BF3 lowers IQ if not enough ram?

[EarthDog]

There was a post by a member here as follows:

The game engine will scale texture quality automatically. I get over 2048mb of vram usage in BF3 with my 7970. This worked well with 6950 1gb CrossFire cards for me. Image quality took somewhat of a hit, but performance was very good with two GPU's. Really though I doubt IQ is noticable at all with a 2gb card vs. a 2gb+ card.

One thing to think about is that BF3 uses more than 2gb of Vram on Ultra settings. The game will automatically lower IQ for the Nvidia card (most likely barely noticable), but performace will be a bit higher.

I'm looking to find some sort of support/contrary evidence for this assertion. Be it a link from somewhere stating this, or at minimum some screenshots showing the differences.

Backstory: With 1GB of ram @ 1920x1080 4xAA, Ultra, HBAO, I noticed some stuttering in games and ram use maxed at 950+ MB. When moving up to a 1.5GB card (GTX580) with the same settings the ram usage increased to around 1.2GB with no stuttering. With a 2GB card (GTX680) with the same settings, the ram usage increased to around 1.8GB. And with a 3GB card (7970) 1.8GB seemed to level off with those same settings.

I have never seen a game dynamically lower IQ (doesnt mean it doesnt exist of course) with available vram, so Im looking for something more concrete than a forum post. Can anyone help out with some information regarding the Frostbite2 engine doing this as well as some screenshots showing the visual differences?

Thanks!

 

[NinkobEi]

I thought you meant the user's IQ level. That would have been much more interesting.

 

[EarthDog]

IQ = Image Quality for those wondering.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I have never seen a game dynamically lower IQ (doesnt mean it doesnt exist of course) with available vram, so Im looking for something more concrete than a forum post.

This. It does use a ton of vram on higher settings though. 1GB cards not enough 1080P+.

If this claim were true then all the people such as myself with my 6850s would conceivably not see the FPS drop through the floor like we do when running the game without enough video memory and/system ram for our settings and resolution.

 

[mafia97]

I thought you meant the user's IQ level. That would have been much more interesting.

I thought the same

 

[TheMailMan78]

I thought you meant the user's IQ level. That would have been much more interesting.

I wish I could thank you without breaking my 1337! lol THANK YOU lolololol

 

[lyndonguitar]

I thought intelligence quotient, lol, i was worried because i was playing too much bf3 LOL

 

[Easy Rhino]

i knew i could feel my IQ falling when playing that game!

 

[EarthDog]

This. It does use a ton of vram on higher settings though. 1GB cards not enough 1080P+.

If this claim were true then all the people such as myself with my 6850s would conceivably not see the FPS drop through the floor like we do when running the game without enough video memory and/system ram for our settings and resolution.

First worthwhile post in this thread.

 

[EarthDog]

So nothing. Kind of figured that.

I have an email out to Nvidia and EA to respond to this inquiry to resolve this. I will report back.

 

[RevengE]

I run BF3 on ultra with my GTX480. Haven't noticed a Difference from my previous 6950s in CF.

 

[radusorin]

The qoute's are referring to 2560 x1440 rez. That is all i know

 

[Hayder_Master]

IQ i expect u point for my regions, IQ=IRAQ , LOL

 

[EarthDog]

IQ i expect u point for my regions, IQ=IRAQ , LOL

Enough with garbage posts like these... my god people grow up.. read the context instead of trying to be FUNNEH!

 

[flmatter]

I will let you know my results tomorrow evening. I just upgraded my mobo and ram to more current standards. With my old set up and running 6950 2gb card I had no problems with IQ, I ran into more problems with system ram and my sound card dropping off in more intense fights cqb's. We shall see soon enough maybe even tonight if I can break free long enough to get a round or 2 in.

 

[erocker]

I wish I still had my 1gb 6950. I could run at ultra settings and not max out my Vram. I noticed an IQ improvement going to a 7970.

 

[the54thvoid]

For the short while I had my 2560x1440 display and my (now sold) GTX580, my Vram leveled off at about 1450's. Using the same settings with my 7970 it goes over 2GB in multi-player.

I feel it plays smoother than my old 580.

 

[Dent1]

I'm only going to say this ONCE.

4GB of ram is NOT enough for Battlefield 3 if you want to eliminate page filing or virtual memory. If you are running a stupid resolution like 2560x1440 4GB definitely isnt enough.

PS. The VRAM isnt the issue.

 

[erocker]

I'm only going to say this ONCE.

4GB of ram is NOT enough for Battlefield 3 if you want to eliminate page filing or virtual memory. If you are running a stupid resolution like 2560x1440 4GB definitely isnt enough.

PS. The VRAM isnt the issue.

You are speaking of something unrelated.. somewhat. 4gb of system RAM is indeed not enough for BF3 to play properly/smoothly/whatever. Vram really won't make a difference in terms of playability however it will reduce IQ.

 

[the54thvoid]

...If you are running a stupid resolution like 2560x1440 4GB definitely isnt enough....

What's your problem?

