XFX Radeon HD 6870 Stuttering

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mr1hm

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Hello guys,

I wasn't sure where I was suppose to be post this (Games or Graphics & Displays), but I stuck
it in here because I believe the issue is my video card.

I was just wondering if anyone with the XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB (non-Black Edition) experienced any stuttering with Battlefield 3. I am currently using the 12.1 WHQL Drivers from AMD and I have also tried the 12.2 Preview Drivers with no luck.

By stuttering I meant I am experiencing micro stutters (as in screen looks like its glitching, but doesn't happen ALL the time) and FPS drops in certain situations in the game. I thought this was just because 64 player servers have lots of destruction and little things that need to be processed by the GPU.

But, I've seen people with the same card running Ultra Settings @ 1920x1080 (50+ Players) with no issues and never dropping below 45 FPS although it may have been ridiculously overclocked.

Things I've tried so far:
1. Uninstall all drivers (ran driver sweeper as well) and re-install.
2. Limiting my Maximum FPS to 60 @ 1600x900 (My native resolution).
3. Testing all sorts of graphics settings in the game and outside the game (Catalyst Control Center).
4. Underclocking AND Overclocking my video card.

Full Rig:
MOTHERBOARD: MSI 870A-G54 (Recently Updated BIOS)
Hard Drive: Samsung Sata 3.0 7200RPM 1TB.
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0Ghz (No Overclock)
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB (Single Fan)
RAM: Kingston (2x4GB) 8 GB 1600Mhz
Monitor: I-INC 20" Widescreen (Catalyst Control Center says it has a maxium refresh rate of 75Hz)
- Model: IK201

- Currently running all High Settings with No MSAA, High Post Processing, 16x Tesselation (Anistropic Filtering), and HBAO Anti-Aliasing.

My GPU seems to be dropping FPS in city maps or maps with lots of smoke and fog involved.

Please let me know of any ideas or suggestions you guys might have.

I read on some forums that disabling the HDMI Audio Drivers for the card might help out in boosting FPS. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance.
 


Thanks for the quick replies,

I installed the 12.1 CAP 2 and unfortunately saw little results...

A question that I thought of was:

- Should my video card (XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB - Single Fan), when under heavy load even show graphics stuttering in a game like Battlefield 3 (64-man Multiplayer Servers)?
- I know that my FPS will drop and show choppy animation, however the stuttering happens when I'm at a stable 60 FPS.

@esrever: Are you talking about underclocking my CPU? Or, turning off for example: Like Intel Processor's Hyper Threading technology.
- I've disabled AMD's Cool n' Quiet Feature....If that did anything...
 
- Should my video card (XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB - Single Fan), when under heavy load even show graphics stuttering in a game like Battlefield 3 (64-man Multiplayer Servers)?
Really can't say, 'cos they don't mention that 'Quality' anywhere... :) Basically it should not, but it does seem a few people have had such problems, surprisingly in your case the CAP files haven't solved the issue. But for other using the Older Catalyst Version and the older cap files, it did solve the issue.
If it is not too much of a pain, I'd suggest reverting back to earlier CCC versions and trying it out, after a complete uninstall of the present drivers and softwares from AMD.
 
no I mean the in game settings that are cpu limited since bf3 in multiplayer really taxes your cpu.

Im not sure what settings are in bf3 as I don't play it. turn down things like physics and shadows and motion blur can really help run games smoother.
 


I have tried earlier versions of the driver and the FPS is just not enough :cry:

However, I did not uninstall the previous CAP files that came with the 12.1 CCC Drivers (Was a CAP installation even included in this driver? http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx).

Should I have uninstalled the previous CAP files?

Thanks again! :wahoo:

@esrever: Ahh I see. Unfortunately I've tried both things through a third party software called BF3 Settings Editor from Realmware with no results :sweat:
 


I actually did not uninstall the Previous CAPs (if there was any that came with the 12.1 WHQL Drivers) :na:

EDIT: Forgot to ask... If I overclocked my CPU instead of GPU, is there a chance of getting rid of stutters, micro-stutters, and etc...?
 
Try this
what you should do if you want to find out open the console with the ~ key in game and type
Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1

this will display a performance graph in the bottom left of your screen with numbers below it

looks like this
bf32011-11-2408-53-17-47.jpg


Get screen shots when the stuttering takes place and during normal play. Try and post them here....

Here's a good read too... I quoted Frito here...
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1655502
 


I've actually been using the render.perfoverlayvisible 1 command for a little while. I've noticed than when I do get the stutter, both my CPU and GPU spike. The sudden spike is shown as 2 massive vertical lines for both CPU and GPU (GPU = Green Line and CPU = Yellow Line?) and neither spikes by itself... The only times I see huge spikes are when they are both "spiking" together.

Do you think the fact that both CPU and GPU spike together show a problem in the motherboard? How about a problem in general?

- Usually the spike lines that are shown are not that very big. It exceeds just above the performance overlay monitor outlines but, when I'm getting these "micro-stutters" every 5 - 10 seconds, it turns the game into a frustration simulator :fou:

P.S.: I just had a pretty good run with my video card overclocked for about an hour or so... Not sure if the fix is in overclocking or underclocking. I've tested underclocking my video card and in some situations I see a vast improvement, but in other situations, same stuttering followed by sudden FPS drops...
 
When I'm experiencing sudden drops in FPS it does definitely look like this most of the time.
34ab62cd_BF32.gif


But, my yellow line (CPU) seems to be higher than the green (GPU), so I would guess that my CPU is "sorta" bottlenecking my GPU?

EDIT: Do you think I should try an overclock my CPU? I've read on some forums this Processor is awesome when it comes to overclocking and also saw someone reach 3.45ghz @ 1.376v. He stated that he was using a stock cooler and that load temperatures were around 55C.
 
First off, thanks alyoshka and the rest of you for your suggestions.

I have 5 screen shots which I'll be uploading tomorrow, but I went ahead and overclocked my CPU to 3.3ghz @ a voltage of 1.365 with temps of 60-65C under heavy load.

This overclock made my stutters happen less frequently... However, I am still experiencing sudden drops in FPS...

I didn't mention this beforehand but, I have tried overclocking my CPU a long time ago. I didn't have the knowledge or experience back then to do it but, I still tried out of youth's curiosity (still young ROFL).

Anyway, when I was monitoring the Performance Overlay, I noticed that while my GPU's line looked fairly straight and solid, sometimes my CPU's line would look like an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0+ was being recorded on a Richter scale...

I think I'm coming down to a conclusion that it is my CPU holding me back because of its unstability...

Will post screen shots tomorrow, thanks for everything.
 
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