Major problem with BF3 and 6970 crossfire

[ET900]

I'm pretty sure i've been getting micro stuttering problems with my crossfire setup also. I've noticed BF3 looks very choppy at 40fps which is crazy. The latest driver and cap4 did nothing for me. Seems AMD don't really bother supporting 4 series cards anymore! It should be ironed out eventually though...

 

[Stef1_1]

hey dudes further update:

I disabled ULPS, which is a crossfire power saving function. It basically makes one of your cards go completely idle and not draw power if not in use (i.e. desktop, etc). however there are issues where it tries to drop into idle mode while its being used. I disabled ULPS and I have seen a huge improvement in performance, almost no stuttering at all (still a little, but completely playable, and it may even just be server lag).

How to do it:

Go to registry and disable Ulps:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Cl ass\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

and change "EnableUlps" to 0 under the 0000 and 0001 or 0003 keys.

I tried this before but I will try again, will get back to you if it works.

 

[Stef1_1]

Nope, didn't work. Can you do me a favour gravitybear? Can you put this into the BF3 console Render.PerfoverlayEnable 1 and Render.Perfoverlayvisible 1. Could you then screenshot some results? We can compare.

Edit: top = no microstutter

to bottom = heavy microstutter

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/bf32011110202223527.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/819/bf32011110202224057.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/706/bf32011110202225566.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/bf32011110202235198.jpg/

Post explaining the BF3 performance graph:

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-3-pc/1445046-bf3-performance-graph-pure-goodness.html

 

[gravitybear]

yeah I'll try to get some caps for you tonight when I get home from work so we can compare

but keep in mind though I have 2x 5770s so it won't be directly comparable. you have something crazy like 2 6970s right?

 

[gravitybear]

here you go:

http://gravitybear.imgur.com/all/


just took a bunch at different times. I also took them on the map where I used to experience the most micro stutter. I've been playing a lot last night and tonight and I have almost no micro stutter at all (ever since I disabled ULPS)


edit: from your pics it looks like your processor is having a tough time (is the bottleneck). I see you have an I7. I've read that bf3 screws up when hyperthreading is enabled for some reason. Have you tried disabling hyperthreading in the bios?

 

[Stef1_1]

Well, I thought if the cpu yellow line was under the gpu line the gpu was the problem? Fair enough I have massive spikes but this is ONLY in crossfire, I'll get some screenshots when running with one card later.

Also yes, hyperthreading is disabled.

 

[gravitybear]

yeah it takes extra processing power to run xfire I guess (makes sense)

My cpus while playing bf with a single card run about 80%-85%. When I have xfire enabled, all 4 cores stay at or very close to 100%.

I'm still getting some minor microstuttering so I don't think the problem is solved yet, but like I said mine is very rare and the game is playable.

But dude you have a 6970.. that card can run the game like a boss just by itself. I would just play on one card with 4x anti aliasing instead of 16x until they get that mess fixed.

 

[Stef1_1]

yeah it takes extra processing power to run xfire I guess (makes sense)

My cpus while playing bf with a single card run about 80%-85%. When I have xfire enabled, all 4 cores stay at or very close to 100%.

I'm still getting some minor microstuttering so I don't think the problem is solved yet, but like I said mine is very rare and the game is playable.

But dude you have a 6970.. that card can run the game like a boss just by itself. I would just play on one card with 4x anti aliasing instead of 16x until they get that mess fixed.

Yeah, suppose I will. But still, I'm afraid there is something wrong with my cpu now. Other games seem to work fine unless I haven't noticed stuttering? Like I said I reset to optimized defaults to test if it was my O/C, it wasn't. I wonder if my cpu is starting to die?

 

[gravitybear]

highly doubtful. Almost undoubtedly this is another example of poor driver preparation specifically related to xfire by AMD for a major game release. I wouldn't worry about your processor.

 

[Stef1_1]

Well...I'm seeing spikes constantly every 3 seconds on my cpu with one card enabled. Looks like I may have a screwed up cp afterall. We'll see after a few more patches/driver updates.

 

[gravitybear]

yeah if you're still getting problems with just 1 card enabled (is it the exact same problem?) there may be another issue at play. Have you tried bringing the cpu back to stock settings (without HT)?

Also, what happens when you run it at lower settings? I've read using "ultra" on textures is causing probs even for beast cards.

 

[gnomio]

Question I like to know is if the cards jump to 2d mode when quick switch to desktop? I've read somewhere to set the 2d clocks the same as the 3D clocks as the cards have a mode for both.

 

[gravitybear]

did you try everything on this thread here?

http://www.overclock.net/ati-drivers-overclocking-software/1151112-battlefield-3-crossfire-issues-complete-list.html

I just did all of it and ran a 15 min test, got no micro stutter. Sometimes it shows up after a longer period of playing though, will report back after a longer session.

 

[gravitybear]

Update: just played for 3 hours straight with absolutely no sign of microstutter. I don't know which item fixed it, but I did everything the post at overclock.net said to do and it now works perfectly. GL let me know if it works for you.

 

[Stef1_1]

I think it's a mouse issue, I am seeing slight stutter (started another thread about this) in DX11 games while moving around characters, I think this may be due to my 60hz monitor (need a 120hz) it's like...it seems like it's frame skipping in other games (two tested were Stalker call of pripyat and Metro 2033) when moving around characters.

Now as for the 3d and 2d clocks all I see in MSI afterburner is the 3d clocks, any way I could change my 2d clocks? Editing a cat profile?

I did try most of that Tutorial in that thread but not the tweak section will try now.

You know the strange thing is, it's perfectly smooth when not moving the mouse even when there is alot going on, but as soon as I move the mouse. Everything goes insane, one other thing if I disable Vsync in game I could have over 100fps with everything on ultra but soon as it reaches 90fps it looks like it's running at about 30fps, is this because of my 60hz monitor?

Thanks guys.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I think it's a mouse issue, I am seeing slight stutter (started another thread about this) in DX11 games while moving around characters, I think this may be due to my 60hz monitor (need a 120hz) it's like...it seems like it's frame skipping in other games (two tested were Stalker call of pripyat and Metro 2033) when moving around characters.

So I can close this thread then?

 

[Stef1_1]

So I can close this thread then?

Sorry man, yeah sure. I'll start another if the issue continues. (After the patch).

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey