HD 6970 - To keep or not to keep?

[FreedomEclipse]

I think the problem on applies to 32bit. 64bit OS's dont suffer from the same issues

 

[renozi]

It's a virtual address issue with BF3!

You need to do this apparently to get it to work:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2224117

So far it's working. Gotta do more testing(playing)!

 

[renozi]

what about other games? should try another graphics intensive game to make sure it's not just BF3.

It's just BF3. On 3DMARK Vantage I got x21000, other games run just fine.

 

[Gzero]

I think the problem on applies to 32bit. 64bit OS's dont suffer from the same issues

I know, I didn't believe it either but then it occurred to me, who are all these people trying to run the game in Ultra? If they can run the game in Ultra they must have some decent kit and when you have decent kit why would you stick a 32bit OS on it?

 

[eidairaman1]

32bit is gradually being phased out for 64bit, even drivers are more common now for 64 than 32.

 

[Gzero]

32bit is gradually being phased out for 64bit, even drivers are more common now for 64 than 32.

Yet games are going backwards. Not one new release has come with a x64 version (have I missed one?), explain that one.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Where's the "give it to me" option?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Yet games are going backwards. Not one new release has come with a x64 version (have I missed one?), explain that one.

Not on the surface, but underneath the game is coded for 64bit and include 64bit files in the installation.

There are some real old games that dont like running on a 64Bit OS's.

wheather a games 64bit or not doesnt really matter at all so long as it runs.

but like a previous post said 64bit is becoming more and more popular even amoung amoung casual/non-enthusiast users. Pre-built machines are starting to come with 64bit W7 installations instead of just 32bit like a 1 or 2 years ago.

 

[badtaylorx]

keep it....cfx it.....get another tri-fire it....and then go w/8XXX series card.....i hate odd numbers ( 1,3,5,7,9) evens for the win!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[radrok]

Also bear in mind that you have to refer to the resolution, not the monitor diagonal or whatever size, for quantifying the horsepower needed to push a specified amount of pixels!
If you have a 23 inch with 2048x1152 resolution it will need more horsepower than a fullHD (1920x1080) 27 inch screen

 

[dazcan111]

keep it

have you tried 11.11c performance drivers wiith CAP 2 installed?i'm running 2x6870 cfire and its running bf3 on ultra no probs.msi afterburner doesnt always show both gpu's working,(not to be trusted),i've also read that ati/nvidia now include some sort of throttling for stress/performance testing programs,saying they are unrealistic....get them working and you wont regret it...

 

[Gzero]

Also bear in mind that you have to refer to the resolution, not the monitor diagonal or whatever size, for quantifying the horsepower needed to push a specified amount of pixels!
If you have a 23 inch with 2048x1152 resolution it will need more horsepower than a fullHD (1920x1080) 27 inch screen

Yeah but that is also quite the exotic monitor to sport that kind of resolution. The Op does have his pc info filled out and lists a 24" Dell.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ram becoming cheap and being doubled over 4GB in OEM machines is becoming common aswell, thats the other push for 64bit OS cuz 32bit cant address anything greater than 4 Gigs

Not on the surface, but underneath the game is coded for 64bit and include 64bit files in the installation.

There are some real old games that dont like running on a 64Bit OS's.

wheather a games 64bit or not doesnt really matter at all so long as it runs.

but like a previous post said 64bit is becoming more and more popular even amoung amoung casual/non-enthusiast users. Pre-built machines are starting to come with 64bit W7 installations instead of just 32bit like a 1 or 2 years ago.

 

[renozi]

have you tried 11.11c performance drivers wiith CAP 2 installed?i'm running 2x6870 cfire and its running bf3 on ultra no probs.msi afterburner doesnt always show both gpu's working,(not to be trusted),i've also read that ati/nvidia now include some sort of throttling for stress/performance testing programs,saying they are unrealistic....get them working and you wont regret it...

Looks like 11.11c CAP2 + virtual address increase + enabling pagefile 4GB is the answer. Thanks everyone!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Looks like 11.11c CAP2 + virtual address increase + enabling pagefile 4GB is the answer. Thanks everyone!

Pagefile on an SSD is bad - It will wear it out quicker.

with 8Gb of RAM you dont need pagefile. Most SSD users recommend turning it off or setting the limit to something like 5-10mb.

If youre still on a 32bit OS, Id say its time to jump to a 64bit

 

[dazcan111]

i agree with freedom eclipse,page file is not the issue,ssd's dont need it due to their read/write speeds,if bf3 is installed on a different drive other than the ssd then you might have to look into that.my specs are '120gb ssd, 2tb xt hdd,8 gb 1866mhz mem,win7 64bit,2x6870 in cfire,750watt psu',my pagefile is off(to extend the lifespan)saying that with new ssd's this doesnt seem to much of an issue,i never run out of memory with 8gb installed(just the 1 monitor thou) on ultra settings i get some silly fps with vsync off,never below 70fps and usually 85-1xxfps....a couple of other things that might work,a clean install of bf3 and quite possibly win7 itself(which worked for a friend with a 6990)and to add to that mine (bf3)was only installed 3weeks ago and i got one hell of an update(not the lastest 3.9gb latest one)while installing,,,,,are you making exceptions in your firewall for the program,i was forever getting booted/freeze ups/crashes ect untill i altered my parental controls(i didnt even know they were on)and i also didnt realise it but when i turned my normal firewall off(i always do for gaming),windows took the liberty of turning its own firewall on,is punkbuster upto date,if not it'll will boot you.i'd def check each card in each slot seperately first(only takes 30mins),crossfire bridge ect.keep going you'll get there,ps my 6870's eat nshidia gtx580's for breakfast,god knows what 2 6970's will do....just to add to that the latest update for bf3 included them using a new server,they expect the others around the world to follow suit asap,it could just be the paticular server you choose to play on.when flashing the bios of a card it is not advisable to use the bios from an upgraded card that has better components than the one you are flashing,the original card may or may not be up to the task,higher temps ect

