the quality of the game all too well. Flash sacrifices compression quality for good streaming performance.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
The trailer graphics look better than the game from what I seen on youtube and it looks like the same old BF2, run n gun - *un-enthusiastic* yaaaaay :T

My point is, do companies make the trailers graphically better than the actual game on ultra super duper extreme turbo high-high settings?
Click to expand...

BF2 run n gun??? BF2 was never a run and gun game.
 
The 2 different videos I seen: one was a trailer. The other was a 1080p ultra high super duper pooper scooper version. The latter looked alot like I remember from BF2 in image quality. This is what I hope isn't the same.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
The 2 different videos I seen: one was a trailer. The other was a 1080p ultra high super duper pooper scooper version. The latter looked alot like I remember from BF2 in image quality. This is what I hope isn't the same.
Click to expand...

eh?

BF2 looks like shit next to BF3 at 1080 Ultra settings (even High settings... haven't looked at lower, no need 😀 ). Hell, most games today look like shit compared to the overall visuals of BF3 in motion.
60fps, fluid motion, almost-maxed Ultra settings (no MSAA, Post @ max (High), World Mesh down to High, not Ultra). Beautiful visuals.

It'll go down a notch when I go to 5760x1080 (6060x1080), as soon as a patch fixes Surround/Eyefinity rendering. Hopefully the patch this week is just the one I'm looking for (and I will kill cute baby critters if this patch breaks anything else in my game, already also suffer from green splashes on screen and then there's the Color Blind mode the bastards forgot to include!).
 
Fans are running at 100% and this is single player so MP will probably see my rig burning through the floor and into the flat below. Frame rate is phenomenal but I wish it was capped at 100fps so the cards don't 'run away' with themselves. I have a 120mm and an 80mm fan up against the junction of the two cards which AMD in their infinite wisdom designed to ensure minimal intake airflow when in crossfire. Also 4 120mm fans blowing from the side. Going sandybridge E pretty soon as mobo's seem to have more room between PCIEx16 slots.
 
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cmdrdredd said:
power virus? That term is ridiculous...just cause a game or app can render objects, textures, shaders etc and push your card really hard, that does not make it some type of card killer.
Click to expand...

ridiculous? come on man... even i chuckled a little over that term 🙂
 
Jacky60 said:
Fans are running at 100% and this is single player so MP will probably see my rig burning through the floor and into the flat below. Frame rate is phenomenal but I wish it was capped at 100fps so the cards don't 'run away' with themselves. I have a 120mm and an 80mm fan up against the junction of the two cards which AMD in their infinite wisdom designed to ensure minimal intake airflow when in crossfire. Also 4 120mm fans blowing from the side. Going sandybridge E pretty soon as mobo's seem to have more room between PCIEx16 slots.
Click to expand...

Your rig is a beast! Ever consider Eyefinity?
 
PrayForDeath said:
Your rig is a beast! Ever consider Eyefinity?
Click to expand...

Yes I was going to go Eyefinity but I mostly play Arma 2 which is CPU limited even at 1920/1200 so until I beef up the CPU I'll wait then probably get another hanns g to give me a second side monitor and a better primary monitor. I love eye candy and any upgrade in real estate would have to go with at least comparable image quality-thought Bulldozer might bring that. Instead we were served up a warm turd! Turned vsynch on and BF3 MP with only 3 other players saw temp climb to 96c in about 5 mins. GPU usage dropped to 40-60% from 100% but temps still uncomfortably high for me. I wasn't really serious about the power virus name but it looks like BF3 will have no trouble frying my cards. The reassurance that I have nothing to worry about with my GPU's cooking at over 100c rings a bit hollow since they cost over £1000 and I doubt fellow forum members will replace them.
 
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There are a lot of games that will do this if you do not enable vsync. Heck, just sitting at the menu screen in Shogun 2 sucks the power and causes my three GTX 580s to soar in temperatures if vsync isn't enabled. Not enabling vsync is asking for power to be wasted with a system like that.
 
Wasn't it on an Anandtech article that the term "Power Virus" was used to describe Furmark running a GTX 480? I don't think the OP is way out of line as you people are saying.
 
DICE added a new console command in this patch.


GameTime.MaxVariableFps

ie: GameTime.MaxVariableFps 60

It caps your framerate without the use of vsync.

:thumbsup:
 
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