Conflicting answers

[tmglmc]

Hello,

i'm currently running
intel core2 6700 @ 2.66
4gig nvidia gaming ram
pny geforce gtx 460
striker extreme mobo
2 x 74g raptor hd's

my system runs bf3 well i was surprised tbh i was wondering if a second 460 would improve things alot as i get the odd stutter here and there and also seem to be the last to load a map or would i be better spending a bit more on a new mobo , ram , cpu ?

i rang my local computer shop and they said get new cpu etc but reading reviews on this site i saw upto 90% increase in performance with a 2nd card

regards

 

[Rustyy117]

Hey

GTX460's scale very well, but you have to have a system that will allow the GTX460's to stretch their legs

In most games your CPU won't be fast enough at processing various instructions and deliver them to the video cards, so your video cards will just be waiting for data from the CPU
So your video cards can only go as fast as your CPU allows (up until they reach 100% usage)

If you play games at a high resolution with all the eye-candy turned on then the video cards will take longer to render each frame giving your CPU more time to complete instructions and send data, in this case the video cards would be the limiting factor

The situation is very complex though as some games are more CPU dependant than other games.
If you can find a cheap quad core CPU like the Q6600 or above on ebay (or elsewhere) and do some light overclocking you'd have a much more enjoyable gaming experience.

 

[beltzy]

Your GPU is going to make a much bigger impact on gaming performance than you cpu will. That being said, you do need a reasonably fast dual core cpu to get the most out of an expensive GPU setup. If you can overclock your CPU, you really ought to. You will get quite a bit more performance out of 3.3 or 3.5 GHz vs your 2.66.

If you were to pick up another 460 in SLI you would see a drastic improvement in performance. A more modern overclocked processor would perform better with those 2 GPUs than your current processor overclocked, but it wouldn't be the same kind of massive difference that you would see from adding another GPU.

 

[purple stain]

BF3 is very strange.You'd think it would need a very fast CPU but from the benchmarks I've been reading it doesn't really matter what clock speed the CPU is just as long as it's a quad core.In this case your biggest gain would be from another GTX460 but you would also need a quad core to not bottleneck the GTX460's and to run BF3.

Since you already have a SLI capable mobo I would suggest getting another GTX460 for SLI and then saving money for a new CPU,RAM,etc.It seems the easiest and cheapest way to run the game better for the time being.You won't really see a huge increase in performance upgrading to a new CPU than if you had a GTX460 SLI.BF3 is,for the most part, a GPU dependant game.

How much do you have to spend?Maybe you can upgrade all of it at once.

 

[monsta]

I agree with purple stank , get another GTX460 , and upgrade your cpu, you will be suprised with what you can get away with.
Im running 2 x 560ti in SLI with a dual core and have no problems , I'm just stubborn and am waiting for Ivy bridge to come but in the meantime I'm getting good performance and no bottle necking.

 

[bucknutty]

Use a program like core temp to do CPU utilization logging. It will make a CSV file that you can open in excel of what % your cpu is at every second.
Play a match and then average the CPU% for your play session.
If the average is at 90+% then the game is saturating the CPU. A second card likely wont help. If you CPU average is lower say 60 70% then a second card will help.

You can also do the same for the GPU using MSI afterburner. If the average GPU utilization for the play session is 80-90% then the video card is getting pushed to its limits and a second card will help. If the GPU is averaging 60-70% then its likely the CPU is not providing it info fast enough and a second card wont help.

 

[purple stain]

I guarantee it's a 100% usage.My Phenom ii x4 @ 3.8ghz is at 90%.

An easier way,I think, would be to use a tool in BF3 for the benchmarking.Just open the console and type in render.perfoverlay display 1(and then 0 in place of the 1 to turn it off).It will show you how long it takes for the CPU and GPU to render what's being displayed on the screen.The higher the number the slower.You want low numbers.Post what your average is for both when you get the chance.For reference, I average about 20 for both the GPU and CPU.

 

[purple stain]

You'd think that with such a demanding game like BF3 that it would be very CPU dependant but it just isn't.It doesn't matter if you have a dual core or an 8 core that's 600 mhz faster than a dual core.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

 

[tiang]

Another GTX460 for SLI configuration will be good enough for the time being! Agree with the rest!

