BF3 seems to be CPU limited?

[Millennium]

Hi there,

I have a i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz, and a 5870 @ 900/1300 clocks .

From the reviews I've seen, BF3 seems to be normally GPU limited with most decent CPUs not presenting any bottleneck. At least according to the benchmarks. However, I am not seeing this.

I'm using latest patched BF3 (22nd Nov patch I think) and 11.11b performance drivers. Also my settings are all high except Shadows Low and Motion Blur off. 1080p/60hz resolution

Here is my screenshot with perfoverlay and fps counter:

As you can see my GPU is running nice and fast at 14ms frames (sorta 71 fps) but my CPU appears to be the bottleneck at 24.35ms frames (41 fps - lame).

I have tried lowering the resolution and although this does seem to help the FPS the GPU times go really low and the CPU times a bit lower but not as much. I would have thought with my setup if anything the GPU would be the bottleneck but these graphs do not seem to agree.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on this or has different/similar results I can compare to? I have also recently tried a clean install of windows 7, these tests were NOT done with that install (which seems unstable unfortunately) but the clean install was not more then 10% faster at most and still CPU limited.

So is it true, BF3 is really CPU dependant despite what the reviews say? I am hesitant to agree as i have seen many SS of perfoverlay with the CPU line well below the GPU line. Something must be wrong with my config, right?

Any tips appreciated. Cheers.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

What do you have running in the background besides BF3?

 

[Millennium]

I have chrome running (for battlelog), Afterburner latest beta (no OSD stuff I think) and Process Tamer which is very small.

There are a couple of small processes for my webcam and sound card too.

I am interested in perfoverlay screenshots from people with similar processors if people would be so kind. Also any processor which seems faster then mine at rendering frames at similar settings.

Cheers!

 

[Volkszorn88]

With my 1090T @4ghz, i'm getting completely different results. Which leads me to believe it IS your gpu that is bottlenecking the game.

 

[Millennium]

With my 1090T @4ghz, i'm getting completely different results. Which leads me to believe it IS your gpu that is bottlenecking the game.

Thanks for the reply. Can you tell me your CPU average ms score at 1080p high settings? Or even my settings if you dont mind?! You need perfoverlayvisible=1

 

[twicksisted]

I dont notice much FPS increase on my i7 2600k at stock 3.4ghz or OC'd at 4.4ghz with my GTX580 but if I overclock the GXT580 I do.
Cant remember the exact numbers, but it wasnt worth me overclocking anything to get a solid 60fps with vsynch on with everything maxxed.

I'll have a fiddle around and see what I come up with

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I have chrome running (for battlelog), Afterburner latest beta (no OSD stuff I think) and Process Tamer which is very small.

There are a couple of small processes for my webcam and sound card too.

I am interested in perfoverlay screenshots from people with similar processors if people would be so kind. Also any processor which seems faster then mine at rendering frames at similar settings.

Cheers!

What you should do is stop all non essential programs and just run origin, the game and a web browser. Just to see if things change or not. But so far your GPU looks fine to me as indicated by the chart. It looks like your CPU is processing something other then the game as the time it take to process is abnormally high. What res are you running at? And, do you have CCC at it's default settings while having wait for vertical refresh set to always off?

 

[twicksisted]

OK the results are in... I just loaded up a mission and diddnt move the mouse so that I could get accurate readings for each setting when I reloaded the game.
Also, I havent closed any programs processes... im also running winamp, photoshop, origin, steam etc in the background... cpu is happy

GRAPHICS SETTINGS FOR ALL TESTS RUN:

1920x1200
Ultra- everything maxxed out

CPU: 2600k (Stock 3.8ghz)
GPU: GTX580 (Stock - 816mhz)

CPU: 2600k (Overclocked 4.4ghz)
GPU: GTX580 (Stock - 816mhz)

CPU: 2600k (Stock 3.8ghz)
GPU: GTX580 (Overclocked 971mhz )

CPU: 2600k (Overclocked 4.4ghz)
GPU: GTX580 (Overclocked 971mhz )

 

[Millennium]

Ok just tried again with all processes I could manage closed. CPU usage was more spikey (i was using Lasso to force High Priority before) but roughly the same frame times, around 23ms. GPU was consistently lower.

Something seems to be wrong with either my settings or my overclock. I am gonna hit the sack now (UK time ) but if anyone has suggestions they would be great. thanks for the help so far

PS looks like 580 is no bottleneck, nice!

 

[MatTheCat]

Hi there,

I have a i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz, and a 5870 @ 900/1300 clocks .

From

With the rig in my sig, I am running everything on Ultra, excepts shadows which are on high, but with 0 FSAA. My FPS (v-sync ON) sit normally around 50-60. My gfx card ists between 90%-99% utilisation and my CPU cores never more than about 60%.

So for me, the game is GPU bottlenecked, no question about it.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Ok just tried again with all processes I could manage closed. CPU usage was more spikey (i was using Lasso to force High Priority before) but roughly the same frame times, around 23ms. GPU was consistently lower.

Something seems to be wrong with either my settings or my overclock. I am gonna hit the sack now (UK time ) but if anyone has suggestions they would be great. thanks for the help so far

PS looks like 580 is no bottleneck, nice!

You should be playing the game with no problems. But I have to ask that you check the following:
-make sure that CCC is at default settings. Set wait for vertical refresh set to always off
-What resolution are you playing at?
-What in game IQ settings are you using? Have you tried resetting it?

 

[Darkleoco]

I would definitely look at your overclock because my 2600K was running at around 40 fps on ultra with one 6950 going and that was on stock Turbo of 3.8 :/

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I would definitely look at your overclock because my 2600K was running at around 40 fps on ultra with one 6950 going and that was on stock Turbo of 3.8 :/

Agreed, and wanted to mention that earlier. Set your CPU back to stock clock if my other options don't work.