 

[renozi]

Pagefile on an SSD is bad - It will wear it out quicker.

with 8Gb of RAM you dont need pagefile. Most SSD users recommend turning it off or setting the limit to something like 5-10mb.

If youre still on a 32bit OS, Id say its time to jump to a 64bit

i agree with freedom eclipse,page file is not the issue,ssd's dont need it due to their read/write speeds,if bf3 is installed on a different drive other than the ssd then you might have to look into that.my specs are '120gb ssd, 2tb xt hdd,8 gb 1866mhz mem,win7 64bit,2x6870 in cfire,750watt psu',my pagefile is off(to extend the lifespan)saying that with new ssd's this doesnt seem to much of an issue,i never run out of memory with 8gb installed(just the 1 monitor thou) on ultra settings i get some silly fps with vsync off,never below 70fps and usually 85-1xxfps....a couple of other things that might work,a clean install of bf3 and quite possibly win7 itself(which worked for a friend with a 6990)and to add to that mine (bf3)was only installed 3weeks ago and i got one hell of an update(not the lastest 3.9gb latest one)while installing,,,,,are you making exceptions in your firewall for the program,i was forever getting booted/freeze ups/crashes ect untill i altered my parental controls(i didnt even know they were on)and i also didnt realise it but when i turned my normal firewall off(i always do for gaming),windows took the liberty of turning its own firewall on,is punkbuster upto date,if not it'll will boot you.i'd def check each card in each slot seperately first(only takes 30mins),crossfire bridge ect.keep going you'll get there,ps my 6870's eat nshidia gtx580's for breakfast,god knows what 2 6970's will do....just to add to that the latest update for bf3 included them using a new server,they expect the others around the world to follow suit asap,it could just be the paticular server you choose to play on.when flashing the bios of a card it is not advisable to use the bios from an upgraded card that has better components than the one you are flashing,the original card may or may not be up to the task,higher temps ect

I've always had my pagefile turned off. I had to enable it to see if that was the problem. Turns out, it definitely is the problem. Crashed with it off again. Crashed with it at 16MB. Plays perfectly fine at 4GB.

 

[cadaveca]

I've always had my pagefile turned off. I had to enable it to see if that was the problem. Turns out, it definitely is the problem. Crashed with it off again. Crashed with it at 16MB. Plays perfectly fine at 4GB.

If you have a mechanical drive, you can put pagefile on there only.

 

[renozi]

If you have a mechanical drive, you can put pagefile on there only.

I've been down that road. Also had my mechanical drive fail with the pagefile on it, had to reformat everything. I'll just keep it on the ssd. These new ssds can take tons of writes before they lose life.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I've been down that road. Also had my mechanical drive fail with the pagefile on it, had to reformat everything. I'll just keep it on the ssd. These new ssds can take tons of writes before they lose life.

was it a Segate or Hitachi drive that failed? (Just out of curiosity)

Hard drives are a lot more durable then SSDs. SSDs are still SSDs new or not they still primarily ALL use the same MLC/NAND-based Flash memory to make them. It doesnt really make them more or less prone to wear then each other unless the SSD is faulty or the user has no idea how to configure the SSD - windows Indexing, Pagefile, setting up TRIM etc etc. will all accelerate the rate at which the flash memory/cells on the SSD degrade.

Its the hard drives that are supposed to stand the test of time. I still have IDE hard drives that were made in 97/98 that are still rolling in a caddy used an external back up drive for a few files. no-one can say how long SSDs will last or even if they will outlive their quoted MTBF before the cells completely degrade

 

[dazcan111]

setting up an ssd for performance and to extend the life http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html
page file is explained,ect ect..ssd's now(mine anyway)came with a 3year warranty which i find acceptable for the benefits of having one,even if it does not last as long as mechanical one.

 

[cadaveca]

I've been down that road. Also had my mechanical drive fail with the pagefile on it, had to reformat everything. I'll just keep it on the ssd. These new ssds can take tons of writes before they lose life.

Laptops/Netbooks with SSD-only will have pagefile on it too. Myself, I'm not too concerned either, as I use an SSD in my test bench that has it's OS re-written at least once a week, if not three times, like this week. I have two SSDs in my test bench that are used strictly for testing in reviews, and I plan to beat then up as much as possible. When or if they die, you'll be sure to see me post about it.

That said, I haven't seen any degredation in drive speeds, either, other than the usual written areas being a bit slower than empty ones.

However, likewise, many many PCs over the years have had pagefiles on mechanical drives without issue. Of course, any componeent can and will die eventually, and HDD's are no exception...all of my drives have been purchased in the last 18 months, even. That said, I udnerstand your feelings about this, but at the same time, I think you may be a bit too worried about it. Proper backup practices using differnt drives can ensure that drive failures come at a minimal inconveinience.