Eyefinity and Bad Company 2 performance issue

[TheEyeDoc]

First of all, first post ever here. Figured this would be a great place to bring this question, as there are likely people that have solved this issue.

I am a fairly experienced computer builder, going back about 10 years. I build a few systems a year for my office, home and friends. I know OS, hardware, etc.

I recently decided to make the dive into Eyefinity with my home rig - i5-750, 8 GB RAM, 2 X 5850 in Crossfire. I had a single 28" LCD, added 2 more 28" LCD's. I am a big time Battlefield fan back to 1942/Desert Combat. I have played BC2 since release, and it had played so smooth on a single 28" LCD, res and everything maxed with a single 5850. I added the 2nd 5850 and it became just unplayable with how choppy it became. I have lowered res to 5760X1080 and settings to medium with only 2X AA and Aniso and it is better, but still not smooth. It seems this system should be able to run that config easily, so thought I would see if anyone sees something I missed, or if I just need to lower expectations.

I drop down 1920X1200 in 1 LCD and again, perfection. I am running Catalyst 10.11 currently.

Thanks in advance for any help given.

 

[Elfear]

Maybe running out of vram?? Have you checked that possibility?

 

[dlamb2471]

I'm going to wildly speculate that maybe you need cards with 2 gig on them for running that kind of resolution in BC2?

 

[badb0y]

Try running it with a single card (in eyefinity) and report your results.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

I will try the single card and see how it goes. I have read 10.11 has some issues to it and wondered if it might not be something there, as well.

 

[Jhatfie]

I am assuming that you have the latest crossfire profiles?

I have not played BC2 in a few weeks, but I run a similar configuration to you. 5850's in crossfire, i5-750 @ 4.0Ghz, 8GB ram, 5760x1200 resolution. I'll have to check, but I believe I was running high details, 2xAA with HBOA off and averaging around 60fps with dips in the mid 40's.

I'll double check when I get home tonight to verify my settings.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

I am assuming that you have the latest crossfire profiles?

I have not played BC2 in a few weeks, but I run a similar configuration to you. 5850's in crossfire, i5-750 @ 4.0Ghz, 8GB ram, 5760x1200 resolution. I'll have to check, but I believe I was running high details, 2xAA with HBOA off and averaging around 60fps with dips in the mid 40's.

I'll double check when I get home tonight to verify my settings.

Awesome, thank you.

I am not familiar with Crossfire profiles. Please explain. I have always just kept with single GPU's and so the dive into Crossfire is new to me.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/crossfirex-app-profiles.aspx This I assume? Interesting.

 

[jacktesterson]

They are mini updates at the bottom of the AMD Driver Page for your card.

Crossfire/SLI configs need updates to work properly for games and are updated almost monthly.

You just download and install.

Id try the 10.12 and latest profile update

 

[TheEyeDoc]

OH, I believe I forgot to add my OS - Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

 

[Jhatfie]

Awesome, thank you.

I am not familiar with Crossfire profiles. Please explain. I have always just kept with single GPU's and so the dive into Crossfire is new to me.

As Bigstyle said, they should be on the bottom of the AMD driver page, called ATI Catalyst Application Profiles. Really small, like .5 MB. Just install and enjoy added performance.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

I look forward to updating to 10.12 and adding profiles tonight. I assume it is just an addition to the Catalyst drivers, and nothing more I have to do with game files?

 

[Idontcare]

Welcome to the forum TheEyeDoc! :thumbsup:

 

[dlamb2471]

Ah man, no welcome for me?

 

[exar333]

Ah man, no welcome for me?

<crickets>

Just kidding! Welcome to the AT forums.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

Thank you. I will hopefully be able to help others in the future.

 

[Zargon]

welcome guys!

hope the xfire profiles and 10.12 work out for you! its likely to alteast help, you might have turn a few things down as you tripled the pixles and only doubled the card, and they dont scale 100&#37;

 

[digitaldurandal]

I'm going to wildly speculate that maybe you need cards with 2 gig on them for running that kind of resolution in BC2?

I was able to run eyefinity with a 5870 1gb. I did have to turn off HBAO and AA.

I ran 5760x1200 8xAF I would get between 45 - 75 fps

 

[TheEyeDoc]

I am wondering how much AA I would need at 5760X1200 anyway, so will also try ramping up res and killing AA. Thanks again to everyone.

 

[digitaldurandal]

2X Eliminated most jaggies, 4x vs 8x takes a trained eye - unless you ran through a level filled with wires.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

Crap. I ran FRAPS on it with 1 at 1920X1200 and was getting 120 FPS with just medium overall settings. I went Eyefinity on it and was getting 20 FPS. Makes no sense. I even threw in a little OC on the CPU to get it to 3.20 GHz just for fun. I could live with 40-50 FPS easy. 20 is not playable if you want to do anything. It should not scale down to 1/6th. 1/3 sure, but 1/6?

Any ideas? I am running 10.12 now and ran the app profiles, as well.

 

[Matrices]

Unfortunately, there is a known issue with ATI 5 series cards when you use them in both Crossfire and Eyefinity. And that issue is that they can run like complete crap. Not all such configurations are afflicted, but undoubtedly some are, as illustrated by the 11+ page thread on this issue on Hardforum.com. Bad Company 2 seemed to be the most egregious example, but the problem affected all games.

That's not encouraging news to you no doubt, but I wanted to save you further grief. These issues have been fixed with 6 series cards.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

Nice, so I guess if I want to jump in with 2 6870's or a 5970, it would be fine then huh? AMD makes it so hard to be a fan anymore.

 

[Matrices]

Not a 5970 - that would just compound the issue, if anything. But yeah, any pair of 6 series cards would work.

 

[TheEyeDoc]

Bah, so I had disabled Crossfire and it still happened. I yanked the newer 5850 and now it runs at 5760X1200 on med/high settings fairly well.

Ridiculous that they have not addressed the issue, but oh well. At least I can play in 5760X1200 now. Thanks for all of the help.

Now I am left wondering if I should sell the 5850's, and buy 2 6850's to CF or a single 6970 maybe? I am a little gunshy of even trying CF again at this point.

Again, thanks to everyone for the help.