Battlefield 4 & Windows 8.1 - what an improvment it is!

[Kitlope]

Not sure if I should have put this in the BF4 thread but since this is such a dramatic improvement in BF4 performance I thought I would start with this separate thread. Posted this at my gaming clan's website and on Guru, figured I would share my finding here as well to spread good performing BF4 love.


Yesterday on Black Friday I went out and snagged a 180 GB Intel SSD and after much thinking decided to pick up a copy of Windows 8, upgrading my Windows 7 64 bit. I figured since I had to reinstall OS I might as well do it with W8, also because everything I had read about BF4 running much much better using it.

Well, what an understatement.

Using the same 331.93 beta drivers that came out a few days ago in W7, with video card options on high, no msaa, hbao on, my frames were never consistent (as with every other driver I tried). They bounced around 60 - 100frames, half the time miscrostuttering. I tried different drivers, all sorts of tweaks to get the frames as close to 100 consistently as possible. No dice. Some days the game seemed to run a little better than others, probably due to server patches.

Installed W8, took the free .1 upgrade and snagged "classic shell" to get rid of the god awful tablet UI. Downloaded and installed the game and all that good stuff. Enabled SLI. Nothing was changed except for the OS. Played for about 6 hours and literally never dipped below 100 frames (where I have my refresh rate set at for the 120 Hz monitor). Seriously, it stayed at a constant 100 on the server, even when it was full. Now I'm going to turn up the refresh to 120 and see if I can get a solid 120 frames.

So, if your thinking of a OS reinstall or a new pc and want to play BF4 at great frames, get Windows 8. Cheapest and best upgrade a player can do.


Specs:

Windows 8 Pro 64 biit
Antec 1200 Enthusiast case
Antec 1200 Powersupply
Asus P6X58D-E socket 1366 motherboard (purchased June 2010 - still half a kickass socket)
Intel i7 980 Gulftown X6 3.33 Ghz 12 MB L3 cache (mildly overclocked to 3.72 Ghz)
12 GB DDR3 @ 1600 (triple channel) Corsair Dominator
Asus Xonar DSX soundcard
2 nVidia GTX 780s in SLI
Zalman CNPS10X cooler
180 GB Intel 530 SSD
Samsung SH-S223L CD/DVD drive
Benq XL2420T 120 Hz 24" monitor (lightboost enabled)

 

[mizzou]

wonder if it has something to do with the game being programmed for Xbone...which is a derivative of windows 8? Other then that, it's nice to see a performance increase. Overall I'm not sold on win 8x , might wait for 9 on my end or hopefully ditch windows altogether

 

[Maximilian]

Its because of DX11.1 being supported in 8.1

The difference isnt huge but its there:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...ows_7_vs_81_performance_review/5#.UpxTaMTxqYk

 

[rancherlee]

BIG difference for me, I gained ~15% on my average FPS and ~35% on minimum FPS going to 8.1 from 7 on BF4. BUT I have boarderline CPU for BF4 and With Win7 I couldn't drive my 7950 to 99% usage most of the time. Under 8.1 My 7950 is at 99% just about the whole match except huge explosions or the Shanghai building falling. This it 64player conquest running 1080P Ultra default (x4msaa)

 

[Childs]

There is another thread on this in the video card subforum, but the difference is significant, even compared to Windows 7 with unparked cores. I installed Windows 8.1 to verify there wasn't a significant difference, but it was anywhere from 10-25% or more, depending on the settings. Win 7 with unparked cores smoothed out the game play, but Windows 8.1 is just faster. It is a curiosity, as the gains some people report are bigger than others, and you would expect it to be relatively consistent.

 

[lozina]

I am struggling with annoying BF4 performance which I usually write off as bad netcode but it could also be due to sudden FPS drops with my Windows 7 system.

I am planning to try Windows 8.1 to see how it affects my particular problem of what I am aiming at on my monitor does not seem to be in synch with what the server thinks I am aiming at when all is said and done

 

[Kev]

No it's not Windows 8 itself that fixed your stuttering problem, it's Windows 8's handling of multicore processors. All you need to do is disable core parking in Windows 7 and it fixes the stuttering issue. This info was posted in the BF4 thread. Absolutely no need to buy Windows 8.

