Frames drop while playing Duke Nukem Forever, is it my cards or proc?

[midarkmind]

Hello, I have a question about frame rates dropping when I play Duke Nukem Forever on my PC? When I play Duke with all the settings turned up I start to see the game dropping frames during the fighting. The game doesn't chug or anything normally. It just seems to get harder to fallow when there's a lot going on. The game never slows down, but it can be hard to keep track of enemies your trying to shoot at. It’s annoying and I really wanted to play the game. I tried to turn settings down of course, and it helps slightly. However it degraded the game quality down a lot and I still get some dropping of frames. So I said forget it and turned the setting all back on ultra. At least at this point I can see a decent looking game while the frames drop here and there. I guess my question is whether or not the issue could be processor related. Maybe my board or memory speeds are showing their age. I have not had this issue with other games, like Mass Effect 2, Bio Shock 2 and other titles. All played at max settings before with no problems at all. I appreciate any input, however please try to give concrete and abstract answers. Thanx!


Here are my specs for my computer:
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
2 Cross-fired MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Kingston HyperX T1 Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX8500D2T1K2/4G
XION Power Real XON-1250P14HE 1250W ATX 12V v2.2 / EPS 12V v2.91 / SSI v2.92 SLI 3 ways SLI supported.

 

[IAreKyleW00t]

Did you overclock anything recently? Like the Graphics card or maybe the processor? A lot of times if you overclock the graphics card and it doesn't get enough voltage your FPS will drop immensely.

 

[midarkmind]

Yes I used my after burner software. Its overclocked at 1000Mhz. When I overclock at that speed I usually have to run the core voltage(mV) at 1350. I am guessing that means 1.35 Volts. If I don't do that then it doesn't seem like enough voltage and games star to run funny and similar things happen. Like the entire game play will start to chug instead whats happening now. Now its like just the video needs to catch up, but the game play is still going.

 

[IAreKyleW00t]

Are you playing online? Because it seems like it's just lagging because of your connection or the hosts connection?

 

[midarkmind]

No I was playing the campaign. It could be memory speeds I suppose. I am using DDR2. So 8GB brings the memory speeds down to around 400mhz from what I can see. I don't know if that is 400mhz per single channel or what. But I am running the ram in unganged mode so it could be. I just would like to know what the bottle neck could be?

 

[IAreKyleW00t]

The RAM could be a bit of a bottleneck, but not that much. Are those HDD's ran in RAID 0 I assume? How long have you had them? Because if you can, see if other things are slow too (maybe run some tests). One of them could be going bad and running slower. Unlikely, but could still happen.

 

[Baracas]

IDK, but I hear lots of people talk about frame rate crashing from people running 2 580's or better in single player in that game. It might just be the game from what I'm hearing.

 

[IAreKyleW00t]

Did you recently get 2 cards, or add another card on? In some cases, the game doesn't support SLI/Crossfire in which there is either no performance increase or making it slower.

 

[midarkmind]

No I have had these cards since the start of the build. I will try disabling cross fire and see what happens. Just thought that since duke was such and old game that I would be able to play it. I will test it out though.

 

[midarkmind]

OK thanks a lot! That was it. I had to disable crossfire. Its one of those games that is endorsed by Nivida. You know, like when the game starts and it says NIVIDA THE WAY ITS MEANT TO BE PLAYED! Or plays better on NIVIDA and all the trash. I've had trouble like this before with those kinds of games. For example crysis and far cry. Same thing happened before with prototype too. I just figured my cards were too slow so something. But that is not the case. Thanks a lot! I will go check the other games and see if they are good too. I hate to have crossfire and not be able to use it. Kind of dumb!

 

[IAreKyleW00t]

Glad I could help! But yeah, that's the only downside to having SLI or Crossfire... Not everything uses it.

 

[AdrianPerry]

If possible, test another game with as similar as possible System Requirements. Usually this problem would be standard, more stuff going on, on screen, the more the FPS will drop. However i see your running 2 5770's so there shouldn't be an issue.

Id also try a benchmark test with something like "Unigine" and match the specs from Duke to Unigine and see what the FPS benches there. If Ungine is giving like 40fps (as a benchmark test result), and Duke is only giving about 25 fps during gameplay, then i think you can assume the problem is within the game, not the graphics card.

 

[browsingtheworld]

It's a horribly coded game. I can run Witcher 2 at a constant 60 fps but have dips in this game.

 

[midarkmind]

Thanks guys. I will use the heaven Unigine to test if I run into this issue again. I am running a torrented copy. Its a portable direct play version too. So yeah I thought that there might be some glitches, but I knew something wasn't right. From now on I am just going to run one video card. I don't want a cross fire or SLI setup if half the games I want to play are not going to support one or the other. I might just stick to nivida, too because of the extra effects in a lot of the games. I can't turn everything on because sometimes ATI cards don't support all the extra video options. Sucks, but I think I might have learned my lesson once and for all with ATI.

 

[megamanx00]

Despite the nVidia endorsement the game works better with crossfire than with SLI. Even so, it's not the most GPU efficient. You also have a 16x/4x crossfire setup, which isn't exactly ideal for an AMD setup. This might give you an idea of your relative performance

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/duke-nukem-forever.html

If you turn off AA and AF should allow you to run it on a single 5770 just fine, unless your resolution is over 1080p. You may also try lowering the shadow detail. The only place I found crossfire to run funny is during some parts of the monster truck stage.

 

[megamanx00]

If you torrented the game you have no right to complain and it's certain that you're going to have problems. I bought and installed the game the day it came out (was on sale at Target) and there was immediately a big ass patch on steam for it.

 

[midarkmind]

So whats your point? Wow look everyone hes TRACKING me now! LOL XD I shall die with a heart of shame and spend money on games that I don't want to buy from now on. Lame as hell! Get on the next forum troll! Leave this decent thread alone before you mess it up by trolling around.