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First Person Shooters (Games) Graphics Hardware

Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards Tested 171

Posted by Soulskill from the anti-aliased-bullets dept.
New submitter wesbascas writes "Have you ever wanted to play a new PC game, but weren't sure where your PC falls between the minimum and recommended system requirements? I don't have a whole lot of time to game these days and with new hardware perpetually coming out and component vendors often tweaking their model numbering schemes, knowing exactly what kind of experience I'm buying for $60 can be difficult. Luckily, somebody benchmarked Battlefield 3's campaign on a wide range of hardware configurations and detail settings. If you've purchased a system in the past few years you should be in luck. The video cards tested start with the AMD Radeon HD 4670 and Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT, and go up to the brand new Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590. I hate it that my aging Radeon HD 4870 isn't going to cut it at 1080p, but am glad that I found out before buying the game." If you're curious about the game itself, here's a detailed review from Eurogamer and a briefer one from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
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Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards Tested More

Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards Tested

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  • WTF? (Score:4, Funny)

    by gazbo ( 517111 ) on Saturday October 29, 2011 @05:27PM (#37881838)
    I've got a Savage 4 and that's not even in the list. How is this "review" supposed to be useful to anyone?

    • LOL I remember upgrading to a Savage 4, but I had to go to the PCI variant, as I didn't have an AGP motherboard. The results... were not good. Little to no performance improvement over my old card, for a whole lot of money.

    • Pff, dual Voodoo 2's all the way. Savage is for grannies that check their e-mail.

      • Pff, dual Voodoo 2's all the way. Savage is for grannies that check their e-mail.

        A geek's intellectual hatred is the worst.

    • 3Dfx and glide are the future!

  • I can't decide... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bieeanda ( 961632 ) on Saturday October 29, 2011 @05:33PM (#37881862)
    If this is a bigger slashvertisement for Tom's Hardware, or Battlefield 3. Meanwhile, there are much broader testing services such as Can You Run It? [systemrequ...ntslab.com] that will give you data on one page instead of thirty and on a much wider variety of games than Battlefield $$$.

    • Re:I can't decide... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by master811 ( 874700 ) on Saturday October 29, 2011 @06:08PM (#37882058)

      If this is a bigger slashvertisement for Tom's Hardware, or Battlefield 3. Meanwhile, there are much broader testing services such as Can You Run It? [systemrequ...ntslab.com] that will give you data on one page instead of thirty and on a much wider variety of games than Battlefield $$$.

      That site is all very well, but it gives no real world performance. It's all theoretical. According to that site, my PC can "run it" just fine, but it would have to be at the lowest possible graphic settings according to the real world tests.

      • I"ve noticed that myself, my rig should run The Witcher 2 without too much trouble according to the site, but in practice the system plays laggy and ultimately it's not playable. Kind of like Quake when I first bought it.

        • My rig should run The Witcher 2 without too much trouble according to the site, but in practice the system plays laggy and ultimately it's not playable. Kind of like Quake when I first bought it.

          Hmm. Regardless of what the publishers claim, if your system was struggling with Quake when it first came out, I *very* strongly suspect its performance on a game that came out earlier this year is going to be sub-par. ;-)

    • benchmark masturbation. some people like this sort of thing. Its a good thing too, because it keeps them in their basements, away from the rest of us.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      The funny thing is I can't run that website - browser and OS not supported :)
      Something with a giant table has a place especially if you are thinking of getting hardware you don't already have.

    • All Can You Run It? does is check your system against the minimum and recommended specifications. That's about as "broad" of a "testing service" as determining your eligibility to run a marathon by the number of legs that you have.

  • reviews (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Better yet, before reading this article, read some user reviews for the game and realize ou don't care if your machine can run it, because the majority of people think itsterrible and EAs origin software is spyware.

    • I love BF3...

      Perhaps a poll of CoD players would agree with you but other than that, I think it is a well received game.

    • Oh, is that why it has a 90% [metacritic.com] composite critic score? Yeah yeah, technical glitches and whatnot, but as for actual gameplay... oh yeah, you must play CoD and are just trolling. Carry on.

      • Oh, is that why it has a 90% composite critic score?

        That's the critics' score.

        The actual users' score is considerably lower, approximately 7.1 out of 10 as of 8:40pm. I've noticed that when there is a disparity between the critics' score and the users' score so soon after release, that the users' score tends to go a lot lower the more people play it.

        Face it, the people who are playing Battlefield 3 in the week after release are the ones who have been dying to play it for a while. They're inclined not to

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • I noticed something very interesting at metacritics.