 

[Kitlope]

No it's not Windows 8 itself that fixed your stuttering problem, it's Windows 8's handling of multicore processors. All you need to do is disable core parking in Windows 7 and it fixes the stuttering issue. This info was posted in the BF4 thread. Absolutely no need to buy Windows 8.

I don't know about that. In my case, I had my cores unparked in W7 and I still had stuttering, even with SLI disabled. Granted, it wasn't brutal and the game played relatively fine but the smoothness, consistent frames and lack of stuttering all occurred a few days ago after installing Windows 8.1

Of course, YMMV.

 

[moonbogg]

There is another thread on this in the video card subforum, but the difference is significant, even compared to Windows 7 with unparked cores. I installed Windows 8.1 to verify there wasn't a significant difference, but it was anywhere from 10-25% or more, depending on the settings. Win 7 with unparked cores smoothed out the game play, but Windows 8.1 is just faster. It is a curiosity, as the gains some people report are bigger than others, and you would expect it to be relatively consistent.

Yeah. I think a lot of it has to do with people passing judgment without actually trying windows 8.1. It does seem pretty inconsistent, however, I benefited greatly, a friend of mine benefited greatly and others in my clan boasted of their much higher FPS and smooth gameplay while I was still suffering under windows 7. They later told me, "Oh, by the way, we all use windows 8". I thought nothing of it at the time of course. I was in ERROR! ERROR!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

No it's not Windows 8 itself that fixed your stuttering problem, it's Windows 8's handling of multicore processors. All you need to do is disable core parking in Windows 7 and it fixes the stuttering issue. This info was posted in the BF4 thread. Absolutely no need to buy Windows 8.

this,, surprised it took a few posts before someone said this

EDIT: and i dont' even play BF4, lol

 

[moonbogg]

this,, surprised it took a few posts before someone said this

EDIT: and i dont' even play BF4, lol

People are aware of this. Its just that disabling core parking doesn't always do the trick, but sometimes it does. Results seems to be inconsistent, but switching to windows 8.1 seems to cure performance issues pretty consistently

 

[AFurryReptile]

No it's not Windows 8 itself that fixed your stuttering problem, it's Windows 8's handling of multicore processors. All you need to do is disable core parking in Windows 7 and it fixes the stuttering issue. This info was posted in the BF4 thread. Absolutely no need to buy Windows 8.

Can confirm. I did this a while back while running 75+ Skyrim mods, and performance improved dramatically.

 

[BD231]

If you're on dated hardware don't bother. In BF4 the improvement is there but for other titles you'll likely feel the 8.1 bloat slowing down your system a bit. Still a good gaming OS though I've had no issues with it and don't see a point in going back to 7.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

People are aware of this. Its just that disabling core parking doesn't always do the trick, but sometimes it does. Results seems to be inconsistent, but switching to windows 8.1 seems to cure performance issues pretty consistently

There is no way to collectively take peoples accounts with core parking and hold them as legitimate trials in an argument. The only consistency is with the out come to one variable and that's simply switching to Windows 8.. There are a number of registry settings in the Win7 power config profile that can affect the outcome

 

[Carfax83]

If you're on dated hardware don't bother. In BF4 the improvement is there but for other titles you'll likely feel the 8.1 bloat slowing down your system a bit. Still a good gaming OS though I've had no issues with it and don't see a point in going back to 7.

Windows 8.1 may be bloated, but the bloat has practically no effect on performance....unlike Windows 7.

 

[looper]

Not sure if I should have put this in the BF4 thread but since this is such a dramatic improvement in BF4 performance (where I have my refresh rate set at for the 120 Hz monitor)pc

I have the new Eizo monitor that has a 120 hz refresh.But what do you mean 100 fps set.... in BF4? And if yes, where do you do that?

