Will this CPU upgrade suffice for Battlefield 3?

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patlav1980

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Oct 25, 2011
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I have the current system:

Intel Core 2 DUO E8400 @ 3.00GHz, 2997 Mhz, 2 Core
AMD Radeon HD 6850
4.00 GB Ram
600W ATX Seasonic SS600ET
Windows Vista 64x

and after playing BF3 (came out yesterday), I found out the gameplay was pretty bad. After asking around, I was lead to believe that upgrading the CPU / MOBO / Memory would do the trick. (PSU and GPU stays the same).

Here's what I have in mind for the upgrade:

CPU: i5-2400: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
MOBO: ASUS P8H61: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131724
Memory: 2x4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333G.SKILL Ripjaws: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311
Total: 321.97$

My budget being 325$ or lower, is this the best I can do atm or am I missing better/cheaper parts that will allow me to play BF3? (the specs are below).

ATM, playing the game is next to impossible, everything is choppy when running / crouching around.



Here are the min and recommended requirements
*************************************************
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-Bit
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ or Althon 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 560 or ATI RADEON 6950)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive
*************************************************
 
Solution
simon12
Its official a dual core with no hyper threading is all you need for BF3
intel%20core%20i7-2600k%20cores.png

hyper-threading.png

"Battlefield 3's single-player campaign doesn’t care if you’re using a $130 Core i3 or $315 Core i7. It doesn’t care if you come armed with two Hyper-Threaded cores or four Bulldozer modules. It just. Doesn’t. Care.

In fact, after getting a little overzealous swapping out Lynnfield-, Clarkdale-, and Sandy Bridge-based chips, I tried one AMD CPU and decided to call it a day. Any reasonably-modern processor is going to be held back by graphics long before hamstringing performance itself."...
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Would upgrading to the Intel® Core™ i5-2400 give you a major performance boost? Yes it would. The problem is that the items that you have selected are not really parts that you would want to build around. The H61 chipset is the base chipset for the 2nd generation Intel Core processors and it will not allow you to overclock the processor even if you were to move up to the Intel Core i5-2500K. The Intel Core i5-2500K is only $25 more then the Intel Core i5-2400 and unlocks the ability to overclock and get much greater performance from it.

I guess I would see if I could get to about another $75 and move up to a Z68 board and the Intel Core i5-2500K.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 
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completely agree with all the comments above

although i would also get a better graphic card as well, bf3 is a very demanding game and it tend to be better using nvidia gpus and to play it at high settings would require a 560ti/hd 6970 or above so although you will notice a difference going to the i5, a gpu upgrade will also worth the cost or you can turn down the detail ans res for now
 
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Thanks for the detailed answers.

To bring a bit more info on my situation.

I don't mind playing on MEDIUM or even LOW settings, as long as I can be competitive in-game. By that I mean smooth play as opposition as now where just having my avatar run brings glitches and micro-freezes.

I know I could shell more $ to get to play on HIGH or ULTRA settings but that's not what I'm after (I wish I weren't a poor student).

Also, I don't know how to overclock and don't plan on learning it.

Knowing that, which is best?

A) My original plan (see original message of thread)
B) Intel Enthousiast's plan
C) thrakazog's plan (4GB instead of 8GB won't hurt my BF3 gaming experience?)

Thanks again, keep the opinions coming in, I need to order the parts in the next day or 2.
 
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I will say that a single Radeon HD 6850 is going to severely limit your experience in this game.

I can't prove this but something tells me that CPU performance isn't that relevant in Battlefield 3 and that it is entirely up to the Graphics Accelerator.

I have used ATi (AMD now) graphics for a long time but Battlefield 3 may have sold me on nVIDIA hardware (assuming AMDs next gen architecture lacks a decent tessellation engine). Something tells me that when the benchmarks come out nVIDIA will be significantly ahead.

What I did to boost performance for my friends rig (he has two 6850s in Crossfire) was to manually set the tessellation level to 4x in the CCC. He plays with the "High" settings but with the tessellation factor reduced can play on Ultra.
 
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I hear you saying that but the fact that the game utilizes heavy tessellation, post processing effects as well as Motion Blur and HBAO leads me to be critical of your opinion... so I googled it.

Sure enough... it appears I am correct:

CPU_01.png

CPU_02.png

http://www.techspot.com/review/448-battlefield-3-beta-performance/page7.html


So yeah a Dual Core will struggle a bit but it appears to be a far more GPU heavy game than CPU heavy.

Here's the GPU scaling:
High_1920.png
 
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I'm sorry, but performance charts for the BETA mean absolutely nothing.

Now I'm not saying you are definitely wrong here, but those charts don't help. I'd like to see some for the actual release, but as far as i am aware no one has done that yet.
I'm still convinced this is a processor heavy game.
 
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Because the game engine was totally changed from Beta to full release? :heink:

Just because you're, personally, totally convinced of something is no reason to lead a member astray. The evidence, so far, is quite compelling. If I were the OP I would hold off but for now he can try to set the Tessellation level a tad lower in the CCC for increased performance.

I would also recommend he scale down his in-game settings and disable any AA. In the CC set AA level to Multi-Sample and make sure Morphological AA is not checked off.

The game is very Shader dependent with the Post Processing effects and the 6850 has but 960 ALUs at its disposal. enabling Morphological AA would kill performance.
 
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This discussion between you 2 is VERY instructing, I thank you for it.

From the get go, I've put all the graphical settings at the lowest. Yet not playable. Does this help you guys draw a conclusion?
 
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Not saying his cpu is fine am saying you don't need a 220usd cpu when a 125usd cpu will have the same effect. But spending the money you saved to upgrade your gpu will give you better performance in it.

BF3 are able to use 4 cores. That doesn't mean its cpu dependent. Just multi threaded and better optimized.
 
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Option B IS Option C, it just wasnt priced like Option C took the time to price it out. You will not miss the 4GB though, and what does it matter, you can upgrade that later if you do. Quad core over Dual core is highly taken advantage of in a game like BF3 and performance charts show the RETAIL version taking advantage and even scaling with hyperthreading. Get the Z68, get the 2500K and crank that baby up to 11. The 6850 is fine for gaming with that setup and when you outgrow it, then upgrade. But right now the dual core is holding you back the most on this game.
 
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