AMD Crossfire - An Ideal TTW Setup?

[MarchUntoTorment]

(Unsure if this is the right forum for this thread - couldn't figure out whether to put it here or in the Technical Support forum. Mods, feel free to move it about at your whims!)

So, I'm in the process of thinking about updating my gaming rig. Running the specs I have, I tend to be seeing some pretty minimal performance (a round 30 FPS average), which drops significantly (to around 15-20 FPS) whenever I'm looking at a large number of NPCs (oddly, the drop doesn't happen when I'm not looking at them).

So I'm looking to improve it - preferably up to the 45-60 mark, which seems to be the upper limit on the TV that my gaming PC is hooked up to.

Now, my current rig is an i5 4440 CPU, 8GB of RAM and an R9 270X graphics card. My mod setup isn't nightmarish - the only two real performance killers are the additional NPC mods I use (since the whole game just feels horribly under-inhabited without them), and my ENB. I use some pretty hefty texture packs for armour (Book of Steel), as well as WRP, but I only run the 512x512 NMC pack, which is the same resolution as vanilla.

The primary issue, moreover, seems to be ENB - the game runs at a pretty neat 45-50 FPS if I disable it by removing d3d9.dll from my FNV folder.

My understanding of ENB is that it's pretty much a graphics card-only application, and that if I want to improve my situation, I'd be best off improving my graphics card first and foremost. However, looking at the situation, I'm unlikely to see any sort of significant performance increase unless I'm willing to spend in excess of $400 on a graphics card, which I'm frankly not.

The alternative is adding on a second R9 270X graphics card, as I future-proofed my motherboard by purchasing a Crossfire-compatible one. This, I understand, lends very good performance numbers across the board - generally equivalent to the high-range R9 290X graphics cards, which generally range for about $500, depending on manufacturer. An R9 270X costs about half that. This seems like a no-brainer.

However, before I go throwing my money at anything, I want to check that this will actually work. I've heard differing reports on the success of using Crossfire on New Vegas, and I'm looking to get a range of opinions. Having done a few hours' research, the potential 'solutions' are all over the damned place and I'm not quite sure what's up.

So, help?

[AlMustansir]

I do believe that Fallout isnt that hungry if it comes to Gpu horsepower. I own a gtx 970 and i´m getting 60 fps almost everywhere. In some places it gest down to 40-45 fps but i do believe its cpu related. Like Skyrim a lot of meshes and npcs drain a LOT of cpu power and the engine itself isnt designed for anything more then dual cores.

 

Try to overclock your cpu, that should get you some fps.

[MarchUntoTorment]

Quick question - do you use ENB?

Also, my CPU is an i5 4440, not a 4440K. I understand that only the K models can be overclocked, which leaves me in something of a tight spot.

[TJ]

That R9 270X should be able to handle FNV and any enb you could possibly throw at it. If you're having issues, that is not the problem.

[MarchUntoTorment]

Ah, thanks, TJ!

Do you happen to know what else might be the problem, then? I understand that all of my computer's other components should be far and away enough to handle NV.

I've heard stuff about prioritising .exes and the like - perhaps I should start thinking about that? Do you have any other tips for improving FPS without replacing hardware?

Help would be greatly appreciated! Unfortunately, detailed information (precise load order, install log, etc.) is not available, as my gaming PC is presently in storage for about the next six weeks (long story).

[leafonthewind]

[quote=luthien]

Outputting to a TV can be its own wrench in the gears, as the image has to be scaled and/or fitted to the TV screen either by your video hardware or by your CPU; if it's taxing enough, it can lower performance. You may want to double-check your driver settings.

[/quote]

Outputting to a tv is no different from any other display in how it is handled by the gpu. There is no scaling/fitting of the display unless a non-native resolution is set to output (the same is true for regular monitors).  There is no decrease in performance specific to the use of a tv as a monitor.Edit: This is so long as the television in question has the option for using correct pixel ratios (most HDTVs, especially those released in the past few years have this setting), and that that option is turned on. There is however, very noticeable input lag (usually several milliseconds depending on the television) when using a television as a display for any device as the tv itself uses varying degrees of post processing on images in attempt to make them look artificially "better" (this generally includes things like color and contrast adjustments), all of this processing happens on the tv's hardware and will in no way effect the performance of the device providing the image (whether that be PC, console, blue ray payer, ect.). Input lag is an entirely separate factor from graphical performance, as it is just an addition to the time it takes for the image to appear on the display from the image source.

As for the performance the OP is getting that seems fairly poor (especially if running at 1080p), I would suggest to limit the performance impact of the enb, to consider disabling Depth of field and /or Ambient Occlusion as they are generally the biggest performance hogs in regards to enb effects.

New Vegas definitely does have some issues with mods that add too many extra NPC's to areas. On my old system using the Gomorrah Redesigned module of New Vegas Redesigned, my performance would tank significantly (I'm fairly sure this is an issue with the game's engine not implementing proper multi-threading. It would go from around 50 fps down to 25-30 fps upon entering Gomorrah (which has the issue more than most spaces as it is a very large cell, with in this case, several dozen extra NPC's added).

Though I would strongly advise against crossfire, as there is still a serious frametime issue (this is a fairly hard concept to explain but tldr; it makes the game feel like its getting a much worse framerate than you should be seeing because of how crossfire works, I would suggest researching this if you want to know more). And also crossfire/sli scaling is not generally as beneficial with low-mid end cards, as it is with higher end cards. I'm also not really sure about how well optimized NV is for Crossfire (but I doubt its to a large extent) And it likely wont help your NPC issue any if at all.

[leafonthewind]

[quote=luthien]

Please know what I'm talking about before contradicting me. There is a form of scaling applied to the image when a PC is hooked up to it in order to get rid of the overscan. Some TVs have a mode especially for use as a monitor that does this, but if your does not you must set it up in your driver options (Catalyst or WTF NVidia's equivalent is called). If your driver has to do the image correction, it directly increases the workload of your GPU and indirectly increases the CPU usage of the desktop window manager.

[/quote]

I am aware of what overscan is, but as I had never come across an HDTV that did not have basic pixel ratio options, I had not taken into consideration that this might not be true in all cases. I also apologize if my post came off as slightly rude, it's just been a long day. I have edited my previous comment to correct my mistakes.

[MarchUntoTorment]

So, in a nutshell, we're back to turning off my NPC-increase mods? It's not something I'm hugely inclined to do, but I guess if it's necessary, it's necessary.

My only other thinking is that my FPS remains about that mark when I'm in the Capital Wasteland, and even when I'm in cells with no NPCs whatsoever. Hence why I was thinking that it was an ENB issue. I'll try tuning down my ENB options, though - hopefully, the difference won't be crippling, since I love the look of ENB on New Vegas.

I'll keep your advice in mind with my TV, though - I've never much gone poking around in my driver settings, so I'll have a go at turning off my overscan. Hopefully, that'll cut down on my system requirements some.

Thanks for the help, everyone!