Dragon Age II performance on a G73JH

Gaming on my G73JH - RBBX05 with stock specs. So far I'm really loving this game. I love what they've done with the graphics style. Some may hate it, but I personally cant get enough of it. Anyway, I clocked in about 4hrs already. Here's the frames I'm getting; note: I have the HiResTextures pack installed.

Graphics: High --DX11 -- AAx4 -- AFx16 -- Ambient Occlusion enabled = 55 FPS average. In combat it will vary from low 50's to the 40's. Lowest Ive seen it in combat so far has been in the low 40's with all the chaos going on. (These are the settings I'm using). I'm using AAx4, but AAx2 is fine..there is almost no difference.

Graphics: Very High -- DX11 -- AAx2 -- AFx16 -- Motion Blur enabled = 28-29 FPS average. Dips way down to 15FPS during chaotic combat. Still playable since its no shooter, but I prefer it to be smoother. Plus, i honestly dont notice too much of a difference between High and Very High (other than lower frames ). Haven't tried with Motion Blur off. Not recommended settings, unless you're somehow able to run it flawlessly.

Catalyst: 10.11 (yup..old)

Overall, the game looks fantastic and runs very smooth on High settings.
edit: Clocked in 8 hrs now, still no issues. (hard to put the game down)
Might just be me but there is no significant difference from high or very high. No matter was AA setting is used. High obviously performs better though.

Please share how your rigs are handling DAII.

 

Tried running it on the same settings you are using. With x4 AA I hit 20's in intense battles in the stages I am at now (explosions from spells hit the FPS hard) and average in the 30-40's in cities etc.

Lowering to x2aa doesnt do much difference either.

Turning of AA and it still dips below in intense battles?

Weird.

Must just be my G73jh then. 11.2 Drivers. Stock clocks.

:S

 

Weird. Did you try uninstall the hi-res textures if you had installed it?

 

@nayajoeun - the op's is a bestbuy version with max res 1600x900 and you're prolly running it at 1920x1080.

 

Yeah. Performance was choppy in the first place :S

I'm playing it now @ DX 11 1920x1080 on Medium but with SSAO, DOF, HQ Blur on (enabled in the settings.ini in My Documents/Bioware....) with x4AA and x16AF and it doesnt drop below 35 and hover around 55-60.

Maybe my eyes are bad but i cant seem to tell the difference between high and medium settings? (Hi-Res pack on).

It seems that the game does look better @ medium with SSAO, DOF and Blur turned on than on high settings w/o DOF and SSAO.

Yours, or anyone else have any thoughts?

@ Kurt ahhh that may explain why hahaha.

Thank you.

 

Yea this pretty much. Same happened with Crysis 2 performance. I was getting better frames with my 1600x900 than those with 1080ps for obvious reasons.

 

I have a problem with DX11, as soon as I try to play, it turns to window mode and I can see part of the frame, even if I check or uncheck the window mode, It doesn´t happen under DX9.
I had the same issue in the demo.
I´m running stock drivers (9.12), BIOS (209) and vBios, yes, I know, I should update, but I´m not in the US right now and if something goes wrong a RMA would be a pain, I´m in Europe.

 

Since you fear the flashing, you will have to suffer with no gameplay, as the game is incompatible with that driver build.

 

how can I tell what driver version I have?

I've updated to the latest bios.

 

Have you updated to the latest vBios? That is necessary to run the current AMD video driver which is 11.2. I'm currently running 11.1 because I haven't gotten around to downloading 11.2 or buying Dragon Age II yet... I will but I haven't yet.

GPUz will give you your vBios information and your current driver info among other things.

GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

 

It says I have catalyst 11.2 installed. I take it that is the current driver version?

I have BIOS v 012.017.000.004.035992. Thought I'm not seeing where the vBios info is.

And what about this catalyst version?

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst114earlypreview.aspx

 

Latest vBIOS is 012.020.000.032.038352

You need to do the vBIOS flash, see link below

 

Thank you! My vBios is now updated

Does this mean I'll see an increase in my graphics card performance in my games? As you can tell, I'm still quite new to this whole self upgrading stuff for my computer. Hence me getting an expensive gaming laptop instead of building my own desktop XD

 

"http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-II/Dragon-Age-II-PC-Technical-Self-Help/DX11-known-issues-and-driver-update-6420212-1.html"

"DX11 known issues and driver update."

Hello Dragon Age II PC users.

