[fixed] Dragon Age 2 Low Performance on Nvidia Cards [fixed]

[tviceman]

These drivers do not fix anything. Nvidia is wrong, terrible, their gpu's are faulty, their culture hurts pc gaming, their leader is crazy, their drivers are buggy, and their cards require too much power. :biggrin:

3dfx for LIFE!

 

[nanaki333]

3dfx was bought buy nvidia! OH NOEZ!

 

[tviceman]

So can the OP update the thread title to say it's fixed now?

 

[Arkadrel]

yeah this thread should have a [Fixed] tag.

 

[Keysplayr]

yeah this thread should have a [Fixed] tag.

Maybe you can ask a mod if they can update the title.

 

[Carfax83]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31473706&postcount=16

Better but still can't be maxed with nvidia, even on a rig like mine.

Now hopefully they can get Shogun 2 fixed and their drivers that cause gtx 590s to explode or wait the lying reviewers and end-users or wait the bios or what the hardware or... well hopefully they can fix it ()

Can't be maxed? I have a similar rig to yours, and I noticed a 10 FPS increase with these drivers over the 267 series..

I now have smooth framerates at 2560x1600 4xAA 16xAF DX11 everything turned on except blur...

I don't know what it is about the high quality blur, but it causes a catastrophic decrease in framerates when enabled. I'm thinking it's a bit buggy on Nvidia hardware still, and will likely take a patch from Bioware to fix it.

 

[Tempered81]

 

[Idontcare]

So can the OP update the thread title to say it's fixed now?

yeah this thread should have a [Fixed] tag.

Maybe you can ask a mod if they can update the title.

(my apologies in advance for the wall of bolded text but forum protocol dictates that any post I make as a matter of effecting my moderator duties be bolded and signed)

Guys I won't pretend to understand the depth of the issue at hand, but the question I have is "do Nvidia cards have Low Performance on DA2?".

If the cards do have low performance in the game, not asking if there has been improvements in performance, then the thread title is still accurate, is it not?

Skimming this thread I gather that performance was low, below expectations at least, prompting the creation of the thread.

Skimming through up to the end leaves me with the impression that performance has indeed been improved a great deal by Nvidia's latest drivers but the performance levels are still, nevertheless, low relative to expectations because the consumer must selectively turn off certain eye-candy features if they want playable framerates.

(this is just my admittedly superficial understanding of the situation, if I am in error then please help me understand the error and assist me in formulating the correct perception)

Coming back to the initial question - on what basis is the existing thread-title misleading or inaccurate to warrant moderator intervention to change it? Do Nvidia cards have "low performance" in DA2?

(It is OK for your responses to this mod-post to be posted up in this thread, it is on-topic)

Idontcare
Super Moderator

 

[bryanW1995]

thats serious butthurt...


I had to play da2 on my 24 inch 120hz monitor instead of my 3007.....


have a 580 that I have not updated yet in my sig...

I thought that the 3007 scaled very very well. Why didn't you just play it at 1920x1200 on your 3007?

 

[bryanW1995]

i'm planning on getting DA2 soon, should i download the texture pack with my 5850 1GB (flashed with 5870 bios to 900/1125)? will it kill my FPS due to lack of VRAM?

at your resolution you should be fine.

270.51 beta released.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2154172

Give them a try Groover!! This is what you've been waiting for!! Give it hell.

I'm finally wearing out a bit on DAO after my 3rd complete game through the main storyline+expansions+DLC. Grim reaper was pretty tough to get until I realized that 160 defense is nearly unhittable...

Anyway, I'll try out a game of DA2 with the old and new drivers tonight. Currently, I can't do anything at all on very high (though my little card might still struggle even with the new drivers).

 

[bryanW1995]

(my apologies in advance for the wall of bolded text but forum protocol dictates that any post I make as a matter of effecting my moderator duties be bolded and signed)

Guys I won't pretend to understand the depth of the issue at hand, but the question I have is "do Nvidia cards have Low Performance on DA2?".

If the cards do have low performance in the game, not asking if there has been improvements in performance, then the thread title is still accurate, is it not?

