ATI Radeon HD 4870 not living up to it's name.

[ZeroShaun]

I just recently installed my Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB, and it seems as though it's not working up to what it should be. In counter strike source, I'm getting around 120FPS idle, and 60-80 while moving around. I've read many reviews where the card gets 80FPS on COD4, which has much better graphics than CS:S. So if I only get about 80 average on CSS, there is no way I can get that in COD4. The reviews were also done using the same resolution that I am using, which is standard 22" Widescreen(1680x1050). My friend who has a 8600GT gets around 200-300FPS in CSS. On Warhammer online, I average about 30-55FPS while moving around, even in the open world. Others have said they get around 50-100 with the same card. When in large battles, I drop to low 20's, even the teens sometimes. I'm not quite sure what the problem is.


After I installed the card, the ATI website was not loading for me, so me being impatient, I installed the drivers from the CD that came with the card. I don't know if this is the problem or not, but if it is, I'm not sure which drivers are more up-to-date than the ones I have now. On the ATI website, there are drivers that are version 8.1xxxx. If I go into device manager and click properties and hit the driver tab for my graphics card, the driver version is 8.5xxxx. I'm not sure if it's part of a different series or what? Someone also mentioned that it could be my processor. My processor may be a bit dated, but it is in no way a bad processor. My specs are below:


Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
Case: XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish (ATX Full-Tower) Clicky
Power Supply: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 650W
Monitor: Acer Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD
Motherboard: ASRock A780 AM2+/AM2 - Mem Standard 1066 - 4 240 Pin Slots ...Clicky
Memory: G.Skill 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 800(PC2 6400)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.1Ghz w/ 2x1GB L2 Cache (Dual-Core)
Hard Drive: 320GB Barracuda 7200RPM SATA
Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB(GDDR5)
DVD Burner: Lite-On 20x DVD Burner with LightScribe SATA

 

[Jacobman]

Your processor should be sufficient enough, i would highly recommend going and downloading the newest ati catalyst drivers. Your friend could only possibly get 200-300 frames if he is looking straight at the ground or something. Try the new drivers and report back.

 

[jediobi1]

as soon as your able to get to ati's website download the newest drivers and then go and download driver sweeper, uninstall anything ati and then restart your computer in safe mode and run driver sweeper and remove anything ati with it, once thats done boot into normal windows and install the new drivers and see if it helps

 

[Satsumomo]

ARe you running these games with V-Sync on?

 

[ziggo0]

I know you may think this isn't the issue, but the CS:S fps thing, it's the Source engine, heavily CPU dependent, compare to that to a 4ghz C2D or anything else clocked higher than your stock CPU and you get a huge FPS boost.

Also, you definitely need the latest cats, stocker cd drivers suck.

 

[Rich'[ard]]

i reckon it's the cpu, for your CS problem. and maybe for other games as well. you'd benefit if you overclocked your cpu or got a Phenom etc.
what cpu did your friend have?
i read comparisons and the 6000+ performs about the same as a stock e6550 (2.33ghz).

 

[ZeroShaun]

Well, I just recently bought this rig as a budget rig, so I can't really buy another processor at the moment. And I'm not so sure I can overclock quite yet. My case is good for airflow, but I'm using the stock heatsink from Windsor and stock heat "pad". Oh and my friend had one of the Intel Core 2 Duos running at 2.4Ghz I believe.

I uninstalled my old drivers and installed the drivers off of the ATI site. It's not much of a boost, but now I'm running CSS at around 140 idle and between 110-130FPS moving and it does not drop below that. How good would you consider that with running this card at stock settings? I saw no boost in performance for Warhammer, though.

 

[ziggo0]

Well, I just recently bought this rig as a budget rig, so I can't really buy another processor at the moment. And I'm not so sure I can overclock quite yet. My case is good for airflow, but I'm using the stock heatsink from Windsor and stock heat "pad". Oh and my friend had one of the Intel Core 2 Duos running at 2.4Ghz I believe.

I uninstalled my old drivers and installed the drivers off of the ATI site. It's not much of a boost, but now I'm running CSS at around 140 idle and between 110-130FPS moving and it does not drop below that. How good would you consider that with running this card at stock settings? I saw no boost in performance for Warhammer, though.

What settings are you running CS:S at? I'll do a comparative benchmark (ussing the CSS bench tool)

 

[ziggo0]

I ran these settings.

e8400 @ 4.4ghz (& Stock Runs)
HD4870 @ 825/1100
4xAA/16xAF, HDR Off, Color Correction Off, Vsync Off, everything else MAX.