Explain to the unenlightened why that is a stupid resolution please. You'll find it's a very popular resolution.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162310

 

[Dent1]

What's your problem?

Explain to the unenlightened why that is a stupid resolution please. You'll find it's a very popular resolution.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162310

As in stupidly high resolution. Stop looking for confrontation.

You are speaking of something unrelated.. somewhat. 4gb of system RAM is indeed not enough for BF3 to play properly/smoothly/whatever. Vram really won't make a difference in terms of playability however it will reduce IQ.

4GBs is borderline for BF3. Even myself at ultra at only 1440x900 uses just under 6GB, but having 16GB total nullifies it. For guys running 2560x1440 I can only sympathise. IMO, I think my people whom complain about FPS its because of slow HD and too much paging.

 

[the54thvoid]

As in stupidly high resolution. Stop looking for confrontation.

Not looking for confrontation. Type talk doesn't convey tone. Besides, I couldn't confront anyone right now, it's 12:15am where I am and I'm sitting in slippers and a dressing gown.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

There was a post by a member here as follows:





I'm looking to find some sort of support/contrary evidence for this assertion. Be it a link from somewhere stating this, or at minimum some screenshots showing the differences.

Backstory: With 1GB of ram @ 1920x1080 4xAA, Ultra, HBAO, I noticed some stuttering in games and ram use maxed at 950+ MB. When moving up to a 1.5GB card (GTX580) with the same settings the ram usage increased to around 1.2GB with no stuttering. With a 2GB card (GTX680) with the same settings, the ram usage increased to around 1.8GB. And with a 3GB card (7970) 1.8GB seemed to level off with those same settings.

I have never seen a game dynamically lower IQ (doesnt mean it doesnt exist of course) with available vram, so Im looking for something more concrete than a forum post. Can anyone help out with some information regarding the Frostbite2 engine doing this as well as some screenshots showing the visual differences?

Thanks!

Shogun 2 does the same thing, on its release a German magazine quoted Nvidia's gpus slaughtering AMD in that title yet people eventually figured out in battle it will lower IQ automatically to fit within the frame buffer, thus in game performance increased and the results were skewed, but its also a title that requires alot of vram to run as its suppose to.

 

[Iceni]

32 bit
4GB system ram
1GB video card
3GB system ram usable, 2GB left in games once video card ram is duplicated.
So that this makes sense: if your game used 512MB of video ram, you'd only have 1.5GB of system ram for the game.
If its a modern game like modern warfare 2, that game can use 900MB of video ram - hence why the game crashes on many 32 bit systems when there isnt enough ram for game and video ram.


2GB system ram
1GB video card
1GB system ram usable, The last 1GB would fight with the video card ram here. If you dont lower texture settings, resolution, and AA you'll get pretty nasty stuttering as you run out of ram.

4GB system ram
2x1GB video cards (SLI/crossfire)
2GB system ram usable, 2GB left in games once video card ram is duplicated.
(SLI and crossfire only use one video cards ram. Because ram isnt additive in SLI/Xfire, only one cards ram is duplicated)

64 bit
4GB system ram
1GB video card
4GB system ram usable, 3GB left in games once video card ram is duplicated.

2GB system ram
1GB video card
1GB system ram usable, The last 1GB would fight with the video card ram. This kind of PC is the one where people claim vista x64 has no real advantage, or slower due to 64 bit using slightly more ram than 32 bit in windows itself.

4GB system ram
2x1GB video cards (SLI/crossfire)
4GB system ram usable, 3GB left in games once video card ram is duplicated.
(SLI and crossfire only use one video cards ram. Because ram isnt additive in SLI/Xfire, only one cards ram is duplicated)
[/spoiler]
3GB system ram usable, 2GB left in games once video card ram is duplicated.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91260

This could well be your problem. Nothing at all to do with the ram on the card. But rather the lack of ram in your system.

your 1.8Gb ram levelling is nothing to do with BF3. But rather your system is fighting with the GPU for the last ounces of ram you have left.

4gb system ram
1.5Gb video (x2)
4 - 3 = 1gb left.
You do the math.

The system fights the gpu for ram. hence why (1.8/2) 0.9gb of ram is been used per GPU. 4-1.8= 2.2Gb for the actual game to run on. Minus what windows is using 2-400Mb.


The 1Gb card didn't have enough ram to store the textures, hence it stuttered.

The 1.5gb card was a more powerful gpu with more ram available. hence no stutter (also your system ram didn't impede it)

the 3Gb card is been held back by your lack of system ram.

As for the cards scaling IQ. They generally don't, But games can. Wow is a good example as they use a scaling algorithm so if your frames start to drop it automatically lowers some features to help performance.

 

[EarthDog]

Shogun 2 does the same thing, on its release a German magazine quoted Nvidia's gpus slaughtering AMD in that title yet people eventually figured out in battle it will lower IQ automatically to fit within the frame buffer, thus in game performance increased and the results were skewed, but its also a title that requires alot of vram to run as its suppose to.

link?