Recommended Settings for 1GB - 1.5GB - 2GB+ Video Cards
 

Here's some testing I just did to prove that people need to be more conservative with the game settings.. (god im good to you lot sometimes.. this took me best part of 3 hrs + 8hrs with the follow up tests)

All testing done at 1920x1080 Rez

Firstly lets have a look at what happens if you have anything that hasnt cleared out of memory properly when you start the game.

Desktop Memory 760MB (normally sits at about 240-300MB for me)
This is with the last official Retail patch and at Maximum settings 2xAA.
Notice before we even start that we are WELL above 1.5GB Vram and it gets worse.. even 2GB Vram cards couldnt run well as it peaks at 2.26GB Vram.
http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...max-Retail.jpg


Next up... Latest Retail Patch Max Settings without the desktop memory hog.
Desktop Memory 300MB
Starts at 1.4GB and climbs to 1.87GB Vram...
Still too much for 1GB and 1.5GB cards.
http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...Max-Retail.jpg

Ok lets switch over to the current Beta.
Again Max Settings 2xAA.
Desktop again down at 240MB Vram
Starts at 1.3GB and climbs to 1.6GB Vram.
Again too much for 1GB and 1.5GB cards. Notice how the texture management is actually working though. (its not just a constant increase and flatline like above) This is one area the Devs look to have been working. And this used to be a lot worse with the original game when it 1st released right up to until they rewrote the core graphics code for the current retail patch.
http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...Max-latest.jpg

Ok so now on to High settings...
Latest Beta High Preset 2xAA
Desktop at 330MB
Start at 1.38GB and peaks at 1.6GB but stays mostly just under or just over 1.5GB.
Hurray we have found the sweet spot settings for 1.5GB cards.
http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...igh-Latest.jpg

Last test... Medium Preset 2xAA
Desktop 260MB
Starts at 880MB looking good.. Peaks at about 1.1GB but mostly stays around 1GB Vram... Again another mystery solved... 1GB video cards should stick to Medium preset for best results.
http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...ium-Latest.jpg

What have we learnt here today???
MOST people are just trying to run the game with too many features up too high and they are running out of video card memory which means the game has to swap textures from system ram and back and forth to video ram. THIS is what causes major hickups and most of the stuttering. It gets even worse if it has to go to HDD for it.

So...
1GB video cards use Medium Preset...
and slowly turn up a few settings until you notice stuttering.
1.5GB cards use High Preset...
and slowly turn up a few settings until you notice stuttering.
2GB+ Video cards use Very high (max)..
you may still notice occasional stuttering because you will sometimes still run out of Vram unless you have 2.5GB or more.

PS... for those of you who don't know I have 3GB GTX580 cards (which currently dont work in SLI with COD unless using nvidia surround) and for the most part the game is butter smooth for me now.

Please review these recommendations if you are still having performance issues with the lastest beta patch.
I have double checked my findings with another set of tests on 3 different lower spec machines I have and the conclusion is the same.

Additional testing was done on
i7 Laptop with GT330M 8GB Ram

Intel Core2Duo 6600 8GB Ram
and
Intel i7 950 8GB Ram
with the following video card combinations

Nvidia 8800 Ultra 768MB card (just under minimum spec)
single 4870X2, + 4870x2 x 2 1GB cards (quadfire)
single 5870, 5970 and Quadfire 5870 1GB cards
GTX580 1.5GB cards single and SLI

Though the FPS varied between the various cards the stutters were consistently removed by dropping to the settings recommended in my testing.
When the newest patch comes out I will repeat my findings with more test data for all combinations.

Tks, nice test and its will be good to know for my next pc :)

Most enlightening tests Phat :) cheers for the contribution.

What's your advice for getting the 'desktop memory' down to a good level?

mine seems to hover around 950MB:confused:

I assume I get this info from task manager/performance..is that correct?

I agree with you Phat that the amount of V/ram has a major influence on performance. I don't have major stuttering but am hoping when final support comes for Sli that will cure what I have. The stuttering that I have is only micro (and only when looking down at the ground) and I have tried all sorts of testing with the settings. Running Sli, turning off Sli, going down to medium settings, but the micro stutters are still there. I have now gone back to all high except for forests and buildings which are med. My fps are good (single player London attack 40---80fps depending on action). The reason that a lot are disappointed with the performance I think is related to the PC configuration as stated on the retail box, at release and even now these recomendations are still way out and it is not giving those that bought this sim on that information a good experience. The min V/ram was stated as 512mb (1gb recommended), and cpu's at dual core 2.0gb, (Quad core 2.66 recommended), system ram 2gb (4gb recommended). Most of us are running systems in excess of the recommended and still have some problems with performance (those that are online players seem to be the worse off in that section). Thanks for the effort in explaining to all about the ram issue, I hope that the developers finally get it right. As you will see from my sig that I'm running 1gb cards and am pleased with the over all performance of my system, but it has taken some time trying different settings with Nvidia Inspector to get where I am at the moment. Looking forward to the next patch.

Most likely due to (but not necessarily limited to) fps being lower than the native refresh rate of your monitor at that time. Similar can happen in some circumstances when fps is higher than the monitor refresh rate also.

Agreed but I also think that combination of video card and processor maybe to blame for some of the micro stutters. The newer cards and CPUs have much better and more efficient processing pipelines so stuttering is less likely to occur.

The older processors from Intel and AMD had longer processing pipelines as the race for ultimate MHZ was easier to achieve. Now its more about pipeline efficiency and branch prediction which means more work gets done at a slower speed and the inputs/outputs are closer together which helps reduce inter component communications and stutter.. The same can also be said for GPUs.

Yes, the bus can get a bit saturated causing stutters.

I still have sharp drop in fps when strafing bombers and closing in, despite the 3 GB of VRam.

Yes I get the same, its the particle/smoke/tracer and probably some other code that still needs optimisation. Mine doesnt drop below 30FPS though even with 9 bombers and 2 fighter planes and a flaming bomber wing falling off so its not too bad! ;)