Battlefield: Bad Company 2

By Sethos
in Gamers' Hangout

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

WastedJoker

Posted
Posted

So I can say what I wanted to y'day to Joker?

The game looks nice, shame the performance doesn't appear to have improved from beta yet.

:|

ty MI6Labs for the player name database. :)

I didn't really have an issue with performance - it always stayed above 30fps but I expected a bit more performance from my rig. HBAO was unplayable in big fights - the quality difference wasn't hat great either.

Grand Master

Spookie

Posted
Posted

Re: 1st Day Patch

It's slightly less than 300MB in size. Assorted fixes, some perf improvements, fov controllable via Settings.ini (fov=55 default I think) and um some other things. More info later, it would be nice with some sleep now.

Poor DICE haha.

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

I didn't really have an issue with performance - it always stayed above 30fps but I expected a bit more performance from my rig. HBAO was unplayable in big fights - the quality difference wasn't hat great either.

Does it perform the same as the Beta for you?

On my rig I found the Beta to be really poor I had to play it at the lowest settings even with my system to make it playable.

Grand Master

WastedJoker

Posted
Posted

I never dipped below 60FPS, so it was smooth sailing throughout the entire thing.

What specs do you have? what settings? Your screenies looked like you had HBAO on which absolutely killed me FPS.

I wonder if it'#s a driver issue.

Does it perform the same as the Beta for you?

On my rig I found the Beta to be really poor I had to play it at the lowest settings even with my system to make it playable.

I think it performed about the same but it's difficult to say - in the beta I was too busy concentrating on shooting people to notice the eye candy :P

Grand Master

Sethos

Posted
  • Author
Posted

What specs do you have? what settings? Your screenies looked like you had HBAO on which absolutely killed me FPS.

I wonder if it'#s a driver issue.

Oh no, no HBAO - That is a killer and it doesn't even add that much graphically, in my opinion.

Was running 1920x1080, everything on High with 4x AA and AF.

Specs are Core i7, 6GB DDR3, 4870X2, W7.

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

Does it perform the same as the Beta for you?

On my rig I found the Beta to be really poor I had to play it at the lowest settings even with my system to make it playable.

If your rig is the one in your sig then something is wrong with it I'm sorry to say. Because you should be able to play it on max settings(give or take HBAO). And as I said earlier...the performance patch isn't out yet as far as I know?

Grand Master

WastedJoker

Posted
Posted

Oh no, no HBAO - That is a killer and it doesn't even add that much graphically, in my opinion.

Was running 1920x1080, everything on High with 4x AA and AF.

Specs are Core i7, 6GB DDR3, 4870X2, W7.

Hm.

Your rig is a bit better than mine but not by that much :( suspect nVidia drivers are to blame then :(

Grand Master

WastedJoker

Posted
Posted

Notice how Vice is also having performance issues, is running SLI GTX260 as well ... I think that's the problem area, nVidia, drivers or just slow cards / SLI.

I just noticed that too.

Hm.

Hopefully a driver release + the perf. patch will even things out. Not that I'm complaining mind - still happy with my performance.

I'd be toning it down online anyway.

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

Well I'm using a Q6600 @ 3ghz, 4gb ram, and a single gtx 260 and I can run the game just fine, most of my settings are maxed..I had one on medium, I think it was shadows. I play at 1920x1080 and never go below 30 fps. No hbao of course. So maybe it just doesn't play well with duel cards? Would that be nvidia's problem or dices? Or both?

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

I play it at native resolution 2560x1600. And I noticed on the EA forums where guys with HD 5870's were able to play at Max settings at 1920x1200 / 2560x1600 but anyone with SLI'd NVIDIA cards were having issues.

I can play all my other games at max settings fine no issues with FPS. Even Crysis Warhead I can play at very very high settings at native res and pull great FPS.

I suspect the game is not optimised for NVIDIA cards (they did work with AMD very closely on this title and the XBOX360 has an ATi GPU) or the NVIDIA drivers are at fault. One or the other..

Grand Master

WastedJoker

Posted
Posted

I play it at native resolution 2560x1600. And I noticed on the EA forums where guys with HD 5870's were able to play at Max settings at 1920x1200 / 2560x1600 but anyone with SLI'd NVIDIA cards were having issues.

I can play all my other games at max settings fine no issues with FPS. Even Crysis Warhead I can play at very very high settings at native res and pull great FPS.

I suspect the game is not optimised for NVIDIA cards (they did work with AMD very closely on this title and the XBOX360 has an ATi GPU) or the NVIDIA drivers are at fault. One or the other..

*grumbles*

Grand Master

Spookie

Posted
Posted

I intend to. I've had these GTX260's since June 2008. But I'm waiting for the NVIDIA GTX480's which could come out later this month, next month or December for all we know lol

If it's out next month you won't get any till December because of stock shortages. :|

I'd go with ATI my self.

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

For anyone running SLI with Bad Company 2. Upgrade your drivers it appears NVIDIA just released a new driver with Bad Company 2 Support for SLI users.

http://www.neowin.ne...#entry592299858

I'm going to guess versions prior to this only had rudimentary support which caused the issues. I would try the game again but I've ordered through steam so I wont get it until March 5th and the Beta ended already lol

If it's out next month you won't get any till December because of stock shortages. :|

I'd go with ATI my self.

I'm not buying anything until both companies have shown there cards. I feel it would be foolish to buy an AMD card now when NVIDIA are on the brink of releasing there new cards. I will compare the price/performance from all cards once the GTX480 is released before making a decision :)

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

What's the good ATI card to get for mid range these days? For $200-300 us? I was looking 5850's but I don't know how they compare to my gtx 260.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150454

Edit: And for those guys with SLI nVidia cards might want to check out the new drives that were just posted in back page news...

http://www.neowin.ne...#entry592299858

Adds support or whatever for SLI in Bad Company 2.

Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver.
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Why you need to take back control of your synced passwords and how to go about doing that

      By sdvxvcxbfghdgfhdfgh · Posted

      You literally have to do it on a desktop, which is incredibly annoying in our mobile-first world. What???
    • Why you need to take back control of your synced passwords and how to go about doing that

      By SteveL · Posted

      What part of "you can’t really depend on service providers to maintain features forever" is not clear enough?
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it

      By Steven P. · Posted

      Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • Poll: Grand Theft Auto VI price predictions, cast your vote

      By noobient · Posted

      $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Supreme Spray LV earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Genuinetonerink- Dubai earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Genuinetonerink- Dubai earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      hhgygy earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      AMV earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      511
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      165
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      90
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!