Smoke and Fire in CoD4

V

vengence

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Nov 7, 2007
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I've allways had a big disconnect when it comes to which hardware is limiting perticular rendered objects. In ambush (I'm pretty sure it is ambush, correct me if I'm wrong), there are the three tanks in the middle of the map that are on fire. If I orient my camera just right from one of the buildings I can get the smoke from two of the tanks to fill my screen. This drops my FPS to about 66% of the FPS it is getting over the rest of the map.

Let me take a second to be clear on something, I am still VERY pleased with my frame rates even when this occurs. I've talked in percentages so far because I am asking about hardware reasons why, not trying to increase my FPS. My low FPS if I work at it, I can get it DOWN to 70FPS. My High FPS, well, I'm not sure. I know I've hit the 250 FPS cap a few times. (FYI: if you set your com_maxfps > 250 Punkbuster will kick you) Most times it's in the 100-200 depending on map. Again, I'm not trying to increase my FPS, I'm way over my refresh rate, I'm curious about the hardware.

What is causing the drop in FPS? I mean obviously it's the smoke/fire from the tanks. (duh) But is that shader limitations or graphics memory speed, or my CPU?

I tried OCing my GPU core (linked) as well as the G.memory and my CPU. While I was playing with OCs in the 10-15% range, I didn't really see any improvements in my FPS. I would think I would see that 70 turn into an 80 when I OC them all by 10-15%. However I didn't really see any change.
 
Have you tried the lastest drivers? There's no reason that I can see to have fps drops like that.

You can take off soft edges, that should help quite a bit.
 
Teh_ZioN said:
Have you tried the lastest drivers? There's no reason that I can see to have fps drops like that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, latest drivers. I've noticed fps drops when I encounter multiple smoke canisters too. Although that's a much harder enviroment to control.


Teh_ZioN said:
You can take off soft edges, that should help quite a bit.
Click to expand...

First I don't care about my FPS. I'm still getting 70+ in the worse case I can find. And I mean by playing on my server (my gaming group's, although I help pay for it so I'll use the term mine) being the only one online, positioning my self so I have the lowest FPS I can find which turns out to be the most amount of smoke, etc etc.

Oh, incase it wasn't obvious, the rig is in the sig, and max settings max AA (4X) max AF.
 
Smoke effects, the related transparency, the volume calculations etc. all require more processing power from the GPU. That's why performance drops.
 
Thats nice and all, but does it cause you any real gameplay issues????

I mean, I dont think I've ever counted FPS in any game I've ever played......my goal is to play the game without a slideshow, the rest is just gravy.

If particle and smoke drops your frames, the GPU is struggling.
 
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