 

[tmglmc]

thanks guys i'll do the above suggestion in the command prompt and post back later

once again thanks for your input and time

 

[purple stain]

I'm very curious to see your results.

 

[tmglmc]

can't see anything on my screen when i type in the command altho i'm not that good with computers so i'll try it again as i'm probably doing something wrong i'll go do it now !

 

[tmglmc]

ok just tried most of the commands and i didn't see anything come up
render.perfoverlaydisplay1 unknown command
render.perfoverlayenable= true
render.perfoverlayvisible = false
render.drawfpsmethod = 1
render.drawfpsuint32 = 1
render.drawscreen = false

i'll try the programme mentioned earlier if i can use it that is

 

[gnomio]

intel core2 6700 @ 2.66
You cant sli on that

Do you have vsync enabled?

 

[bucknutty]

intel core2 6700 @ 2.66
You cant sli on that

Do you have vsync enabled?

Of course your can...The question is how much value will you get if the CPU is all ready at its limit. A computer is only as fast as its slowest part, no point in having 2 video cards at 20-30% usage when the CPU is struggling at 90-100% usage.

 

[tmglmc]

i've played a 2 rounds with the msi afterburner running and the graph shows my gpu is nearly maxed out all the time apart from the odd occasation it drops to around 65 but 98% of the time its at 98/99%

going to try core temp now

 

[gnomio]

Of course your can...The question is how much value will you get if the CPU is all ready at its limit. A computer is only as fast as its slowest part, no point in having 2 video cards at 20-30% usage when the CPU is struggling at 90-100% usage.

Twp Gtx 460s on a Core 2 Cpu with a clock speed of 2.66?
Good luck with that

 

[tmglmc]

just tried core temp and both cpu's running at 99/100%

so thats my gpu and cpu max'd out

so i guess a 2nd card is pointless and i need to get a new mobo + ram + cpu , i've got a budget of around £600 any advice or recomendations are very appreciated

would i be ok to keep the gtx 460 i have or should i save a little more and get a better card with the rest of the new stuff ?

thanks again for the help guys it means alot

 

[bucknutty]

Yah it looks like BF3 is taxing your whole system.

You could try to overclock your cpu, or look for a 775 quad on ebay.

I have a buddy that did an i5 2500k for $200
An x68 mobo for $100
16gb of 1600mhz ram for $100
and a gtx560ti for $200.
He reused his old case, Psu, HDs, and optical.

Another budy did the same thing but he went with a p67 board for like 80 and a gtx570 for aroun 300.

Thats a lot of computer for aroun $600

They both claim to run the game maxed out.


If i were you i migh consider a new chip board and ram and then try it with the 460. If your not happy with how well it runs then try a new GPU, or trying to find a second 460.

 

[monsta]

BF3 needs a Quad?
Does it even use the 4 cores?

 

[xdmds]

Yah it looks like BF3 is taxing your whole system.

You could try to overclock your cpu, or look for a 775 quad on ebay.

I have a buddy that did an i5 2500k for $200
An x68 mobo for $100
16gb of 1600mhz ram for $100
and a gtx560ti for $200.
He reused his old case, Psu, HDs, and optical.

Another budy did the same thing but he went with a p67 board for like 80 and a gtx570 for aroun 300.

Thats a lot of computer for aroun $600

They both claim to run the game maxed out.


If i were you i migh consider a new chip board and ram and then try it with the 460. If your not happy with how well it runs then try a new GPU, or trying to find a second 460.

16gb 1600mhz ram for $100?? Damn I thought I got a good deal for 16gb Corsair xms3 1333mhz 4x4GB at 90$ like 2 weeks ago.

 

[purple stain]

That's my fault I'm sorry.I spelled it wrong.Type in render.perfoverlaydisplay 1.
Type it exactly like that and it should work.

 

[ilysaml]

But be advised that most users were complaining about SLI + BF3, don't know if EA has released a new patch but a lot of members were complaining about flickering, green lines issue with SLI setup during BF3.

Also, it's better to have a high end card than SLI 2 mid range cards.
You never mentioned your gaming resolution. what resolution are you playing at ?

 

[purple stain]

I have those same problems and I'm only running a single AMD card.

 

[ilysaml]

I completed the game on my single card without no problem.