Help: Gaming at 120fps

[rav3n72]

Need some help here guys.

I am struggling to maintain 120fps in games and I am not sure if it is the sucky game programmers or something on my pc. Here are my results while gaming:

2700k @ 4.6Ghz with memory at 2133 CL10. Both GTX570s running 770core and 2100 memory.

BF3 (1080p; ultra quality; 4xAA) : 60-80fps average (both gpus 100%) <- I don't have the horsepower to bf3 so I am happy with this. Use my cpu & gpus as intended
Serious Sam 3 (1080p; max quality; max AA): 70-100fps average (gpus running 60% usage) <- what is wrong here, why aren't the gpus utilized 100%. cpu limited???
World of Tanks (1080p max quality; 8xAA): 80-90fps (gpus running about 80%) <- again why?

Am I limited by 8x pci-e bus? I am sure that a sandy at 4.6Ghz will not be a bottleneck.

Any ideas why I can't maintain 120fps (except bf3).

Edit: forgot to mention that I tried with Vsync on and off.

 

[Scrapps]

dude you complaining about 120fps..

 

[Senshi]

dude you complaining about 120fps..

And your post isn't helping at all. Consider this your first and final warning.

I doubt you're cpu limited, probably the coding of the game that's holding you back.

Why the fascination of 120 fps though? 120hz Screen? If so, don't let it bother you, you don't NEED 120fps to use the 120hz refresh rate. Even StarCraft II that has it's engine capped at 60 fps looks smoother on my 120hz screen than a 60hz unit.

 

[rav3n72]

Yeah, sorry forgot to mention that I have a 120hz screen (as per sig) and would like to maintain that. With my previous 60hz screen it is easy to enable vsync and keep an constant 60fps. With the 120hz screen it is a whole different ball game. I agree with you that 60fps looks alot smoother on my new screen than the old one, I just wish I can maintain 120hz.

I tried increasing the memory frequency of the gpus, it could be my imagination, but it looks like the gpu usage went up a bit and also the fps. Not much, but world of tanks is now 100-110fps. I think it is just down to the game engines.

Senshi, you have a 120hz right? Do you have the same problem?

 

[SilvRav]

It is has P said, the 120mhz has nothing to do with the actually frames your game will obtain...it is the refresh rate of your screen.

Keep in mind, if you want an average of 120fps you need to aim for 140fps cause as soon as your screen display a very active part of the game your FPS will immediately take a drop,

110fps is really not that bad.

 

[Scrapps]

i apologize for being a !%*@ it was a bad move on my part.. i just no that your eyes cant really pic up more than 60fps (exceptions in fast explosive seens where that little bit extra fps will make up for it)
reading my last comment i see i shouldnt have come out so straight forward..
Apologies again

 

[Oj0]

That is incorrect, 60 Hz is about where things start jerking smoothly enough to appear as smooth motion but it is certainly not the upper limit of the human eye. Pilots have been known to be able to identify a jet flashed against a black wall for 1/220 second.

 

[Scrapps]

That is incorrect, 60 Hz is about where things start jerking smoothly enough to appear as smooth motion but it is certainly not the upper limit of the human eye. Pilots have been known to be able to identify a jet flashed against a black wall for 1/220 second.

im just saying for gaming, anything over 100 is excellent.. thats why i was surprised at first, coz you wouldnt be noticing anything really.. just the number telling you the fps in the corner of your screen..

 

[Senshi]

Yeah, sorry forgot to mention that I have a 120hz screen (as per sig) and would like to maintain that. With my previous 60hz screen it is easy to enable vsync and keep an constant 60fps. With the 120hz screen it is a whole different ball game. I agree with you that 60fps looks alot smoother on my new screen than the old one, I just wish I can maintain 120hz.

I tried increasing the memory frequency of the gpus, it could be my imagination, but it looks like the gpu usage went up a bit and also the fps. Not much, but world of tanks is now 100-110fps. I think it is just down to the game engines.

Senshi, you have a 120hz right? Do you have the same problem?

Yes, I also have a 120hz screen but the fact that I don't get 120fps doesn't bother me. Most of the titles I Play (Blizzard) are capped at 60 fps by the game engine so it's all good.

I would say the only time you really want 100fps+ is in FPS's, the rest aren't that important.

 

[bobbels_ZA]

rav3n, drop the AA and AF to a lower setting, it will most definately increase your fps. If you absolutely HAVE to run the game with AA and AF at the highest settings and maintain 120+ fps, then you might want to consider a GPU upgrade.

 

[rav3n72]

rav3n, drop the AA and AF to a lower setting, it will most definately increase your fps. If you absolutely HAVE to run the game with AA and AF at the highest settings and maintain 120+ fps, then you might want to consider a GPU upgrade.

The thing is I am not gpu limited. If can increase the AA, then the gpu usage goes a bit higher, but the fps stay the same.

My problem is that my fps in certain games is between 60-100fps with the gpu usage 50%-80%. Why not 100%? The only thing that I can think off that makes sense is that there are limitations in the game engines, some higher some lower.

 

[bobbels_ZA]

Beats me dude. If all else fails, do a clean install . I'm sure its SS3 and World of Tanks that might be using older game engines that cannot fully utilize your gpu's, especially not in SLI.

 

[Gouhan]

You are GPU limited that's all.
Getting 100% GPU usage is very difficult and you're assuming that you should be at 100% but that isn't the case. It's unlikely you'll be able saturate TMUs or ROPs, Cores or any part of the GPU all the time.
If you use a performance profiling tool you'll see that most of the time you're hovering between 40 to 70% of total GPU load.

 

[rav3n72]

You are GPU limited that's all.
Getting 100% GPU usage is very difficult and you're assuming that you should be at 100% but that isn't the case. It's unlikely you'll be able saturate TMUs or ROPs, Cores or any part of the GPU all the time.
If you use a performance profiling tool you'll see that most of the time you're hovering between 40 to 70% of total GPU load.

Thanks Neo, it make a bit more sense now. My understanding from your post is that it works kinda like cpu usage and cores. You have for example 4 cores, but if the software only uses 1, even though you are 25% usage you are limited by the cpu? Correct?

If that is the case, upgrading to a lets say gtx580 sli might not make a big difference because the extra TMUs and ROPs are just going to sit there and idle. (if the games that I play don't use them)

 

[Oj0]

You're sort of on the right track there.

 

[Sarinaide]

I had a similar endeavor with Skyrim, with benches showing cards playing in excess of 60FPS, I was locked at the 60FPS mark, I did find the mod which altered that and got higher frame rates, to which I will admit to not noticing anything really.

I guess the point being that some games also don't let you pass 60FPS unless you patch or hack it, just to clarify the skyrim scenario, I have seen two GTX 580's and single 580's both locked at 60FPS.

 

[Gouhan]

Thanks Neo, it make a bit more sense now. My understanding from your post is that it works kinda like cpu usage and cores. You have for example 4 cores, but if the software only uses 1, even though you are 25% usage you are limited by the cpu? Correct?

If that is the case, upgrading to a lets say gtx580 sli might not make a big difference because the extra TMUs and ROPs are just going to sit there and idle. (if the games that I play don't use them)

Yeah like Oj0 said, you're on the right track there.
the only thing is if you're using 60% of a GTX570, it will be slower than 60% of a GTX580. simply because mm for mm the 580 is more powerful that's all. So efficiency doesn't go up, just the scale. However you're right, that is what I'm saying