Severe loss in FPS

[Huzah]

Current specs:
OS: W7 64x
MoBo: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
Video card: Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
CPU: Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz
RAM: 4x 2GB DDR3 SDRAM DDR3
PSU: Thermaltake TR-800P TR2 BRONZE 800W

So here's my problem... Trying to run Assassin's Creed 2... Standing still or with little motion I run a solid 60 FPS even with a larger number of npcs on the screen. I have tried to range the settings from low to high, changing my display resilution from current setting of 1080p to basic resolution 1680 x 1050.
Could it be my RAM? Is it really that bad?
I had a similar problem running WoW, but fixed it by changing the directx setting from 9 to 11...

Thanks for reading, and any help is greatly appreciated.


Edit: Added PSU

 

[inzone]

What kind of loss are you talking about and you didn't list your psu. You may need a new video card.

 

[Huzah]

Right! My PSU, Thermaltake TR-800P TR2 BRONZE 800W

The loss is to a flat 1 FPS, if it is even that high...

 

[duxducis]

does it do that in every game or only creed 2? Did you ran game before with no problems?
And im pretty sure it got nothing to do with RAM, ram will usually blue screen you and crash whole pc

 

[Huzah]

Don't play a large amount of games on the computer. It did do it in WoW, but that was fixed. I don't have issues running games like SC2 on ultra (until arge scale battles.) And other games like LoL are no problem.
Will try to see if issue exists in other titles...

 

[ezekielPC]

If it only happens with AC2 (I had AC2 and Brotherhood on my 4670 which was a pain until I installed 10.2 catalyst drivers.), then it is either a problem with the Game or your Drivers, What drivers are you using? Also AC2 is only DX9, so that's not the problem.

 

[nukemaster]

Some things to look at.

Disable AA in your game to see if it helps. AA can hurt performance on many games if set too high, try with it off for now.

Do not leave a web browser open when playing. As web browsers and flash videos use the video card, it will have a impact on games even when in the background.

A 5870 will run at only 400mhz even in game is youtube is playing. Close it and get the full 850. It is a driver bug

 

[Huzah]

Currently running the 11.12 catalyst driver.
Tried a couple other games. FPS seem to be consistent with over the top camera styled games. But there are FPS drops with over the shoulder 3rd person games. But no drops as bad as in AC2. Given every other game is a bit older.

 

[ezekielPC]

Ok that narrows down things. 11.2 Drivers are pretty decent considering all of the bad drivers AMD have been spitting out lately.

Something to try:

Check your clocks in a game that runs well.go to CCC, AMD Overdrive(Leave this windows open or minimized) Open the game, Alt Tab out and check your Core Clock and Memory Clocks. Remember them

Go to you control center
Find AMD Overdriver
If it's locked unlock it by clicking on the "Key" and Agree to the terms and conditions.
Your clocks may be stuck in "2D Mode" or "Low Power Mode". Powerplay normally puts these clocks back up when playing a game, but sometimes this may not happen.

manually set clock speed
Manually set memory speed

Re-try playing the game


See what difference it makes. Also close Youtube or your web browser when playing.

 

[nukemaster]

I find the clocks swap too quick for CCC overdrive to always be good(not saying it will not work). I recommend GPU-Z. It can be set to log or just run in the background and show you whats going on(you will see the clocks doing what they do).

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

I have never had issues with the card not clocking up with the exception to youtube(or any video) being open.

 

[Huzah]

Awesome, I'll try this out. Thank you

 

[Huzah]

So I downloaded the gpuz and checked the clocks, both seem to be running at 100%.
The core clock ran at the max 813 mhz and the memory clock at 1003 mhz.

 

[nukemaster]

Looks like your video card is working as it should.

This is starting to look like a poorly designed game. This seems to be more and mor common with console ports.

A quick search finds this. May or may not help you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/105785-13-assassin-creed-continuous-drops-slows-down
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1731688

 

[Huzah]

That's a little disappointing, i'm glad I only paid 5$ for the game from steam.
Wished it worked better though, really want to play though it.
Thank you for the help though, I appreciate it.
I'll have look into those, maybe find something to make it playable...

 

[Supernova1138]

This is a problem with all the Assassin's Creed games. They aren't very well optimized, and will only be able to maintain 60FPS outside of quieter areas, pretty much regardless of graphics hardware. On my 6870 I can get 60FPS easily in quieter areas, but once I hit more crowded areas, the framerate drops into the 40s. The game also stutters horribly with vsync on, also stutters a bit with vsync off, but not as bad as vsync on.

There isn't much you can do, all the AC games aren't well coded as Ubisoft isn't really interested in PC gaming. They believe everyone is going to pirate their stuff anyway, so why put in any effort? With the comments they've made, I wouldn't be surprised if AC: Revelations is their last PC game.

 

[nukemaster]

Yeah, cause console games can not be pirated

 

[Huzah]

Best answer selected by Huzah.