Is this Normal? HD7970 low fps on bf3

[ahmed73x]

So guys here is my system specs

i7 950 @ stock 3.07 ghz
12 gb 3 channel RAM
750 GX coolermaster Psu
HD 7970 Sapphire 3gb 1000 mhz (bios) edition.

i am running battlefield 3 on ultra settings with everything maxed out on 1920 x 1080 ,,, fps are usually in 50-55-60, but drop down to lower 40s,sometimes 39....when there are 64 players and there is too much activity going on the screen. I want to know if these fps are normal with this card or should i be getting more? ...looking forward to your input, thanks.

 

[DarkSable]

It's not your graphics card, dude. You've got a massive bottleneck coming from your processor.

There's no way that chip at stock settings is going to be able to compute everything it needs to for 64 player matches. Buy a good CPU cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO and overclock the heck out of it, or save up for an upgrade.

 

[JD88]

Agree with DarkSable. While the single player component of BF3 that always gets benchmarks is pretty light on the CPU, the multiplayer part is very CPU intensive.

That older i7 isn't going to cut it at stock speeds. That's why you're getting those drops. If it were GPU related, the frames would be more consistently lower.

 

[ahmed73x]

so what is the acceptable drop in fps? ...... i can't do over clocking for many reasons

1) i live in pakistan we have temp around 116-120F temperatures and getting a cpu cooler is no option coz i ain't gonna spend no more money on this thing

2) I don't really know how to overclock Cpu...just installed intel extreme tuning utility...uninstalled it after reading a few tutorials containing alien terms.

Guess i might as well put the card up for sale while it has some resale value.

 

[DarkSable]

Do not overclock using software. When overclocking the CPU, always do it through the bios.

That being said, if you don't want to spend money on the thing, just keep your 7970 around and save up for a newer motherboard / ram / cpu set - that way you'll have a modern, beastly computer.

 

[ahmed73x]

Can you give me exact instructions on how to do it through bios ? ....i haven't messed around with it yet everything is stock.

 

[JD88]

Yeah not every game is going to be CPU bottlenecked. You can still stretch the legs of that 7970 in a lot of games with that CPU. By the time you sell it and get something that won't be you'll have ended up spending almost as much.

 

[DarkSable]

First of all, you should NOT overclock without sufficient cooling.

If you're interested in the subject, read the stickies in the forums: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-29.html

 

[ahmed73x]

well its not like there is no cooling at all, the casing i m using is by antec, and has 8 fans

 

[DarkSable]

When I say sufficient cooling, I mean a CPU cooler that's not a stock cooler. You need some way of getting the heat away from the CPU, and the stock cooler will not do this.