Radeon 7970 released - ARMA 2 Performance Gains

[Nutlink 10]

I've used both a 6970 and a GTX 570, and for ArmA 2 I wish I kept the GTX 570 over the 6970. Less graphical corruption, fewer driver issues, and a more steady FPS (no sudden drops) made the GTX 570 a much better experience. Because of this I'm jumping on the first GTX 680 I can get that doesn't use a reference cooler, then I'll end up putting the 6970 in my second rig (and the 5870 will probably end up on eBay).

[denco 16]

Honestly can't say Im too happy with this card as far as Arma is concerned. I deleted Cfg; reduced Atoc to 0 as well as the PPAA's etc... and vegetation is still shimmers like crazy in Chernarus. Not fun in the middle of an MP battle to have everything around you distracting you to no end. I even lowered everything to default and disabled AA in both game and CCC - still problems.

*sigh* I'll try and stay patient for a while with this one but honestly my old 460 SLI allowed me to jack every setting up to max without a hitch...starting to get that sinking feeling...

Set A.I Catalyst to High Quality and you will have no vegetation shimmer.

[froggyluv 2136]

Yup,was able to get rid of that shimmer thanks :)

Overall after much tweaking etc.., I'd be willing to say the 7970 IS a strong card if your willing to put up with quite a bit of driver hassle and dicey CCC implementation.

[grillob3 11]

Question: i have 2 7970 and i still have time to RMA them and get 2 680 gtx! Should i do it?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/03/22/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-2gb-review/8 here says the 7970 is better than 680gtx on arma 2 but that arma is not 1.6! so i dont trust that review enough!

[bangtail 0]

Yep, as I've said many times, the numbers don't necessarily add up to what you are seeing on screen.

I can only speak from my own experience (although Froggyluv seems to have had a similar experience), but I was thouroughly unimpressed with 7970 CF in ArmA 2 (and elsewhere).

I've got 2 680s on the way and I'll be sure to pass on my experiences when they arrive.

I would have preferred a 4GB model (but new tech is new tech after all), but with TXAA, the memory usage should be ok (fingers crossed).

[grillob3 11]

Bangtail,

I was having on my arma 2 test 100 fps on a 5970+5870 trifire...and with one 7970 i got 75fsp. Two i got 101fps! so my crossfire is working but does not double the performance. And if the 680 sli is just 10% better is already good for me to trade! So i will be waiting for you Bangtail! Let me know please!

Did you sell your 7970s?

[froggyluv 2136]

Bangtail,

I was having on my arma 2 test 100 fps on a 5970+5870 trifire...and with one 7970 i got 75fsp. Two i got 101fps! so my crossfire is working but does not double the performance. And if the 680 sli is just 10% better is already good for me to trade! So i will be waiting for you Bangtail! Let me know please!

Did you sell your 7970s?

Would you mind posting the settings you used and Im assuming you mean the OA Bench? On default Arma settings I had 100 fps with a single 7970- that is why I ask. Also you can't expect to double your FPS in Arma with dual GC's alone :p

[Muahaha 10]

anyone did the benchmark on 7950 cards ?

[bangtail 0]

Bangtail,

I was having on my arma 2 test 100 fps on a 5970+5870 trifire...and with one 7970 i got 75fsp. Two i got 101fps! so my crossfire is working but does not double the performance. And if the 680 sli is just 10% better is already good for me to trade! So i will be waiting for you Bangtail! Let me know please!

Did you sell your 7970s?

I still have one but it's in the box and will probably stay there for the forseeable future.

I'm hoping to get the 680s by Friday. If you are planning on ordering EVGA, I'd think twice - the queues for all other brands (at my supplier at least) were between 8 and 20 except for EVGA which was over 100. Everyone wants 'step up' (as did I) but I'm not waiting 3 weeks for cards.

Yup,was able to get rid of that shimmer thanks :)

Overall after much tweaking etc.., I'd be willing to say the 7970 IS a strong card if your willing to put up with quite a bit of driver hassle and dicey CCC implementation.

I'll agree with this, if you are willing to mess about endlessly, you can get fairly good results.

However, I'd rather not mess about endlessly when I can buy Nvidia and not suffer these annoyances (especially where multi GPU is concerned and not just in ArmA 2).

Edited March 27, 2012 by BangTail

[grillob3 11]

froggyluv ,

This is how i bench: The 101 fps i got was in a mission that i use to see my fps in game when changing the settings or hardware.

But using benchs b1, b2 and e8 on arma 2 oa beta 90242:

Settings:

View d 810

Texture detail Very high

Video memory Default

Af Very high

AA low

Terrain detail Very high

Object detail Very high

Shadow detail Very high

Hdr quality Very High

PP very low

3d resolution 1920x1080 (100%) same as my resolution.

