System Requirements

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

Minimum System Requirements

OS
Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) 32-bit
PROCESSOR
2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.7 GHz)
MEMORY
2 GB
HARD DRIVE
20 GB
GRAPHICS CARD (AMD)
DirectX 10.1 compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI Radeon 3000, 4000, 5000 or 6000 series, with ATI Radeon 3870 or higher performance)
GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA)
DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 or 500 series with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or higher performance)
SOUND CARD
DirectX Compatible
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
DVD ROM DRIVE

Recommended System Requirements

OS
Windows 7 64-bit
PROCESSOR
Quad-core CPU
MEMORY
4 GB
HARD DRIVE
20 GB
GRAPHICS CARD
DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 or ATI Radeon 6950)
SOUND CARD
DirectX Compatible
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
DVD ROM DRIVE

For Battlefield 3 on PC, you’ll need the latest version of Origin. Download it now (http://www.origin.com/us/about) and get into the battle faster.

Website (Thanks Onji) to run an auto test on your system: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/analysis.aspx

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Playing quite nicely (so far) on:

AMD Phenom II x6 1075 (3Ghz hex core)
8GB RAM
Win 7 x64 (no SP1)
80GB Intel SSD (boot & OS) SATA 2
500GB Seagate (Data) SATA 2
ATI Radeon HD 4850 (1GB GDDR, PCIe 16) running Catalyst 11.9 drivers

Nothing overclocked, game automatically set everything but landscape textures to "High" at 1920x1200 and I just left 'em there. I think there's an "Ultra" setting but I died just as often at the lower res. Still working on getting my key mappings to where I like 'em.

Visually makes BF2 look like Pac Man.

SOUND is phenomenal. Dolby Digital and allathatstuff. Need decent speakers or a good set of cans to do it justice.

So far, I'd call it a keeper. As to playability on other systems, it should be a goer on a minimum DirectX 10 system, especially at a lower resolution. The Frostbite 2 engine appears to be really efficient - my CPU load was relatively low last night when Onji and I were ratting around dying, but I haven't made to any other maps. Note that I'm running pretty heavy on CPU and relatively light on GPU.

Figure minimum configuration listed above, but with a quad core CPU and 4GB RAM. Or the "recommended" version with a lesser graphics card. You get the idea. I would think that most of y'all should be able to play it, or need a minimal upgrade to do so. Do wish it ran on XP, though.

[LA_MERC_WBHighwind]

What I have arriving tomorrow:

ASUS P8Z68-V Mobo
Intel i5-2500K
nVidia GTX570
16GB PC3-12800 RAM

This should do the trick.

[LA_MERC_goose]

I made my wishlist on Newegg a month ago but the check book got slammed so I'm probably out a few months. Based on what I read earlier this configuration should work, right?

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
XFX HD-677X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
2 @ Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 Plug n Play Desktop Memory Model KHX1866C11D3P1K2/4G
2 @ SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3EG HD503HI 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
2 @ SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB - OEM

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

I feel your pain Goose. I had a shopping cart filled up as well, but no love until probably tax refund time.

You have the HD 6770 down there for the video card, but I would up that to the HD 6950 at least. I have a 5770 (which isn't that much slower than 6770) and it wasn't fast enough to play at medium detail. Just a heads up that you want to shoot higher with the video card.

[LA_MERC_goose]

Thanks Doc, wasn't sure how well it would handle the graphics but that answered my question. Just looked on Newegg again and I think I'll switch to this one:

XFX HD695XZDDC Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Pfft. Dunno why my 4850 is working then, unless it's my CPU picking up the slack.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Not sure Jack, but that seems reasonable. I have a decent CPU: E8400. With 6GB RAM, I sort of thought it would run decent. At medium (which I consider the bare minimum to be worth playing), it would choke when getting into any firefight. I do have my development IDEs installed and perhaps they have mucked up Win7. I may try slapping a new drive in there do a fresh install of the OS to compare benchmarks.

It's good that the 4850 is pulling the load for you. I suppose that the extra cores could be making the difference.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Ain't gonna complain that mine's running it OK. Just wondering why it is, since it appears to be a lower spec than most of the rest of the players. Weirdness. Did you change any of the default settings?

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

I changed a few of the graphics settings down, but I didn't do any heavy tweaking. Honestly, it just wasn't that close. Given that my MB lost it's RJ45 to a lightning strike, I'll probably just move to a new i5 based system (anybody got any solid Z68 MB suggestions?) with a 6950. After a MB takes a shock like that, you really can't trust it.

