Why does Borderlands 2 run better on my old PC than my new one?
My old PC is:
- CPU: 2x AMD Opteron 270 (so, 4 cores @2GHz total)
- RAM: 3.25GB DDR400
- VGA1: AMD HD6870
- VGA2: nVidia GT620 (for Physx)
- HDD: 15kRPM SCSI
- OS: Windows XP 32bit (hence the 3.25GB RAM)
Borderlands 2 runs quite well on this PC with 1920x1200 resolution and some settings set to highest (physx medium or low, no AA because I don't like it). It also runs quite well with just the AMD card, just that I do not get any physx effects.
Later I decided to build a new PC with Windows 7 so I could play newer games like Bioshock Infinity that did not work on XP). Since dual CPU worked very well for me previously (I built that system almost 7 years ago and since then have added a bit of RAM and upgrade the video card from 2900XT), I decided to get a dual CPU system again. So, my new PC is:
- CPU: 2x AMD Opteron 4238 (so, 12 cores @3.3GHz)
- RAM: 32GB DDR3
- VGA: the same HD6870 (later nVidia GTX780)
- HDD: SAS 15k
- OS: Windows 7 64bit
New games like Infinity run great. After I bought the GTX780 even Watch dogs runs OK. However, Borderlands 2 lags so much that it is barely playable (I sometimes get single digit FPS). It does not matter whether the graphics settings are high or low, it is slow. Much slower than with the 7 year old PC. Setting Affinity to less cores does not help. It even takes a couple of minutes to start compared to seconds on the old PC.
So, why is it so slow? Is it because of Windows 7? Because there are 12 cores now? Is there a way to make it run good on my new PC?
Solution 1:
Try setting FPS caped inside borderlands. V-sync off, 60hz.
"Verify integrity of game cache" if running from Steam.
Run the Direct-X redistributable that came with it.
Run Physx redistributable or update.
Disable your sound card to rule that out.
Try your AMD video card.
Get a KVM switch or make a dual boot. How were you planing to play old x32 games anyway?
Have a look here: http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=148479 for manually editing the display ini.
Takes a long time to start,eh? Anti-virus throttling you? Try putting Borderlands on a secondary hard drive or being disconnected from the internet (are auto updates killing you?). Device manager shows no conflicts or lack of drivers?
Solution 2:
It might be the reason that since you have so many cores they get downclocked. But borderlands is single cpu game and thus will use total of 1 cpu only. Problem is that 1 cpu usage divided by 12cores will make windows think that more cpu power it not needed thus reducing clock speed. Setting windows power management to high performance of disabling cool 'n quiet in bios or whatever opteron cpus use for automatic cpu speed change should fix the performance issues.