Low FPS with 2 x 7800 GTXs, whats wrong?

[Coros]

Hey there, i recently built a new system with: Athlon 64 FX-57, 2 gigs of Corsair XMS 3500LLPRO, Asus A8N-SLI premium mobo, 2X BFG 7800 GTX OCs in SLI, Audigy 4 PRO and a 7200 250 GB maxtor harddrive. I ran 3dmark 05 several times and I get around 12700- 13000.

The problem is i have read several bench marks of games like quake 4 etc. The thing that puzzles me is many of the reviews report a system with less memory and a slower processor (like an FX-55) and only 1 7800 GTX running an average of 80-100 or so frames in quake 4 with 4XAA, 16x AF, at high quality and 1280x1024. When i run quake in equal settings, my fps never breaks 60, it almost seems capped. In addition to that in several areas of the game it can slow down to 20-25 FPS which is annoying. I am using Fraps to check my framerates by the way.

I am using the latest nForce driver from nVidia, and using Forceware 77.77. If anyone can make some suggestions as to what might be causing the low performance, or if this is normal, any replies will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Sentry2]

Try the 81.85's and enable the Quake 4 profile. By setting it to the Quake 4 profile it will also set the best SLI rendering mode for that game.

The game is capped at 60FPS though I guess because of physics reasons/issues.

 

[Sentry2]

oops, welcome to anandtech.

 

[SergeC]

be sure vsync is off.

 

[TecHNooB]

yea, like doom 3, quake 4 is capped at 60. For some reason, more fps doesn't just make the game run smoother, but faster as well. So if you're moving at 60 fps and all of a sudden your fps jumps to 80 or 90, the entire game speeds up. I dunno if it's an OpenGL thing but that's what happens in doom 3.

 

[Coros]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies . I did turn vsync on, I was having huge tearing issues with it off. Anyway it just seems to me that in most of the games i have tested out so far, Quake, FEAR, BF2, City of Villains, WoW etc that i should be getting better performance out of it. I will update the drivers now see if that helps at all, and try that profile idea.

 

[TecHNooB]

In doom 3, to get the console you would have to hold ctrl + alt + ~. Then you would type com_FixedTic 1 to uncap the FPS. Try that in quake 4

 

[Chacranajxy]

So did a driver update fix the problem?

 

[Coros]

Hrm i am not sure if its my g-cards that are the bottleneck. Take city of villains for example. i'd be getting 25-40 frames while jumping around the city with 4x AA 16x AF, 1280x1024, max texture etc etc. if i turned off AA and AF etc, no change in framerate. I don't know if its just a quirk of the game or something. but it seems odd. All of my games are playable, they just dip into the realm of not so smooth here and there, and according to all these other people with similar or lesser systems seem to be getting better results .

Updating the drivers and loading up game specific profiles did not seem to do much, gained maybe 2 frames on average. I ran 3Dmark05 again to make sure the new drivers were working fine first, scored 13150. Am I wrong to be expecting better than 40 frames at 1280x1024, 4xAA 16x AF?

Again, thanks you guys for all your replies, I really do appreciate your input.

 

[Chacranajxy]

Originally posted by: Coros
Hrm i am not sure if its my g-cards that are the bottleneck. Take city of villains for example. i'd be getting 25-40 frames while jumping around the city with 4x AA 16x AF, 1280x1024, max texture etc etc. if i turned off AA and AF etc, no change in framerate. I don't know if its just a quirk of the game or something. but it seems odd. All of my games are playable, they just dip into the realm of not so smooth here and there, and according to all these other people with similar or lesser systems seem to be getting better results .

Updating the drivers and loading up game specific profiles did not seem to do much, gained maybe 2 frames on average. I ran 3Dmark05 again to make sure the new drivers were working fine first, scored 13150. Am I wrong to be expecting better than 40 frames at 1280x1024, 4xAA 16x AF?

Again, thanks you guys for all your replies, I really do appreciate your input.

Hmm... maybe if you tried 8X AF instead of 16X.. not sure if that'd help. Still, with a ridiculously powerful computer like that which brings you 13000 on 3dMark, you should be getting a hell of a lot more speed in Quake IV...

 

[Coros]

Ok, I've been doing some testing of FEAR. running at 1024x 768 since it doesn't support 1280x1024, 4xAA, 16x AF max everything, just no soft shadows (it won't let me turn that on) The FPS ranges from 60-250 depending on whats going on. the only time it slows down noticeably is with certain effects like a large amount of the slo-mo bullet trails going on, or if you pump a ton of bullets into water, creating a similar grinding slowdown. the worst i saw from unloading a clip into water was 7 fps and the worst for a big firefight in slow-mo was about 17. However in a big firefight outside of slow-mo it doesn't drop below 35 usually.

I think the performance i'm getting in this game makes a little more sense, apart from the slow downs with bullet trails and water weirdness. I'm going to do more fiddling around to see if i can get similar things from my other games.

If anyone wants to share their normal performance levels so i can get a better feel if my system is underperforming or not, that'd be awesome. Thanks guys.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Coros
Wow, thanks for the quick replies . I did turn vsync on, I was having huge tearing issues with it off. Anyway it just seems to me that in most of the games i have tested out so far, Quake, FEAR, BF2, City of Villains, WoW etc that i should be getting better performance out of it. I will update the drivers now see if that helps at all, and try that profile idea.

and now you know why sli is a waste of time and money...

 

[Marcdaddy]

LOL SLI aint no waste of time, that comment sounds like a ATI FANBOY, Im playing FEAR at 1600X1200 with max details, no soft shadows, 4XAA and 16XANIS just fime on my SLI setup and it looks simply amazing, Also use the 81.87 drivers for across the board FPD improvement.

 

[Chacranajxy]

Marcdaddy, you don't count. You have a completely unfair advantage and I'm jealous.

 

[Coros]

Marcdaddy, try pumping rounds into a pool of water see if ye slow down at all .

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Marcdaddy
LOL SLI aint no waste of time, that comment sounds like a ATI FANBOY, Im playing FEAR at 1600X1200 with max details, no soft shadows, 4XAA and 16XANIS just fime on my SLI setup and it looks simply amazing, Also use the 81.87 drivers for across the board FPD improvement.

SLI is a waste of time and money. so you're really willing to spend $500+ to be able to run just at native res with teh highest settings? why not jsut wait 6 months until the next generation video card performs the same as 2 7800gtx's in SLI? I'm not biased towards nVidia or ATI. SLI and Crossfire is dumb. higher res w/ highest settings is not worth the performance for the money.