Bad Performance from a decent PC

[Num43]

My rig is a
i5 2500k at 4.3ghz
12 gb ddr3 ram at 1600mhz
2 HD 6950 cards running at crossfire

Which is fairly decent but I get TERRIBLE performance out of it, mostly when trying to play Battlefield 3 but other games get bad frame rates as well.

I have a fresh Windows 7 64bit install with the newest display drivers with Crossfire working, I ran anti virus and malware scans and several benchmark tests where I get average and slightly above average(cause of OC) results yet in games the story is a different matter all together with Battlefield(running at low settings on 1080p at 60mhz) barely holding at 60 fps at 'calm' conditions and dropping all the way to 30 when things get tough.

My friends who play this game use weaker machines to get much better results and when I set the graphic setting to auto it puts almost everything on Ultra(which works just as bad)


Other games I tried were Arma2 and Shogun 2, where my frame rates also drop considerably below players with the exact same machine.


I'm a bit lost here cause I have tried everything I can think of so I could really use a fresh approach.

Thanks...

 

[thecynicalmonk]

Could you post your temps for us? Maybe the rig is overheating. Heat plays a MAJOR factor in performance

 

[Num43]

I considered that and installed GPU-Z to check, the hottest any of them got to was 65C while running BF3 at Ultra

 

[Num43]

The strange is that there isn't much difference between Low and Ultra performance wise.

 

[thecynicalmonk]

Hmm, might be your PSU. DO you have or can you get your hands on a voltage tester?

 

[Num43]

I could try, It's an Antec 750...but maybe some power surge damaged it. but I can't find one now.

 

[thecynicalmonk]

Run FurMark for us and tell us if you run into any artifacts and such. Also, can you post your specs?

 

[mouse24]

Yeahhh, crossfire performance of the 6xxx series was... to put it lightly... Not the best. Anyhow, are you forcing any type of AA/AF/MLAA/etc in your drivers?

I feel obliged to ask this, we had someone on the forums that had his drivers forcing 64x csaa.

Hows it play when theres only one gpu activated? (not xfired)

Are you capping out your vram? You can find this out by using MSI afterburner (there onscreen OSD I think supports this) I might be wrong about this.

Are you using CAP profiles? If not, download them and see if that helps.

Edit: That first sentence was meant to ask if you were actually getting sub par FPS as being reported by FRAPS/afterburner/etc or does it just feel choppy (microstuttering). Woops.

 

[thecynicalmonk]

Oh damn! I didnt even think of it that way! +1 to mouse and bishop!

 

[smeezekitty]

How is your CPU temperature?

 

[thecynicalmonk]

How is your CPU temperature?

Read above, his temp is 60-70C. It's fine.

 

[smeezekitty]

I thought that was GPU temp only

 

[Num43]

CPU hits a max of 70 and GPU hits a max of 65 under pressure. With crossfire disabled I get pretty much the same performance but with crossfire enabled 1 card is going all the way to 90% load while the 2nd remains at 20% max.


I will run FurMark and check my Vram even though it's the 2gb version.


Edit 1 :Ran FurMark and it gives me a score of 3383 at the preset 1080 test but it only seems to notice 1 card(CCC can see both and Crossfire IS enabled)

Edit 2 : MSI Afterburner shows that both GPU's share the workload during the FurMark test and comparing the score shows that 1 card would not get that score.

I will try messing around with the CCC profiles.

 

[smeezekitty]

70c is pretty hot for the CPU.

 

[Num43]

My PC just got back from the shop where I got it, I have made them replace the PSU because it was giving off voltage spikes.

Currently I am still having TERRIBLE gaming experience while achieving high benchmark scores.

Examples:

Bf3 multiplayer running at 20-50 fps at the lowest graphical setting
Skyrim unable to maintain a near 60fps at medium graphical settings and stuttering to around 30fps in cities.

Reminder I run:
i5 2500k at 4.3ghz
12 gb ddr3 ram at 1600mhz
2 HD 6950 cards running at crossfire
with a fresh Windows and driver install.

Edit: CPU and GPU's only reach around 50% load

I would really like to try anything because I spent a lot of money building this PC and I am lost as to what is wrong with it.

 

[The Indomitable]

Take the bottom graphics card out and see what kind of game performance you get from that. Benchmarks are built to work with anything, games aren't really required to.

 

[Num43]

I have done that, performance is even worse...

Performance wise both my Hd6950's are working like one 5870...but all my benchmarks show a good score.


Any ideas? It's below any standard of gameplay for my machine and I can't really play anything because of lag and frame drops.