[SOLVED] BF3- Performance Issues, MP Only

[Boinker]

Well dragonsdontflyet us know if vsync fixes it. I would run into issues with my game flaking out and having extremely off the wall textures when I was running over 80fps for an extended period of time. Let us know if that fixes it. If not maybe a hardware drive that just is not geting along with the game??

[TheyCallMeGunny]

CPU probably.

 

Try this

 

Render.PerfOverlayEnable true

Render.PerfOverlayVisible true

 

And show us some pictures of it ingame, if the Yellow line spikes a lot you are having issues with your CPU. Even my 4ghz W3520 seems to spike at times, I think either my PSU is taking a dump or the overclock just isn't stable somehow even though it is in every program and I have never BSOD.

 

I'll do you one better: I'll record a match with the performance overlay enabled: This gives active monitoring of resource usage and even could help find in-game events that cause them if it happens to repeat at certain interactions.. Keep in mind recording is high demand at 1080p: So my usage will be higher than normal. If the readings are too far off, I'll try recording via an external camera or just playing at 720p, where recording isn't near an issue.

 

A few update note of things I've done:

I recently reinstalled my GTS 250 as a PhysX card just to see if it helps. I forced PhysX processing to it in Nvidia Control Panel.

Btw I used this to test my performance (Without GTS 250, haven't tried with it yet): Render.DrawFps 1

Average about 48 FPS on Gulf of Oman with everything at Ultra, 4xMSAA, 16XAF, HBAO, V-Sync, FoV 90, 1920x1080, only motion blur turned off. Ranges upwards of 120FPS in spots, and down to 33. With V-sync it caps at 60, naturally.

But it still drops to 2 FPS at times for a second or two and just freezes up.

 

And no, Vsync didn't fix it. Still freezes up. I've checked BF3's memory usage btw, it's still only 1.7GB out of 8 total: And I have about 2GB of files loaded to RAM otherwise (including OS and everything.) So it isn't a RAM shortage.

 

I just reinstalled Windows last night, full format etc. Still reinstalling BF3: Will get back to you guys once I can get in and test it out. Probably be about 1900-2000 tonight, EST.

 

--The more I've played since trying to diagnose this issue: The more I'm thinking CPU spikes are related to lag compensation. This happens more during firefights with high ping players than anything. I'll fire off a couple bullets, or launch the heli's rocket pads at the guy: And next thing I know, frozen. I can't say it ALWAYS happens for this reason, because you don't always know who you're shooting.. But anytime it freezes and i get the kill: It's the player with umpteen billion ping..

Edited April 30, 2012 by dragonsdontfly

[wevsspot]

Dragon, have you attempted a manual update of Punkbuster? If not I'd recommend giving that a go. Won't hurt.

[TheyCallMeGunny]

Dragon, have you attempted a manual update of Punkbuster? If not I'd recommend giving that a go. Won't hurt.

 

Will try. Haven't been able to play even to test lately. Got online for 60 seconds to answer a question for my brother, that's about it. I'll let you guys know when I find the time to try some of these things.

[TheyCallMeGunny]

Updating punkbuster now.

Repaired BF3 install (though BF3 icon is still blank in Origin, may try another full reinstall.)

Have my overclock set, both GPUs installed: GTS 250 is set as PhysX processor.

Settings to Auto:

--All Ultra, HBAO, 4xMSAA, 16xAF, Motion Blur on @1920x1080 60Hz.

Power Management set to "Prefer Maximum Performance".

Nvidia Control Panel customized to what I've always used.

Cleaned entire computer, temps are down a little.

Optimized my entire windows install: Drivers, services, registry, disks, everything..

Updated every piece of software, even unrelated ones.

Have FRAPS and Afterburner at the ready, will use whichever is in a better mood today.

 

Computer is running better than ever. I'm going to try to record perfmonitor, but odds are.. it's still gonna be retarded. Only thing left to is completely reinstall BF3 if this doesn't work. Ever since last patch, my taskbar icon is missing and so is my game cover in Origin. I'm going to assume something went wrong there, too.

[_TheAlexO]

I had really bad FPS after some patch a while back and I tried doing all that. Ended up reinstalling windows and it ran smoothly again. Ridiculous

[TheyCallMeGunny]

I had really bad FPS after some patch a while back and I tried doing all that. Ended up reinstalling windows and it ran smoothly again. Ridiculous

 

I just reinstalled Windows and it got worse..

