ATI HD3870 (and CrossFire) UT3-performance

Skinner · Nov 30, 2007, 08:55 AM

I'm testing two HD3870's in CF in this game and notice a lot of stuttering esp. at levelstart, frameratedrops and lockups. This is in single- and CFmode.
CF is not faster in certain places of a map (Deck for example).
Sometimes the game just fly for a few seconds and then the strange drops are coming in.

This is with Vista 64 cat. 7.11 aka hotfix.
1600x1200x16 AF v-sync, max IQ ingame, smoothed framerate (62fps cap) and openAL.

More people having these issue? Just a matter of raw drivers? Or raw gamecoding? I can imagine the game need patching as I read various problems on diffrent setups.
It won't turn out UT3 needs more then 512mb videomemory is it?

Is ATI aware of this, are fixes planned (catalyst maker?)

Judas · Nov 30, 2007, 01:45 PM

actually the only issue i have with UT3 is the bug effecting everyone (seems to be related to custom characters... disabling this allows the game to properly load maps)

and FSAA.... can't for the life of me get it working.... while some others claim and have posted screenshots where the game appears to be fully FSAAed..... perhaps i'm having issues due to running a high resolution..

but with everything maxed and no FSAA.... i get 60FPS solid in crossfire mode @ 2560x1600.... with 32 players on a single map....... no stuttering..

the only initial load of the map and start it stutters badly because the game dynamically loads and starts caching and doing massive amount of texture/mipmaping and several other things to give you faster load times....

i don't think there is a precaching option available...

I'm not using the ATI Hotfix drivers, only the official 7.11's.....

take a gander at the gaming discussion forum about UT3... (orginal poster is Stop IT)

when i get some free time to sit down and play a little more.... i'll likely post some more screenshots.

Skinner · Nov 30, 2007, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

actually the only issue i have with UT3 is the bug effecting everyone (seems to be related to custom characters... disabling this allows the game to properly load maps)

and FSAA.... can't for the life of me get it working.... while some others claim and have posted screenshots where the game appears to be fully FSAAed..... perhaps i'm having issues due to running a high resolution..

AA won't work on ATI cards yet in dx9 due the restriction of deferred shading not allowing AA in DX9 afaik. nVidia G8x/9xGPU's can force it via the driver though.

Quote:

but with everything maxed and no FSAA.... i get 60FPS solid in crossfire mode @ 2560x1600.... with 32 players on a single map....... no stuttering..

Really?

Ouch, now I don't know where to search

Would it be my i975 mobo? with just 2x8PCI E lanes?

Quote:

the only initial load of the map and start it stutters badly because the game dynamically loads and starts caching and doing massive amount of texture/mipmaping and several other things to give you faster load times....

i don't think there is a precaching option available...

I thinking in the way of precach too..

Quote:

I'm not using the ATI Hotfix drivers, only the official 7.11's.....

take a gander at the gaming discussion forum about UT3... (orginal poster is Stop IT)

when i get some free time to sit down and play a little more.... i'll likely post some more screenshots.

Thanks for the respons

I'll check the UT3 thread.

Judas · Nov 30, 2007, 02:37 PM

Yeah i know there are restrictions.. and with the upcoming UT3.. patch.... whenever an official one does get around to being released..... hopefully they add a feature similare to that of FSAA for GoW... only without the stupid massive performance hits...

i didn't have very good results with the intel 975 chipsets ... course my msi board i was using probably wasn't a good example...

but i think it could be a source of the issue considering the 8x pci-ex 1.0 is used where the hd3870's make use of 16x pci-ex 2.0 which is considerably much more bandwidth and power being available to the video cards... (is it a huge effect on the performance... i don't know for sure)

all i know is that your running 1.9 million pixels at your resolution where as i'm running over 4 million and obtaining much higher performance apparently..

course your running a dou core.. and i'm running a quad core..

but that still doesn't make sense as even with the E6400 on the 975 chipset... and x1900xt crossfired, i was still getting fairly solid 45ish fps (quite often 60, but durring the more fire fights....) .... @ 2560x1600.....

try doing a search on google for "enable UT3 Precaching"

and no problem with the responce ....

Skinner · Nov 30, 2007, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

Yeah i know there are restrictions.. and with the upcoming UT3.. patch.... whenever an official one does get around to being released..... hopefully they add a feature similare to that of FSAA for GoW... only without the stupid massive performance hits...

i didn't have very good results with the intel 975 chipsets ... course my msi board i was using probably wasn't a good example...

but i think it could be a source of the issue considering the 8x pci-ex 1.0 is used where the hd3870's make use of 16x pci-ex 2.0 which is considerably much more bandwidth and power being available to the video cards... (is it a huge effect on the performance... i don't know for sure)

all i know is that your running 1.9 million pixels at your resolution where as i'm running over 4 million and obtaining much higher performance apparently..

course your running a dou core.. and i'm running a quad core..

but that still doesn't make sense as even with the E6400 on the 975 chipset... and x1900xt crossfired, i was still getting fairly solid 45ish fps (quite often 60, but durring the more fire fights....) .... @ 2560x1600.....

try doing a search on google for "enable UT3 Precaching"

and no problem with the responce ....

As for the bandwith; COD4 (with the low water detail 'trick'), Stalker (ingame AF, two times faster on an ATI GPU), and Oblivion are running awesome here and scaling 80%+ on CF..but games are different as far as the need for bandwith, so I don't know if that's comparable..

I reïnstalled UT3, but no change, and don't know what's wrong

Upping the res. to 1920x1440 and 21xx and still getting the same framerates, very strange..

