Game:

The Division (2016)

Duration: 36:50

431 views

6

There's more than one grouping of settings that can be described as "best settings" for The Division (when playing in 1440p, with a 980 Ti), depending on you tastes or mood. This grouping can be a little demanding, but I do like it a lot.

This video was recorded via Nvidia's DSR technology, so playback for you will be 1080p, but performance is 1440p.

My previous "best settings" choices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEZsUceXog

***Note: This video used to have a different title. I will explain, here, why I've changed it.

This footage was recorded with me using my 980 Ti Hybrid (a water cooled card). For the first two days of owning the Hybrid, the Hybrid was getting better frame rates, with these settings, than my 980 Ti Classified (an air cooled card). Because of that, I had claimed that the Hybrid could play the game with these settings, but maybe people using air cooled cards could not.

Since then, I have seen the air cooled card sometimes play with these settings "just fine." Sometimes the Classified will manage a two hour play session staying above 50fps. Other times, it will be playing at 45fps, as soon as the game loads. I honestly cannot deduce what causes the inconsistencies. I have wondered if it's the DRM, while a buddy has said maybe it's the net code.

Either way... "When it wants to," my 980 Ti Classified can play these settings just fine and be in the 60fps neighborhood, or even higher.

My 980 Ti Hybrid also suffers from performance inconsistencies, but they seem to occur much less.

There are certain areas of the map that cause the low frame rates more often than others. Right in front of the Kerman Station safehouse, in Hudson Yards, is one of them. With both cards, I see the frame rate jump down to 45fps, in front of that safehouse. (leave the safehouse, go up the stairs, from the underground, and then kind of loiter in that area, close to the stairs)

While both cards see frame rate drops, in certain areas, the Classified (air cooled card) sees more "random" frame rate drops than the Hybrid, by a noticeable margin.

When I play with the Hybrid, I see the frame rate drops, in some of the usual places, but with the Classified, I can see frame rate drops in completely random places. (and I can't get it to duplicate them very easily, which feeds into the randomness)

Because I see more frame rate drops with the Classified, I think heat might be at play.

First of all, the Classified is air cooled, as I've said, but it's also the style of card that exhausts heat into the case, as opposed to the kind of card that exhausts heat OUT of the case.

My CPU is air cooled, also.

Part of me is wondering if there's some kind of heat situation, inside the case that causes these frame rate drops, when using my Classified card. (I'm even wondering if my PSU overheats and "throttles" itself, because I've used a Watt Meter and seen that my computer pulls less juice from the wall, when these instances happen) (60 watts less juice)

Anyway... I know this is a big, long explanation, but I am trying to be transparent as to why I've changed the title of the video.

The card used, in this video, was my water cooled Hybrid card. Since posting this video, my air cooled Classified card has been able to match this performance (and even beat it, sometimes), so I will no longer make the claim that this performance can only be attributed to the use of a water cooled card.

6700K
16GB DDR4 RAM
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Hybrid 6GB
EVGA P2 Platinum 1200w Power Supply
Z170 Asus TUF Sabertooth Motherboard
Sandisk Ultra II 960GB SSD
Windows 10

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