Decreased performance with new GPU (Radeon 7870)

[Incognito84 10]

Hey guys. I've been having some problems with my new configuration. Here are my specs:

OLD:

i5-2500k Sandybridge

Asrock P67 Pro 3 mainboard

4x2GB (8GB) Gskill 12800 RipJaws DDR3

Nvidia GTX 460 1GB Zotac

CURRENT:

i5-2500k Sandybridge

Asrock P67 Pro 3 mainboard

4x2GB (8GB) Gskill 12800 RipJaws DDR3

Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB

The game actually ran fine with the old rig. When I put the Radeon 7870 in, there was a performance drop. In the beginning, I cranked everything up to maximum including the Post Process Effects that made my old card struggle. The performance was still pretty sluggish so I dropped everything down. It runs alright but there are some stutters and weird slow downs at times.

The problem is that now the graphics settings are at lower values than they were with the old GTX 460 and the game isn't running as well as it used to. I am sure that I have the most current drivers and no conflicts with my systems (other games like Battlefield 3 are running MUCH better).

I was just wondering if anyone had the same problems and what I could do to fix it. Should I reformat my drive? I really don't want to because I'm lazy/busy but I will look into it if it's the only choice I have.

Thanks.

[[frl]myke 14]

Delete the arma2oa.cfg file and start new. ArmA 2 will create this file again and should enter proper settings according to the changed GPU.

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

Hey guys. I've been having some problems with my new configuration. Here are my specs:

The game actually ran fine with the old rig. When I put the Radeon 7870 in, there was a performance drop. In the beginning, I cranked everything up to maximum including the Post Process Effects that made my old card struggle. The performance was still pretty sluggish so I dropped everything down. It runs alright but there are some stutters and weird slow downs at times.

You don't simply crank everything up in ArmA II, no matter your hardware.

Set a High preset, then disable Anti-Aliasing and Vsync - run some benches, and if it sticks, do the same with a Very High preset.

From then on you can fine-tune AA setting to suit.

[kklownboy 43]

Hey guys. I've been having some problems with my new configuration. ...

Thanks.

In your CCC (amd control panel) what are your settings under "Gaming" Are you using the 12.8 driver? There are differences between AMD and Nv in the ingame settings. As for the suggestion of turning Vsync off... if you like the screen tearing in half when you turn fast...

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

As for the suggestion of turning Vsync off... if you like the screen tearing in half when you turn fast...

You need two to tango. :)

As for the suggestion of turning Vsync on... if you like dynamic FPS drops from 60 to 30, back to 60, down to 30 to 20, back up to 60...

If your system can hold a steady 60 FPS under all circumstances at your desired settings, be my guest and use Vsync, otherwise - see above. :)

[GLENNYBOY1 0]

I was just wondering if anyone had the same problems and what I could do to fix it. Should I reformat my drive? I really don't want to because I'm lazy/busy but I will look into it if it's the only choice I have.

Thanks.

I picked up a 7870 last week too and had a few performance niggles,after running 2 old school 6 year old nvidia cards the difference with the 7870 was immense but it had a slightly bogged down feel to game play.

After checking clock speeds in MSI Afterburner it showed the card fluctuating between 1050mhz and 450mhz on the core during gameplay so the the frames were up and down as was the gpu usage which was mainly around 64%,rarely in the 80's/90's,dipping down to 20% regularly too :confused:

I uninstalled the 12.8 drivers and installed just the 12.6 driver (without the CCC and all the other stuff) and bingo! no fluctuating core anymore,once any 3d action is happening it shoots straight up to 1050 mhz and stays there until game over

The GPU usage however still hung around at 60-20% until I increased the 'power limit' slider in Afterburner to +20% and hey presto usage is now in the 80's/90's........performance is night and day compared to how it was,settings are now cranked up and it's fantastic.

I don't know why the power limit was too low on mine but after reading about other 7870's throttling down because of the TDP limit it was worth a shot.

I hope it's as simple for you to get it sorted mate.

All the best

Almost forgot to mention I'm using Afterburner version 2.2.4 btw ;)

Good luck.

[Incognito84 10]

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I was going to follow what Glennyboy said but then I tweaked around with it a bit and got it to a point where there is minimum performance hit with maximum graphical settings. Deleting the config file as [FRL]Myke suggested helped a lot too. After I did that, the random slow downs and major fps drops stopped happening.

It's not as high as I expected it would be (I thought I'd be able to max out everything) but it looks good and runs very smoothly with these settings:

I played a few games on Lingor with Vsync on and it ran smoothly so I'm going to leave it on. Post processing kills my GPU but luckily it runs fine on 'Low' and I hate how it looks on Normal - High anyway.

Cheers.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Incognito84

[[frl]myke 14]

(I thought I'd be able to max out everything)

You might want to call NASA to use one of their Supercomputers to achieve that. Send screenshots when done. ;)

Back to serious, glad you sorted it out and it seems you're pretty close to "all maxed out". Have fun playing. :D

[chrisb 196]

Just wondering why you don’t run 1.62 patch and the latest beta, there are performance improvements ongoing, also you would get the Atoc and FXAA/SMAA settings in-game rather than fiddling about in the configs.

Just a thought.:)

[Incognito84 10]

Just wondering why you don’t run 1.62 patch and the latest beta, there are performance improvements ongoing, also you would get the Atoc and FXAA/SMAA settings in-game rather than fiddling about in the configs.

Just a thought.:)

I installed 1.62 a long while back but I think it must have been a beta patch or something. I installed it again... should be better now!

[GLENNYBOY1 0]

Good to see you have it all sorted now matey.

It's still a good idea to grab Afterburner to monitor your gpu usage/core clock ingame to make sure you're getting the most out of the card's potential at stock speeds.Double check you're getting the performance you paid for.

It's great for monitoring temps and memory usage ingame too,very handy.

Edited September 25, 2012 by GLENNYBOY1

[Incognito84 10]

I'll check it out. My case is a bit cramped so overheating might become a problem in spite of the 4+ fans that I'm running. I'm going to make this card work for the money :P

[totalboffin 10]

Agree with getting Afterburner, its a very useful tool to monitor GPU load and temp. Also you can setup your own fan speed mapping based on card temperature.