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What should I change?

Associate
Joined
22 Aug 2009
Posts
218
Hi guys, looking for some advice here please.

I have the following system, Abit IP35Pro, [email protected], GTX295, 8Gb Ram, Creative x-fi. This PC is a dedicated gaming rig and is almost exclusively used for iRacing, I recently upgraded to three screens via TripleHead2Go and am running at 5040x1050.

I'm trying to improve the fps a little but I'm stuck, originally I had a GTX280 and as an example at a certain point on a certain track I'd get 120fps. Pretty good really but iRacing seems to have odd stutters at certain points if the framerate is not above about 160fps.

My first upgrade move was to get a 5870 but this was a no go, TH2Go does not work with it at 5040x1050 and I could not find an active adapter so I RMAed it and swapped to a GTX295. With this either in single or AFR2 mode (the recommended for iRacing) I get, 120fps. I can load up all sorts of AA and AF and its not until I start using silly amounts of AA that the framerate starts dropping. SLI is working as I can see a healthy improvement in 3dmark06 using both gpu's over a single one. It does work in iRacing too as a friend has two 280's and he sees a decent improvement but hes not running 5040x1050.

Using Rivatuners OSD I can see that the CPU is about 90% utilised on one core and 70 on the other - iRacing does use two cores to an extent. Again using Rivatuner I can see the video ram being used is about 377Mb so this should be fine for the 896Mb each GPU has on the GTX295.

The IP35Pro is only PCI-E 1.1 so I'm wondering if that is a bottleneck.

I suppose my real question (and why I've posted in the cpu section) is will an i7@4Ghz help, I can't make my mind up as the dual core does not seem to be maxed out but iRacing is thought to be very cpu dependent.

Does anyone have any other thoughts on what might help, e.g. would a P45 motherboard with PCI-E 2.0 help?

Failing that I can run with vsync on and maintain 57fps but somehow driving with vsync off seems better.

Thanks
Fred
 
Associate
Joined
7 Jul 2009
Posts
599
Due to the big increase on the standard cpu clock that you have i wouldn't have thought that an i7 @ 4ghz would make much of a difference. The same goes with your motherboard really, i wouldn't think a change would give the fps boost you are after.
Although its an expensive option the only way i would have thought you could get a big fps increase at that resolution is by adding another 295.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Jun 2009
Posts
7,664
Location
Cambridge
PCIe or memory bandwidth could be your downfall here. Is 90% and 70% core usage the peak or average during the game? If it's peaking to 100% on either core, this could be the problem (but hitting memory or PCIe bandwidth limits might also show up as 100% CPU usage on a core).
 
Associate
OP
Joined
22 Aug 2009
Posts
218
Hi folks thanks for replying.

Sindri, good idea but as I get the same fps if I use a single gpu on the 295 or both I don't think another one will help.

HazardO I've not seen it hit 100% on either core, they are averages though.

Regards
Fred
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Dec 2008
Posts
4,045
Location
Lincolnshire
i would say go i5 or i7, i went from a e5200 oc to 3 ghz running crossfire 4850's on p45 chipset to a i5 750 on p55 chipset and all my gaming trouble i was having has now disapeared totally, oh and im not even using crossfire now, im on 1 4850 and can run need for speed shift with framerates in the high 50's most of the time, on occasion it has dropped to high 20's but its very rare to go that low, for comparrison on my e5200 and p45 and crossfire, it wasnt worth playing as the frame rate was about 20
 
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