Can my PC run BF3 on Ultra?

[CorneliusFTW]

Can my gaming PC run BF3 on Ultra?

Hey guys, got a quick question for all tech savvy people. My system specs are as follows:

- i5 2500k @3.3ghz (3.7ghz oc'ed)
- Radeon HD 7770
- 8GB GSkill RipjawsX RAM
- MSI Z68 Motherboard
To the people who answer this question, thank you!

 

[hrath]

From what I can tell; your PC should be able to (in theory) play BF3 on Ultra, but that is only if you want like 10 fps.
I would recommend you play on high settings, then you could get around 30-40 fps.

 

[bdizzle11]

You would need a better GPU to be able to run it smoothly on ultra for sure. Something like a 670, or a 7970 would yield much better results, at a much higher price naturally. Even a 7870 or a 570 would run significantly better than the 7770

 

[CorneliusFTW]

I'm at the building stages in this point -- just made a couple of changes:
- i5 3570 @3.4ghz (3.8 oc'ed)
- Radeon HD 6850
- GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3V LGA 1155 motherboard

Would that run Ultra on BF3 any better?

 

[bdizzle11]

The 6850 won't be able to handle ultra. Just to be clear what resolution will you be running at? I have a gtx 570 and thats about the minimum to run on Ultra. I run on a mix of ultra and high and maintain about 55 FPS. You may have to stretch your budget a little bit to run full on ultra.

 

[CorneliusFTW]

Thanks for the info....just need to work a little bit more towards it. I will probably end up purchasing a 7870 or 570 ti...do you prefer nvidia or AMD as far as video cards go?

 

[Avaruz]

The HD 7770, and HD 6850 will preform almost equally with around 20-25 FPS average at ultra settings and a 1920x1200 resolution, while the HD 7870 could get you a good 40 FPS average.

Unless you get a GTX 670 OCd or better, you should do as bdizzle11 and try lowering a few settings. If you disable MSAA, you should get a good boost at FPS, but obviously at a cost of video quality.

 

[13thmonkey]

you do realise it still looks really nice at low and medium, and its only the AA on ultra that really hurts FPS, so to the question regarding ultra the answer is often No, but to the answer question high-ultra the answer is far more often yes.

 

[jay2tall]

I can vouch that at 1920x1080 you need something beefy to run on Ultra. I previously has a GTX580 that I OCed pretty well and it would only play on High with only details set to Ultra with AA Deferred off. I currently have a GTX680 and that will play on Ultra with all settings turned on like AA Post, AA Deferred, Blur, HBAO, etc. I think a GTX670 would do it as well. So in my opinion if you are building, put as much as you can into a video card. I keep telling people to shoot for a GTX680 if at all possible. When the GTX660's come out, hopefully later this month, it will add another option.

Also, as 13thMonkey mentioned the game looks amazing regardless. The difference between High and Ultra really isn't that noticeable. Medium also looks very good. FAR better than any console. I think the console equivalent would be sub-low settings.

 

[CorneliusFTW]

Just modified my cart on NewEgg again. I compromised on the video card but I had to lessen the processor to an AMD 6200 6-Core processor at about 140$ Other specs include:
- AMD 6200 @3.8ghz (oc'd is about anywhere from 4.1ghz to 4.4ghz)
- GTX 560 non ti

Could that run BF3 any better then my previous builds? By the way, I switched from an Ivy Bridge processor to the AMD one because 1 AMD is cheaper and 2 I heard Ivy Bridge processors had immense overheating issues.

 

[HEXiT]

get the 2500k and get the gtx 560. you will get the happy medium.
do not buy an amd setup or your will be throwing money away.

 

[CorneliusFTW]

2500k sandy bridge processor it is..got a nice build with 2500k processor and gtx 560 for about 800$ without shipping...can't wait to purchase!!

 

[bdizzle11]

That sounds like a good plan. Just pop a couple settings on high and it will run smoothly and look amazing. Good luck!

 

[mercer95]

make sure you get a psu and a motherboard that can handle two cards, then you can buy a second one in the future if you feel you would like more power, although it would be investing a bit more money for the initial build.

 

[CorneliusFTW]

One more question: I've heard that the 2500k does not support 1600 speed RAM. How do I change/fix that problem?

 

[gunzrx]

It does, ok so this was a build question? If you're just looking to run Bf3, ignore Hexit tomshardware itself has benchs up showing amd does fine if not better than intel on bf3.

Don't get the 560 either it's not worth the money. I'd either go amd, and go for the 7950, or gtx 670; otherwise grab an almost new gtx 580 off e-bay (most ar eunder warranty), pay with pay-pal so everything is protected.

A 580 will run on ultra 1080p forsure.

I also wouldn't go with a z68 mobo unless you do A LOT of vid encoding. Grab a p otherwise, a hyper 212 and oc away.

You can do the same with amd however for 1/2 the price but almost same perf.

edit - o yea, here's the article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

Also a gtx 480 would be more than enough too, just make sure you don't need a lot of quiet, and have an alright psu.

If you're doing a new build on air, grab a silverstone raven btw. I like raven 3 cuz it's 130 at Directcanada, has dust filters, etc. (I have 2 they run fine).

It orients the mobo and stuff vertically so that there's no 'dead zones' and this is even more evident with dual gpus (I ran 7900gs sli for a while on an earlier one). The temp. dif. between the dif. cards becomes almost 0 compared to 10-20 plus on horizontal layout cases.

Really helps oc cards,