7970 owners that BF3 @ 1080p

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WiL11o6

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
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I'm selling my SLI 570s setup to get a single 7970 on my 1080p monitor. I need to turn MSAA down from 4x to 2x and sometimes off because of the constant stutters of hitting a vram wall during intense firefights. I hope getting a single powerful 3gb 7970 will remedy the stuttering at the cost of lower average frames per second and overall less powerful gpu system unless I CFX 7970s.

Anyone here running Ultra settings at 1080p getting stuttering on 64-player servers? And by Ultra, I mean 4xMsaa and everything to the max.

Or maybe I should wait for 3gb 7950s to CFX? I have a old 8800GT in the mean time. Any ETA for 7950?
 
Well, I don't know what constitutes playable for you, but to me, anything under 60 FPS is *NOT* playable, since I'm a competitive gamer. I Just tried BF3 at 1600x1200 on one map (Caspial), and was getting around 60-85 FPS in short play. I don't know how the more laggy maps would fare, though. But I went back to 1024x768 and was back up to 85-140+ fps, which is a LOT smoother and more enjoyable to me.

I assume 1080p is 1920x1080, right? If that's the case, well you're going to be well under 60 FPS. All depends on what is playable for you.
 
I had someone ask me this on OCN, here's what my response was (Ultra settings):

Jumped down to 1920x1080, same settings as before (I forgot to mention I'm running at 1125c/1550m on auto for now at stock volts just to play games for the night 100% stable), it's hitting around 1850-1920mb of VRAM usage, and a minimum of 55fps, average seems to be around 67-70 95% of the time, and some areas of the map (same map, Wake Island) are hitting 80+.

No stutters or hitching at all no matter what the heck is going on, be it explosions, me jerking around quickly, etc.

You'll be very happy with one of these, it seems :D !
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That was on a 64-player server, just to note :). Even at 2560x1600 I'm happy with my switch from 570 SLI... I sacrificed a little on the overall framerate (but still high) in exchange for the VRAM, silence, and single-card setup.
 
I'm on ultra 1080p playing in the spam fest that is Metro...and I don't go below 50 fps.

It's like buttah. ;)
 
Thanks GoldenTiger, that was me on the other forum to get more input and thanks spacing_guild. Gonna order one of these bad boys once they get more in stock and sell my two 570s. I will miss the dual 570s showing through the window of my case though.
 
WiL11o6 said:
Thanks GoldenTiger, that was me on the other forum to get more input and thanks spacing_guild. Gonna order one of these bad boys once they get more in stock and sell my two 570s. I will miss the dual 570s showing through the window of my case though.
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It's a small internet, eh? :)
 
i'm running Ultra settings at 1920x1080, but i have MSAA backed off to 2X. the card can run 4X in most situations but there's the occasional dip into the high 40's which is just past my threshold for 'fluid' gameplay. maps like Metro or Seine will be silky smooth even with 4XMSAA, but maps like Caspian or Karkand will not.

edit: Caspian and Karkand will be silky smooth 95% of the time, it's that 5% of the time that bothers me. i'm a picky bastard.
 
I'm kind of confused by this thread...I use GTX 570 SLI and I run 1080p max settings (incl. 4x AA) and I never see slowdown, even on the new maps. Definitely not hitting the VRAM wall at 1080p, but whatever...
 
MavericK96 said:
I'm kind of confused by this thread...I use GTX 570 SLI and I run 1080p max settings (incl. 4x AA) and I never see slowdown, even on the new maps. Definitely not hitting the VRAM wall at 1080p, but whatever...
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I had vram wall even at 2560x1600 with no MSAA, new maps I had hitching when turning around or explosions unless I dropped to SSAO and low FXAA (instead of HBAO and medium FXAA). Also in this thread I'm talking about a single 7970 :D.
 
