Far cry 3 and 7970m

Since this game is popular, and there's a lot of setting I created a new thread.

I tested it with the performance drivers in optimal setting with gpu buffer set to 1 and no AA , fps were around 30 fps and cpu usage 90-99% all in dx11
then with 12.8b same setting optimal and gpu buffer set to 3 the perf seems better mostly around 32 to 40 fps up to 50 sometimes

With both drivers I have this weird bug :

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s260...094920e288c3/4148d4a9e4de7c4815b55c9c394892cb

And atidxx32.dll error , same error I 'm having in assassin's creed 3":

I'm sorry I don't have time to test it more than this with this bug and all the work I have due next week.
I'll run more test next Monday.

If you guys can post your test / setting here since there's a lot of thing you can change it would be awesome.

 

what gpu buffer mean and how should i set? is the setting varies with driver versions?

 

It's on the game option.
It's "seems" better to have it set to 3 but as I said I didn't test the game that much since I have that annoying ati.dll bug and not a lot of time

Source: What is GPU max frames buffered? - Far Cry 3 Message Board for PC - GameFAQs

EDIT:
In directx9 in ultra : 40 to 50 fps no AA

Will try this later:

From: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=501674&page=9


Comparison between HBAO / HDAO / SSAO

http://postimage.org/image/m97ofsxz3/

http://postimage.org/image/uio57yh33/

http://postimage.org/image/75q3pg0zj/

 

I am running into the exact same issues with the 7970m using the latest enduro fix driver (I think that it is one of the 12.11 betas...). I ended up setting the game to Dx9 to get rid of the lighting/artifact issue. It also maintains almost 60 FPS the whole time running MSAA at 2x and everything else on ultra in Dx9 as opposed to the 25 - 45 FPS I was getting in Dx11. I will say that the game looks way better in Dx11, however, but that is just my opinion.

 

I am using enduro driver and i get average 35 - 39 fps in dx11 ultra settings MSAA 2X very rare fps drop to 25 tthen i am in open and viewing longs distance(like on radio tower) but stil it is very smoth. I dont have any glicth or bugs in game.

 

Now are you guys using Windows 8 because it does increase performance in most games like Crysis 2 for me. Crysis 2: windows 7 - 60 fps with Ultra settings but had horrible frame drops with the HD texture pack and DX11 -- Windows 8 - 60 fps with Ultra settings, HD texturepack, full DX11 and VSync enabled. Have you guys tried running the latest Beta drivers with Windows 8 and what kind of laptop are you using?

Sager NP9170
- Intel Core i7-3610QM
- 16 GB Ram
- 7970m (soon to be OC'd when my BIOS update comes out)

 

Yes I'm also using windows 8 with the beta 8 drivers, Np9150 here with i7-3610QM, 16 GB Ram, 7970m

 

AMD Announces Catalyst drivers with updates for Far Cry 3 - published on Monday
AMD kündigt Catalyst Treiber mit Updates für Far Cry 3 an - Veröffentlichung am Montag

 

farcry 3 running so great on my 7970m stock clocks everything on ultra 1080p dx11 except mssa off average 45 fps.the lowest i saw was 33-34 fps.max temp 71 celsious!!what results u have guys?thx!!

edit:hope amd's latest driver will solve windows brightness problem.i cant change the brightness when im in windows 8.i can only change when laptop boots..

 

Thats awesome to hear! So now we know that when they update the drivers and patch the came, it will be more stable and will mostly be able to pull higher fps's. Hopefully the game will run better on an msata as well.

 

the game does run real smooth. i do get drops though sometimes in the most strangest of places. like looking out to see with 1 mountain and it drops from 60 to 40 then when im in action it jumps straight back up again.
the game is def GOTY material. its excellent.

 

amd really have to fix game by game

 

There is a new driver from amd that should bring better performance in far cry 3:

AMD Catalyst

 

Thanks for pointing that out! I love testing new drivers

 

great I was waiting for this

EDIT: I still have those error with dx11 :
crash + flickering

In dx9 ultra the performance are better, around 40-50fps

 

Did you install the new 12.11 CAP2 ?

 

I found a video of someone running the game on max with the 7970m; he gets 30-40+ fps.
Farcry 3 Max settings 7970m - YouTube

 

with some tweaks he can get 60fps.

