Far Cry 2 with HD4870 512MB Runs Slow

[EXCellR8]

I've been having a slight problem running Far Cry 2 on my computer lately, seems to be my video card. I have tried running the game from Medium all the way to Very High settings and the result is the same. After about 45 min or so of smooth gameplay my fps start to plummet, almost making the game unplayable (~15fps). I'm pretty sure this video card should be able to chew right through this game no problem so I am a bit concerned with the performance. I thought it could just be the HDR effects and AA I was using but I've played with everything and this happens each time. I have checked the GPU temps which do not rise above 50c so I don't think that it's the card itself. The game did install a new version of DirectX 9 so maybe a fresh reinstall of drivers would possibly do the trick? Thoughts?

Also, I am running my Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz, which is 800mhz above the recommended CPU speed for this game.

 

[EXCellR8]

Well I guess the problem isn't with the drivers or DirectX because I tried it again today and it was worse than ever. Total slide show during firefights, couldn't be more than 5fps in some spots, which is absolutely unacceptable for this system considering what I've put into it. I have to say that the game itself isn't all that great either so I'm not gonna cry (no pun intended) about it. This card ran Crysis just fine so I'm just confused as to why this game runs like sh** on my system.

On a side note, I ran Driver Sweeper on the previous install of drivers and now CCC doesn't work at all, won't even open! So now I'm using the latest build of RivaTuner to adjust the card's settings (which didn't make a difference). I thought that was a little peculiar as well...

 

[seanc]

Hey EXCellR8, did this start before or after we changed your SATA controller drivers to generic ones?

 

[EXCellR8]

^Sorry for the late reply... but yeah I started playing the game after the SATA controller drivers were replaced with the generic ones. I figured the problem was fixed so I installed the game and started to play. It's funny that you bring that up because I'm having additional problems with what appears to be the same device.

The same thing is now happening with the generic drivers and causing my system to crash and lose video altogether... again. I think the controller on this board is bugged or something and there isn't another one, like a Silicon or JMicron, so I guess I'm screwed. I was thinking of just buying a PCI-E SATA II interface card but I don't have any free slots left, so that option is out as well.

So now, I've unplugged both SATA devices (a hard drive and a DVD-ROM drive) just to see if the problem persists. If it happens again, I'm returning this motherboard as I think 3 months of troubleshooting is enough. The new board will use an Intel chipset for sure.