Skimming this thread I gather that performance was low, below expectations at least, prompting the creation of the thread.

Skimming through up to the end leaves me with the impression that performance has indeed been improved a great deal by Nvidia's latest drivers but the performance levels are still, nevertheless, low relative to expectations because the consumer must selectively turn off certain eye-candy features if they want playable framerates.

(this is just my admittedly superficial understanding of the situation, if I am in error then please help me understand the error and assist me in formulating the correct perception)

Coming back to the initial question - on what basis is the existing thread-title misleading or inaccurate to warrant moderator intervention to change it? Do Nvidia cards have "low performance" in DA2?

(It is OK for your responses to this mod-post to be posted up in this thread, it is on-topic)

Idontcare
Super Moderator

I will be able to help with this tonight, at least on gtx 460's. From looking at updated reviews with the most recent beta drivers it appears that gtx 580 is doing much better but is still about 5% or so behind 6970 at 2560x1600 with very high/super dooper eye candy/etc etc. According to techpowerup, the gtx 580 only bests 6970 by 10% at 2560x1600 in all games tested, and as the resolutions get higher/more detailed the number ends up closer to 5%. This is closer to the average than many games, as a few outliers tend to significantly sway the tests towards either the red or green camp. However, technically the thread title is not incorrect but rather just slightly (inadvertently imho since the drivers have just come out) misleading.

Good taste probably dictates that the OP should alter title to reflect the significant improvements that drivers have made, and if the OP doesn't change the thread title then it should become clear to everybody that he absolutely has an anti-nvidia agenda. But getting the mods to change title is probably not called for since technically thread title is still corrrect.

Edit Oops, just found out OP is spending 7 days away from the AT forums. In that case I'd recommend to the mods to wait on editing thread title until we see some reviews with the newest/bestest drivers.

 

[tviceman]

(my apologies in advance for the wall of bolded text but forum protocol dictates that any post I make as a matter of effecting my moderator duties be bolded and signed)

Guys I won't pretend to understand the depth of the issue at hand, but the question I have is "do Nvidia cards have Low Performance on DA2?".

If the cards do have low performance in the game, not asking if there has been improvements in performance, then the thread title is still accurate, is it not?

Skimming this thread I gather that performance was low, below expectations at least, prompting the creation of the thread.

Skimming through up to the end leaves me with the impression that performance has indeed been improved a great deal by Nvidia's latest drivers but the performance levels are still, nevertheless, low relative to expectations because the consumer must selectively turn off certain eye-candy features if they want playable framerates.

(this is just my admittedly superficial understanding of the situation, if I am in error then please help me understand the error and assist me in formulating the correct perception)

Coming back to the initial question - on what basis is the existing thread-title misleading or inaccurate to warrant moderator intervention to change it? Do Nvidia cards have "low performance" in DA2?

(It is OK for your responses to this mod-post to be posted up in this thread, it is on-topic)

Idontcare
Super Moderator

Look at the post previous to yours. It shows a gtx570 to be nearly on par with AMD's fastest chip. A gtx580 isn't in that benchmark, but it would definitely be the fastest card out of the bunch of the new drivers. I think Nvidia having the fastest card for this game doesn't warrant the thread title anymore.

EDIT:

And further, the thread title "low performance" is not at all indicative to the current situation now. The game runs as well or better on Nvidia hardware as it does on AMD hardware. So therefore the thread title is now either misleading or untrue.

 

[n0x1ous]

(my apologies in advance for the wall of bolded text but forum protocol dictates that any post I make as a matter of effecting my moderator duties be bolded and signed)

Guys I won't pretend to understand the depth of the issue at hand, but the question I have is "do Nvidia cards have Low Performance on DA2?".

If the cards do have low performance in the game, not asking if there has been improvements in performance, then the thread title is still accurate, is it not?

Skimming this thread I gather that performance was low, below expectations at least, prompting the creation of the thread.

Skimming through up to the end leaves me with the impression that performance has indeed been improved a great deal by Nvidia's latest drivers but the performance levels are still, nevertheless, low relative to expectations because the consumer must selectively turn off certain eye-candy features if they want playable framerates.