My issue with FC3 and the 7970m
View attachment 88353

Also with the new drivers the game sometimes reverts to "unassigned" in the switchable graphics. That's when things really go hell... CCC stops working if you try to set it back to HP.
My work around has been stock CCC, with new drivers. But those ugly black shadows persist. I've spent way too much time trying to get this right.. Might just get the PS3 version.

 

That shadow glitch is driving me nuts!

I've looked around online, trying to find a solution, but nobody seems so know the cause. It sucks when you're in a town or development with lots of buildings and all the janky block shadows are all over the place.

 

I'm not having any luck with this game either. Not only do I get the strange black boxes and lighting artifacts in both dx9 and dx11 modes, but the game crashes to desktop within the first hour (and often within minutes) without fail. This combined with the fact the developers elected to not include quick saving in their enormous open world game has most of progress I'd make erased anyway. Definitely need to wait for a patch on this one!

 

Make sure you're using the latest driver and version of CCC.

Has anyone tried running this game with triple buffer enabled in CCC?

 

I'm getting the black boxes bug and crashing like hell.
I also get a damn flickering that's driving me nuts.

I'm running smooth but the flickering plus

 

I do find that upping the GPU frame buffer to 3 or so in the graphics settings helps with the flickering (while not entirely alleviating it). Won't help with the boxes or crashes. I think we're benched on this one until it get's patched, hopefully we don;t have to wait too long!

 

Have a look into your event viewer what's the cause of the crash, I bet it's the same problem I'm having : Atidxx32.dll error http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/699027-atidxx32-dll-error.html

 

Set the game to "borderless" instead of fullscreen in the game's video options. It won't crash anymore.

The shadow glitches are horrible though. No idea how to fix them.

 

I'll try it, to play it "normally" I ended up using directx9 >_>

 

I really wish I could figure out the root cause of the atidxx32.dll error, but so far the only way I can keep it from happening is to play affected games in windowed mode. It first started happening to me in Crysis 2, then Far Cry 3. I happened once in Hitman Absolution, but I switched from 12.11 beta8 to 12.11P and it stopped.

So did the crashing stop when you switched to dx9?

 

Dx9 fixed the crashing in 12.11 Beta6 for me. However, both 12.11 Beta8 and Beta11 cause it to crash to desktop with the atidxx32.dll error. Beta11 has actually made the game entirely unplayable in either Dx11 or Dx9 because of constant crashing. It also performs worse with Beta11 than either Beta8 or 6.

I will try running the game in windowed mode and see if that fixes any of the issues.

On a side note, I am sick of this 7970m B.S. My brother-in-law has a GTX 675m in his MSI laptop and it outperforms mine at certain titles And when it doesn't outperform mine in FPS, it is still way more stable! This card has rendered so many games unplayable due to frame-rate or crashing issues such as this. I will never buy a laptop with an AMD mobile card again after this experience, NEVER!

 

Running in border-less window mode definitely solved the crashing for me.

 

Yup, same here.

 

I understand your frustration. It's really annoying having to deal with driver BS and instability. I'm hoping that amd can work out the kinks and get their drivers stable and realiable. They have definitely nailed it in terms of power, they just need to fix the remaining underutilization in certain titles and the crashing issues. Fortunately most games I own run great; it's just a handful that have the atidxx32.dll error, and those can be fixed with running in windowed mode. I think about the 300 bucks I saved on the 7970m and ultimately I'm happy with it. That may change if stability or performance doesn't improve or gets worse in the future.

So glad I could help you guys

I figured out the window mode fix from when I had my 650m and I couldn't get Saint's Row to run. It would crash on start-up, and I read you could fix it by alt+tabbing to the desktop and back. I realized that was just putting it in windowed mode and stopped the crashing, so I tried it when Crysis 2 started crashing on my and it worked. I have no idea why windowed mode fixes freezing/crashing, but it works most of the time lol.

If you run into the same error on any other games you know what to do. Hopefully amd fixes their drivers so we don't have to mess with settings to get games running correctly.

 

Has anyone been watching GPU Usage % on this game? With DX11 and High Settings i'm getting ~50%, says System Monitor, yet it's not playing all that bad. Any clue?

 

100% GPU ussage on 12.11 beta11-->ultra settings

 

Yeah, I am just a little ticked about the GPU and may have overreacted. It is just that Shogun 2, Max Payne 3, Saints Row 3, Red Faction Guerrilla, Darksiders 2 and Far Cry 3 have all been rendered useless at on time or another depending on the driver I am currently using. At this point, I feel like I am changing drivers like I change socks. Furthermore, the utilization issues have impacted even more games. Luckily, others have had a better time with it.

