AMD64 3700+ with 2x 7800GT, why doesn´t it eat the graphics?

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Is 2x GeForce 7800GT in SLI better than one 7800GTX?

  • Yes

    Votes: 34 57.6%

  • No

    Votes: 23 39.0%

  • The same

    Votes: 2 3.4%
  • Total voters
    59
The toms article is flawed in every sense. Who here plays bf2 a 800x600
no one I expect. They were playing the demo prob 32 player (more players more ram is used)
Playing ohman map 32 player is not the biggest map so ram usage is not that high.

They should have tested 1024x 1280 on a 64 player dragon valley. then they would have seen the benefit of 2gb.

Overclocking a cpu will not help it is a pure ram related stutter. Bf2 will use up to 1.2gb plus windows programmes if there is enough ram.

http://images.crucial.com/pdf/CrucialBF2.pdf

http://www.benscustomcases.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1742

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/tech/AN506_1GB_vs_2GB.pdf

These reviews show the situation in a better light

I run bf2 all high every setting maxed and i only have a x800gto but the key is I have 2gb of ram, with 1 there is too much stutter.
 
In BF2 I am averaging 65 fps [clean and smooth--no ripping/tearing/bleeding] with the settings maxed (including AA)...My "out of the box" 3DMark05 score is 10,480 with no AA @ 1280X1024 including CPU tests. That's more than enough to surpass the limits of any existing game!
Click to expand...

I got 10,800 p on my last run in 3DMark05...


Can you check what FPS you have in the map "Strike at Karkand"???
I play that map mostly and my FPS is average on 40. And it can go from 25 to 100 FPS.

Under 30 FPS as it goes some times, it gets laggy...
 
I believe the amount of RAM required to run BF2 increased with the installation of the expansion pack on my system. Previously I'd see BF2.exe consume as much as 800 MB... after the expansion pack (and maybe a patch) it went as high as 1000+ MB for that one process.

I believe 100% in the accuracy of the post on Toms Hardware, but I believe BF2 has changed enough since that article to warrant the upgrade to 2 GB.

The times they are a changing!
 
A lot of the lag in BF2 is from lack of RAM. The game code has a massive memory leak. If you want BF2 to run smooth up your RAM to 2gigs. I went from 1 to 2 gigs and noticed a significant improvement in games. It got rid of that gitchy lag at the beginning of a level. As far as the processor goes you should be just fine. That processor blows away your old one. I am able to run games maxed out with a single 7800gt without anyproblems.


3500+ winny
MSI K8N Neo4 Plat SLI
2x1gig OCZ Plat
BFG 7800GT OC 470/1150
 
with that p4 running @ 3.8 it is no wonder you do not see much improvement. the 3700 amd is "roughly" equal to a "3.7" p4. Almost a sideways move. This of course is not exact, but in most benchmark runs that 3.8 would spank the athlon in apps, and the amd would win a bit on games... all else being equal of course. With sli you have the added problem of the overhead it creates which can bring performance "down" to only slightly higher than a single card... at least until more games code for it. Either way, don't give up on amd yet.

Now that you have probably the best ENTIRE PLATFORM on the market (athlon64/nforce4/sli/x-fi) you will see long life from that system. Only issue might be the lack of dual core if the future goes that way in a hurry... but overall once you get that more ram and finish tweaking the system it will rock in all games, not just bf2. (and you can get dual core on that system with just a cpu upgrade if you want it)
 
Someone told me that if you stick in 4x 512Mb rams in your computer you can get real problems. Is that true?

I am thinking of buying same ram again so I will get 4x 512Mb DDR550, because I can run them on 2-2-2-5 (lowest it can get in this bios...) at 1T on AUTO power.

Another question is how much can I sell my old P4 for?
Specs for the old one:
Gigabyte GAIP8E775-G (or something like that) with chipset Intel 865PE.
Intel Pentium 4 530 3,0GHz
2x 512Mb Value Select ram DDR400/PC3200
Nvidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256Mb with new Fatal1ty cooling...
120Gb IDE ATA133
DVD-player
 
Bro, it's all about the memory. Seriously, even though it's been beaten senseless on this forum, you really do need the 2Gb of memory to make BF2 run "like butta". And if you don't plan on O/C'ing the system, 4x 512mb sticks will work fine, you'll only lose a small bit of latency, but that's made up with the lack of a Pagefile being used (you might want to Regedit this key to turn off the pagefile, just to be sure). When I went from 1Gb to 2Gb, the game was HUGELY more responsive. Faster map loads, smoother frames, less CTD and higher res was all possible. Good luck.
 
there is an bigger perfomance hit for useing 4x512mb like it will only run at ddr333 and T2 command rate

get 2gb of ram (thats 2x1gb) AMD64 systems overclocking ram will only speed up by pc 2-4% (e.g. overclock the cpu its far better) the Ram contorler is part of the CPU so there is no bottleneck (if any thing use Lower timeings)

bf2 (Special Forces) is an intresting game can never get FPS that matchs the video settings i got all my settings on low apart from Geometry that is on high and viewing distance i do not get consistant FPS to lower settings like something els is the limit (sig for spec of pc, ram in sig is not right its running lower now but timeing are alot faster) BF2 no mod i have no problems
 
"And what do you mean by maximum? 8xAA and 8Xaniso? For that you probably need at least a AMD 64 4000+(or oc at that speed)/FX-55/FX-57X2 4400/X2 4800/ FX 60/Opteron oc "

The more he cranks up the resolution and AA/AF settings, the LESS important the cpu clock speed is...
 