We are aware that some people are having problems with running DX11 and Dragon Age II. We are investigating all issues, but before reporting your issues here please try the following:
Shut Down Dragon Age II

Nvidia Card users, download the new Nvidia drivers here:

NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Advanced Search

ATI Card users, download the new ATI drivers here:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst114earlypreview.aspx

Restart Dragon Age II


If your issue is NOT fixed with the new drivers, please post your issue below. We are investigating all issues reported. You may be contacted by the team for further details.


- In case anyone hasn't updated to these already.

 

How are you managing that?

With those exact settings, my frame rate dips to 11 even during a cut scene!

I have a G73JH with everything up to date. I even put in an extra 2 GB of RAM to help with performance.

um... you can't have SSAO, DOF and Blur on for medium settings. SSAO is only for high or very high and the other two are very high only. At least it won't let met select them.

 

I enabled it through the ini file in My Doc's. I found out it wont enable anyway on medium.

I run the game @ medium with x4aa + High Res Texture pack.

On high you can manually enable either SSAO, DOF and/or HQ Blur without setting the game on V. High settings.

The difference btwn medium and high is only advanced lighting? (Read this somewhere but I forgot where lol)

High and V. High, the differences are tesselation and something else...

 

odd... it only lets me activate SSAO on high. The other two are greyed out until I activate very high settings.

I guess I'll have to settle with medium settings. Bummer, I figured with a $1200 laptop, I would be able to run stuff at a higher setting.

 

Set your settings preset to High then exit the game.

Navigate to C:\Users\YOUR USER PROFILE\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age 2\Settings (My Documents in other words)

There should be a configuration file called DragonAge.

Open with notepad and change the following:

EnableSSAO=0 or 1
EnableHighQualityBlur=0 or 1
EnableDiffusionDOF=0 or 1

I've found that these settings work on High/V. High but not on Medium which kinda sucks since I see little difference between medium and high.

Medium gives me almost 50-60 FPS constantly whereas on High it hovers around 40-45 and hits as low as 25 during intense battles (1080p)

 

my max ratio is 1600x900 and I've seen my FPS dip to 11 during a cut scene. I'm not sure why my laptop is acting as crappy as it is right now.

 

On a BestBuy G73JH here...

Not sure if relevant, but I try to disable the 'online features' sometimes such as the automatic uploading of screenshots and gaming profile in dragon age 1. Helped smooth out a lot of framerates hiccups I was experiencing. Does Dragon Age 2 have something similar?

 

A couple of the earlier cut scenes did this to me also but I havent seen it happen again since then.

Im running it at very high with HQ textures dx11 on 1600x900 16.9 with 2x aa and 16af but without ssao hq blur or dof and im getting low 31 high 48 avg 39 so im sticking with this as I would rather use tesselation instead of dx 10.

 

hmm... I may have to try that. But for some reason my fps still dip into the mid 20's when I'm running it on medium with x4 aa and 2af. I don't understand how I could be having such low results with my g73jh.


This may sound silly, but does the RPM on the HDD affect the FPS at all? I have the stock 5400 one that came with the laptop from BB. I upgraded my RAM to 8GB though.

It's just really really frustrating that I cannot get the same FPS that other people are getting on the exact same settings.

 

Ive dipped to some low frames as well during some cutscenes. As low as 10fps, but it lasted a split second then climbed back up almost instantly. It has happened maybe like 2 or 3 times only therefore not noteworthy.

Niiiiice. Seems like VH w/ HiRes Textures runs smooth for you. Only some areas run fine for me on Very High. For example fps gets owned when I'm in kirkwall, so I have to stick to High to keep my FPS averaging at 50+

Also, I must have not occured before but the lately game will 'freeze' by itself at times. Maybe like 2 secs or so. I found out this was because it was trying to contact EA servers. I turned it off and it hasn't happened since.

16+ hrs in and loving every minute.

 

HDD does not affect your FPS but a 5400 is slow I just got rid of my old laptop for a 7200RPM drive and the difference is very noticable and I just picked up a 2nd from ebay 500GB for only £40 so its well worth upgrading it. What it will do is A. Slow down your loads times. B. Slow down the textures being loaded into the game. C. Cause latency. But its not proven to reduce frames.

What drivers are you using? and have you upgraded your Vbios to run Cata 11.2? Check your temps for your GPU although it shouldn't affect your FPS to much as long as its below 100oC sounds more like drivers. 8GB wont be any different from 4GB Unless your CADing 4-6GB is max at the moment for games.

