Increasing SLI GPU Usage

[MrSniperTrifle]

Hi there community!
I was wowndering of there is anyone out there who know how to increase the GPU usage to gain extra FPS, WITHOUT increasing graphics quality. My two GTX 670's seem to be a bit lazy in some games, utilizing only 50% of their cores....
There not a CPU bottleneck, as I have an overclocked i7 3770k. I have no idea what the problem is... I doubt that it is a hardware issue (full pc specs below). Is this driver related and can only be fixed by waiting, or have I accidentally enabled/disabled a setting which has drastically reduced performance...
Thanks in advance!

 

[burdenbound]

What kind of performance are you getting? What are your settings at and what are your fps? But to answer your original question, no there is no way to force your GPU to work harder just because.

 

[VincentP]

Disable vsync.
What frame rate are you actually getting?

 

[MrSniperTrifle]

In some maps in BF4 (Seige of Shanghai mainly), I would average around 50-60 FPS when in fights (60-80 out of fights), but both GPU's are around 40-50% usage. Sometimes there is an FPS drop to lower than 5 FPS when I scope in my gun (zoom scope) which REALLY irritates me. Yes, I know I shouldn't really be complaining about 50-60 fps, but paying lots of money for my computer, I expect higher FPS especially as I am running a 144Hz monitor.
Does BF4 Require more than 2GB of VRAM on ultra 1080p? If so does this impact greatly on my FPS?
Thanks

 

[VincentP]

Look at the following benchmark:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-4-graphics-card-performance,3634-8.html

The GTX 690 had average 92FPS.
The GTX 690 is essentially two GTX 680 GPUs in SLI on a single card.
This will have performance a little better than your two GTX 670 cards.
They ran this on a Core i5-2550K running at 4.2GHz
Your Core i7 won't be substantially different to this.
I think the results you are getting are as much as you can expect.

The graphics card has various stages before the image makes it to the screen.
I don't know how meaningful it is to look at utilization numbers.

On the VRAM question, many people say that BF4 will benefit from 3GB VRAM at 1920x1080 resolution on highest settings.
I believe this comes as a recommendation from DICE, but haven't read the actual recommendation or seen any benchmarks to back it up.

The drop in FPS when zooming sounds more like something not well optimised in the game. This may end up being resolved by a game update or you could search for any possible tweaks.

 

[burdenbound]

I will say that when I first installed BF4 I was only getting 40-60% GPU usage until I re-installed my OS for unrelated reasons. After that re-install my GPU usage shot up to 98% and much better frame rates, although before when the performance was slow I was getting like 20-30 fps not 50-60 like you.

Might want to re-install the game.

 

[MrSniperTrifle]

I will say that when I first installed BF4 I was only getting 40-60% GPU usage until I re-installed my OS for unrelated reasons. After that re-install my GPU usage shot up to 98% and much better frame rates, although before when the performance was slow I was getting like 20-30 fps not 50-60 like you.

Might want to re-install the game.

Ok,
I'll do that now...
Thank god I have fast internet! 😛
Thanks for the reply!

 

[MrSniperTrifle]

Look at the following benchmark:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-4-graphics-card-performance,3634-8.html

The GTX 690 had average 92FPS.
The GTX 690 is essentially two GTX 680 GPUs in SLI on a single card.
This will have performance a little better than your two GTX 670 cards.
They ran this on a Core i5-2550K running at 4.2GHz
Your Core i7 won't be substantially different to this.
I think the results you are getting are as much as you can expect.

The graphics card has various stages before the image makes it to the screen.
I don't know how meaningful it is to look at utilization numbers.

On the VRAM question, many people say that BF4 will benefit from 3GB VRAM at 1920x1080 resolution on highest settings.
I believe this comes as a recommendation from DICE, but haven't read the actual recommendation or seen any benchmarks to back it up.

The drop in FPS when zooming sounds more like something not well optimised in the game. This may end up being resolved by a game update or you could search for any possible tweaks.

Thanks for the reply,
One GTX 670 is getting an average of 52 FPS in beta... I'm currently experiencing framerates similar to that with TWO of them :/

 

[klepp0906]

Just because you use a 3770k doesn't mean your not cpu bottlenecked. I have a 4790k @ 5.1 and I'm severely cpu bottlenecked with my 4 Titans at 4680x2560. Unfortunately all you can do apart from overclocking and/or changing resolution/fidelity is upgrade your hardware.

sounds like it's time to pair a Devils canyn with your sli setup. That should allow your cards more room to breathe.

 

[MrSniperTrifle]

Just because you use a 3770k doesn't mean your not cpu bottlenecked. I have a 4790k @ 5.1 and I'm severely cpu bottlenecked with my 4 Titans at 4680x2560. Unfortunately all you can do apart from overclocking and/or changing resolution/fidelity is upgrade your hardware.

sounds like it's time to pair a Devils canyn with your sli setup. That should allow your cards more room to breathe.

I got fed up with stupid SLI issues, got myself a GTX 980 as soon as it came out, it kicks both GTX 670's in the ass! Runs cooler and quieter, even at 1.5Ghz. I can now enjoy games in 4K thanks to the 4GB Vram.