It is not your processor. I have a AMD 64 3500+ with a 7800GTX, 2GB of ram and a crappy ide hard drive. I play Battlefield 2 at 1600*1200 with everthing turned on. Your problem is your ram. Playing around with your hard drive is only going to help load times. Get more ram and make sure you run dual channel.
 
It is not your processor. I have a AMD 64 3500+ with a 7800GTX, 2GB of ram and a crappy ide hard drive. I play Battlefield 2 at 1600*1200 with everthing turned on. Your problem is your ram. Playing around with your hard drive is only going to help load times. Get more ram and make sure you run dual channel.
Click to expand...

I have ordered 2x 512Mb DDR550 (the same as I have now)... I will get them in about 2 days.

The funny thing now is that it has almost stopped lagging. It goes from 32-100FPS in Strike at Karand on BF2, depending where you are on the map. think the memory timing made a huge difference on my perfomance.
I am running my ram at:
2-2-2-5-7-9-1-2-T1 @ AUTO-voltage and they are rock stable. Some websites says that they can do these timings to about 225MHz [225*2=450MHz]...
 
very true :)

hmm cant you sell the 2x512mb and get 2x1gb there is less performace losss in useing 2x1gb of ram over 4x512mb, still if your playing BF2 the slower speed of the ram (4x512) it will Out way the HDD pageing that game must do if used on 1gb of ram(2x512)
 
hmm cant you sell the 2x512mb and get 2x1gb there is less performace losss in useing 2x1gb of ram over 4x512mb, still if your playing BF2 the slower speed of the ram (4x512) it will Out way the HDD pageing that game must do if used on 1gb of ram(2x512)
Click to expand...

Do you really think it will be much slower? I have searched around about that and my opinion is that if they aren´t better (like som are!), then you might get perfomance lose of about max 4%. And I think I can handle that...
 
from what i understand, the timings on the bigger ram sticks will be slightly slower but the benefits of running in dual channel out weigh that, and yes as far as i know the difference in percenage is low single figures
 
from what i understand, the timings on the bigger ram sticks will be slightly slower but the benefits of running in dual channel out weigh that, and yes as far as i know the difference in percenage is low single figures
Click to expand...

But can´t I run my 4x 512Mb (only have 2 right now...) in Dual Channel? They are going in that right now (2x 512Mb)...
 
I turned of SLI and ran Battlefield 2 at max quality @ 1280x1024 (my screen cannot do any more).
In the first minute of gaming it was impossible to shoot anyone because of the lag. But after one minute or a litte more it started to get smooth, but one small lag every 5 second or something. It´s like it needed to load graphics or something then...

So now I am going to restart my computer, turn of cool & quiet, search for something to lock PCI and then turn on SLI again and see what it does.

Does someone know the command in Battlefield 2 so that I can see my FPS?
Click to expand...

it is the shortage of ram that us causing this
note the fact that after 1 minute it was ok smooth because before the 1 minuts, not all the stat is loaded into the ram, and then after 1 minute every now ans then it have to dump **unused** info from the ram(it thinks it is unused because it was not used at that cycle of processing but it is needed in maybe the next 100th cycle and reloads it from the ram (give it or take a few hundard/thousand cycles))

this is not a cpu or gpu problem, and ur psu is fine... soo upp ur ram or try some other game before making a judgement about which brand is better, its just which game work better with witch setup
 
nope, dual channel only uses two slot, hence dual, on asus boards like mine (and i assume others) the dual channel slots are the two blue ones, using 4 channels takes it off dual channel mode
 
nope, dual channel only uses two slot, hence dual, on asus boards like mine (and i assume others) the dual channel slots are the two blue ones, using 4 channels takes it off dual channel mode
Click to expand...

I have emailed Asus about that and I am waiting for an answer...
 
theres also a few posts regarding this within the toms forums and undoubtably in other forums also if you want to get more detailed information
 
You sure about that man? I am buying an asus nf4 mobo and did not know that was the case. I have an asus nf2 mobo that runs fine in dual channel with more than 2 sticks. It has been my understanding that you need a minimum of 2 sticks for dual, but can still hit dual with more. If not then the nf4 is a BACKWARDS step from nf2.

Man, that nf2 (a7n8x deluxe) ran dual channel fine with 3 sticks! figure that one out... Not arguing with you, just want to make sure I am understanding where nf4 stands.
 
hmm, well it was my understanding through what i had read in other posts on this forum, but i could be wrong, ive never used more than two sticks tbh


-just had a look, on google, should of done it earlier, and some posts in the pcper forums suggest that it merely needs to be 2 or 4 sticks for dual channel to function but certain ram wont do it.....

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=414150
 
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