I really want to run it at the native resolution of my monitor (1920 x 1200). It seems that no other resolution looks right. My thought is that the i5-2500 and HD 6950 should do the trick and I can add a 2nd 6950 in the future. Just need to everyone in the family to stay healthy long enough to save up the dough :) .

[LA_MERC_WBHighwind]

I changed a few of the graphics settings down, but I didn't do any heavy tweaking. Honestly, it just wasn't that close. Given that my MB lost it's RJ45 to a lightning strike, I'll probably just move to a new i5 based system (anybody got any solid Z68 MB suggestions?) with a 6950. After a MB takes a shock like that, you really can't trust it.

Last night I assembled my new PC containing an ASUS P8Z68-V board and i5-2500K. The big advantage to the ASUS board is the UEFI touch bios. Some other companies are struggling to get them to work decent but consensus has been for a while the ASUS had the best. The only difference between it and the Pro version is 2 6 gb SATA ports. I honestly don't know why I settled on the ASUS board.

I was just tired of trying to make a decision since everything else in my system was easy to pick out. Dont go with an i7 since we dont need the multithreading for gaming. I went with a GTX570 because you can overclock it to a stock 580 if needed for $130 less. I prolly only need 8Gb of ram but got 16gb only because newegg had a deal going for a nice set of 8Gb G.Skill.

Last two purchases I might make are to get a solid state drive and maybe an audio card. Ive never thought I needed an audio card since I run the optical out off the board, but I cant seem to get in game dolby digital to work and Im quirky like that.

Anyone have any good recommendations for a SSD?

MB ASUS|P8Z68-V Z68 LGA1155
VGA GIGABYTE|GV-N570OC-13I REV2.0
CPU INTEL|CORE I5 2500K 3.3G
CPU COOL NOCTUA|NH-D14 R
MEM 4Gx4|G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 16GB total

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

I love my Imation SSD.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

I'm running an Intel SSD and it's been great.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Heavy firefight in the city last night, saw some unacceptable choppiness in the video (the area where we were trying to hold that corner in the city). Still actually playable, though. Going video card shopping now. m00seboy will be getting my 4850 at some point.

[LA_MERC_WBHighwind]

Update on my new hardware. Been playing for a day now and been able to run Ultra settings in 1920x1080 with mid 50s avg fps. Anything over 60 seems to be icing on the cake so Im very happy with this setup. Loads levels in no time as I usually have 20-30 secs to wait before the map starts.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Ended up going with this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102945) - it's on the way.

Liked the ATI version of that Gigabyte one you got, Highwind, but my case wouldn't accommodate the extra length. Yes, I considered taking a die grinder to my drive cage to make the room, but decided against it. Plus it can apparently be easily modded (flip a switch) to unlock / overclock to a 6970, and 2GB of RAM should take care of textures for the next generation of games. Time will tell.

[LA_MERC_WBHighwind]

I had looked into going with a 6950 but Ive never had an ATI gpu before and I didnt see a reason to change now. The reason I had looked into getting a 9650 is just because you could do a firmware update and turn it into a 6970. Seems like a good value buy. I dont know if you can do that to all of them though.

[LA_MERC_Onji]

for those interested Tom's Hardware just did a performance test of 30+ video cards with BF3. Both nvidia and ati

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html

Also, Anyone have a grand i could have to get a 590?

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Uh, so if I'm extrapolating that right, I've been satisfied wtih sub-20 fps performance with my 4850 at 1920x1200? Ouch. I don't know what I'll do with this 6950/5970 I have coming. I don't think I've ever had "Recommended" hardware before...

[LA_MERC_Onji]

Uh, so if I'm extrapolating that right, I've been satisfied wtih sub-20 fps performance with my 4850 at 1920x1200? Ouch. I don't know what I'll do with this 6950/5970 I have coming. I don't think I've ever had "Recommended" hardware before...

Wow, that's going to be like night and day for you. Should be awesome.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Frag, put in an order for the same card (2GB HD6950) this morning. I guess I need to pick up the game on the PC now. What's the best deal out there? Yea, I know I can look but if you know of a really good deal then post it here.

