Battlefield 3

[Barndog]

Hi guys, on my current pc i cant run bf3 according to "can i run it" i have my eye on a new system and need advice as to buy it, will this system run it at  decent settings..thanks

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110742897108?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

[.Griff.]

will this system run it at  decent settings..thanks

It might be possible to "run" the game but could you play it at a decent resolution and decent framerates? Not a chance.

Both the CPU and GPU are at the budget end of the scale and aren't suitable for gaming.

[Barndog]

Damn thanks Griff, would i be able to get a pc that would run it well for a budget of £500?

[.Griff.]

Damn thanks Griff, would i be able to get a pc that would run it well for a budget of £500?

It would be very difficult in my own opinion.

What are you current system specs like? Is it feasible to upgrade rather than buy a new system?

[Barndog]

My specs now are...amd Athlon 64x2 dual core 5000 2.61 ghz...2gb corshair gaming ram...nvidea 9600 gt
I can run bf bad company ok with this, but really need to be able to run bf3...thanks

[.Griff.]

I'm not really an AMD person so I can't really advise you on updating the CPU/MB but 2GB of Ram and a 9600GT really aren't going to be good enough to run BF3 to any decent level so you'd need to upgrade those at least. An Nvidia 560 Ti or AMD 6850 wouldn't break the bank and would be a dramatic improvement over the 9600GT. A couple of gigs of ram is literally £20 these days so that would be a cheap and worthwhile upgrade.

What version of Windows are you using because if you're using XP then you're going to need to upgrade that as well.

[Barndog]

Thanks again griff, im using xp at the moment but my mate has given me a copy of windows 7, just need to install it, i will look into the ram and graphics card, but according to the minimum specs athlon needs to be 2.7, im running 2.6. not to worry i will get something sorted before release date lol

[.Griff.]

You could always download the BF3 beta and see if you current system will run it at a decent level. I highly doubt it but it will cost you nothing to find out.

http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3/1/beta

[Barndog]

I downloaded the beta, unaware that xp wasnt compatable, i could stretch to this, tell me what you think please......

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-X6-1100T-3-3Ghz-Gaming-Pc-Computer-1tb-16Gb-Nvidia-GTX-560-Ti-1Gb-Galaxy-/120780669682?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item1c1f16c2f2

[.Griff.]

I can't really comment on the processor or motherboard as I've not paid any attention to AMD's side of things for years. However I'm very sceptical about some of the systems for sale on ebay as they try and entice the buyer with bold headlines and colourful images yet there's very little info on what you're paying for.

For example there's nothing to tell you exactly what HDD, ram, graphics card, case or PSU you're getting and to sell it all for £575 and make a profit I'll guarantee the seller has used low price components.

[Barndog]

Ok Griff thanks for your advice, youve been really helpfull

[esh]

The AMD CPUs will do a job but you almost always get better performance per pound on the Intel CPUs these days -- even if they are more expensive. I mostly only go for AMD CPUs as a budget option, and I'm not sure how well they overclock either.

On the other hand the ATI/AMD 6850/6950 are lovely.

[Barndog]

Sorry for asking again but i need to be sure before i buy, will this pc run bf3 at good settings.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quad-Core-3-2GHZ-GAMING-PC-GTS-450-1GB-Windows-7-/270732806686?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item3f08eeca1e

[Technical Ben]

Would a CPU/GPU and OS upgrade not be ok on it's own? Or is a new system the only option?

[Barndog]

I could get an upgrade on my graphics card and ram, but not so sure on my cpu though, i thought a new system might be better with quad core?...thanks Ben

[Glenn]

These are recommended specs;

    OS: Windows 7 64-big
    Processor: Quad Core CPU
    Memory: 4GB RAM
    Hard drive: 20GB
    Graphics card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024MB RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950)
    Sound card: DirectX compatible
    Keyboard and mouse
    DVD ROM drive

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-20-battlefield-3-pc-system-requirements

So the graphics card in the system above may struggle a little.

[Barndog]

Thanks for that Glenn

[Technical Ben]

"ATI Radeon 6950" is the TOP END card. IE, you can't get better. Not sure of the NVidia model, but I guess the company is hedging it's bets. The "min specs" say a ATI 3000 series will work. Which is one model less than mine! So you won't have to splash out on to much. What specs are your pc? (A nice proper list would be the best )

[.Griff.]

"ATI Radeon 6950" is the TOP END card. IE, you can't get better.

6950 is the TOP CARD?!? Someone should tell AMD not to bother with the 6970 and 6990 then 

[Niall]

If you look on the www.nvidia.com website, there's a test on there to see if your system can run the game. I stumbled across it whilst upgrading my drivers tonight so I could play around with DA2 as I wanted to see the dx11 goodness

[Technical Ben]

6950 is the TOP CARD?!? Someone should tell AMD not to bother with the 6970 and 6990 then 

I meant the top model series, slip of the keyboard. But I also forgot AMD messed up ATIs naming scheme. The first number was the series, 6 in this example. Then the next was the "bracket" with 100 being intergrated, 2-300 being market entry, 4-700 being average gaming and 800+ being top of the range stuff. Then the last 2 digits being the clock speed or the difference within the brackets. So a 5670 has higher clock speed than a 5650 for example.

Now, AMD have just messed the entire lot up, and just give the card a code for that card. It may have no bearing on any actual information. So it's really hard to know if the 6890 is better than a 6950.

[Barndog]

Can someone tell me please whats the better of the 2 pcs, graphics card etc,please for bf 3...thanks guys

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160665653272&category=179&_trksid=p5197.c0.m619...or



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quad-Core-3-2GHZ-HOME-PC-GAMING-GTX-550-1GB-Windows-7-/270771294130?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D2%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D3514233323233028111

[.Griff.]

I don't know what resolution you intend to play at but here's a performance graph for various cards at 1920*1200



Neither the AMD6670 (first ebay link) or the Nvidia 550Ti (second ebay link) make the graph as they're basically budget cards with no grunt whatsoever.

I know you're really keen to get a new system capable of playing BF3 at a decent level but in all honesty a £450/£500 rig off ebay isn't going to cut it.

[Technical Ben]

As said, post your specs and we could advise on 1 or two component upgrades that will cost less than £500, and might be worth it.

[.Griff.]

As said, post your specs.........

He has Ben (well to a certain extent anyway) -

My specs now are...amd Athlon 64x2 dual core 5000 2.61 ghz...2gb corshair gaming ram...nvidea 9600 gt
I can run bf bad company ok with this, but really need to be able to run bf3...thanks