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#1 2013-01-30 05:44:07

weirddan455
Member
Registered: 2012-04-15
Posts: 209

Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

I'm getting horrible performance in Serious Sam 3 BFE compared to Windows 7.  In the first scene on the first level, I'm only averaging around 15FPS in Linux while it's around 80FPS in Windows (using Ultra graphics on both).  This is an extreme difference.  I'm using the Catalyst drivers from [community] which looks like the latest 13.1 drivers.  I'm still using the older 12.11 beta drivers in Windows because it's such a pain to upgrade.  My specs:

Intel Core i5 2500K
AMD Radeon 5970
16GB DDR3 RAM

Even if CrossFire isn't working, which I'm not convinced it is (the 5970 is dual GPU on one card) the difference is even greater than that as even if I half the 80FPS from Windows (where I know CrossFire is working) I should at least be getting 40FPS from 1 GPU.  Has anyone else with an AMD card gotten this to run with acceptable FPS?

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#2 2013-01-30 17:37:18

the sad clown
Member
From: 192.168.0.X
Registered: 2011-03-20
Posts: 837

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

I've read (but have no first hand knowledge) that at least part of the performace hit will be the difference between OpenGL and DirectX.  I believe you can actually switch between the two on Windows and evaluate the performance difference to see if it is in line with what you are experiencing in Linux.


I laugh, yet the joke is on me

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#3 2013-01-30 18:22:20

weirddan455
Member
Registered: 2012-04-15
Posts: 209

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

the sad clown wrote:

I've read (but have no first hand knowledge) that at least part of the performace hit will be the difference between OpenGL and DirectX.  I believe you can actually switch between the two on Windows and evaluate the performance difference to see if it is in line with what you are experiencing in Linux.

Oh wow you're right.  I googled it and you can change to OpenGL by setting "gfx_iAPI = 1" (and "gfx_iAPI = 2" to go back to Direct3D) in the console.  The performance is equally as horrible in Windows 7 under OpenGL.

Just....... WTF AMD.....

Can I confirm it's an AMD problem and not a problem with the game?  I'm thinking about selling my 5970 and getting something Nvidia if that's the case.  I bought this card thinking it would give me the best performance.  Had no idea OpenGL was so bad.  I've also noticed similar drops in performance (not quite as severe but still pretty bad) in the Unigine Heaven benchmark when comparing Direct3D to OpenGL.

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#4 2013-01-30 22:56:33

the sad clown
Member
From: 192.168.0.X
Registered: 2011-03-20
Posts: 837

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

Yes, it does seem that lately Nvidia has been performing better than ATI/AMD on OpenGL (at least according to the collective mind of Google)

Of course, the best way to get OpenGL working is with one of their professional cards (Quadro or Firepro). Of course, these are much more expensive.

A cheaper solution is to look into optimizing your driver.  Are you using Catalyst (proprietary) or Radeon (open source)?  I would check their respective wiki's for ways to improve performance:

Catalyst
Radeon


I laugh, yet the joke is on me

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#5 2013-01-31 07:56:48

weirddan455
Member
Registered: 2012-04-15
Posts: 209

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

Using Catalyst. The open source driver had even worse performance. I didn't test it on Serious Sam 3 but really the only thing the open source driver can run well is old games like OpenArena. It ran Team Fortress 2 but the performance was pretty bad. At least Catalyst can run that smoothly. Of course it's not as graphically intensive as Serious Sam 3.

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#6 2013-02-06 05:58:21

tcmish
Member
Registered: 2013-02-06
Posts: 3

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

Hey, I am also running SS3 BFE on Ubuntu and noticing a significant performance drop in comparison to Windows 7. I am doubtful that Crossfire is working as I am running the latest proprietary AMD drivers and the Crossfire logo should appear in the top right when it is enabled.

I am working with this;

Ubuntu 12.10 - Up to date with all updates
AMD Phenom II X6 Black 1100T
AMD Radeon HD 5970
8GB Mushkin 996953 DDR3 PC3-16000 10-10-10-27 Ridgeback

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#7 2013-02-06 20:05:52

jpsimard
Member
Registered: 2011-04-15
Posts: 41

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

I might be way off but...

I had "performance" issues because my cards weren't detected correctly, but that's with Nvidia SLI.  Anyway, the reason was that since I had a 64bit system, I needed lib32-pciutils installed so that the game would detect my cards.  After installing the package, things got incredibly better.  I noticed in console that the game went for specific settings for my card too.  Since none of you mentionned that package, or if you're on 64bit install, I thought I'd mention it just in case.

You can find it in the AUR here.

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#8 2013-02-07 01:09:06

tcmish
Member
Registered: 2013-02-06
Posts: 3

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

I for one am running 64-bit and I would assume that weirddan455 is too as he stated that his system had 16GB of RAM. I have installed the lib and haven't noticed any major increase in FPS. It was most certainly worth a try though.

I am not sure how it goes with these dual GPU cards. I have very rarely had the logo appear in the top right to tell me that Crossfire is activated. In Windows, I was using RadeonPRO to force Crossfire depending on the game engine. In some games, like Dead Island, this made a huge difference.

It just seams that the 5970 is a real lackluster.

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#9 2013-02-07 13:10:59

jpsimard
Member
Registered: 2011-04-15
Posts: 41

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

I do think that dual CPU cards have a very much lacking support under Xorg.  From what I've read, there seems to be serious limitations for dual cpu/dual cards as Xorg is old and was never designed for it.  There's more power from SLI under windows too, as the difference in FPS under linux is much smaller with SLI, but still there.  Shall I mention what xinerama does if you have multi-screen?  Goodbye compositing!

But anyway, even under windows, it seems a few are complaining about the vram available on the 5970.  I imagine that too small a vram cache plus Xorg is a bad mix.

With that in mind, I seem to remember that AGP cards could negociate more ram from the system when necessary (to some extent).  If this is still true for pci-express cards, maybe there's something to be done there, perhaps in the bios?  I don't really know, I'm really just thinking a loud while pulling this out of my ass. wink

Good luck finding a solution.

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#10 2013-02-17 09:10:23

tcmish
Member
Registered: 2013-02-06
Posts: 3

Re: Horrible Performance on Serious Sam 3 BFE

Okay, I just tested again in Windows 7 and my fps with all graphics and performance settings on ultra was averaging 60 with no less than 50.  On Ubuntu I would get about 4-5 FPS.

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