Best single card solution?

[andy0]

Hi, what would be the best single card solution for BF3? Its leaning towards a 580 twin frozr since i can get it for 15% off, unless you got some other suggestions.

As much as id love to, i cant crossfire cause i hade little knowlage of motherboards when i bought my pc and i picked one where the SATA ports happend to be in a bad position



Any other suggestions or should i just order it?

 

[ilysaml]

what's your full system specs ?
What's your screen resolution ?
A GTX 570 or HD 6970 will max out the BF3 even a HD 6950/GTX 560Ti will do the job.

 

[Gothams Finest]

Go for either the MSI 580 Twin Frozr or the EVGA 580 you won't be disappointed.

 

[andy0]

what's your full system specs ?
What's your screen resolution ?
A GTX 570 or HD 6970 will max out the BF3 even a HD 6950/GTX 560Ti will do the job.

I dont think 560/6950 will max the game fully in retail on ultra but i could be wrong since the game is not optimized as much in beta.

My spec:

GA-P55-USB3
Corsair 650 watt
i5 750
xfx 5850
4gb ram

 

[ilysaml]

I played the Beta with the HD 6950, never dropped lower than 40+ FPS on ultra, was getting a constant of 60 FPS in inside Metro Operation.
So the GTX 560Ti or HD 6950 will get you playable FPS on ultra, if you wanna max it out without a problem get a HD 6970 or GTX 570.
No need to go higher right now as the new series is coming out.

And still the most important question, what resolution will you be gaming at ?

 

[Twoboxer]

The words "best card" make it tough. The 580 or 6970 will produce the highest fps lol. Is that the "best"? According to this chart:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/292?vs=305

. . . the 580 seems likely to be the faster of the two on BF3.

If budget is an issue, the best card for you may well be a lesser card that will give you the fps you want. Use Anand bench to find one that gives you the price/performance you want; some were suggested by others here. If you're gaming at higher than 1920, get the 580. If you're gaming at lower than 1920`, you do not need the 580 at all.

 

[17seconds]

Get the GTX 580 and never have to wonder if you could've/should've gotten a card with more power.

 

[andy0]

I played the Beta with the HD 6950, never dropped lower than 40+ FPS on ultra, was getting a constant of 60 FPS in inside Metro Operation.
So the GTX 560Ti or HD 6950 will get you playable FPS on ultra, if you wanna max it out without a problem get a HD 6970 or GTX 570.
No need to go higher right now as the new series is coming out.

And still the most important question, what resolution will you be gaming at ?

Oh yea sorry, 1920x1080

 

[ilysaml]

so a GTX 570 or HD 6970 will run the BF3 just fine, no need to get the GTX 580.
GTX 580 still beats those cards by extra 20% performance.
you're decision. but no need to spent that much while a lower card can do the job just fine.

 

[Ninja Pants]

"Best" is an interesting word and if you wanted the best performance from a single card then your looking at a 6990 or 590. Neither of which are a good value option. But what others have posted is correct, based on the beta running at ultra a 6950/6970 or 570 was sufficient. I would find it near impossible to recommend a 580, although it is the fastest single GPU card, it is only ~15% faster than a 570 and 50% more expensive.

 

[gmcizzle]

Best single card, with a single GPU - GTX 580
Best single card, with 2 GPUs - GTX 590/6990

Oh and don't think GTX 580 is overkill for BF3 @ 1920x1080 like many are saying here. Even my GTX 580 OCd to 910/1820mhz sometimes dipped to 35fps on caspian border on the ultra preset.

EDIT: Yes I know it was the BETA, but I doubt it will be that much more optimized...plus the ultra preset in the beta may be of lesser quality than in retail.

 

[henrytowns]

for 1920x1080 on ulta:

if budget: around 350$
a. ATI HD6970 (better although costs more than option b)
b. GTX570 (this if physx is needed. BF3 doesnot use GPU based phsyx)

if budget: 220$-250$
a. ATI HD6870
b. GTX560ti (this if physx is needed. BF3 doesnot use GPU based phsyx)


First set will give you 60FPS+ in all battle conditions.

Second set will give you around 60FPS indoors and normal outdoor environments. But if retail version is coded better and is fixed it should give you 35-40FPS even in intense battle moments. Nonetheless it will give you around 30FPS.