[LA_MERC_Onji]

Best that I know of is this one for $10 off

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-40834ttlefield-32-Battlefield/dp/B005WWZUQ0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320173985&sr=8-3

You'll basically get a code you input into origin to redeem.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Uh, so if I'm extrapolating that right, I've been satisfied wtih sub-20 fps performance with my 4850 at 1920x1200? Ouch. I don't know what I'll do with this 6950/5970 I have coming. I don't think I've ever had "Recommended" hardware before...

Extrapolation aside - CTRL-ALT-S will pop up your FPS and some other stats for as long as you hold it. Yes, I AM getting between 17 and 21 FPS (in the "firefight alley" that we all know and love). Some readings as low as 7 FPS:shootme: I obviously have set my standards for "It's working fine for me" way too low. New card came in today, so that 17-21 FPS is with my Gigabyte (4850, 1GB DDR3, PCIe 16x) card, default setting of "High" that the game automagically put in there when I installed it. I'm going to try and get a relatively similar server situation and see how it pans out. Will report back once I get everything up and running.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Frag, put in an order for the same card (2GB HD6950) this morning. I guess I need to pick up the game on the PC now. What's the best deal out there? Yea, I know I can look but if you know of a really good deal then post it here.

You end up getting the Sapphire one? I'll let you know how it works out. I'll just be running stock to see. Not gonna flip the switch or overclock.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Updated Update - Initial Measurements:

Sapphire 6950 2GB PCIe 16 card as mentioned earlier (Cayman chipset according to GPU-z, so should be switchable and overclockable to 6970 level)
AMD Catalyst 11.9 drivers (from AMD, not the ones with the card) because I had them installed already
Map: Grand Bazaar
Area - "Firefight Alley"
Resolution - 1920x1200, 32bbp, 75Hz (my default desktop setup)

First reaction - "Huh. So THAT'S what a decent framerate looks like."

Same position, very close to same orientation, high activity:

Ultra - 33FPS
High - 53FPS
Auto - 59FPS

Honestly no real difference between Ultra and High, at least in this scenario.

Didn't drop more than ~2FPS while playing, peaked 10-15FPS higher in all modes.
Also seemed "sharper" somehow. Dunno why, maybe all the new whiz-bang rendering stuff it's got that my 4850 didn't have. 2GB vs. 1GB RAM? Better shadow gradation, less highlight clipping, no smearing.

Woo hoo! Am I gonna tweak it? Am I going to try and hack it to a 6970? Am I going to mess with different drivers to try and wring every last ounce of performance out of this freakin' nice card?









Nope. Working just fine, better than any video card I've ever had available for playing. Ain't broke, not gonna try and fix.

Crap. Now I'm acting old.

Will update as warranted.

Delta in performance from System requirements Lab (http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/intro.aspx)

[LA_MERC_Onji]

Woo! Awesome frag.

[LA_MERC_WBHighwind]

Just so everyone knows, in order to display a permanent FPS figure, go into console by pressing ~, then type"Render.DrawFPS 1". This will show continuous FPS number in the upper right. Last night on Bazaar in a 64 player server with settings on Ultra and 1920x1080, my 570 was dipping into the upper teens on the start of the map with 20-30 players on screen. Otherwise it usually averages about mid 50s with occasional dips into the low 40s. As depicted by tomshardware article, CPU really has little effect on the game other than maybe level loading. This game needs a high powered GPU for FPS and a solid state drive for fast level loading to really get the best performance overall.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Got my HD6950 2G card installed and running. It auto-set to Ultra, but that was choppy. I dropped it to High (1920 x 1200) and it would still chop in dark areas. I dropped some of the filtering, but no real change. Finally at Medium (1920 x 1200), it would play without the chop or lag (except for the tunnels of Metro). Even though it might be butter smooth for a few seconds, that slight chop when jumping around a corner gets you killed most of the time.

Either the E8400 that I have can't keep up or I have some background task goofing things up. At medium it is as least playable and I'll have to wait on the system update. My wife is already giving me some grief because of the cost of the video card, so I'll hold off for now.

I may put a 2nd hard drive in there and reinstall Win7 clean to get a comparison. BTW, we need more people in the voice comm as that definitely helps the squad play. Frag and I did much better after I got that going.

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

I hope to get by Best Buy and pick up a copy in the next day or so when I get a chance, then well see what my New and improved rig will do with it :)

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

I went all out and got an MSI N580GTX GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Extreme with 3 GB GDDR5 and it runs great! Time to KILL KILL KILL!