(this is just my admittedly superficial understanding of the situation, if I am in error then please help me understand the error and assist me in formulating the correct perception)

Coming back to the initial question - on what basis is the existing thread-title misleading or inaccurate to warrant moderator intervention to change it? Do Nvidia cards have "low performance" in DA2?

(It is OK for your responses to this mod-post to be posted up in this thread, it is on-topic)

Idontcare
Super Moderator

In my opinion, "low performance" meant that Nvidia cards were not performing where we expected them to in the hierarchy of available cards.

The common hierarchy being:
580>6970>570>6950>=560>6870 etc etc.

With the results that Tempered posted with the new drivers showing the 570 slotting just below the 6970 I would say that performance is now "as expected" since that's where the 570 would slot on most other games.

So, if we assume that that benchmark is legit, which we have no reason to doubt, then I would say it would best serve the community to change the thread title to Fixed

 

[Idontcare]

In my opinion, "low performance" meant that Nvidia cards were not performing where we expected them to in the hierarchy of available cards.

The common hierarchy being:
580>6970>570>6950>=560>6870 etc etc.

With the results that Tempered posted with the new drivers showing the 570 slotting just below the 6970 I would say that performance is now "as expected" since that's where the 570 would slot on most other games.

So, if we assume that that benchmark is legit, which we have no reason to doubt, then I would say it would best serve the community to change the thread title to Fixed

OK, I understand the relevance of the recent developments more succinctly now.

Since thread title changes can be reversed, I am going to go ahead and append [fixed] to the thread title for now but will leave open the possibility of rescinding the change should it turn out that the situation is not fixed.

Idontcare
Super Moderator

 

[SHAQ]

I confirmed last night that the latest betas pretty much fixed the issue. I have everything on at 8XAA and Very High and it was close to 60 fps the whole time and before it was about 20 fps. I do have blur turned off because it blurs the crisp textures.

 

[bryanW1995]

nice. I'm interested to see what very high looks like without 1/2 the screen blacked out!

 

[bryanW1995]

Ok, ran from meeran to athenril and back in the gallows courtyard (right after you get to kirkwall) with fraps running.

4xAA, 16xAF
i7 920 @ 3.6
gtx 460 768 @ 850/4000
1680x1050 (native resolution)
dx11, very high, no AO, DOF, or Blur b/c I missed them in my original run
1st run is with 267.xx drivers, 2nd run is with the new 270.xx beta drivers that came out yesterday.

2011-04-01 18:26:22 - DragonAge2
Frames: 571 - Time: 25943ms - Avg: 22.010 - Min: 17 - Max: 29

2011-04-01 18:39:39 - DragonAge2
Frames: 1378 - Time: 25210ms - Avg: 54.661 - Min: 44 - Max: 61

I'll go run it again with AO, DOF, and Blur just to see what that does.

2011-04-01 18:49:23 - DragonAge2
Frames: 759 - Time: 24929ms - Avg: 30.446 - Min: 27 - Max: 34

wow, those 3 really slow it down a lot but it's still ~ 30% faster than pre-patch even with all 3. I assume that it would drop to a slideshow during some battles, however. I'll have to play with the settings once I really start playing the game.

Very High with AO, DOF, and Blur looks much better than just very high. I wonder what the high res texture packs do?

 

[Keysplayr]

Very nice Bryan. That's more like it.

 

[WelshBloke]

Ok, ran from meeran to athenril and back in the gallows courtyard (right after you get to kirkwall) with fraps running.

4xAA, 16xAF
i7 920 @ 3.6
gtx 460 768 @ 850/4000
1680x1050 (native resolution)
dx11, very high, no AO, DOF, or Blur b/c I missed them in my original run
1st run is with 267.xx drivers, 2nd run is with the new 270.xx beta drivers that came out yesterday.

2011-04-01 18:26:22 - DragonAge2
Frames: 571 - Time: 25943ms - Avg: 22.010 - Min: 17 - Max: 29

2011-04-01 18:39:39 - DragonAge2
Frames: 1378 - Time: 25210ms - Avg: 54.661 - Min: 44 - Max: 61

I'll go run it again with AO, DOF, and Blur just to see what that does.

