Low frame-rate and choppiness with 7800 GT and BF2 demo

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imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
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Howdy all. I just put together a new system and I'm not thrilled with the BF2 demo performance I'm getting and I'm looking for some suggestions. Here's what I'm running:

Athlon x2 3800+
2 GB OCZ DDR400 Dual Channel
eVGA K41 motherboard
eVGA 7800 GT
Antec True Control 550 W PSU

Everything is running at stock speeds. I ran the Battlefield 2 demo at 1600x1200 with no AA at both 60 Hz and 85 Hz and my frame rates (reported in-game via renderer.showFps) were in the 40s and 50s. I've read that the 7800 GT should hit in the 70s for these settings. I then tried 1024x768 and the frame rates were better, but only in the 60s or so. Also, the demo plays pretty choppily, even at 60 fps.

I have the latest Forceware drivers (78.01, I think) and the system was just put together less than a week ago, so there isn't much on there. Any suggestions of what I can do to suss out the problem? Benchmarks I should run? What sort of frame rates should I be seeing?

Thanks a bunch!
 
K

Killrose

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 1999
6,230
8
81
I would run some other benchmarks to see how your system stacks-up. If they look good then you might want to double check BF2 setting or maybe even re-load BF2?

ANd you have AA turned off in game or just in the NV controls?
 
D

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
0
71
Do you have the lastest AMD X2 cpu driver installed??? try settingthe affnity to just one of the cpus and see if it helps....known issues...

Some do not have them but it appears when ppl move to X2's the key is to ....


1) make sure latest official bios is used
2) full reformat
3) install latest drivers for the chipset
4) install X2 driver
5) install latest official video drivers...
6) install games
7) install all patches
 
Keysplayr

Keysplayr

Elite Member
Jan 16, 2003
21,219
54
91
Originally posted by: Duvie
Do you have the lastest AMD X2 cpu driver installed??? try settingthe affnity to just one of the cpus and see if it helps....known issues...

Some do not have them but it appears when ppl move to X2's the key is to ....


1) make sure latest official bios is used
2) full reformat
3) install latest drivers for the chipset
4) install X2 driver
5) install latest official video drivers...
6) install games
7) install all patches
Click to expand...

I bet that not a lot of people realize that the CPU needs a driver install.

 
D

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
0
71
It is funny how only a few of us cross travel between the cpu/video forum....This ofcourse as Keys knows was a bigger issue about 4-5 weeks back when it started becoming apparent...
 
I

imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
53
0
0
I started running 3DMark05 but when the inital test was running below 30 fps, I figured something was up. I quit during the second air blimp/water dragon clip since the frame rates were at 2 fps. I'll try 3DMark03, too.

Driver for a processor? What is this madness thou speaketh of? I'll go check it out. I was a good little nerd and installed the new chipset drivers but didn't know about the processor driver.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll let you know how it goes.

 
mb

mb

Lifer
Jun 27, 2004
10,233
2
71
I don't know by how much it will help, but overclock the hell out of that 3800! You got good memory and a good board for it.
 
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imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
53
0
0
I was just there and downloaded the amdcpu.exe and amdclock.zip files. The executable says I need Service Pack 2. Guess I should go get that, huh? I was planning on avoiding it for as long as I could after hearing numerous grumblings regarding its inherent problems.

The processor is recognized fine by XP - the performance tab in task manager shows two processor graphs, one next to the other. And I'm pretty sure the mobo came with the latest BIOS since it recognized my processor.

 
I

imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
53
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I just ran 3DMark05 and got a score of 7185, which seems to be about right for this card. I'll download SP2 and install the X2 driver and update the BIOS and see if things improve.

I played the Half Life 2 demo and got frame rates below what most places have been reporting. I am wondering if I would get the same frame rates on the demos of these games as opposed to the full versions. Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions thus far. I'll post again when I have some more info.
 
mb

mb

Lifer
Jun 27, 2004
10,233
2
71
I think that's just a little low.. granted you're probably still not OC'ing, but I got 7906 with mine. Yours should be doing better than mine, I would think.
 
I

imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
53
0
0
If your 7800 GT is overclocked, it'll definitely have a higher 3dMark score, wouldn't it?