Second set is good for now. No need to spend on a single card for SeT A unless you want to do SLI or crossfire out of them.

 

[andy0]

for 1920x1080 on ulta:

if budget: around 350$
a. ATI HD6970 (better although costs more than option b)
b. GTX570 (this if physx is needed. BF3 doesnot use GPU based phsyx)

if budget: 220$-250$
a. ATI HD6870
b. GTX560ti (this if physx is needed. BF3 doesnot use GPU based phsyx)


First set will give you 60FPS+ in all battle conditions.

Second set will give you around 60FPS indoors and normal outdoor environments. But if retail version is coded better and is fixed it should give you 35-40FPS even in intense battle moments. Nonetheless it will give you around 30FPS.

Second set is good for now. No need to spend on a single card for SeT A unless you want to do SLI or crossfire out of them.

To be honest i find it hard to think that 570 and 6970 on 60+ fps unless there is 2x of them

 

[swidd]

Ya... BF2BC2 on highest 1080 with 16QAA dips to 50fps on 570.

 

[henrytowns]

To be honest i find it hard to think that 570 and 6970 on 60+ fps unless there is 2x of them

the game was 60FPS constant on my GTX560ti in beta. outdoors was also 40-50 easily. just under building destruction and in other mayhem it went down to 30. and even 28. since there were other graphical glitches too like shivering dead bodies etc so i am guessing all will be fixed in the retail version. and 570 will most certainly be 60FPS if GTX560ti can do 40-60FPS.

@swidd
yes it would. sorry i mistakenly ignored AA completely while posting. but i am sure if the AA is 4xMSAA then ultra settings are no trouble. But frostbite engine is very stable. my BF2 runs on 40-50 FPS on full settings and BF3 Beta on 60FPS in normal battle scenes.

 

[andy0]

the game was 60FPS constant on my GTX560ti in beta. outdoors was also 40-50 easily. just under building destruction and in other mayhem it went down to 30. and even 28. since there were other graphical glitches too like shivering dead bodies etc so i am guessing all will be fixed in the retail version. and 570 will most certainly be 60FPS if GTX560ti can do 40-60FPS.

And what resolution was that in i might ask?

 

[henrytowns]

And what resolution was that in i might ask?

1920x1080. i have a 24 inch Asus LED. Corei52500K @3.3 GHZ, 8Gb ram @1066.

 

[andy0]

1920x1080. i have a 24 inch Asus LED. Corei52500K @3.3 GHZ, 8Gb ram @1066.

Did you even record the frames or just guessed?

 

[ilysaml]

 

[andy0]

http://www.geforce.com/Active/en_US...efield-3-beta/bf3-performance-chart-small.png

I thought so

 

[ilysaml]

see, the GTX 570 is getting around 58 FPS, the GTX 580 is doing good also, but not a huge difference.
when i told you about the 50+ FPS, my CPU was overclocked to 4.0 GHz, NB 2500..this gave a boost of 10 FPS.

Benches above are taken with the stock clocks, a good GTX 570 with higher clocks = steady 60 FPS.

 

[andy0]

see, the GTX 570 is getting around 58 FPS, the GTX 580 is doing good also, but not a huge difference.
when i told you about the 50+ FPS, my CPU was overclocked to 4.0 GHz, NB 2500..this gave a boost of 10 FPS.

Benches above are taken with the stock clocks, a good GTX 570 with higher clocks = steady 60 FPS.

Question is..is that min fps or max

 

[ilysaml]

avg

 

[henrytowns]

I thought so

i did a benchmark. it was average 50 FPS due to intense battle that i went through at that time which brought the FPS down to 30 too for some time. in the graph above its around 45. my GTX560 ti is OC version. my settings were ultra. with 4xMSAA.

Edit: shadow quality and effects were on high - not ultra.
So gtx560ti cant do it on ultra and 60FPS. 580 would be the way to go.

 

[gmcizzle]

That's on high, not ultra.

Anyway, if you can afford it get the 580, there's no point in getting anything less, as long as your CPU won't bottleneck it. Also, a 580 with a good aftermarket cooler will OC better than anything else, on average. That's not to mention 1.5GB of RAM vs. 1.25GB on the 570. 1.5GB of VRAM is perfect IMO for 1920x1080. It's enough to be more or less fully utilized and enough to not make you stutter.