It's not the CPU, I have an 8800Ultra here too, and this card don't have the issue. So it has to be something on the videofront. I'm this close to order an X38 based mobo, but I have 100GB of games and don't feel like to reinstall Vista yet..

Judas · Dec 1, 2007, 02:30 AM

lol... i know the feeling..

no it could be something really "odd".... i wouldn't go outa and purchase something specifically because UT3 isn't performing..

it's a mixed bag for UT3 atm...... i'm not going to make any decissions based on it as it's pretty damn bugged...

and until epic releases a 64bit native version of it.. i'm not going to dwell on it at all.

Skinner · Dec 1, 2007, 06:12 AM

Well I think a gonna wait for some other drivers or patches first.

Skinner · Dec 20, 2007, 05:52 PM

Just tested cat. 7.12 and nothing has been changed in the situation. It runs like a dog. In CTF Coret for example. When you spawn near the window, one card gives 60+ fps, CF gives 48 fps... with dropps to 32 in this map. Well, that was my HD3870 adventure, I don't gonna wait an other month.

Judas · Dec 21, 2007, 01:08 AM

i haven't tried the 7.12's yet..... but i load up coret and things are flying for me..

i'm confused why there is a significant difference..

you got a different motherboard and the creative X-FI are the only things that would possibly cause any differences.

Skinner · Dec 21, 2007, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

i haven't tried the 7.12's yet..... but i load up coret and things are flying for me..

i'm confused why there is a significant difference..

you got a different motherboard and the creative X-FI are the only things that would possibly cause any differences.

It's so strange, other EU3 games are running awesome such as R6Vegas, Bioshock.. I would like to try a X38 mobo, but I need my two pci legacy slots for the Xfi and the SCSI controler and from the looks of it, it won't fit with dual slot PCIE cards.

Skinner · Dec 21, 2007, 06:00 AM

Well, swicthing res. appears to be improve the perf. , but only after I change the res ingame while the map is running, so the textures and gamecontent will be realoaded ingame.

COD4 is now faster with animated water (=medium instead of low) too.

Judas · Dec 21, 2007, 11:41 AM

could be a case of being cpu bound.... with the 2 cards in crossfire demanding a little more of the cpu to push the frame rate.. perhaps it's actually hindering ... but i never had any issues with the e6400 i had ...

course i would have suggest dumping the x-fi card and using onboard realtek alc889a series audio if you were to get a x38 board.....

Nov 30, 2007, 08:55 AM	#1
Skinner DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 62 Rep Power: 0	ATI HD3870 (and CrossFire) UT3-performance I'm testing two HD3870's in CF in this game and notice a lot of stuttering esp. at levelstart, frameratedrops and lockups. This is in single- and CFmode. CF is not faster in certain places of a map (Deck for example). Sometimes the game just fly for a few seconds and then the strange drops are coming in. This is with Vista 64 cat. 7.11 aka hotfix. 1600x1200x16 AF v-sync, max IQ ingame, smoothed framerate (62fps cap) and openAL. More people having these issue? Just a matter of raw drivers? Or raw gamecoding? I can imagine the game need patching as I read various problems on diffrent setups. It won't turn out UT3 needs more then 512mb videomemory is it? Is ATI aware of this, are fixes planned (catalyst maker?) __________________ CMStackercase * Intel Core2Duo E6600@3gHz * Asus P5W DH * Club 3d HD3870 Crossfired * 4x1 Gig OCZ 6400C4 * Quantum Atlas 15KII SCSI U160 174 G * EizoT966 * X-Fi Fatal1ty * Logitech Z5500 and some other stuff Last edited by Skinner; Nov 30, 2007 at 09:09 AM.

Dec 1, 2007, 06:12 AM	#7
Skinner DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 62 Rep Power: 0	Well I think a gonna wait for some other drivers or patches first. __________________ CMStackercase * Intel Core2Duo E6600@3gHz * Asus P5W DH * Club 3d HD3870 Crossfired * 4x1 Gig OCZ 6400C4 * Quantum Atlas 15KII SCSI U160 174 G * EizoT966 * X-Fi Fatal1ty * Logitech Z5500 and some other stuff

Dec 20, 2007, 05:52 PM	#8
Skinner DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 62 Rep Power: 0	Just tested cat. 7.12 and nothing has been changed in the situation. It runs like a dog. In CTF Coret for example. When you spawn near the window, one card gives 60+ fps, CF gives 48 fps... with dropps to 32 in this map. Well, that was my HD3870 adventure, I don't gonna wait an other month. __________________ CMStackercase * Intel Core2Duo E6600@3gHz * Asus P5W DH * Club 3d HD3870 Crossfired * 4x1 Gig OCZ 6400C4 * Quantum Atlas 15KII SCSI U160 174 G * EizoT966 * X-Fi Fatal1ty * Logitech Z5500 and some other stuff

Dec 21, 2007, 06:00 AM	#11
Skinner DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 62 Rep Power: 0	Well, swicthing res. appears to be improve the perf. , but only after I change the res ingame while the map is running, so the textures and gamecontent will be realoaded ingame. COD4 is now faster with animated water (=medium instead of low) too. __________________ CMStackercase * Intel Core2Duo E6600@3gHz * Asus P5W DH * Club 3d HD3870 Crossfired * 4x1 Gig OCZ 6400C4 * Quantum Atlas 15KII SCSI U160 174 G * EizoT966 * X-Fi Fatal1ty * Logitech Z5500 and some other stuff Last edited by Skinner; Dec 21, 2007 at 06:32 AM.