BF3 fps with GTX580

[MattyB]

Just wondering what fps people have when playing BF3 with the 580M. I checked out the Nvidia site for optimal settings and they say that I should have about 54fps with their settings for the GTX 580M on a 1920x1080. I seem to get between 23-31fps with those settings. I have no other programs running. I'm guessing they use a desktop for their tests but should that make that much of a difference for what I have? Seems a big difference to me. Any ideas?

 

[xI WeLLs Ix]

Turn off anti-aliasing and anti-aliasing post if they are on.

 

[MattyB]

Turn off anti-aliasing and anti-aliasing post if they are on.

Yeah I did that which brought the fps up, but according to them, I should get the higher fps with all of that still turned on.

 

[xI WeLLs Ix]

Have you got the latest nVidia drivers?

 

[MattyB]

Have you got the latest nVidia drivers?

Yep. Sure do.

 

[xI WeLLs Ix]

This may be a stupid question but do you have your laptop plugged in the mains when you play? If you dont, the gpu's don't run at max clocks. Also, try other nVidia drivers.

 

[MattyB]

Yeah I do. I think I worked it out anyway. I hadnt noticed this at the start but the Nvidia test was done with an i7-970. That would give better performance than mine. I didnt read the fine print.

 

[Maelstrom]

Even though the processor may be the case have you tried OCing the 580M? You could OC both the GPU and CPU at the same time but you might run into heat problems.

 

[MattyB]

I have never overclocked anything so I am a little weary about trying. I have been warned not to overclock laptops since, as you say, there will be heat problems.

 

[Maelstrom]

With normal laptops you wouldn't want to OC them but AWs are designed to be OC'd. That's why there so huge; so that they can keep cool (relatively) when OCing. I've never gotten above 80C OCing my GPU and that's not even the limit that I would go to. Even if you just have it raised up for good airflow then you should be fine. The CPU OCs already (unless you've disabled it) so you should be fine there. You should just monitor your temps and get a feel for how hot it gets when you play. Then, when you know how hot it gets, you can just OC it when ever you want and not worry about monitoring the temps. Some games don't need the OC so you should only do it for games that you want more FPS anyway. And if you have a second monitor (even a crappy one) you can put all the temp monitoring applications over there so you don't have to switch between them all the time.

 

[MattyB]

I would love to play around with it a bit. I may have to give it a go. I have been told my a tech expert I work with that I know just enough to be dangerous. Is there a way/program to set overclocks for certain games automatically which will then revert back to normal when you change? Rather than do it manually each time.

 

[Maelstrom]

Well, generally the GPU goes back to standyby mode when you aren't gaming. Because Win7 only uses it for graphics intensive programs (not Aero, lol). So you could have it OC'd all the time and you shouldn't have to worry about it staying heated up (unless your running Vista). And if you aren't comfortable OCing all the way then you should just do it in increments until you get to a point that your comfortable with.

 

[MattyB]

I guess there's no harm in doing it in small steps rather than jumping right in. I have an Nvidia one installed but i hear the MSI afterburner is the one to use for overclocking. Thanks for the info. I will give it a go next week and see what happens with my fps.

 

[xI WeLLs Ix]

Yeah MSI Afterburner is great. On one of my laptops I managed to get a 230M from 500/1100/790 to 630/1400/1000 (core, shader, memory) and it was stable. That allowed me to play my favourite games at higher settings ie. Call of duty series - I could enable specular map

 

[daxmagex]

I think that the PCI Express slot matters depending on which slot you put the card in. Not sure, but it also depends on the motherboard.

Also, you can try overclocking the GPU.

EDIT: Oh never mind, forgot that I'm in the m17x part of the forums. :/

 

[MattyB]

I had a little play around with it last night. Got a few freezes and a few really bad fps lags on BF3. I will keep fine tuning. I had no real heat issues though. Around the 80 deg C mark. It didnt like me increasing the memory clock too much.

 

[Maelstrom]

Yeah MSI Afterburner is great. On one of my laptops I managed to get a 230M from 500/1100/790 to 630/1400/1000 (core, shader, memory) and it was stable. That allowed me to play my favourite games at higher settings ie. Call of duty series - I could enable specular map

Aren't the core and shader supposed to be locked in a 1:2 ratio? They are on mine and I know you can unlock them but I thought it wouldn't really help at all.