Yeah I have switched to high also I was happily getting between 30-40 frames with V-High however during intense fight scenes with the awful!!! JH touchpad I was finding I was getting murked far to easily on Hard. Switched to High and all other setting at max and getting 50-60. It does not appear that Bioware have put very dense tesselation in V-High anyway so its not worth the frame drop. The 1GB High textures add on is well worth it.

 

My Vbios is updated to the highest that is out right now. Catalyst is 11.4 that someone posted a mod from the non mobility version. My GPU is idling at 50 C right now without the game running. My CPU temp idles around 55-60 C without any gaming.

The reason I added more ram was to have at least 4 GB dedicated to gaming. That way if I have any background stuff going on during the game, I know I'll have enough RAM to run my game and background stuff.

I did a bit of overclocking with my laptop. Nothing too serious. I did testing with it to see when it was stable. However, when I ran a game, I didn't see much improvement in my FPS, so I reset it to it's default settings. Would that have caused my issues I've been having with FPS?

As of now, I can't get the FPS that OP got with the exact same laptop. The game usually sits at 25-30 when nothing is going on.

It's a shame that the G73SW came out after I bought my laptop a few months ago. For $300 more, there seems to be a lot of nice upgrades. Better graphics and a blu-ray player. Oh well. I'm still paying off this one, so no point in me pining over a better laptop.

 

There are several. It could be hellcrys, chastity OD version, garyv93, or several others.

So, I guess I'm repeating the question: What is the vbios version?

 

012.020.000.032.038352

 

You have the latest maybe switch back to 11.2 as 11.4 is only beta at the moment and issues are being posted about it I cant vouch for it as I haven't tried it myself personally as the only changes I care about are mainly being made the 6 series ATI cards.

You have the same setup and spec as me I believe and resolution makes little difference even if you are running 1080p I tried it on my external screen earlier and my FPS are no different still 50-60fps on high 30-40 on v-high.

One thing I know people have been complaining about is the internet connection causing slow downs, I personally bought the game and then downloaded a crack for it as I do with all games because I refuse to have a constant internet connection and that way I have proof that I own the game. Cant condone or recommend that though as its against the rules.

In regards to the Sandy Bridge I wont deny it looks the dogs and Im sure it will be almighty and powerful but im totally happy with my 720qm after upgrading from a duel core and 8 threads is more than enough. I think im going to skip the SW models just because after hearing all of the problems with it and there not being a 100% way of finding out if you are actually buying a fixed chip its too risky for the price of it. Price for Performance the A models rock apart from the reallllllllly poor touchpad!

 

hmm.. I'll turn off the internet connection and see if that'll make a difference. I'm reinstalling 11.2 atm

Here are my gpu and cpu readings right now if you want to take a look



edit2: Hmm. It appears I have been able to get the FPS you have now. On high, it fluctuates between 45-60 with either x2 AA or x4 AA (haven't seen much a difference in visual though) with 16af. I don't have any of the special features enabled as they dip my fps considerably. on VH with the same settings it'll hover between 25-35.

Is tessellating that important? What does it actually do in the VH graphics? I honestly can't tell much of a difference. I do notice the SSAO when it's turned on on High settings.

 

Exactly the same as mine mate I clock upto 800/1000 but it still wouldnt make that much of a difference.

One thing I found made a massive difference is by turning off SSAO, HQ Blur, DOF as these ruined my FPS. go for 1600x900 Vert Sync OFF, High x4 aa x4 af HQ textures and all the rest off and check your FPS.

EDIT ^^ those fps sound about right as you have the settings what I just mentioned.

Tesselation is amazing just check out Heaven 2.0 DX11 and you will see it but the Tesselation in DA2 is minimal so you wont notice a huge difference.

 

I haven't done any battles yet, so I don't know how much they'll dip. I'll have to play around with the settings until I get a constant one.

What does Vert Sync do anyways? I've always been a primarily a console gamer, so all these features are rather foreign.

I may lower my af from x16 as I don't see much of a difference at the lower settings, and lowering that definitely increases my fps it seems.

I'll also clock mine up to 800 and see if it gives me anything. I'm gladd CCC added the option of doing overclocking right in there.

I also found out that I can raise my memory clock to 1120 while still keeping everything stable. I did some tests while overclocking, and the 3d test became unstabalized above 815/1120

 

Keeps the screen refreshing all at once. Sometimes, at like 50 FPS, you'll get the top half refreshed a half second before teh bottom half. Vsync keeps it at intervals of 15, so the entire screen is always updating all at once. This means that sometimes, you could be getting better FPS, but it is limited.

Look up screen tearing.