 

[Kitlope]

I have the new Eizo monitor that has a 120 hz refresh.But what do you mean 100 fps set.... in BF4? And if yes, where do you do that?

Change the refresh in NVidia (or ati) control panel. Then make sure the game is running the same in the video options. Because I struggled a bit to see consistent 120 fps, I changed the resolution down to 100 and get solid 100 fps 95% of the time. Very important for Strobelight to work properly if you use it.

 

[looper]

I understand about NVidia control panel and I do have that set to 120hz.

But, did someone here say something about setting FPS in Battlefield 4 itself? Because I see nowhere to do that in game options.

Oh, and BTW, I ran the BF4 system test. BF4 for me is at 1920x1080, most settings at 'medium'. With cpu core parking on, my framerate was @ 147, and with core parking disabled it was @ 152... ran it 4 times both ways. I don't know if that's considered accurate, but if it is, is that good? My system is listed below.

 

[Childs]

I understand about NVidia control panel and I do have that set to 120hz.

But, did someone here say something about setting FPS in Battlefield 4 itself? Because I see nowhere to do that in game options.

Oh, and BTW, I ran the BF4 system test. BF4 for me is at 1920x1080, most settings at 'medium'. With cpu core parking on, my framerate was @ 147, and with core parking disabled it was @ 152... ran it 4 times both ways. I don't know if that's considered accurate, but if it is, is that good? My system is listed below.

You can set a max fps in the cfg files, but I'm not sure that will help. You can download the BF4 Settings Editor and do it easily. Maybe also uncheck triple buffering.

 

[Kitlope]

I understand about NVidia control panel and I do have that set to 120hz.

But, did someone here say something about setting FPS in Battlefield 4 itself? Because I see nowhere to do that in game options.

In the game under video settings "Fullscreen Resolution" you should see what Hz your running at. Try to keep your fps as consistent & constant to that frequency, in your case I'm assuming its 60 Hz. I have a 120 Hz monitor but dumb it down slightly to 100 Hz for more consistent frames close to 100 as at 120 it jumps around a bit between 100 & 120. This helps alleviate the stuttering and slow down associated when frames drop.

 

[looper]

In the game under video settings "Fullscreen Resolution" you should see what Hz your running at. Try to keep your fps as consistent & constant to that frequency, in your case I'm assuming its 60 Hz. I have a 120 Hz monitor but dumb it down slightly to 100 Hz for more consistent frames close to 100 as at 120 it jumps around a bit between 100 & 120. This helps alleviate the stuttering and slow down associated when frames drop.

@ 3 weeks ago I got that new Eizo 120hz 'gaming' monitor... really like it so far. I will look at that in video settings.

I may also OC my CPU. The 2600k chip on this Asus MB should easily get @ 4.0-4.4 ghz with a mild/medium OC I believe.

BF4 is running very good now for me. Amazing game. I've been playing 'shooters' since 1993, and this is the best one I've seen, IMO... I am a bit disappointed with the sound... localization is not particularly good.

 

[TheSlamma]

Windows 8 just handles CPU Parking function better. It has nothing to do with DX11 vs DX11.1

If you know how to correctly turn it off then Windows 7 runs BF4 great. Mine ran so poorly before turning off Core parking that I gave up at rank 6.. now I can't get enough of the game.

 

[BD231]

Windows 8.1 may be bloated, but the bloat has practically no effect on performance....unlike Windows 7.

So 8.1 is slower than 7 even though 7 is more bloated and way faster, gottcha.

 

[goobernoodles]

I'm going to give 8.1 a shot this week when my 4770K and new mobo/ram arrives.

 

[Carfax83]

So 8.1 is slower than 7 even though 7 is more bloated and way faster, gottcha.

I said nothing of the sort.

All Microsoft operating systems have bloat, but with Windows 8/8.1, Microsoft implemented a new memory handling algorithm and thread scheduler which mitigate the bloat in a big way due to more effective use of resources.

And while Windows 8/8.1 may technically have more bloat than Windows 7 (due to the apps), it's still faster and more secure in practically every conceivable manner.