Is this the fps I should be getting?

[Ichi]

Hello all,

since I got my HD4870 I got really interested in stuff with computers etc, so learned how to overclock and found this forum so decided to register ^^ Also registered here because I'm having some thinsg haunting me for a while now... The fps I'm getting isn't what I should be getting, it isn't horrible, but 230 bucks is a lot of money for my age so I want to get quality for what I pay Anyways, I'll sum up some of the fps I'm getting. After I post my system speccs ofc : )

Msi P35 Neo-f motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.2 ghz (gotta buy a cooler ;p)
Hd4870 512mb gddr5 (800/950)
4 gb ram @ 800 mhz

Team Fortress: My average fps with both AA on and off is 80-90 (according to a bench) , I get like 30-40 fps when I'm in a big battle... Shouldn't I be getting 60+ all the time? After doing some google research I found benchmarks that showed that a 8800 GTX never dropped below 60 fps with 8x AA on 1680x 1050 (that's what I'm playing at). I drop below 60 fps every big battle I go in.

World of Warcraft: In area's with lots of trees or whatever I usually drop under the 60 fps (I play with v-sync when not benching since I get awfull screen tearing). And in Dalaran I get 30-40 fps when it's really crowded.

FallOut 3: I'm not really having low fps here, I hit my v-sync cap most of the time, but when there are like textures with some extensive lightning I get a HUGE hit on my card, it drops from 60 (cap) to 30.. Even when I 100% zoom in on the texture I still get that low fps.

My temperatures are just fine (35 degrees idle and 48 max stressed) and my power supply is good enough too.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and see you

Ichi

 

[deathman20]

Well sadly playing with V-Sync enabled does remove the tearing in games if the monitor or game has that issue, but it will kill FPS.

Example, one game I could get clearly over 120FPS without V-Sync, but if I enable it, 60 will be the cap and if I get into area's that would dip say into the 60-80's without V-Sync would be hitting near 30-40FPS now. V-Sync is a problem in that case and in most cases it will degrade FPS well beyond what you should be getting, even if clearly its above the magical 60FPS line. Most cases its like this, V-Sync = "Typical FPS without V-Sync / 2" which yields what your getting, then if your FPS drops from the 60FPS in V-Sync to 30-40, its jumping around and sometimes can create more issues than not having it enabled.

So with the FPS your getting im not surprised, OCing your CPU should help in cases and raise that bar some where it might give you an increased FPS count but don't count on too much. V-Sync is a tricky creature, its good and bad at the same time. Oh as well in benchmarks typically its not stressing the CPU as much as it would in a true game, so FPS typically drop a little more than what a benchmark says.

Oh BTW Welcome to da forums

 

[Salmon91]

There have been many updates to Team Fortress which has made the game slower. My bro's got an 8800gtx and he does drop below 60 fps quiet often. The fps you get also depend on the server quality so you might get less fps on a bad server. I've got 2 4850s in cf and I drop once in a while below 60 (around 50fps). This on a few servers, however I don't drop below 60 fps on some servers. (both servers have the same amount of players on them)

 

[Ichi]

Thanks for the responses guys, I'd love to keep v-sync off, and in TF2 it's pretty okay to do so (not a lot of screen tearing) but I've seen games where I just got a headache cause of all the blinking and overlaying textures... So it depends. In MMO's I really have to put v-sync on, because of the slow movement and stuff, but in fpses it's okay most of the time.

I did a overclock to 3.2 ghz for the lolz because I don't have any cooler atm (and out of money), how far do you think I can go without getting to high temps?

 

[deathman20]

Maybe 3.4-3.6Ghz. Really depends on the environment your in, temperature in your house, humidity, and your case circulation with fans.

You might also want to try a different driver, older or newer depending on what you have, to see if that helps with the tearing as well.

 

[ziggo0]

I'd have to also say the same about TF2, it doesn't look like much but for some reason it runs like crap...once you clock your CPU up some, (to 4ghz I hope ) you'll notice an improvement. The Source engine loves CPU power.

 

[Ichi]

Well I live at the top of the house, so in the winter it's very very cold, and @ summer it's very very warm... But I'll have a cooler by the time summer comes... I'm gonna install another case-fan soon for a better airflow so that should improve things too.

About trying other drivers, I just did a clean install for 8.12 (didn't do that first time) and will try WoW without v-sync in a minute, and check if the tearing has decreased

Thanks for all the responses tho. . Stupid benchmarks

Edit: Damn games run SO much smoother without v-sync, now I'm very eager to fix it... I get very bad screen tearing at The Chronicles of Spellborn still, after clean installing the drivers, will test wow in a few min.

