Thank God for Single Malts!
Semp - You and I are thinking alike here. I am running Nvidia drivers on the cards. I'll check in with the EVGA website today and see if they are publishing their own. I am also concerned that I might have an infection. It would be worth my peace of mind to buy the commercial version of Avira and be done with it. I've run the freebie for about 5 years and it has nabbed a bunch of trojans in that time.
I won't quit on this until it performs properly.
Ratsy,
I would like to offer some suggestions to try to help out as I also have a similar system as you (look in my sig below. Outside of the vid card...I'm running a GTX 780 Ti which is a pretty big leap over your 760).
Your platform is an old but very good set up....I'm going to assume that your mem is a Quad Channel kit (4x4Gb DIMMS), yes? There is no reason to buy an Intel X79 chipset mobo that costs 50% more than a Z68, Z77, Z87 or Z97 chipset mobo just to use it in Dual Channel mem configuration.........
I'm also assuming that the CPU & mem is not OC'd as from my experience this platform should be able to run this game the way you desire w/o any user-induced OC'ing. That's not to say that you can't or shouldn't OC it.....that's up to you. Just saying that out of the box it isn't needed.
Now for the vid card as IMO it is here where you're frustrations are..........................
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1st thing to note here.....your GTX 760 card is on par w/ the 1st gen Kepler-based GTX 670 series w/ GPU Boost 2.0 improvements along w/ better power management & BIOS tweaks...& will never be able to fully optimize your CPU capability in a single card configuration.....especially when trying to use in-game max everything graphics-wise. Just a fact. That card is going to stumbleIf your desired goal is max everything graphics-wise & stay w/ a single card solution (which I recommend for AH) then you will need to go to the GTX 780 series of vid cards.....that is if you intend to stay w/ Nvidia vid cards. I would recommend the 780Ti now or wait for the new Nvidia offerings coming very soon. I can attest that you will get as close to max graphics performance AND steady 59-60 FPS in AH as you can get in AH's current configuration w/ a GTX 780TI on that platform....& this includes EM.........and at 2560x1440 res.......
Just for statement my GTX 780 Ti vid card can't load up my I7 4820K CPU fully in stock configuration due to Turbo Cache as the CPU will clock itself up to 3.9 GHz if needed.......................
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But to help you get the most out of your current card here are some items that you can try that I have tested to be viable using Nvidia Kepler-based GPU's:
1. GPU Boost 2.0--What you have read or heard concerning how this works is true.....except the 1 thing that has never been mentioned by Nvidia or any one else but thru my testing I have found that GPU Boost also determines the GPU speed boost range by the actual graphics setting LEVEL for AF & AA in particular but also to some degree the Trans AA & Texture Quality setting levels. If you use the AH in-game AA settings as found in the Video Settings these Kepler-based GPU's will most likely not boost to the vBIOS set max boost level regardless of GPU power/temp being below the threshold level....even w/ the slider set at Most. I have found that the in-game AA & AF coding calls are interpreted by the Nvidia GPU Boost as not aggressive enough & will set the GPU speed lower than the BASE clock speeds most of the time which causes issues....mostly stuttering but can cause crashes as the GPU is underpowered. If you have PrecisionX or Afterburner installed you can see this plainly for yourself....just run the game then exit out & pull either up & observe the graphed GPU speeds along w/ power/temp levels. Don't be surprised to see what I just described....................
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There are 2 ways to overcome this......either A. use the in-game AA settings then set the Nvidia driver for AF to use the 3D application settings then set the AA to Enhance the 3D application settings then set the level of AA you want to use for enhancement then set all other Nvidia driver settings for max settings or B. disable the in-game AA settings entirely (set slider to None) then set the Nvidia driver for AF to Override the 3D application setting & set the level to 16x (max), set the AA to Override the 3D application setting & set the AA level to a minimum of 16xCSAA up to 32xCSAA (max) then set all other driver settings to max. The Nvidia driver setting calls are tuned to tell GPU Boost to load the GPU up to the BIOS-set max speed level & as long as the GPU power/temp levels stay below the threshold levels the card will stay fully bosted which will help the gameplay. If you set any of these settings at less than stated here then GPU Boost will start setting a lower boost speed range that is proportional to the driver SETTING level selected. I recommend using B myself & keep the driver setting at max so the GPU will boost to full speed then use the other in-game graphics settings as found at the clipboard to fine tune. I have tested this to be true w/ GPU Boost 1.0 & 2.0 as I have a GTX 670 FTW, a GTX TITAN & a GTX 780TI vid card & verified this behavior on all 3 of them. I have posted all this in earlier threads on this BBS & some may not agree w/ this but try it for yourself then judge. Now in the upcoming graphics package upgrade this may not be an issue anymore......................