One 7970 b1 82fps b2 26fps e8 88fps msi kombustor 2556 two 7970 b1 102fps b2 27 e8 132 msi kombustor 4488

I dont like how arma 2 plays under 60 fps cap by vsync on with the ati cards...no metter how low the settings are. My 8800 ultra had smooth game play no micro stuttering and no jerking screen...so that is way i wanna get the evga 680 gtx hydro that is comming in 2 weeks. i only use one monitor so i dont care to much about to much memory! my 7970 only use 1800 mb of memory on msi afterburn when playing arma or bf3.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Grillob3

[bangtail 0]

I dont like how arma 2 plays under 60 fps cap by vsync on with the ati cards...no metter how low the settings are. My 8800 ultra had smooth game play no micro stuttering and no jerking screen...so that is way i wanna get the evga 680 gtx hydro that is comming in 2 weeks. i only use one monitor so i dont care to much about to much memory! my 7970 only use 1800 mb of memory on msi afterburn when playing arma or bf3.

I had the same experience with 7970 CF - Vsync on, Afterburner showing 60FPS but what was displayed was not acceptable. The stuttering was horrendous. I tried so many different combinations of settings and nothing would get rid of it :(

[denco 16]

One 7970 b1 82fps b2 26fps e8 88fps msi kombustor 2556 two 7970 b1 102fps b2 27 e8 132 msi kombustor 4488

Ok can you please tell me your system specs because with the same settings except with AA Normal, HDR Normal and VD 3500 I get with one 7970 b1 51 b2 21 e8 56

What drivers are you using.

[froggyluv 2136]

@Grillob3: Ah ok, looks like your using more demanding settings then me for your benches -probably why your results were lower with the 1 card. I generally just hit the Default video settings in Arma (for consistency) and lower all ATI settings to either Application controlled or Performance - to maximize FPS rather then textures.

680gtx just showed up so hopefully I'll set her up tonite then run some benchies over next couple of days. You guys getting the SLI 680's -please post differing results of single card/SLI results so I'll know whether to pony up on another or stay my hand until next or 'real' Kepler shows up ;)

[denco 16]

Tell us of your results and since you have both cards tell us the diffrence in gameplay and benchmarks.

[bangtail 0]

@Grillob3: Ah ok, looks like your using more demanding settings then me for your benches -probably why your results were lower with the 1 card. I generally just hit the Default video settings in Arma (for consistency) and lower all ATI settings to either Application controlled or Performance - to maximize FPS rather then textures.

680gtx just showed up so hopefully I'll set her up tonite then run some benchies over next couple of days. You guys getting the SLI 680's -please post differing results of single card/SLI results so I'll know whether to pony up on another or stay my hand until next or 'real' Kepler shows up ;)

Nice :D

Haven't had a shipping notice yet but should be before week's end if my rep is to be believed (and he usually is).

[grillob3 11]

i7 3930k 4.8

16gb ram 2133

win 7 ssd1

arma 2 oa ssd2

7970 cf 1050/1425

I think i get better fps bc i have low view d and my cpu is oc to 4.8. And AA normal is way more demanding than low! But for me to get good, smooth clean game play i have to play over 60 fps.

i dont get any difference in performance from HDR normal to very high besides looking better at night.

froggyluv let me know as soon as possible please what are your benches so i can make my mind...i have until next week to RMA the cards and get the 680s!

Thanks! :)

Edited March 27, 2012 by Grillob3

[froggyluv 2136]

Will do Grillob3.

Hehe Bang, I knew I was going to be out all day with clients and didn't want to risk them (UPS) taking it back to storage so when I spotted the truck at the local Mall I was standing in front of (with said client) -I flagged the driver over. He knows me well thru all my NewEgg patronage and brought the sexy motherf..I mean package over at which point he said "Another computer upgrade eh?" in which my confused but impressed client asked "Ah, you design websites also?!"

"Erhm, not quite.."

:)

[bangtail 0]

Will do Grillob3.

Hehe Bang, I knew I was going to be out all day with clients and didn't want to risk them (UPS) taking it back to storage so when I spotted the truck at the local Mall I was standing in front of (with said client) -I flagged the driver over. He knows me well thru all my NewEgg patronage and brought the sexy motherf..I mean package over at which point he said "Another computer upgrade eh?" in which my confused but impressed client asked "Ah, you design websites also?!"

"Erhm, not quite.."

:)

ROFL

Just got my shipping notice about 2 mins ago so they will be here in the A.M tomorrow :D

Edited March 28, 2012 by BangTail

[grillob3 11]

Will do Grillob3.

Hehe Bang, I knew I was going to be out all day with clients and didn't want to risk them (UPS) taking it back to storage so when I spotted the truck at the local Mall I was standing in front of (with said client) -I flagged the driver over. He knows me well thru all my NewEgg patronage and brought the sexy motherf..I mean package over at which point he said "Another computer upgrade eh?" in which my confused but impressed client asked "Ah, you design websites also?!"