 

Ran my tests. From 120FPS on Norshar canals maxed out 2 weeks ago.

To 18FPS at medium now... Microstutter is gone since update: But it's clear my entire game is corrupt and despite several reinstalls of origin, game, and OS.. it's still corrupt.

GPU usage wasn't going above 7% in afterburner's monitor.. But BF3 perfoverlay had it and my cpu spiking constantly..

The icons and game cover were broken, and sound loops during loading: Two issues I didn't have before last update.

So.. I'm going to do it ALL over again.

 

Here comes ANOTHER new Windows install.. This time my secondary drive is also getting formatted.. Which means goodbye music and movies.. Screw it, I can spend days downloading all my stuff again -.- This is one of 3 games I play, and the only one I play on even a monthly basis anymore.. I'd like to have it working again.

[TheyCallMeGunny]

I've found my issue. Had to remove Auslogics Boost Speed, as it has not been updated since the release of my current Nvidia driver: It was basically damaging my driver files.

 

Nvidia Driver changes

 

-Also had to stop using EVGA precision, and go back to afterburner full-time. Something was wrong with voltage control, causing loads to drop.

-Had to completely wipe my PC and do a fresh reinstall of everything for most effectiveness: Did NOT over clock anything until my computer was fully updated and everything installed.

-Had to manually remove individual driver files when updating to 301.xx beta driver: Until I found the guide posted above (driver changes.)

-Had to disable High Definition Audio in device manager: Under system devices, NOT the one in sound, video and game controllers. This is because I have an HDMI TV attached to my GPU. Was creating conflicts between the onboard HDMI audio (which is unused) and the GPU's HDMI audio. For some reason, disabling it in my BIOS wasn't reflecting in Windows: So I had to also disable it in device manager for it to actually shut off.

 

Btw, the game plays at Ultra. BUT this leaves very little overhead for when certain calls are made: Hence stuttering. So I just lowered everything to high after fixing all this, and now I play at an easy 100FPS.

Edited May 3, 2012 by dragonsdontfly

[sword_fish]

I've found my issue. Had to remove Auslogics Boost Speed, as it has not been updated since the release of my current Nvidia driver: It was basically damaging my driver files.

 

Nvidia Driver changes

 

-Also had to stop using EVGA precision, and go back to afterburner full-time. Something was wrong with voltage control, causing loads to drop.

-Had to completely wipe my PC and do a fresh reinstall of everything for most effectiveness: Did NOT over clock anything until my computer was fully updated and everything installed.

-Had to manually remove individual driver files when updating to 301.xx beta driver: Until I found the guide posted above (driver changes.)

-Had to disable High Definition Audio in device manager: Under system devices, NOT the one in sound, video and game controllers. This is because I have an HDMI TV attached to my GPU. Was creating conflicts between the onboard HDMI audio (which is unused) and the GPU's HDMI audio. For some reason, disabling it in my BIOS wasn't reflecting in Windows: So I had to also disable it in device manager for it to actually shut off.

 

Btw, the game plays at Ultra. BUT this leaves very little overhead for when certain calls are made: Hence stuttering. So I just lowered everything to high after fixing all this, and now I play at an easy 100FPS.

 

good to hear that you fixed it!

and thanks for sharing that interesting / informative thread, a rep for you

[wevsspot]

Sounds like a lot of work, but the end result was worth it. Glad that you got it sorted out. Nothing worse than wanting to play your favorite game or use your most common app and have it cause problems all of the time.

[Guest DeAd2RiGhTz]

fix worked for me thanks!

[TheyCallMeGunny]

fix worked for me thanks!

 

You're welcome.

 

Been a little over a month now, just wanted to update you guys that it's still running smooth as silk. Actually have everything maxed out (except HBAO), yes that means Ultra again. Still running smoothly, occasionally get a frame rate drop, but it's the expected kind where .'s flying around everywhere and it drops down 20FPS or so.

 

A personal piece of advice: Everything can be set to ultra but there is one setting that causes FPS drops more than the others: Texture quality. At Ultra it loads full-res textures across the entire map, even parts you can't see on the complete opposite end. At high it loads the same full resolution textures, just within your line of sight. As long as your RAM is a decent speed, you'll never see even a hint of a pop-in at high. I never have, and loading the textures to a slightly higher resolution is the only difference between ultra and high:

 

Always loaded at ultra, only loaded when viewing or in a certain radius of you at high.