1024x768
OC: 602fps
Stock: 424fps

1440x900
OC: 533fps
Stock: 414fps

1680x1050
OC: 448fps
Stock: 397fps

Please note that OC stands for my CPU OC over stock, GPU is left OC'ed the whole time.

 

[Badbonji]

BTW how did you get more than 300 when source limits FPS cap to 300? Well at least it did on HL2

 

[ZeroShaun]

That's just insane. I'm getting only 120FPS average with the same settings, with only stock speeds. Stock is 750/900 for the Sapphire 4870. I feel sad now.

I run it at:
1680x1050
Athlon X2 6000+ @ 3.1Ghz
HD 4870 @ 750/900

 

[ziggo0]

BTW how did you get more than 300 when source limits FPS cap to 300? Well at least it did on HL2

fps_max 2000 in console, Source is actually capped at 999

I'm also running these commands to make it look better:

r_rainsplashpercentage 0
violence_ablood 1
violence_agibs 1
violence_hblood 1
violence_hgibs 1

fps_max 2000
mp_decals "4096"
cl_ragdoll_collide "1"
r_lod "0"
r_decal_cullsize "0"
r_propsmaxdist "5000"
r_rainradius "2500"
r_rainsplashpercentage "100"
r_avglight "3"
cl_phys_props_max "1"
r_decals "4096"
r_DispFullRadius "1000"
r_DispRadius "1000"
r_maxmodeldecal "100"
voice_dsound "1"
jpeg_quality "100"

That's just insane. I'm getting only 120FPS average with the same settings, with only stock speeds. Stock is 750/900 for the Sapphire 4870. I feel sad now.

I run it at:
1680x1050
Athlon X2 6000+ @ 3.1Ghz
HD 4870 @ 750/900

Time OC that CPU of yours, in your case you will see more, much more. it's not the MAX FPS that is important, it's the MIN, I noticed even though at 1680x1050 the difference isn't as significant, however min fps is much higher over stock

 

[ZeroShaun]

I havn't the slightest clue how to overclock, and quite frankly, can't afford any more cooling than I have now. So, I guess I'm shi- out of luck. It's my processor then, right? I'm stuck at maxing out at 140 in CSS, and 50-ish in Warhammer all because of my damn processor? =/

I'm not so excited about playing COD4 anymore.

 

[Rich'[ard]]

my friend is still running an X2 6000+ with 8800GTX SLI. he hasn't ever played games with just 1 GTX, so i guess he'll never know how ripped of he is atm :sigh:

 

[ZeroShaun]

So is everyone sure it's my processor causing this? Can someone explain exactly how and what it is about the processor that is limiting my GPU so much? Any number crunchers around? Here are the specs for my CPU and GPU just incase someone is willing to post some numbers and reasoning so I know exactly what my problem is:

EDIT: Also, I know this is silly, but is the fact that my 2x2GB of G.Skill PC 800 memory being installed in the #3 and #4 slots instead of #1 and #2 effect anything? I didn't realize I did this when building my rig, but I havn't had any issues, so havn't changed it... YET.

 

[Satsumomo]

Nope, that shouldn't affect it. You don't have V-Sync turned on, right?

Don't worry about COD4, it's highly optimized and runs great on pretty much any system.

 

[Rich'[ard]]

doens't v-sync limit fps to 60? or w/e your refresh rate is.
he's getting over 60 isn't he. just not a whole lot over 60.

 

[ZeroShaun]

Nope, that shouldn't affect it. You don't have V-Sync turned on, right?

Don't worry about COD4, it's highly optimized and runs great on pretty much any system.

Well, if it's not my processor then I really don't know what the problem is. And for V-sync, as far as I'm aware it's set to whatever it's default is(Off or on?). On the ATI Catalyst Control I don't see any option or terms that seem related to it, and in-game I don't see any options for it either. Should it be on or off?

 

[Satsumomo]

doens't v-sync limit fps to 60? or w/e your refresh rate is.
he's getting over 60 isn't he. just not a whole lot over 60.

You... you are right.

Vsync makes games look better (Removes tearing) but it has quite a performance hit. Too bad I don't have any of those games to compare.

 

[ZeroShaun]

Well, I just tested F.E.A.R on maximum settings (4x AA and 16x AF, etc) and got a maximum of 140FPS, a minimum of 45FPS and an average of around 80. How's that seem for this card?