frame per second question, not sure if an issue

[leea12345]

Hi guys just a quick question. when you play a game and your gpus are working hard you can hear the fans get loud as they are pushing out more fps , for example bf3 and metro 2033. When i play fifa 13 i am getting 120fps and the gpus are very quiet hardly no noise so they are not working very hard . Is this because maybe the game is only allowed to run at 120fps so the gpus will not try to push more out?. What im trying to say is, are some games capped fps so your gpus are not going to be working the same on every game , or should my gpus still be trying to push out more and working hard ? of course this is without v sync enabled

 

[sbreame]

It depends on alot of factors really.

Different games are built on different engines
Different games are coded differently on how they render graphics
Different games have various options like AA, graphic detail etc
Different games have different requirements
What resolution are you using
What is happening on your screen. BF3 for example, you'll get more fps if there is no movement or you're looking at the sky compared to seeing alot of activity etc.


What GPU do you have? Mine, from playing diablo 3, aion etc has never been above 50c so fan speed tends to stick between 30-35%

 

[leea12345]

thanks for reply yes i agree with what you are saying im just really interested to know if say for example ea made fifa 13 that would only run at a max 120fps for a reason as it runs on mine exactly 120fps all the time and the gpus are not working hard at all in fact they are not even trying to work hard , im running 2 gtx670 sli

 

[sbreame]

thanks for reply yes i agree with what you are saying im just really interested to know if say for example ea made fifa 13 that would only run at a max 120fps for a reason as it runs on mine exactly 120fps all the time and the gpus are not working hard at all in fact they are not even trying to work hard , im running 2 gtx670 sli

I don't think there is a built-in limit to PC games, I know there is for consoles, but PC games should run at the highest fps your GPU can push comfortably (not pushing itself to raise the fan(s)) Unless you have v-sync on, then it will limit to 60/120 fps depending on your monitor. What temps are you getting on your cards? SLi/crossfire does make cards hotter.

 

[leea12345]

card temperatures are ok and within normal if working very hard then up to about 70c , but for some reason some games my gpus really work hard, and some games they dont, and if they should be working very hard every game then i may have an issue

 

[sbreame]

card temperatures are ok and within normal if working very hard then up to about 70c , but for some reason some games my gpus really work hard, and some games they dont, and if they should be working very hard every game then i may have an issue

If temps are fine and you're getting good the expected FPS marks then you don't have an issue. It's all about how the game engine is and how it uses your card, there's alot more to it but I'm not a programmer.

For instance - My old machine has a GTX 260 Playing Modern warfare 2 on max settings (GTX 260 is a good card, well, mine was lol) you will only hear a slight noise of the fans spinning faster then "normal" and yet, when I played a game called "gunz" which is a very old game and literally could be played using a GeForce 2, my GTX 260 sounded like it was struggling.

 

[leea12345]

thanks for that i understand a little better now, just one more question. is there a way of knowing or finding out what fps i should be getting for a certain game? thanks

 

[sbreame]

thanks for that i understand a little better now, just one more question. is there a way of knowing or finding out what fps i should be getting for a certain game? thanks

It's hard to get a perfect number, since there is various "brands" of GPU and computer configs. Try googling and see if you can find some results, but if you want to see if your system is running as it should then I advice running 3DMark, it's a benching software that will give you a score at the end and it compares it to other users using nearly, if not, the exact same build as you.

 

[steaky360]

sbreame is correct - You should search for your graphics card's benchmarks and see if you can find the game you are looking for. Tomshardware is a good site for posting benchmarks for games.

The general gist is the fans on the GPU's are linked to the temperature of the GPU not how many FPS its producing. As mentioned above, some games work better with some graphics card(s) than others and therefore if you have one of those 'better' cards they will not get as hot as some others.

Metro 2033 is a pretty demanding game for most cards as it isn't very optimised (so I'm told), so you will probably notice your card getting warmer playing that than other games.