2011-04-01 18:49:23 - DragonAge2
Frames: 759 - Time: 24929ms - Avg: 30.446 - Min: 27 - Max: 34

wow, those 3 really slow it down a lot but it's still ~ 30% faster than pre-patch even with all 3. I assume that it would drop to a slideshow during some battles, however. I'll have to play with the settings once I really start playing the game.

Very High with AO, DOF, and Blur looks much better than just very high. I wonder what the high res texture packs do?

Sounds good.

High res texture pack is well worth having.

I hate blur though, it makes the game look worse.

Go for very high, hires textures and everything on except blur. If you can squeeze a bit of AA in as well you'll have the game looking as good as it gets.

:thumbsup:

 

[TerabyteX]

Kinda odd that nVidia had performance issues with two latest DX11 tittles like Dragon Age 2 and Shogun 2. Is this a future tendency?, obsoleting Fermi faster than usual when newer DX11 games are available along with newer cards or performance sabotage by competition? We may never know. :hmm:

 

[3DVagabond]

Kinda odd that nVidia had performance issues with two latest DX11 tittles like Dragon Age 2 and Shogun 2. Is this a future tendency?, obsoleting Fermi faster than usual when newer DX11 games are available along with newer cards or performance sabotage by competition? We may never know. :hmm:

Probably because, for a change, AMD got first dibs on optimizing the game before they were released. Crysis II is just the opposite, for the same reasons. Only this time it was nVidia's turn.

It's now gotten to the point where the GPU manufacturers have to pay the devs "for the privilege" to get their games to run right. For the consumer's sake (that's us, for those of you who seem to applaud this activity), both companies need equal access. Without that, we, the ones who actually pay all of the bills, are going to be the ones who suffer in the long run. It's all a bunch of BS!

 

[alcoholbob]

Kinda odd that nVidia had performance issues with two latest DX11 tittles like Dragon Age 2 and Shogun 2. Is this a future tendency?, obsoleting Fermi faster than usual when newer DX11 games are available along with newer cards or performance sabotage by competition? We may never know. :hmm:

No surprise. Neither are The Way It's Meant To Be Played™ games.

 

[bryanW1995]

Sounds good.

High res texture pack is well worth having.

I hate blur though, it makes the game look worse.

Go for very high, hires textures and everything on except blur. If you can squeeze a bit of AA in as well you'll have the game looking as good as it gets.

:thumbsup:

I'll try the high res texture pack, but it is supposed to be run only on 1gb + cards. Might have to try to hack it I guess...

Kinda odd that nVidia had performance issues with two latest DX11 tittles like Dragon Age 2 and Shogun 2. Is this a future tendency?, obsoleting Fermi faster than usual when newer DX11 games are available along with newer cards or performance sabotage by competition? We may never know. :hmm:

IMHO nvidia has taught amd the advantages of TWIMTBP-type agreements. It was very big news when SC2 came out with issues on AMD cards, and batman was just a fiasco for AMD (at first). Now, AMD is going for some payback. It would be cool for all of us to hang out in fields and look at double rainbows all day while singing hymnals. However, I suspect that as long as AMD/Nvidia think that $2 million given to crytek/EA/etc will sell them more cards than spending that money on better components/additional R&D/etc, we're going to see this trend continue.

 

[TerabyteX]

Well, at least AMD's involvement in Dirt 2 didn't affect nVidia at all in terms of performance. I wish I could say the same on Batman etc but that's no longer the case as the GOTY edition fixed that. Could it be related in how nVidia processes SSBAO or SSAO or whatever it is called?

 

[taltamir]

http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/r270-driver/

There’s good news for Dragon Age II gamers, too – the recently released action role-playing game is now 6.2 times faster in a GeForce GTX 580 SLI configuration, 5.6 times faster in a GTX 560 Ti SLI configuration, 4.5 times faster on a single GTX 580, and 3.6 times faster on a single 560 Ti.

6.2 times faster is quite the improvement. There was obviously some major bug in the nvidia driver that DA2 hit on which has apparently been resolved. Now they perform like normal cards.