Oh, and thanks again for the fix. It does destroy performance in borderless window mode, but scaling down the window in windowed mode seems to fix that. At least Dishonored ran perfectly even with the .ini tweaks

 

Sorry you've been having so many problems man

I wasn't aware that playing in windowed mode hurt performance. I didn't notice a difference, but I'll check again. Sorry for the dumb question, but when you say scaling the window down, do you just mean making scaling it down to a lower resolution?

edit: I ran some benchmarks in full screen vs. borderless window mode. There was at most a 2 fps difference, mostly it was the same. Not sure what's causing it to hurt performance so much for you. Let me know if you figure it out.

 

Solved by going fullscreen. I was playing borderless so I could use messenger at the same time but this game hates alt-tabbing.. jesus. It goes to 50% usage on any mode but fullscreen.

 

Did anyone find the solution for the weird shadow squares that appear around buildings yet ? it seems to be a 7970m problem.

Edit: it happens in other mobile cars with enduro working and since clevo is stuck with enduro, we need a fix from amd.

 

Adding to that, i'm having a strange rectangle on the bottom when i'm underwater. Maybe they'll fix it soon as well..

 

Playing it in windowed mode significantly reduces performance for me. Around 50% to 65% GPU usage according to Afterburner. I get the frame rate to increase by scaling the window to a lower res. It seems like the issues really increased with the 1.02 patch.

 

That's really weird man. My utilization stays at a constant 99% in borderless window mode. I'm playing on Steam, so it's probably the same patch as yours as well.

 

They updated the 12.11 beta 11 on December 3rd. I just installed it but i dont have the game yet so I cant say if they fixed anything, just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

 

I can't tell much of a difference with it. I actually got slightly better performance with 12.11P, but the game regularly crashed so I went back to beta11.

 

The game is crashing for me from time to time, on beta 11 and cap 2. i am sad.. i could ignore the shadow squares on buildings but this is to much. i will wait for a fix.

 

Try changing the settings from fullscreen to "borderless." You're most likely getting the atidxx32.dll error, which stops when you play games in windowed mode. We discussed it a few pages back. One member was reporting framerate drops in windowed mode, but it runs fine for me. Try it out and see how it runs for you. Hope it helps!

 

Hi, it did work, i can't see fps through afterburner but its overclocked and i don't see any drops, thx for the help. Now to wait for the shadow square fix.

 

I am playing the game directly through Uplay *bleh* because I pre-ordered it through GMG. What driver are you using? I am currently on 12.11 beta 11. Dotcom93 was having the same issue in windowed mode.

edit: Just checked page 5, it appears that you are running 12.11 beta 11. Excuse my mistake

 

Maybe the fact that I am running the game in Dx9 to avoid the boxes is having an impact..

 

Glad it's working for you, I'm hoping we get a fix for the shadow glitch soon. I already beat the game but I would do another playthrough if it meant I didn't have to stare at those ridiculous grey boxes all the time

That may be it, but I'm not sure. I'll try running it again in DX9 to see if I take a performance hit. I tried it a couple days ago and it seemed fine, although the grey box things were still there

I'm on 12.11 beta11 too. I tried 12.11P and I actually noticed slighta performance increase, but then the game crashed twice even though I was in windowed mode so I switched back. lol I'm so sick of ati drivers.

I'm playing the game on uplay btw, I bought it on Steam but it still runs through the retarded uplay client.

 

Hey Joem282 how did you get afterburner to work with the 7970m? I have the latest CCC drivers and I've enabled unofficial OC, but I'm still unable to OC or view the system graph.

 

You have to download these files Download ATIDrivers.zip from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way and put them in your afterburner folder, then edit your afterburner cfg to enable unofficial averclocking. Finally, you have to go into your registry and change "unableULPS" to "0" instead of "1." Read the part in this thread about overclocking: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/658958-guide-installing-overclocking-amd-mobility-7970-m17x-r3-illustrated-guide.html It will tell you what to put in your afterburner.cfg file and where to find enableulps in your registry.

Once you have enabled overclocking (you will need to restart your computer after editing your registry) you still won't be able to use afterburner to monitor temps or gpu usage. Afterburner doesn't show this info when you use and of the 12.11 betas exceept for the 12.11 Enduro Performance driver. If you want to monitor temps you can use HWINFO64.

Good luck!