Guess what? F-ing service pack 2 borked my computer. Crashed in the middle of the install. The only way the computer would boot was when I used the last known good configuration. After that, I had to uninstall service pack 2. On my next boot, the system ran through all the hardware, reinstalling the drivers like it was all brand new hardware. Now I can't get the wireless card working and I'm going to have to reinstall windows. Thanks, microsoft!

I'm thinking of trying out WinXP64. I know this is the video card forum, but it is my thread, so I'm diverging a bit. Anything bad about using the 64bit version of XP?
 
C

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
numbers sound OK to me :p

yeah maybe a little better performance should be had.. my 7800GT runs BF2 good, but I can't use a res that high, as I have no figured it out yet how to get it to run anything higher than 1400x1050... :thumbsdown: damn EA!
 
A

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
61
91
Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Originally posted by: Duvie
Do you have the lastest AMD X2 cpu driver installed??? try settingthe affnity to just one of the cpus and see if it helps....known issues...

Some do not have them but it appears when ppl move to X2's the key is to ....


1) make sure latest official bios is used
2) full reformat
3) install latest drivers for the chipset
4) install X2 driver
5) install latest official video drivers...
6) install games
7) install all patches
Click to expand...

I bet that not a lot of people realize that the CPU needs a driver install.
Click to expand...


I would have never guessed that... I mean, at least on the level of a graphics card drivers. I would presume MS would be able to detect it from BIOS and then set the CPU affinity to correspond to the number of processors. However, I am guessing a special AMD driver is needed, for increased performance... I do not own a dual core processor yet, so I am out of the loop on that one! :D
 
A

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
61
91
Originally posted by: yeahyeah
If your 7800 GT is overclocked, it'll definitely have a higher 3dMark score, wouldn't it?

Guess what? F-ing service pack 2 borked my computer. Crashed in the middle of the install. The only way the computer would boot was when I used the last known good configuration. After that, I had to uninstall service pack 2. On my next boot, the system ran through all the hardware, reinstalling the drivers like it was all brand new hardware. Now I can't get the wireless card working and I'm going to have to reinstall windows. Thanks, microsoft!

I'm thinking of trying out WinXP64. I know this is the video card forum, but it is my thread, so I'm diverging a bit. Anything bad about using the 64bit version of XP?
Click to expand...

That is unfortunate... But are you sure it isn't your system? It could be unstable and thus, would not be MS fault.

 
O

otispunkmeyer

Lifer
Jun 14, 2003
10,442
0
0
Originally posted by: CraigRT
numbers sound OK to me :p

yeah maybe a little better performance should be had.. my 7800GT runs BF2 good, but I can't use a res that high, as I have no figured it out yet how to get it to run anything higher than 1400x1050... :thumbsdown: damn EA!
Click to expand...


yeah the numbers in 3d mark look ok, but unfortunately 3d mark wont show up a cpu not running at full speed.
 
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imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
53
0
0
Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
That is unfortunate... But are you sure it isn't your system? It could be unstable and thus, would not be MS fault.
Click to expand...


My fault? MY FAULT?? Nothing is ever my fault. har. It wouldn't have been so bad if service pack 2 would have uninstalled properly. But it didn't, which ended up royally screwing my computer. My network connection doesn't work now and no matter what I do (reinstalled drivers, ipconfig, cursed at it), it won't work. I've seen something similar to this in regards to Microsoft patches - I'm just teed off that it happened to me.
 
I

imported_yeahyeah

Member
Sep 9, 2005
53
0
0
Here's the latest - I reinstalled XP and installed my drivers and service pack 1. Then I attempted to install service pack 2 and it crashed again. It didn't screw up my system as badly this time, so I was able to download the whole 270 MB SP2 file and install that. I then installed the AMD X2 processor driver. I started BF2 and switched back to task manager and set the affinity to only one processor. There was no change in my frame rates.

It's not like I HAVE to have 60+ frames/sec in order to play a game. I'm just curious as to why my gaming performance is not as good as similar set ups are. I ran 3Dmark05 again and got right around 7200.

What benchmarks should I run to test the memory and the processor? Sisoft Sandra, others?

Thanks again, everyone, for the assistance.
 
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