I've been lurking in forums for a good month or so after I got my 570s and noticed the stuttering. I would say most people are experiencing stuttering with the lesser VRAM video cards like SLI GTX 560/570 where we couldn't run full max settings, and that means 4xMSAA. My 570s can run 4xMSAA, all Ultra, no problem! But only on single player and smaller multiplayer maps, but on large maps, especially the new Back to Karkand expansion maps, with highly destructible buildings and many things to render, my 570s cannot keep up. Even turning it down to 2xMSAA, I would still get stutters at the most intense times, when I CAN'T have it stutter. This is a new build and I went all out so I can future proof it and I can't even current proof it with BF3 so why spend $700 on a video card setup that can't max out the current game I play the most? If I only had one 570 that's $350, I'd be fine since I don't expect to max out the entire game smoothly, but it's $700!

@Porter,

When you say it drops to 40fps at times, is it a bad 40? Like a stuttering 40fps making it unplayable? Or is it a very playable 40fps.

Edit: I am not talking about tiny fps drops where it goes from 80 to 60 and I'm complaining. It drops from 80 to 30 and it stays there for a good couple seconds making my screen tear and jerk so I can't even aim or run away in time in the game.
 
WiL11o6 said:
@Porter,

When you say it drops to 40fps at times, is it a bad 40? Like a stuttering 40fps making it unplayable? Or is it a very playable 40fps.
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the lowest i've seen it drop in BF3 is 47 fps and that was on Gulf of Oman. it's not an 'unplayable' 47fps, it's a 'noticeable loss in fluidity' 47 fps...if that makes sense. it's *just* enough to break the immersion of the game and make me think "oh yeah, i'm playing a game." FWIW 47fps in BF3 on this card is comparable to about 65fps on my old GTX 460's, when it comes to perceived fluidity.
 
I believe the Frostbite 2 engine uses some kind of texture streaming function to maximize memory utilization. I remember reading that somewhere.
 
Hmm...what to do?

If I go from SLI GTX 570s to a single 7970, I would decrease high average frames per second but would increase butterness and fluidness and $150.

If I go from SLI GTX 570s to CFX 7950, I would decrease $200, but would increase high average frames per second and butterness and fluidness.

I could CFX 7970s, but $1100 is a bit steep when I could $900 for CFX 7950 since I am only on a 1080p, but will have plans to get a 27" Dell in the near future. A single 7970 will probably suffice now, however, I don't like to see dips below 60fps just like yourself Porter. Well, in any case, it doesn't look like the 7970 are going to be in stock on Amazon anytime soon, and by the time they will get some more, the 7950 will be out and I'll see reviews on that and go from there. Gonna use my 8800GT til then but I have no patience.
 
I went ahead and placed an order on Amazon for the XFX version for $559. I'm only looking to buy from Amazon since they have a no hassle return policy and no tax+free shipping. I know the new XFX cards do not hold double lifetime warranty, but I'm not concerned about that since I'd probably be upgrading in 2 years time anyway. Any thoughts on this XFX model?

I decided to skip the whole CFX 7950 so I can avoid any CFX issues with microstuttering or driver support.
 
Anyone thinking they are not hitting a VRAM wall at 1080p on Ultra is in for a surprise - testing with 7970 last night on Metro - i was using over 1600mb VRAM, so if you are using Ultra on anything with less than 2gb VRAM i suggest you dial it down to stop the stuttering :)
 
I run everything "HIGH" with AA off, motion off, and AF at 8x, and it will still dip below 60 quite a bit on Karkland etc on my 7970 because there is so much shit going on 64 player servers.

Im anal too, run 120hz and want like 80+ fps constant or I go crazy feeling like I cant aim properly.
 
postal21 said:
I run everything "HIGH" with AA off, motion off, and AF at 8x, and it will still dip below 60 quite a bit on Karkland etc on my 7970 because there is so much shit going on 64 player servers.

Im anal too, run 120hz and want like 80+ fps constant or I go crazy feeling like I cant aim properly.
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well that's interesting. out of curiosity what processor are you running?
 
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