            If you go to the "professional" critics, at the bottom of each reviewers' name, there is a link to a graph of all of their previous scores.

            All of them have ratios of 10:1 or greater for Good Reviews to Bad reviews. That means they give TEN good reviews (or much more) for every ONE bad review.

            Now, does anyone believe that only one in ten of any new game coming out is a clunker? Most of the "professional reviewers" give FIFTY or MORE good reviews for every

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Spad ( 470073 )

      The Campaign is terrible because it's just a poor MW rip off, but the Multiplayer is great.

      Origin is god-awful though and its "integration" with Battlefield 3 is laughable; it's like EA took one look at Steam and said "We're not going to do any of the cool stuff that they have, on principle".

  • For reference, I really liked Battlefield 2: Bad Company, and even Battlefield 1942 (playing both on a PS3).

    The graphics look great, that is not a problem. But to me it seems like too much action happens at too far a distance - I am often killed in multiplayer by people I never see. I'm used to sniper kills from previous games, thats fine every once in a while but it sure feels in this game like almost every kill is a sniper kill, and that's juts not fun - when I die repeatedly for 10 minutes without ever

    • For reference, I really liked Battlefield 2: Bad Company, and even Battlefield 1942 (playing both on a PS3).

      The one on PS3 was BF1943 not 1942. I've played all of them. I had bf 1942, bf2, and bf 2142 on the pc. Then I stopped caring about PC games much and played mostly on consoles. Dying at the drop of a hat even when you are in a squad is a symptom of a crappy squad and some bad luck. There are a few things that could help:
      1. Learn where the sniper nests are. There are usually a few places that the s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cederic ( 9623 )

        Shame, you missed the best of the bunch: Battlefield: Vietnam.

        It still had the pre-modern combat constraints that left knife-fights a viable option, but gave us helicopters, patrol boats and jungle warfare.

        Still one of my favourite ever games.

      • First, thanks for the correction on 1943, I have not played it for a while and shifted a year.

        1. Learn where the sniper nests are.

        That's not the issue though - it's not snipers that are killing me, it's every other kind of player. I don't live long enough for snipers to even see me... what I'm saying is that EVERY kill, even from an engineer or support class, feels like a sniper kill in that they are really far away when I die.

        Again, although I was annoyed at snipers in BF:BC2 I could deal with them (I onl

        • with every BF game I play there is a breaking period where I have to relearn the visual cues that tell me a bad guy is in my field of view. Until I learn that, I am a sack of ground beef.

          Tactics also change slightly from game to game... in BF3, killing someone by hitting the wall they are behind is possible with out the Noob Tube and Grenades are actually something you should run hard and fast from.

          • with every BF game I play there is a breaking period where I have to relearn the visual cues that tell me a bad guy is in my field of view.

            I played again last night, and things were much better. For whatever reason, I was able to see people, I didn't get insta-killed (well not without reason like spawning on a squad member in a firefight with a tank). I was able to hold my own, and my scores were reasonable.

            So, I guess I was just too tired or something the first play through, because I can do about as wel

        • Re:Not sure I like this game much (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Talderas ( 1212466 ) on Monday October 31, 2011 @10:21AM (#37894328)

          I'll give you some pointers from my experience. Right now I heavily play Recon and Assault. I don't touch Engineer or Support right now.

          As assault I use the first Assault weapon unlocked from MP Co-op. As Recon I used the Recon weapon unlocked from MP Co-op. This has actually gotten me accused of being a hacker because I was Rank 3 at a time I was using them and the idiot thought I was using weapons too advanced for my rank. One other thing to note is that as more and more players on a team start to operate by methods of warfare the efficacy of their action collectively increases.

          With assault, I always weapon an optic scope and have a suppressor equipped. On rush my style is one where I will find a nest that is at a low to medium elevation (compared to the surrounding terrain) usually a decent distance ahead of the M-COM stations. I go prone, watch one of the common pathways, and wait. I shoot people as they pass by me. Last time I did this I went 8 kills before I was found out. So basically, I utilize the surrounding terrain in order to minimize my visual profile. There's a lot of stuff going on and picking out unmoving targets can be very difficult. It is, in essence, a version of Patton's idiom "Grab 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the pants." The M-COMs have the attackers attention (grabbed by the nose) and I'm kicking them in the pants (flanking action). The nice thing is that battlefield objectives tend to grab players by the nose, so flanking is a lot easier to pull off without coordination. On the other hand, guarding against flanking is almost non-existent. I have on numerous occasions been killed to flanks while trying to deny pathways to the defenders. In fact, that's one of the biggest things I do when playing recon is watching the flanks. I find that most objective areas are heavily crowded which reduces the number of sniping positions you can take to defend them. Flanks aren't as crowded and really open up the opportunities while more often than not denying enemy snipers the ability to target you without moving along the same flanks you're defending. I have many times held off multiple attackers trying to flank my team as a single recon. If I don't, they end up spotted so that teammate's are aware of them. All I can say is learn the classes and leverage the advantages within your kit and how your outfitted yourself. Flashlights are both a boon and a bust. They give away position but they also mask your position as well. It's difficult to frag someone with a flashlight that is on when they're facing you because you can't make them out. Laser sites are worse though. I laugh at snipers that use laser sights.