Wow! The tearing in wow is almost completely gone, hurray \o/

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Tf2 is very cpu dependant, most drops in game happen ion custom maps with high poly counts, or in other words, poorly coded maps cause people put too much crap in them!

your options are to turn down AA and AF and yes tf2 has gotten some updates but the game isnt really "slower" in any sense, it still uses the same engine.

 

[Ichi]

Tf2 is very cpu dependant, most drops in game happen ion custom maps with high poly counts, or in other words, poorly coded maps cause people put too much crap in them!

your options are to turn down AA and AF and yes tf2 has gotten some updates but the game isnt really "slower" in ,any sense, it still uses the same engine.

Well I tryed that, and noticed it didn't make a huge difference on fps, at benchmarks it showed that with AA on 4x I dropped to 30-35 in huge battles and with AA off to 40-45.. Once the game runs at low fps you don't really notice it anymore, it's the drop that's so annoying and ruins gameplay D; . And besides that, shouldn't a E8400 be enough for TF2? I'm gonna overclock it to 3.4 ghz today to check if that helps but still ;p

 

[Badbonji]

Odd, with one 8800gts I get a constant 60Fps (Vsync) at 1920x1200 16xQ CSAA, but will occassionally drop to 45-50 in 32 player servers. Maybe, as TF2 is single threaded, oc the CPU more will help?

 

[Ichi]

Odd, with one 8800gts I get a constant 60Fps (Vsync) at 1920x1200 16xQ CSAA, but will occassionally drop to 45-50 in 32 player servers. Maybe, as TF2 is single threaded, oc the CPU more will help?

Gonna try a overclock to 3.4 ghz today, I get drops to 35-40 on a 36-man dustbowl server, mostly at the first point when standing inside the house with all sentry's and stuff I get 60-70 fps and when I run out it drops to 40-50 and in combat to 30-50.

 

[deathman20]

Whats the temp on the CPU? USe something like CoreTemp to give us a temp reading under load (using prime95 or something to load both cores). This will also give us an idea of how far you can reasonably push it on stock cooler.

 

[Ichi]

Whats the temp on the CPU? USe something like CoreTemp to give us a temp reading under load (using prime95 or something to load both cores). This will also give us an idea of how far you can reasonably push it on stock cooler.

I just did a overclock to 3.4 ghz and it's 36 degrees idle and 55 stressed when playing TF2 . Before it was like 46 degrees stressed without the overclock. And 31 degrees idle (with no oc)

Edit: Oh ye, the second core is 46-48 degrees most of the time.

 

[deathman20]

Wow... you might be able to take the CPU to 3.6Ghz without much issue.

As long as the temp is around 60C (some say 70C) its all within reasonable limits.

 

[Ichi]

Really? That's sweet, I thought I was really high with 60 degrees Gonna buy a cpu cooler soon anyway so I'll try 3.6 ghz and get some neat performance and cool it down soon. Also gonna install a new case-fan today for a better airflow : )

Damn, I'm getting tired of this screen tearing on TF2... Any way to fix it? Installing 8.11 doesn't help either (playing at a syncmaster t200 @ 1680x1050).

 

[Badbonji]

Turn Vsync on and that should fix it.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Well I tryed that, and noticed it didn't make a huge difference on fps, at benchmarks it showed that with AA on 4x I dropped to 30-35 in huge battles and with AA off to 40-45.. Once the game runs at low fps you don't really notice it anymore, it's the drop that's so annoying and ruins gameplay D; . And besides that, shouldn't a E8400 be enough for TF2? I'm gonna overclock it to 3.4 ghz today to check if that helps but still ;p

MIN FPS is related to CPU alot as well

i would think @ 3.4 it would be enough though, my q6600 is only at 3Ghz , i do see drops sometimes on very crowded maps sometimes in the 20's

 

[Dapman02]

Odd, with one 8800gts I get a constant 60Fps (Vsync) at 1920x1200 16xQ CSAA, but will occassionally drop to 45-50 in 32 player servers. Maybe, as TF2 is single threaded, oc the CPU more will help?

I believe TF2 is multithreaded.

 

[Badbonji]

Well if it is I only seem to get one core load up 100% whilst the 2nd might reach 20%, haven't tested this with the Core i7 yet still installing all the drivers... I also now need a new GPU as my sli blocks off the PCI slots for the sound card Grrr

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

tf2 is semi coded, but not "optimzed" to really use multiple cores (wehy you see one core pegged more then the other), but they are supposed to take some left 4 dead code to put into tf2 to make it work better.

to me 60C is hot, sure the processor is safe still but my rule is below 60 full load.