GTX 560 SC awful BF3 performance

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specialDFX

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May 3, 2011
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Recently upgraded from an 8800GTX and it's barely an improvement. BF3 is tearing me a new one. All AA off, mixture of medium/low settings and I average 30fps but often dip, sometimes as low as 16fps. Frustrating.

1680x1050
EVGA GTX 560 SC
Phenom II X2 3.2Ghz
4GB DDR2 800
520W no-name PSU

The only thing I can think of is that the PSU is inadequate, but I'm 70W over the 450W minimum...thoughts?
 
Solution
dalauder
Have you gone into your bios and tried the core unlocker? What speed is your CPU overclocked to? You're in the perfect situation for learning how to overclock now as it can actually provide a tangible benefit for you. There's around a 50% chance you can get a quad core running at 3.6GHz if you unlock and OC--so look into it.

Also, if you upgrade to a Phenom II x4--go for the Phenom II 960 Zosma (Black Edition) because it's pretty much the same price as the 955BE with similar stock...
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geekapproved

geekapproved

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A cheapo 520w psu probably only put's out 350/400w.

What's the make and model?

Have you ever seen those cheap computer speakers that say "500W High power" and they really are 5-10W. Yeah, same goes with cheap, non certified power supplies. Non certified psu's use a different formula to rate wattage, a cheating formula if you will.

If your hurry and disconnect it, you might save your system from a catastrophic meltdown. Keep fire extinguisher handy
 
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geekapproved

geekapproved

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I agree with getting a X4 955 while they are still available. They are on sale for $105 all the time.

However, I don't think that's your problem. The BF3 article Tom's did showed 2 cores played the game fine. They ran a FX 8 core on 2 cores and it only dropped 7fps.

What we learned from that is BF3 doesn't care if you have 2 hyperthreaded cores or 4 real cores, it's gonna be exactly the same. The core i3 actually had the highest fps. Which is strange because it's 300mhz lower in clock speed and doesn't have turbo boost.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html
 
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specialDFX

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Thanks for the replies.

I'll probably go ahead and order up a legit PSU this evening, probably that Corsair. I have no idea what the make and model of my current one is, the sticker is at the bottom so I'd have to unscrew it and take a look to even find out.

As for the CPU, I bought the dual core thinking it wouldn't be a bottleneck for a decent card, I'd like to get more opinions on that.

Also Djentleman, my name is a reference to Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects...so yeah, imagine that.
 
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kelfox

kelfox

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What is your driver version? The BF3 beta was performing horribly with my GTS 250 sli set up, but once I updated to the 285 driver release, everything smoothed out and I could play at 1920x1080 with medium settings. Though like everyone else has been saying, you should really consider a better PSU, even if its just a simple non-modular Antec like is used in most of the system builder articles of late.
 
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gmcizzle

gmcizzle

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It does matter in 64 player conquest MP, and dual cores get destroyed here.

I would also recommend getting a quad core CPU as an upgrade in general though. A few years ago a quad core was a bit overkill for gaming, but that's changing quickly.
 
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chitzkoy

chitzkoy

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do a clean install on drivers.

do the following:
1. uninstall the current
2. use driver sweeper in safe mode (just google driver sweeper)
3. install the latest drivers (try using default settings first)
 
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mniasfreemag

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HI,
First thing is update to the latest driver (285.62)
second thing, set the graphic details to high and disable anti aliasing.
Also get a new power supply, around 650 W.

 
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dalauder

dalauder

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That's a good enough PSU. It's definitely not what I would've bought since you can find XFX 650W SLI capable PSUs for that price, but it's your money. I'd have spent less since there's no telling that it's actually the PSU holding you back.

How many amps to you get on your +12V rail of your current one?
 
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specialDFX

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I actually have no idea about the +12V rail. The PSU was a hand me down from a friend when the previous one died.

I know the PSU is not for sure the culprit, but since my current one is so sketchy I figured I'd replace it anyway.

And it's not too late to cancel that order, where would I find said 650W for said price?

 
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Guest

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Instead of buying a new cpu as others say, I would try overclocking and or unlocking the extra cores on that phenom ii as that cpu is still a great cpu and has lots of potential. You may also want to try overclocking your ram also. This way you can save the extra bucks and spend it on a decent psu instead. Also which version GTX 560 do you have, they have the regular gtx 560 and the gtx 560 ti.
 
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dalauder

dalauder

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Do you just mean that the multiplayer taxes the CPU? Because the multiplayer CPU usage here indicates that his CPU shouldn't bottleneck at all: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html
Can you provide your reference? Thanks.
 
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dalauder

dalauder

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If you keep an eye on Newegg, you'll see that it's almost certain a good PSU sale is coming up soon: http://promotions.newegg.com/nepro/11-3520/11-1/index.html?cm_sp=homepage2011_LB-_-nepro/11-3520-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fnepro%2f11-3520%2fhomepage_696x288.jpg

I wouldn't buy a PSU until a sale comes up, which will likely be this weekend. If you take the door off of your case, you can see the label on your PSU. It will tell you how many amps are on each rail.

Right now, these are the only two PSUs on Newegg I see that are better buys at your pricerange:

$35 (AR) CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027
$50 (AR) Antec NEO ECO 620C http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031

I got that Antec for $30 after a $30 rebate back in September though. So I'd wait for better deals if I were you. But that does depend on how bad your current PSU is. Look at the Hardware Monitor in your bios and tell us what voltages it reads out for each Voltage. For example, your +12V should be between 11.5V and 12.5V or so. You can also try reading voltages from HWMonitor (Google it), but those are only reliable for some systems.
 
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gmcizzle

gmcizzle

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Can't really find many good benches on retail, but here's a bench from the BETA http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/1151970-my-own-bf3-benchmark-hyperthreading-vs-2.html

All the quad cores perform similarly, but the dual core phenom x2 is being crushed.

Here's a review that was going to show the differences between dual and quad, but they got locked out of BF3 from Origin. Instead, all it shows is that quad cores perform similarly...

http://www.guru3d.com/article/battlefield-3-vga-and-cpu-performance-benchmark-test/3

Also, the recommended requirement for BF3 is a quad-core: http://bf3blog.com/battlefield-3-system-requirements/

And there was a thread I replied to not long ago about someone wondering if 85% CPU usage on his i5-2500k at 4.2ghz was of concern during BF3.
 
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