          I hate some of the urban environments because of how painful taking certain objectives can be. Here's a slight overview of some maps I dislike.

          Market/Bazaar: The alley control point on conquest is a bloody nightmare for an attacking force. Three players can effectively control that point and the only way to dislodge them is to use grenade to get them to flush out of their holes long enough that you can gain ground. This is partially offset by the fact that the other two control points are much easier to swap hands.

          Metro: Metro is a nightmare. Each section of the map, except the first and last, on Rush is a nightmare to take over. Most times I see the attacks fail Rush at the 2nd set of M-COMs. Conquest is worse. It can be summed up as "US rushes to B and hopes they get it and establish a bridgehead." Every time I've played that map except once the PLC got B and the US lost. In such instances I end up sitting as medic and revive people for points as the get killed over and over trying to get B. I often end such matchs with something like 2 kills, 1 death, and around 4000-5000 points.

          My biggest issues with BF3 are the same as with any other BF game. Idiots. Idiots make the game experience worse. Let me list the ways of idiots. Here's a hint, most of these deal with people looking out for themselves rather than the team.

          1. John Rambos. These are the players t

    • Perhaps you need to learn to not run out in the open and use proper tactics when assaulting a point.

      It does help to play on a squad that has the ability to communicate with each other.

      • Perhaps you need to learn to not run out in the open and use proper tactics when assaulting a point.

        I don't do that - I am running cover to cover, or sometimes slowly advancing mostly under cover, generally trying to move with other players to take a point. Again, I have played BF:BC2 - what I didn't mention was only on hard mode, where shots do more damage and you cannot see where attackers are located (I liked the challenge of figuring out sniper positions). Although I was not the greatest player I was

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by toolie ( 22684 )

          It just feels like BF3 is meant only for the more hardcore FPS players and has lost the feeling of fun I enjoyed with all the other variants. It's too serious now, requires too much of a time investment to get to the point I feel like it might be fun again.

          I canceled my preorder because to me it felt the complete opposite. Auto regenerating health (vehicles and people), unlimited ammo in the vehicles, spawning on any member of the squad, shitty flight dynamics, etc. It is like they took the worst of Bad Company 2 and noobed it up even more, then added jets.

  • I'm really disappointed in Battlefield 3. They could have taken a little more time making the single player decent. I can't keep up with all the super players online, so the SP campaign means at least as much to me as MP. At best, I'm going to be cannon fodder for online teams and more likely I'll just play a few times and decide it's not worth going back. Very often, online multiplayer just brings out the worst of cyberspace behavior and that might turn off older gamers like me. I'm more interested in

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I'm really disappointed in Battlefield 3. They could have taken a little more time making the single player decent. I can't keep up with all the super players online, so the SP campaign means at least as much to me as MP.

      To be 100% fair, Battlefield has always been a multi player game. In the original BF 1942 the single player component was simply the multi player maps with bots, there was no campaign to speak of, you just played the maps in order. I hope EA has bought this back but I highly doubt it.

      All they're doing by short-changing the single players is making them wonder why they should lay out another $60

      I'm guessing you're on console. I ordered my copy on PC for US$40 from the UK. OK, so I have to wait a week or two for it to get half way around the world but that's a benefit. It gives EA time to find some of the bigger bugs b

  • It's a huge disappointment. Sure it's gorgeous, but they have made it Battlefield Bad Company clone as they do nothing to facilitate team play which is why BF2 was so fantastic (especially on teamplay servers). Sure BF2 wasn't always a team play game, but it happened if you fell into the right group of folks.

