FarCry 3 poor performance

[utahjazzfan43]

I recently took advantage of the FarCry 3 sale on steam and picked it up. Only thing is Im getting really bad performance. Like 17-24 fps on all low settings! Even changing the resolution to the lowest doesn't make much of a difference at all. I also have AA and everything off.. DX9 and DX11 doesn't make much of a difference either.

I can run many other games (Crysis, Just Cause 2, Batman Arkham City) on high or near max in some cases and still get smooth game play. I know my PC is getting up there in age but I don't see why I'm getting such a discrepancy in performance. Is my CPU (or something else) really that much of a bottleneck?

My MB is the EVGA nforce 780i SLI

http://www.techspot.com/review/615-far-cry-3-performance/page2.html

According to these benchmarks they are getting substantially better performance using the same card on High+ settings!

 

[rolandzhang3]

The E8500 is definitely holding the 560 Ti back, but even so it should handle it just fine at medium settings :S

I've seen many complaints about the recent drivers and the 500 series cards so it'd be a good idea to install 314.22 at the very least

 

[Taruntj5]

I have a old gtx 570 and Amd Phenom || X4 3.2Ghz but I can run the game at high setting around average 50fps and on ultra at 45ish. And i'm running latest driver. I would say run a test with msi afterburner or anything else to find out if your cpu is really bottlenecking 560.

 

[rolandzhang3]

That would be the case here but even so it should have no problem with the game at medium settings

I had an E8500 paired with a GTX 550 Ti and it would run FC3 at 40FPS on medium settings so it'd most likely be a driver issue

 

[utahjazzfan43]

Rolling back to those drivers you suggested did help. I am probably getting 5-10 more frames and overall its alot smoother, atleast it's playable now. Maybe I will try some other drivers as well.

 

[Mousemonkey]

The E8500 is definitely holding the 560 Ti back, but even so it should handle it just fine at medium settings :S

What Nvidia drivers are you on? I've seen many complaints about the recent drivers and the 500 series cards so it'd be a good idea to install 314.22 at the very least

Really? I've had 560Ti's in SLi on an E8400 and was still getting about 80+ fps on Crysis 2 so why would a single 560Ti be held back by what is essentially the same CPU?

 

[rolandzhang3]

At stock levels it should, you probably had yours with a comfortable overclock?

 

[Mousemonkey]

No, I run mine at the default 3ghz.

 

[rolandzhang3]

That's interesting to see

Makes me question the accuracy of these tests

http://www.techspot.com/review/379-crysis-2-performance/page8.html

 

[Mousemonkey]

I was getting higher numbers than that.

 

[Mousemonkey]

My bad! They were in the 2600K rig not the E8400 rig.

 

[rolandzhang3]

Haha glad we got that cleared up :lol:

 

[Mousemonkey]

When my age you reach remember which cards are in which machine you will not.

 

[rolandzhang3]

o.o

Still, a 560 Ti pulling low frames like that just isn't normal :S and you'll definitely be seeing low GPU usage in MSI Afterburner

 

[utahjazzfan43]

I finaly got some time to get MSI Afterburner and do a test. My GPU usage was 100% during loading but once it loaded and I was running around the map it was about 39-50% with spikes up to 60% for a second here and there. I will try a couple more drivers and see what happens. Current drivers are 327.23.

 

[rolandzhang3]

Lower GPU usage during the the gameplay would indicate that the C2D is holding your GPU's full potential back, but even so you should be fine for medium settings :S

 

[utahjazzfan43]

Wow so for 2 years old the 560ti is still a very nice card? Considering I'm only getting 50% out of it and it runs games (with farcry 3 being an exception) this well. I think I paid $250 for it back in march 2012. Talk about bang for your buck.

I was thinking of doing a new build withing the next month or two anyway before I got FarCry but now I'm thinking maybe I should just upgrade my CPU? Would it be worth it to just upgrade to this. Do you think I would get near full usage from my 560ti with this CPU?

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Q9650-Processor-Socket-LGA775/dp/B001D86S3G/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_0_0

 

[rolandzhang3]

Haha my goodness that's quite expensive, it's the best CPU for the socket but it won't last very long for upcoming games, that's for sure

The 560 Ti's performance is above that of the 7790 and just below the 650 Ti Boost as far as I recall, it was considered amongst the best bang for buck cards of its generation

To be frank you'd be better off with an FX-6300 and a decent 970 or 990FX board or an i5 4430 (and up) with a compatible mobo, though you'd need to reinstall windows with a new CPU and mobo

 

[utahjazzfan43]

Yeah I wouldn't spend $379 on that CPU lol don't worry, considering my E8500 was $189 back in 2008. If it lasted me 4-6 months I would be happy with that, as long as it bumps up my 560ti. I could definitely drop the big bucks on a new build then 😛

 

[rolandzhang3]

Haha with a new build the 560 Ti should last you pretty well at medium-high settings (just a guesstimate, the 1GB of VRAM will hold it back a bit)

Depends on the game but FC3 will definitely run better with a quad core, and in terms of single threaded performance they should be similar

That being said it's still very odd that FC3 isn't running well at low settings, my stock E8500 and 550 had no problems pulling 40FPS on medium

 

[utahjazzfan43]

It is odd. Any tests I could run to maybe find out why?

 

[rolandzhang3]

If it's running fine for other games then it's probably an issue with either the game itself or drivers (I played it on a pretty old driver, can't remember which one)