"Erhm, not quite.."

:)

I had some UPS and Fedex truck pursuit before! always bc newegg!lol So now i am waiting for you and Bangtail so i can RMA my 7970s!

[cjph 0]

Hm, would be very interested in your 680 vs 7970 Arma experiences (crossfire and single GPU), especially with Arma3 on the horizon. Three screens at 5040x1050 is a tough system test though my 6950 flashed to 6970 does fight its corner admirably. Arma and BF3 seem to be titles better served by Nvidia this time, so the impact of 2Gb VRAM is my remaining unanswered query, though it does not seem to limit the 680 in a number of widescreen reviews I have seem. Am no fan of either camp, simply whatever performs the best for me at the time.

cj

[sickboy 13]

i7 3820 CPU (Awaiting IvyBridge-E 8-core instead of current expensive 6-core) + Asus Sabertooth on the way. Cooling her with Noctua NH14-SE2011.

32 GB RAM and new GPU scheduled for next month, i'm considering GTX 680, or 7950 OC.

Like others, looking forward to GTX 680 test results ;-) Though for me future games (DX11, e.g A3) performance is more important than old games (DX9, e.g A2/OA) performance.

I find GTX 680 interesting, except for the fact that 685 is scheduled for August (iirc) :).

Edited March 28, 2012 by Sickboy

[cjph 0]

Hi Sickboy, is the 32GB kit a RAM kit, and if so do you use it for a RAMDisk ? Am interested as I have dabbled around RAMDisks and caches, and with RAM cheap at the moment it is tempting.

cj

[sickboy 13]

Hi Sickboy, is the 32GB kit a RAM kit, and if so do you use it for a RAMDisk ? Am interested as I have dabbled around RAMDisks and caches, and with RAM cheap at the moment it is tempting.

cj

Hi, yes RAM, primary use will be Virtual Machines, and some memory intensive developer tools. It's indeed dirty cheap! Around 171 EUR for ~DDR3-1600 32GB (8x4), or 240 EUR for 32 GB (4x8).

Doing some RAMdisk tests is tempting but not too important in my case I think (im using a Samsung 830 256GB SATA3 SSD, and OCZ Vertex 2 128GB SATA2 SSD, and conventional harddisks for mass storage).

Still I suppose I could spare some moments testing OA on RAMdisk, were it not that im running Win8 Consumer Preview currently and can't play arma properly unless limiting the RAM to 4 GB :P

Edited March 28, 2012 by Sickboy

[bangtail 0]

i7 3820 CPU (Awaiting IvyBridge-E 8-core instead of current expensive 6-core) + Asus Sabertooth on the way. Cooling her with Noctua NH14-SE2011.

32 GB RAM and new GPU scheduled for next month, i'm considering GTX 680, or 7950 OC.

Like others, looking forward to GTX 680 test results ;-) Though for me future games (DX11, e.g A3) performance is more important than old games (DX9, e.g A2/OA) performance.

I find GTX 680 interesting, except for the fact that 685 is scheduled for August (iirc) :).

Ivy Bridge-E is ages away bud, 2013 at the earliest.

As it is an 'E' designation, it won't be any cheaper then SB-E.

We will probably get 8 (maybe 10 core) SB-E this year.

http://www.techspot.com/news/47849-ivy-bridge-e-delayed-until-second-half-of-2013.html

---------- Post added at 09:48 ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 ----------

I had some UPS and Fedex truck pursuit before! always bc newegg!lol So now i am waiting for you and Bangtail so i can RMA my 7970s!

I probably won't get round to doing any testing today but I will be on it tomorrow :D

Edited March 28, 2012 by BangTail

[sickboy 13]

Ivy Bridge-E is ages away bud, 2013 at the earliest.

As it is an 'E' designation, it won't be any cheaper then SB-E.

We will probably get 8 (maybe 10 core) SB-E this year.

http://www.techspot.com/news/47849-ivy-bridge-e-delayed-until-second-half-of-2013.html

I wasn't aware of the delay to second half, but I was expecting Q4 2012 or Q1 2013 already.

It's too bad that puts it so close to Haswell but otherwise changes little for me. Although I might be inclined to take a 6 or 8 core SB-E (if 8 really comes to SB).

As to the price probably being similar to current SB-E, I agree, however my point was that there would probably again be an entry CPU like the 3820 for similar price, but then with 6 or 8 core :)

So I rather do that jump every 1-3 years, than shelling out 500+ EUR for a CPU.

I did the same 3 years ago, I went for the i7-920, also the 'entry', overclocked to 3.4ghz. After a year I added a custom cooler and I was able to run it another 2 years on 4ghz.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Sickboy