Bad Company 2 - CPU too slow?

[Jon]

I've tried all the "tweaks" I can find and even the newest nvidia drivers which promise to add and/or improve sli in bad company 2. But still, on the snowy map I drop down to 20fps. Extensive sitting and watching of graphs whilst being stabbed in the back indicates that both cores (core 2 duo 2.8ghz) are at 100%. Whilst both gpus (2x280m's) are running at about 28%.

Am I right in thinking this is a case of a cpu bottleneck? Maybe because the cpu has the physics and sound engines to handle as well as passing frames to the gpu. So far, I've been messing around trying to get sli working... but maybe it is working and I have 2 cards sitting round waiting now instead of 1.

[Revs]

You'd probably be better with SLI disabled if the CPU is the bottleneck, as SLI adds load to the CPU. I take it this is a laptop? Is there any chance you could OC the CPU? That would make all the difference. The P9700 is an uber low power jobbie though isn't it.

[NarcissistZero]

The game is definitely CPU dependent in a lot of areas, in the snow or sandstorms I get drops to the low 30s no matter what settings I have the game on.

[ragejg]

Running @ 10x7 on my "Vacation LCD" I still get some slowdowns around fog and smoke. There's definitely some cpu-based non-optimization goin' on there.

[Jon]

Hmmm, I did switch the profile to single gpu but I forget to note down the fps as I was more baffled by the fact it went from 30% / 30% to 50%/20%. Thats still SLI in my books But I'll try it again with the new drivers.

Yeah, this is the laptop in my sig. Unfortunately its an nvidia motherboard and the only thing that can ocuk the cpu is nvidias system tools. Which actually freeze windows the second I install them.

Your CPU should be able to keep it up better then that. The game is quad core supportive so it should be that much of a limit for your rig.

What settings you running? Drivers?

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by Jon

I've tried all the "tweaks" I can find and even the newest nvidia drivers which promise to add and/or improve sli in bad company 2. But still, on the snowy map I drop down to 20fps. Extensive sitting and watching of graphs whilst being stabbed in the back indicates that both cores (core 2 duo 2.8ghz) are at 100%. Whilst both gpus (2x280m's) are running at about 28%.

Am I right in thinking this is a case of a cpu bottleneck? Maybe because the cpu has the physics and sound engines to handle as well as passing frames to the gpu. So far, I've been messing around trying to get sli working... but maybe it is working and I have 2 cards sitting round waiting now instead of 1.

You could try lowering the sound quality from both the settings.ini file and control panel(your X-Fi won't make a difference in this game).

[mailman2]

Your CPU will be a problem and especially with SLI. You are just further bottlenecking it. We've seen how CPU scaling with dual cards is very important. The faster the CPU the better.. so you can either try to overclock that further or may be looking at an upgrade.

I just went to an i7-860, newegg has a combo with an EVGA P55 LE for $422 that has another $30 MIR. I found a kit of DDR3 ram after rebate for $79. Basically after I sold my Q9550, 8GB DDR2 and motherboard it cost me about $15 to upgrade. It might be time to to the same.

You didn't mention your motherboard in your specs, but maybe you could get a Q9550 or 9560 to replace the Q6600 you have and drop it into your existing system even.

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by mailman2

Your CPU will be a problem and especially with SLI. You are just further bottlenecking it. We've seen how CPU scaling with dual cards is very important. The faster the CPU the better.. so you can either try to overclock that further or may be looking at an upgrade.

I just went to an i7-860, newegg has a combo with an EVGA P55 LE for $422 that has another $30 MIR. I found a kit of DDR3 ram after rebate for $79. Basically after I sold my Q9550, 8GB DDR2 and motherboard it cost me about $15 to upgrade. It might be time to to the same.

You didn't mention your motherboard in your specs, but maybe you could get a Q9550 or 9560 to replace the Q6600 you have and drop it into your existing system even.

I think he's talking about his laptop.

EDIT: slaWter beat me to it.

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by slaWter

The power of two additional cores made that possible

How are the temps compared to your old 965?

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Revs

You'd probably be better with SLI disabled if the CPU is the bottleneck, as SLI adds load to the CPU.

Well, I just gave it a try with sli disabled totally instead of single gpu profile and it seems you are indeed correct. I get 80% + usage on one gpu and 0% on the other... finally. But my framerates then go up by about 10fps... so the lowest I get now is 30fps! Cheers for that. Bit of a pain I have to turn SLI on and off... but its really the only game I'm playing at the moment anyway.

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by Jon

Well, I just gave it a try with sli disabled totally instead of single gpu profile and it seems you are indeed correct. I get 80% + usage on one gpu and 0% on the other... finally. But my framerates then go up by about 10fps... so the lowest I get now is 30fps! Cheers for that. Bit of a pain I have to turn SLI on and off... but its really the only game I'm playing at the moment anyway.

You should also try turning down the audio quality as I suggested.

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