    In BF3, the squad system is hidden, the squads are smaller, there is no squad leader, no squad based VOIP, no squad way points, no intrasquad commands, and no commander. I played on teamplay BF3 ser

    • the squad system is hidden
      I'm not sure what you are talking about, the squad system is right there, it's not hard to get into one or switch to another one.

      there is no squad leader, no squad way points, no intrasquad commands
      There is a squad leader it has a star next to their name. They can order what to defend and or what to attack, so yes there are intrasquad commands. way points are gone unfortunately, but I don't think anyone was using them.

      no squad based VOIP
      There is squad based VOIP.

      and no

      • Where is the squad based VOIP? I see no VOIP in the game. Just the shitty browser communicator

        I see the squads, but they are awkward to use. There is no ordering by the squad leader, it's just crap

        Teamplay and tactical gamer are the places for "team games" versus frag fest.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Ordering isn't "crap" once you get used to it. You just need to function like an actual squad leader, stand a bit back and issue orders like attack, defend and so on.

          Takes a while to get used to, but becomes easier once you learn, like most things in the game. Lack of proper in-game voice (for PUGs) is pretty annoying though.

        • There is no ordering by the squad leader, it's just crap

          While it is clumsy, there are squad leader commands in Battlefield 3. Specifically, the squad leader taps "q" while pointing his cross-hair at the point he'd like his squad to attack or defend. In the 3d representation of the point's location in space, there will then be a box around the point on all the squad members' screens.

      • The point of the commander was not the commander abilities, but issuing commands to coordinate the team. Without a game mechanic for this, it only happens in prearranged clan matches.

    • WTF are you talking about? The most effective people are the people with the best squad cohesiveness.

      What I want to see is a special vehicle talk so you can talk to the driver even if you are not in their squad.

  • That's all nice information, but what I really need to know is what hardware setup and software would allow me to run this game and the spyware it comes with in a virtual machine, so it can not spy out my pc?
    Or will I be forced to pirate this? I was going to buy but I guess that won't happen anytime soon now.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Spad ( 470073 )

      Nobody is forced to pirate anything, if you don't like Origin, don't buy EA games.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Copyright grants a monopoly on the product. If you feel you need to get the product, you cannot choose alternative venues, and are indeed "forced" to acquire it by infringing on someone's copyright.

        Of course, this gets us into a philosophical discussion about entitlements. But that doesn't change the fact that there is no competition for the product itself under the current regime, and that you are indeed forced to use illegal means to acquire the product if the terms set by monopolist are too harsh.

  • I'm in a clan and it makes gaming so much better. I posted this to the clan site
    figured with this thread I could get even more use out of it.
    ----

    "When I first started playing BF3 I started in
    campaign mode to set my controllers (didn't work).

    Graphics BF3 Vs COD4

    Here's the Heli scene (BF3 and COD4) - both at the very
    start where you would want to show off your artwork.

    BF3 - Not full screen
    http://i44.tinypic.com/xf2dz9.jpg [tinypic.com]

    COD4 - Full Screen (1680X1050)
    http://i41.tinypic.com/m4n0g.jpg [tinypic.com]
    http://i44.tinypic.com/24d1 [tinypic.com]

  • 5770 (Score:3)

    by bhcompy ( 1877290 ) on Saturday October 29, 2011 @07:21PM (#37882488)
    Wish they'd show CF 5770s.. Debating whether or not to buy a second 5770 on the cheap or just upgrade to a newer card
    • Same here. They seem to assume that only people with top end cards will Crossfire, when in reality I think it makes a lot more sense for people with middle-of-the-road cards as an incremental update. Not sure if it's worth the trouble, anyways, but I was curious.

  • Benchmarks always spark controversy (Score:3)

    by FyberOptic ( 813904 ) on Saturday October 29, 2011 @08:15PM (#37882828)

    Once again we see that the top tier Nvidia is priced wayyyy over the top Radeon, but performs way worse.

    I don't understand why there's so much brand fanboyism with computers. This would obviously indicate that it makes sense to buy Radeon if you want your money's worth, since this holds true down to the lower performance cards as well. It's basically been this way for years. Yet, oppositely, Intel has been blowing away AMD's processors for a while now, so you get your money's worth by buying in that direction for that particular product. It just makes sense.

    Besides, after the way Nvidia shit all over their loyal fans with that GPU debacle, I'll have a hard time trusting them again, as should anyone else. There are still video cards and laptops floating around out there, particularly on Ebay, which are just waiting to die on some unsuspecting second-hand consumer. I'm always having to warn people about buying anything used with Nvidia products in them until they do their research. Not everyone I know was so lucky though, because I still have a perfectly good laptop laying here with just a dead Nvidia graphics chipset in it, which they gave to me out of disgust when it died immediately after their warranty period expired.

