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  • 11-03-2010 1:01pm
    #1
    Dcully
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Hi guys im looking at getting another while yet out of my rig.
    Bad Company 2 is the only title i cant run as smoothly as id like at settings id like.
    Its the first game in a long while that tempts me to upgrade.
    Im considering one of the latest ATI cards but just wonder if my Q6600 would be a bottleneck or indeed the rest of my spec.
    Would a nice new card give a signifigant performance boost?


    Currently spec :

    Seasonic M12 700W PSU
    Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P, P35, Socket-775,ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, 1333FSB, 2xPCI-Ex16
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
    8 GIG Corsair DDR2 1066mhz
    Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
    Windows 7 64 ultimate
    2 X Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM


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    #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,322 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    Dcully wrote: »
    Hi guys im looking at getting another while yet out of my rig.
    Bad Company 2 is the only title i cant run as smoothly as id like at settings id like.
    Its the first game in a long while that tempts me to upgrade.
    Im considering one of the latest ATI cards but just wonder if my Q6600 would be a bottleneck or indeed the rest of my spec.
    Would a nice new card give a signifigant performance boost?


    Currently spec :

    Seasonic M12 700W PSU
    Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P, P35, Socket-775,ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, 1333FSB, 2xPCI-Ex16
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
    8 GIG Corsair DDR2 1066mhz
    Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
    Windows 7 64 ultimate
    2 X Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

    I would have though that was plenty enough for BC2. What framerate are you getting?


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    #3
    Dcully
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Getting 40-70 at medium settings @ 1650 X 1280.
    This game deserves a solid 60 fps at max settings :)


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    #4
    sink
    Registered Users Posts: 4,314 ✭✭✭sink


    I turned off HBAO in the advanced settings and saw my frame rate jump a good 20fps. You don't miss it, it is the glare from bright light sources, it's actually a hindrance as it make things more difficult to see, I also have just 2x MSAA & 4x Anisotropic filtering. Everything else is maxed @ 1920*1200 and it's now running silky smooth.

    QX6700, 4GB Ram, 2 8800GTX in SLi, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit


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    #5
    Dcully
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    sink wrote: »
    I turned off HBAO in the advanced settings and saw my frame rate jump a good 20fps. You don't miss it, it is the glare from bright light sources, it's actually a hindrance as it make things more difficult to see.

    Yeah ive disabled that,ive done every possible tweak and setting change but im still not seeing the performance id like at the graphics quality id like.
    Im a framerate junkie unfortunately and thus demand silky smooth gameplay.
    Sure i can get this by lowering the settings but i want to see it in all its glory.
    After seeing it on a mates new machine i was gobsmacked at the framerate he was achieveing at max settings @ high res.

    The following is what techspot had to say in this article http://www.techspot.com/article/255-battlefield-bad-company2-performance/

    "Like many first person shooters the CPU doesn't play a huge role in this game's performance, therefore a decent dual-core processor should be enough to power even the latest graphics cards at full speed. As the resolution was increased the game became even more GPU bound, removing the CPU from the equation almost entirely.
    Test Update on CPUs"


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    #6
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,322 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    Dcully wrote: »
    Getting 40-70 at medium settings @ 1650 X 1280.
    This game deserves a solid 60 fps at max settings :)

    On all high settings, with AA, nVidia HBAO etc, I get about45 to 60 from one core of my GTX 295, and about 70 to 80 with both cores. I would expect an AMD 4870 to be in or around the same as single core of a GTX295, so I'm inclined to think the CPU is mostly to blame as in my case I'm using an i7 965.


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    #7
    Dcully
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Spear wrote: »
    On all high settings, with AA, nVidia HBAO etc, I get about45 to 60 from one core of my GTX 295, and about 70 to 80 with both cores. I would expect an AMD 4870 to be in or around the same as single core of a GTX295, so I'm inclined to think the CPU is mostly to blame as in my case I'm using an i7 965.

    Ive just edited in on my post above what teckspot say about CPU in BC2.


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    #8
    marco_polo
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,079 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    You could do some mild overclocking of the Q6600 and the HD4870 seperately to see which is holding you back.


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    #9
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    The words "HD4870" and "overclocking" don't go well together in the same sentence. Its a very highly strung card at stock! :o

    OCing the Q6600 on the other hand... ;)


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    #10
    Dcully
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Solitaire wrote: »
    The words "HD4870" and "overclocking" don't go well together in the same sentence. Its a very highly strung card at stock! :o

    OCing the Q6600 on the other hand... ;)

    Tried to overclock the Q6600 just a tad with stock cooling lastnight and she wouldnt boot up.
    Just overclocked the card a wee bit there now and think im seeing a performance gain ingame.


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    #11
    marco_polo
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,079 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    Solitaire wrote: »
    The words "HD4870" and "overclocking" don't go well together in the same sentence. Its a very highly strung card at stock! :o

    OCing the Q6600 on the other hand... ;)

    True enough I have one myself don't think I could squeeze more than about 5% gain at best if memory serves. The sliders in CCC were nowhere near maxed out before seeing driver crashes etc. :(

    Very much a case of 'She cannae take much more captain'.

    Dcully wrote: »
    Tried to overclock the Q6600 just a tad with stock cooling lastnight and she wouldnt boot up.
    Just overclocked the card a wee bit there now and think im seeing a performance gain ingame.

    I suspected that the card was more likely the cause as to my eyes your frames per second numbers look in the right ballpark for a HD4870. The Q6600 is still a very decent CPU, its day is not quite over yet.


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    #12
    Dcully
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Ok have done some more testing, managed to overclock the cpu using my mobos inteli tweaker thingy, seems me being a noob changes something else in the bios lastnight which is why she wouldnt boot up.
    It was very stable and no problems at all set to "turbo" not sure precisely what speed it was getting to but apparently it auto overclocks the cpu when needed.

    Heres the strange bit, i swapped my highly edited settings ini out and replaced it with the origional just out of interest and straight away ingame fps were massively improved at stock cpu and gpu speeds :)

    I guess i was reading too much into a few BC2 performance tweak guides on the net.
    Im now seeing a minimum of 50 fps and max of 90,usually hovers at around the 60-70- mark even with building blowing up etc, im at medium settings same as before but the difference is massive - running dx 10 btw and its rock solid :)
    I might hold off on a new card tbh, more than happy with performance now, lesson learned - dont always trust so called tweak guides on the net.


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