3D Mark is an excellent program and you can get a free version to try too! Also, there is a benchmarking leader board, if you do benchmark using 3D mark, you should post your results (including link if possible) here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?8328-Benchmark-Results-Leaderboard

 

[leea12345]

thanks all, i have done a 3dmark when i first got pc and have just done it again but result was a little lower this time, so thats a little bit concerning although its an updated version now so not sure if thats the reason why or different drivers but it says my pc is all working ok . i must say the only games they seem to run hot are bf3 and metro 2033 both games maxed out all settings producing around 120 fps. also having an issue with a game called starcraft 2 getting very low fps on there but lots of people it seems have same issue so looks like thats a software issue

 

[steaky360]

You say a little lower? How little? A few points? I think you can get results that do differ from past results. Do a few runs with the program and get an average. It's the best way to tell.

 

[keynes]

thanks all, i have done a 3dmark when i first got pc and have just done it again but result was a little lower this time, so thats a little bit concerning although its an updated version now so not sure if thats the reason why, it says my pc is all working ok .

When running 3dmark11 it gave me a higher score when running 3 screens than with 1 monitor, sometimes I get a message indicating that I need to update drivers or the score may slightly change depending on new drivers.

 

[leea12345]

well my first ever 3dmark result was around 14400 i beleive and most recent around 13900 which does seem a big drop but different drivers so i dont know, also just updated drivers again today so think i will run it one more time and let you know what score is .. ok done 3d mark here are the results although it says graphic driver not approved it did only come out about 7 hours ago from nvidia http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4621644

bit i am concerned about is the graphic score when you compare it to the one i did after only having the pc for a few days which is here http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3542045

you can see a differnce in the score. am a little bit worried something is going wrong , and i really dont know what to say to pc spec if i call them.any advice be really helpful. thank you

 

[keynes]

you can see a differnce in the score. am a little bit worried something is going wrong , and i really dont know what to say to pc spec if i call them.any advice be really helpful. thank you

I wouldn't worry about your scores and I am also not sure what you could say to PCS since you are not experiencing any problems running games (I think). Different drivers could be caused for difference in your scores as well as the processor clock (4099mhz vs 3314mhz).

 

[steaky360]

Your graphics score has changed very little. It actually improved from 17252 (first attempt) and 17361 (second attempt)

The biggest difference as you have mentioned is the new driver (not 'approved' in 3d Mark) and the fact that your CPU is reporting at a lower clock speed than your first attempt.

The first attempt logs a speed of 4099Mhz whereas the second is 3314Mhz. I would recommend restarting your PC and running the 3D mark test a few more times (without opening ANYTHING else) then report back the results. It may just be that your CPU was not fully utilised by 3D mark during the test.

 

[leea12345]

hi there, thanks for the replys. i have done another 3d mark http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4623983

the results show the processor clock faster this time. does this actually mean anything ?

 

[steaky360]

It does (show faster clock speed), although still not as fast as your first score.

I think the different results you are getting is due to this discrepancy with the CPU clock speed (might not be boosting to 100%) - I don't think it will be anything to worry about however. Out of interest, did you have an over clocked system at all?

Looking at the first result and comparing it against the more recent results show no real losses in FPS etc. which at the end of the day is what matters

Unless you start noticing degradation in your PC experience (Gaming or otherwise) you most likely don't have a problem

 

[leea12345]

hi there thanks , no my processor was never overclcoked at all, just seems that every tme i run 3dmark, i get a slightly different clock speed, and i am just curiouse why that is. have just called pcs to ask them a few questions, and was tols that the 3dmark score with the processor can change depending if it needs to boost or not, and if there is something even slighly running in the background , so that is normal . also they told me that some game manufactures of games put an upper limit of fps for example 120 fps due to game engine , and other factors and that would explain a few things i was curiouse about .

thanks guys for all your help

 

[steaky360]

Well as far as I can tell you've got a i7-3770 processor, this will have a max boost clock of 3.9Ghz http://ark.intel.com/products/65719/ That doesn't explain how the first result managed to get the CPU up to 4099MHz (that would appear to be over clocked to 4.1Ghz)

You wont get exactly the same clock speeds every-time I wouldn't imagine but I don't know enough about how the Intel Boost technology works to explain why unfortunately.

 

[leea12345]

yes thats a good point about the first clock speed results, although shortly after that test the pc was returmed to pcs as it just shut down and i had new mother board and processor fitted, so maybe that would explain that