Dragon Age Inquisition with GTX 970

[kol12]

Just upgraded to a EVGA GTX 970. Now playing Dragon Age Inquisition with ultra settings (Nvidia optimized) Pretty much maintaining 60 fps except for few areas which seem to really push the gpu like Emerald Graves, Storm coast and a couple others, I'm still getting 50-60 fps in those areas, but some of the large battles in those areas like fade rifts see me dropping to 40 fps.

So does this game eat gpu's for breakfast or what? Is it a sign that a single GTX 970 can't handle some modern gaming scenes at 60 fps ultra? or is DAI over the top demanding?

 

[kol12]

Forgot to mention I'm playing at 1920x1200 and the 970 is a reference model that I've got OC'd to about 1450 Mhz, Memory clock hasn't been OC'd, not sure if that will make a diff here?

Is it possible the 970 is throttling?

 

[gopher1369]

Do you have anti aliasing turned on? AA murders frame rates in DA:I.

What CPU do you have? A weak CPU would cause your minimum frame rates to dip.

edit: 2xMSAA, 1200p (basically the same as 1080p, average frame rate is 49FPS:

http://www.techspot.com/review/921-dragon-age-inquisition-benchmarks/page4.html

http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/921/bench/1920.png

 

[kol12]

Post process AA is on High and Multisample AA is Off. I have a 4690K currently Oc'd at 4284 MHz. Maybe the CPU voltage needs tweaking..

When I drop to in between 60-50 fps I can feel it, the frames sort of stutter. Feels very hardware like..

 

[kyllien]

Some things that may help you.

1. 30 FPS is the standard for human vision. Some people can "feel" 30 FPS and think it is slow.
2. Your overclock is doing more to eat your video card then the game is.
3. The 970 is not a high end GPU, the 980, Titan X and 980 Ti are much faster.

 

[kol12]

"Your overclock is doing more to eat your video card then the game is."

What does that mean?

 

[kyllien]

"Your overclock is doing more to eat your video card then the game is."

What does that mean?

The overclock allows the card to run hotter (temperature) then is was originally designed for. This will shorten the life of the device unless you can keep it cool.

 

[kol12]

I thought the GTX 970 were known to be great overclockers without exceeding normal temperatures.. I don't exceed 70 degrees in the Unigine Heaven benchmark overclocked or not..

 

[gamerk316]

The game does hit GPUs hard in some spots; my 2GB 770 GTX struggles with High settings at points, so drops to 40 FPS on Ultra for a 970 seems about right.

 

[gopher1369]

In which case I think you're fine, I think your frame rates are normal, it's just a very demanding game. If you want 60FPS as your minimum frame rate, rather than your average, that's a much, much more demanding proposition and you might need to drop some settings down to High.

 

[xapoc]

DA is demanding game as previous poster mentioned, I found overriding app settings in the nvidia ctrl panel will give you small fps boost, outside of that lower 1 or 2 setting form ultra to high and you will hardly notice difference.

 

[kol12]

It's looking like DAI is just a very demanding game as has been said. How the GTX 970 fairs with some of the newer titles, we'll have to see I guess.

 

[gamerk316]

It'll hold up well, but it won't max the most intense games, even at 1080p. It'll come close though. By contrast, my 770 is downright aged.

 

[gopher1369]

It'll hold up well, but it won't max the most intense games, even at 1080p. It'll come close though. By contrast, my 770 is downright aged.

I have a Radeon 7970 and that's, what, 3 or 4 years old now? And it still works fine, sure I have to play some games in high rather than ultra to hit 60FPS, but most games the differences between those 2 settings are subtle at best.Considering that the PS4 is running a Radeon 7870 and that console is going to be around for at least the next 4 years, i reckon we'll all be fine with our current cards for quite a while yet.

 

[kol12]

I have to say that I've really noticed the difference in going to ultra, so far in DAI and BF4, the grass in both games look much different, BF4 looks much more realistic, lighting and shadows in both games look better, textures a bit more detailed? and the effects in DAI have more pop.

I think it's been a nice upgrade but goes to show you really need some gpu power in some games to maintain ultra. I have no problem maintaining ultra in BF4

Sorry to brag about being able to play in ultra..

 

[gopher1369]

Not at all, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your purchase.

I should have mentioned this in my earlier post, my PC is plugged into my TV, I sit 10 feet away on my sofa, I guess you're probably sat a lot closer to your screen than I am. What is an obvious difference from 2 feet away on a PC monitor is often practically invisible from 10 feet away on a TV screen.

 

[kol12]

Wow, what resolution and size tv? Is a 7970 powerful enough for that?

So far I'm happy with the GTX 970, just looking around to see what sort of performance to expect.

 

[gopher1369]

Wow, what resolution and size tv? Is a 7970 powerful enough for that?

It's a 50" plasma, but just the standard 1080p screen, so as far as the PC is concerned it's no more demanding than a regular PC monitor.

 

[gamerk316]

It'll hold up well, but it won't max the most intense games, even at 1080p. It'll come close though. By contrast, my 770 is downright aged.

I have a Radeon 7970 and that's, what, 3 or 4 years old now? And it still works fine, sure I have to play some games in high rather than ultra to hit 60FPS, but most games the differences between those 2 settings are subtle at best.Considering that the PS4 is running a Radeon 7870 and that console is going to be around for at least the next 4 years, i reckon we'll all be fine with our current cards for quite a while yet.

The 360 had a modified ATI 1950XT, and the PS3 had a modified 7800 GTX. How well did those cards hold up over the past decade? Consoles != PC.