 

[Millennium]

Thanks guys, I will get back to your points, just want to say I was running BF3 at 1600*900 at 50fps+ on my clean install this evening, lots of fun, so i haven't given up on the game yet! Thanks for the advice so far I will revisit tomorrow. Cheers

 

[Kevin1987623]

Hi there,

I have a i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz, and a 5870 @ 900/1300 clocks .

From the reviews I've seen, BF3 seems to be normally GPU limited with most decent CPUs not presenting any bottleneck. At least according to the benchmarks. However, I am not seeing this.

I'm using latest patched BF3 (22nd Nov patch I think) and 11.11b performance drivers. Also my settings are all high except Shadows Low and Motion Blur off. 1080p/60hz resolution

Here is my screenshot with perfoverlay and fps counter:
http://img.techpowerup.org/111126/Screenshot3060.png

As you can see my GPU is running nice and fast at 14ms frames (sorta 71 fps) but my CPU appears to be the bottleneck at 24.35ms frames (41 fps - lame).

I have tried lowering the resolution and although this does seem to help the FPS the GPU times go really low and the CPU times a bit lower but not as much. I would have thought with my setup if anything the GPU would be the bottleneck but these graphs do not seem to agree.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on this or has different/similar results I can compare to? I have also recently tried a clean install of windows 7, these tests were NOT done with that install (which seems unstable unfortunately) but the clean install was not more then 10% faster at most and still CPU limited.

So is it true, BF3 is really CPU dependant despite what the reviews say? I am hesitant to agree as i have seen many SS of perfoverlay with the CPU line well below the GPU line. Something must be wrong with my config, right?

Any tips appreciated. Cheers.

Hey mate, I got the same problem! Completely new PC.
I5 2500k, xfx 6870, 8gb ddr3 1600, 1tb Sata Iii HD
CPU bottlenecks the 6870!! It is weird.... CPU spikes about every 3 seconds!
I play at Ultra everything and 1080p 60hz

I tried everything over locking to 3.8-4.0ghz, very minimal gain.
Ati driver 11.11 from Nov 16th (newest)...

Someone help!

 

[DanishDevil]

Kevin, your problem is your settings and your GPU. You have a mid-range GPU and you're trying to run it on high-end settings. You need to be running that 6870 on High settings at 1080P. There's probably nothing wrong with your setup. Dice have themselves said that Ultra is truly meant for multi-GPU configurations, and that the game should run well on High on mid-range hardware. The visual difference isn't a lot anyway.

 

[Kevin1987623]

Kevin, your problem is your settings and your GPU. You have a mid-range GPU and you're trying to run it on high-end settings. You need to be running that 6870 on High settings at 1080P. There's probably nothing wrong with your setup. Dice have themselves said that Ultra is truly meant for multi-GPU configurations, and that the game should run well on High on mid-range hardware. The visual difference isn't a lot anyway.

Exactly! I understand the 6870 is only a higher mid-range card. So my point is about i5 2500k bottlenecking the 6870. That should not happen in any circumstances! Something is wrong here...

 

[DanishDevil]

No, trust me it's not the CPU bottlenecking your GPU.

Proof:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

 

[Millennium]

I think the 'confusion' here (at least for me at the start) is that the CPU render time for each frame also seems to depend on which GPU you have an which resolution. So for example, I get a 23ms CPU frame time at 1080p and a <~20ms time at 1600*900. GPU times also go down a fair bit but the CPU time is the limiting factor.

We are used to CPU time measurements and GPU time measurements being completely separate but here both times seem to depend on the GPU and the resolution. What I suspect (but can't prove) is that a 6870 and 6970 at the same resolution and settings would have different CPU frame render times (the 6970 being faster), even though this doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe the CPU is waiting on stuff.

Anyway would be great to clear this up. I still suspect something in my config/overclock/whatever is wrong as Hexus.net list a 5870 with 57fps average in this game, 1080p high settings, and I was hovering around 40fps... :<

Still, it is playable at 50+fps at 1600*900 and looks good.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I really don't know what to tell you there Millennium. Are you using both 4xAA and that other AA set to High? If so disable both and see what happens.

 

[catnipkiller]

65-100fps in most maps with rando drops of 55 fps

 

[LiveOrDie]

Looks more like a GPU memory bottle neck, I run the game on max but anisotropic filtering on 4x so the game run smoother and im running SLI.

 

[Millennium]

I'm running with post processing on high and no MSAA at all.

I have tried with CCC at default settings before. Vsync is off.
Resolution was (at the start of this thread) 1080p
In game quality settings are all high except shadows low and motion blur off.

I will try without overclock when I have more time over this weekend.

Thanks for the help so far. If you take a look at #21, the screenshot shows average CPU frame times of around 13ms, FAR lower then mine. But as I said maybe this includes time the CPU takes waiting for the GPU... hmm.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I meant to post in this thread earlier but forgot. I am seeing the same thing the OP is (according to his screenie above) though I am surprised that you too are getting such low min CPU frames with an SB chip at 4.5.

With my i7 870 at 3960 my CPU also lags way behind my GPUs according to perfoverlay graph and it is seemingly holding me back in this game. The average output is like 12 fps for CPU and 25 for GPU but the min is like 7 times higher for GPU (4/28). Everyhting is on high, 2x MSAA. Using Post instead did not help much (and it looks relatively blurred).

I thought about trying to squeeze a few hundred more Mhz out but I doubted it would have much effect and really doubt it after seeing your OP. I too do not really understand why so many reviewers and users consider this game "all GPU".

 

[LiveOrDie]

I've forgot how to bring up that OSD ill test this out on my system once i know the command.