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We will see.
2. Adaptive or Prefer Max Power Settings. I know a lot of folks will suggest to set this to prefer max power setting.....I recommend that you don't waste your time as all this is controlled by GPU Boost anyway so unless you like your GPU to run at full GPU speeds while in 2D mode leave this set for Adaptive & forget about it......unless you want to get 1 of the modded BIOS copies that disable GPU Boost & is modded to have the Kepler GPU act like a Fermi GPU but still have the power/temp throttling capability of GPU Boost. You'll have to flash your card to get this...............I really don't recommend that unless you're a die-hard user.
3. V-Synch. In another thread in this BBS the subject of v-synch came up & Skuzzy made the statement to not use the vid card driver to set this as it will cause issues. I tested this out & found that AH is natively coded to use V-synch & I assume triple buffer...regardless of whether you are using the in-game AA settings or not...& as such there is no need to use the driver settings for this at all. IOW's Skuzzy was right. Just set the vid card driver to use the 3D application settings & set triple buffer to none & be happy about it. Doing anything else is just opening the door for code collusion & issues......mostly noticed thru stuttering. If you just HAVE to run & not want V-synch on then turn it off in the in-game video settings.....not using the driver settings. Tested & verified....been there, done that....
4. Texture Res. If you want to use all the other graphics settings at max....whether in-game or driver level...then set the texture res in-game for 512 instead of 1024 (or lower if you desire). You can make up for some of the granularity of the lower texture resolution w/ the driver quality settings & also unload some of the graphics load on the vid card to achieve an acceptable visual/gameplay compromise....why I recommend to set this at the driver level to High Quality (full trilinear texture filtering) then use the in-game settings to "tune" the final result. IMO far too much emphasis is put on FPS instead of smoothness of gameplay, ie the "game-experience". How SMOOTH does the game feel & play at max graphics settings is the true test of a computer's set up & ability. I have witnessed my box constantly maintain 59-60 FPS & exhibit micro-stuttering that later I had found to be caused by me having the driver set to V-synch not knowing that the game was natively coded to make V-synch calls so the game is sending instructions to the driver to instruct the GPU to render this according to the game instructions & the driver is also giving instructions to the GPU to render this according to the driver set levels.....at the same time.......yeah. Sometimes the issue(s) ain't caused by the hardware.....................
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If you'll use what I've suggested here I'm hopeful that you will find some acceptable level of satisfaction w/ your current set up.
And 1 last note.......................
Environmental Mapping does have a tactical use in the game. In another thread I also stated this use. It can help a con that is flying a plane using an unpainted skin (P51D, P47D, B17, B24, B29, LA, Yak, etc) to better hide in the sun due to the EM light reflection mapping (harder to pick out of the "glare" of the sun) when on the attack & to easily pick up same con on the deck doing NOE due to the EM reflection mapping lighting the con up against a darker background. This is a fact as I use EM & have spotted many a con or friendly down on the deck regardless of alt & have learned to NEVER fly w/ the sun to your 6 for any length of time..........been hit several times while looking back at the sun then all of a sudden see tracers coming out of the glare.....................
The problem is that unless you invest in enough computer power (especially vid card GPU power) to adequately run w/ it enabled, you pay the performance penality. I see EM being made much more user friendly when done under Shader 3.0 as the vid card's shader cores will offload the GPU of rendering this.
I hope something said here may be of some help to you.
