24" LCD 1920x1080
Mode 1024, FOV 105
HD6770 - Diamond
1G GDDR5
Data Paths 128
BW - 80G byte sec.
Shaders - 800
I just finished testing offline for the ability to render clouds with all defaults enabled. I had no problems with streaking of the clouds and playable FPS. But, playable FPS and no streaking of the clouds required increasing my card's band width above 80G byte sec.
I wanted to eliminate the fact that Oakland CA has been going through a severe heat wave and I don't have AC in my house because most of the year you don't need AC in the Bay Area. When I was previously testing, my video card had OC off and was hitting 90C and higher for sustained periods which I've found subsequently to be the shut down temp range for the card to protect it. This was the source of the game black screens I reported. Today is over cast and around 69F with a breeze. The default idle temp for my card is normal 32-36C like now, versus during the heat wave idle temp was 41-45C.
The first BW increase was to 81.2G byte sec. This eliminated the streaking of the rendered clouds but still had FPS inside the clouds mid teens to mid 20's. Tower FPS was 20's with hanger mid teens. But, FPS approaching the clouds stayed mid 30s-mid 40's until entering the clouds. Not the previous issue of watching the FPS drop starting about 2k out, dropping exponentially going into the clouds.
The second BW increase was to 82.6G byte sec. This created a better FPS response in the clouds of mid 20s - mid 30s. All clouds rendered without the streaking. Card temps never went above 80C while in the clouds. It was mostly while in clouds during the local heat wave that my card hit it's high heat shut down point and the screen turned black until the temp dropped into the 80's C.
Achieving the higher Band Widths required increasing my GDDR5 speed from default 1250Mhz to 1270Mhz then 1290Mhz. Much higher than that and both AH2 and the alpha eventually respond with the exe to the desktop error.
Now that I've found a band width that can support cloud rendering, I should try out a Euro2015 mission to see what happens.