 

I didnt notice any difference with Vert sync until I got my G73 mainly because I never had a laptop that could do over 35FPS but now its very usful when hitting above the 60 the monitor can handle. Screen tearing looks similiar to a brief horizontal line across the middle of the screen sometimes barely visible.

The only thing I console with is FIFA as PC gaming is so much more advanced when it comes to graphical quality and consoles have a poor frame rate compared to PC. Apart from Force Unleashed 2 with its horrible fixed 30Fps.

AF only works with the angles of the camera so you may not notice a difference but it is working, it rarely affects the frame rate like AA does so I just leave it on full. Quite the same with SSAO I cant say darkening and advanced shadows are worth the 15fps hit it comes with.

Regarding O/c as long as your temps are ok experiment away I like 800/1000 because it gives me 3-4 more fps than 700 does but I dont need the memory increase with my resolution. Just remember that o/cing will increase temps so in the long run will cause more wear on the GPU. use HWinfo32 to display the different temp sections of the GPU.

Reign of Fire on and playing Dragon Age 2. Good times.

 

What's a good temp max for my GPU when I'm overclocking? My max so far is 72 C while I was running Dragon Age 2.

 

You cant test your temperature with a game as you need your GPU running at 100% you need to download Furmark and run it with Burn mode active to stress your GPU to the limits.

Chassity says that anything below 98oC is acceptable for a 5870m but you want to try and keep it below the 90's because 105oC is melting temp.

 

Sry to bring up this thread again but seem to have a problem with the game. Do not know if this is a driver issue or card. Im running maxed DX11 @ 800/1100 and the game look OK FPS is 25-40 but sometimes the frames look strange the person is lagging but everything else is not. Its like the ppl and mobs in the game lag when moving but fire ,smoke and the rest of the backround does not. With heavy mobs fights everything lags get 10-20 FPS.


When moving it looks like the char moves like a person with a health problem

 

The 5870 cant run DA2 DX11 maxed mate I only get 15-30 frames average depending on if there is a lot going on at the time so that is why your lagging Very High DX11 is really for a desktop card remember that its a mobility card not a NASA computer! They might patch it and fix the slow downs but its doubtful I find the best is when I run high with SSAO DX11 no HQ blur no DOF and 4xaa 4xaf. 40-50fps

 

they fixed DA 2 in the 11.4 drivers... ...it was posted for the fixes...try updating too 11.4 preview drivers for mobility and try them...

 

Good call I haven't tried those drivers yet but wait hold on if only Dragon Age 2 wasnt the WORST RPG of the year I might have been able to try it

Roll on Witcher 2. Yeah boi!

 

Thank you
That did the trick now ppl in the game are moving OK

 

How many frames was the increase when you use the 11.4 drivers?

Can people confirm this?

 

I don't have the game but the fix was related too dx11 I think...others should be able to tell you about FPS...

 

Do not know how much it changed as i did not to a good test the lowest i saw before was 10FPS when the ppl lagged in the game and this is everything maxed.

Now
Stock clocks im getting a min of 15FPS might be 14 but thats the lowest. Most cinematics are 28-30 FPS and max seen 26FPS

800/1100 min saw 15-16FPS (still need to find heavy combat)

At the moment running 830/1100 and getting a strong min of 17FPS avarage should be about 19 or so. Its not much but to me looks smooth and no lagging with ppl in the game.

 

Those are quite low maxed with everything on im getting minimum 22fps averaging about 25-30fps on Directx 11 with 800/1100 clocks. That is with 11.2 drivers.

 

hmm thats odd. Well for me the 11.4 is better as i had a problem with the char moving normaly.

Now it looks smooth. Just a few flicker here and there. What rez you on ?

You on the high texture expansion pack or stock game ?

 

I can only get 1600x900 on my A1 but I run it through a Full HD tele at 1080p but notice no difference in frames on either rez though to be honest.

The game itself looked smooth on my old 8700m gt sli as the game is well optimised. I may try 11.4 and see what I get if it better than 11.2.

 

1600x900 avarage for me is 28-30 FPS maxed stock clocks. But it looks funny on the 1920x1080 screen. Might test it on my HD tv aswell to see if it works the same

 

Do you have AA and anisotropic filtering at max too?

 

If that was aimed at me I keep AF and AA at 4x A. Because it drags over that amount and B. I notice little difference when my eyes become less powerful than my GPU I see little reason to increase it further

 

I had everything at max even AA and AF at 1920x1080.


With the high-texture pack can forget keeping AA and AF maxed as im getting 8FPS with stock clocks