    Brand loyalty doesn't do you any good if you're in second place. Or worse, when you're stuck with dead equipment. Look at benchmarks, do some research, and buy what's best for the price. That's the point of PCs vs Apple: we can put any brand of product in it for any aspect of operation to achieve the best performance at a good price. It's silly to do anything otherwise.

    • Humans tend to defend the position they invested in, even if it may have been a bad choice in hindsight.

    • The benchmark world only ever reports on one metric, but people buy on wide array of metrics. This is not fanboyism it's just people weighing up one product vs another according to what they see fit.

      I am an NVIDIA fan. No not fan, I have taken a few opportunities to buy ATI cards back when they were ATI. My experience with them is terrible. The graphics drivers on my laptop were horrible. The AMD graphics card on my girlfriends laptop fails to be recognised by online driver install tool despite the card bei

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      I bought nvidia for CUDA and better openGL, fully aware that I will be getting slightly less bang for a buck. Moved from 4070 to 560Ti. Not regretting it, especially after the whole rage fiasco.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Renraku ( 518261 )
      In the ring of price for performance, aka bang for buck, AMD comes out a little ahead in almost all catagories. I don't think they were ever the top dog in performance at the high end, but if you compare their mainstream products with those of Intel, the AMD products are generally much better in terms of price for performance. You can have 50 units of performance for 50 dollars, or you can have 65 units of performance for 80 dollars.

  • There is no major nail in coffin situation for pc games any more as they are ports of software to run on 6+ year old, cheaply made game consoles, even if your system does suck, drop the resolution and effects a bit and your good to go.

    My dual core AMD system with a 9600GT cost less than 200 bucks 3 years ago, and I can still run these games with just an occasional jitter at higher resolutions than the console (not much higher but still), but yet every game release there is some doofy benchmark telling us s

    • There is no major nail in coffin situation for pc games any more as they are ports of software to run on 6+ year old, cheaply made game consoles, even if your system does suck, drop the resolution and effects a bit and your good to go.

      ^ You don't get it. PC gaming is just a shadow now.

      The PC being open and accessible drove innovation. It was about way more than special effects and resolution. Modding, public level editors, scripting tools, free server code, etc. all defined 90's PC gaming. Now you've got about the same big companies driving all platforms, with about the same features.

      All the innovation you see on fledgling platforms like iOS and Android - just wait until The Big Game Manufacturers take them over too, in years to co

  • So not getting it.

  • and tried it out on my hardware.

    runs fine, single player is so so.

    did the beta, wasn't too bad. Probably buy it after xmas when the prices come down.

    Seriously, you want to know if it runs, download the fucking game and try it. If it doesn't, don't waste your money. If it does, then you can safely buy it if you want.

  • I wish they had tested the integrated graphics on both Intel and AMD, if only to prove "nope, you still can't do that!" But I had hoped AMD's Radeon graphics were getting close?

  • This game has very little of the elements that make Battlefield 2 fans so loyal. I have no clue what marketing "genius" came up with the idea to call a Bad Company sequel the long awaited Battlefield 3 and thought we'd be dumb enough to swallow the bait.

    • This game has very little of the elements that make Battlefield 2 fans so loyal. I have no clue what marketing "genius" came up with the idea to call a Bad Company sequel the long awaited Battlefield 3 and thought we'd be dumb enough to swallow the bait.

      Oye... I take it you've not actually played the game if you think it's a BC sequel. It is definitely a BF2 sequel. Is it the greatest game ever in the BF universe? I dunno, that's a judement call I suppose... but BF3 is definitely far more like BF2 than anything like BC/BC2.

      Lots and lots (and lots!) of bugs to work out, for sure... but certainly no more bugs than BF2 had when it launched. At least I can play it for more than 10 - 15 minutes at a time without something going tits up like BF2 was on relea

  • BF3 graphics tech talk (Score:3)

    by Xelios ( 822510 ) on Sunday October 30, 2011 @04:59AM (#37884928)
    For those that are interested in a closer look behind the scenes of the Frostbite 2 engine DICE recently held a 1 hour talk [anandtech.com] about the inner workings of the graphics in BF3. It's pretty amazing what can be done with DX 11 these days.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by UpnAtom ( 551727 )
      Definitely worth a watch.

      Some of the things I really like - procedurally generated trees and grass. And the radiosity.

      But the more realistic you try to make stuff, the more my brain notices stuff that isn't quite right.

      DX 10 & 11 are clearly a lot better than DX 9 though.

  • I am still using Windows XP Pro. SP3. :P

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