Battlefield 3 Beta: PC Hardware Tested |
Reviews - Featured Reviews: Games | |
Written by Olin Coles | |
Saturday, 01 October 2011 | |
Battlefield 3 Beta: Hardware Requirements TestedVery recently, EA and Dice released an open beta for Battlefield 3. Preceeding this release was the announcement of minimum and recommended system requirements. Since the beta is now open to the public, Benchmark Reviews uses high-end PC hardware to take a closer look at what gamers should expect to be real-world computer system hardware requirements for their CPU and RAM components. Here are the minimum and recommended computer system requirements for the upcoming Battlefield 3 video game, as published by Electronic Arts: Minimum System Requirements
Recommended System Requirements
Benchmark Reviews has tested memory consumption using the following computer system: Intel X58-Express Test System
Battlefield 3 Beta was configured with 'Ultra' video settings. Based on the high-end gaming system above, here are the processor and memory usage statistics we recorded:
Considering our tests used the ultra-powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 video card, it's rather astonishing to find that so much CPU resources have been tapped by Battlefield 3. The Intel Core i7-930 processor is no slouch, it has four physical cores and eight virtual processor cores all running at 2.80 GHz. Yet, when simply spawning or in the middle of a fire-fight the CPU generally wavered between 40-50% usage across all eight cores. Memory usage was also quite high, requiring 1070 MB to simply open the game, and reaching nearly 1.7 GB during action play. If you're running a dual-core processor with a lower-end graphics card, don't expect to enjoy high-quality video settings unless you like slow frame rates. Of course, there are also the support applications to take into consideration: EA's Origin interface, which then launches the web browser of choice for Battlelog. The CPU demand is almost non-existent for both applications, but memory usage piles on. In our testing Origin used up to 74 MB of RAM, while Battlelog's memory consumption reached over 100 MB with some browsers. Our testing did not use browser extensions, so your usage may actually be higher - especially if you have other browser tabs open. In summary, while it's possible to play Battlefield 3 with maximum settings, but it's more likely your computer system will require some compromise to ensure fluid video frame rates. Gaming consoles, which offer DirectX 9 level graphics, will never reach the same graphics quality of PC, and beta performance for PS3 and XBOX360 has been rather disappointing thus far. If you want BF3 with all the bells and whistles, plan to upgrade that aging video card while adding some system memory. EDITOR'S NOTE: For this article Benchmark Reviews did not go into detail regarding graphics performance, simply because the beta version of BF3 does not apply some video settings that will be activated in the final retail version. We've noticed that the difference between 'Low' and 'Ultra' video quality settings in BF3 beta with our GeForce GTX 590 were very small, leading us to suspect that anti-aliasing and other settings are not being applied once adjusted. The frame rates taken at several static spawn points were:
Benchmark Reviews will test and publish GPU-based video graphics quality performance results when the retail version of Battlefield 3 becomes available, and all video graphics quality settings are activated. From our initial observations however, it appears that graphics card requirements are substantially more demanding then what is needed for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, so be prepared to upgrade. UPDATE 03 October 2011: NVIDIA has recently published their own Battlefield 3 beta performance guide using a special beta release with full-version graphics. Read more here: https://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/battlefield-3-beta-performance-guide UPDATE 10 October 2011: EA Has ended the Battlefield 3 Beta program. The full version of the game will be released October 25th. Are you playing Battlefield 3 beta? Share your thoughts on this article with your game name below. Related Articles:
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Comments
Win 7 32 bit
Intel dual core @ 2.66 ghz
4 GB RAM.
1 GB Nvidia Geforce 9600 gt
460 Watt Cooler master power supply unit
Now i m wondering can i run battlefield 3 at medium settings with good fps. Quick reply will be very much appreciated
is a DirectX 10 video card, so your best hope would be Low or custom settings. Since the beta isn't activating all video quality settings, we can't estimate the true impact. Still, I would consider looking into better video card.
Great article btw.
geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/battlefield-3-beta-performance-guide
win 7 64 bit
intel core 2 quad cpu Q8300 2.50Ghz
4Gb ram
Nvidia Geforce Gtx 460 1Gb ram
Antec 850 watt psu
win 7 32 bit
Intel core i5 760 2.8 GHz stock
2*2Gb of physical ram 1600 MHz Corsair XMS3 (4GB)
Sapphire HD 5770 1GB (overclocked to 990 and 1330 stable in crysis and other games)
Motherboard: MSI P55-GD80
Maximum resolution= 1600*900
Can I play with high settings?
thanks.
Have I played BF3, sure. What do I think? It is an FPS what more is there to think? Sure it is fun but none of the sequels have captured the fun and innovations of the original 1942. They are but pale shadows.
I also think trying to predict how hardware will perform on a final product with a beta is the signs of a slow news week.
I just think any testing of a beta with an effort to look at it's performance is just missing the boat. Will it remain consistent, possibly but that is a chance, not a fact.
There is no way to give accurate performance information on any any product without the final release version in hand.
You should test it on different degrees of hardware. Just testing it on one computer is pretty much useless for people who don't share that same hardware. I don't think I'll have any problems as my system is GPU heavy with 2 x 2GB HD6970 in Crossfire, but my CPU (which will be upgraded this winter or spring) is a Core 2 Quad at 3.3GHz with 4G of RAM in Win 7 64. I would be interested in knowing how the Core 2 Quad would fare. I've heard there are some problems with Crossfire or SLI, how about something on that?
AMD Phenom II x4 955BE cpu
Asus crosshair V Formula motherboard
2x Gskill PC3 2133 DDR3 dimms
Asus Matrix GTX 580 Platinum graphics card
Side note I bought Rage for my PC and on high resolution it plays relatively well.
i5 650 @ 3.20ghz
4gigs ram
nvidia GT 340 1 gig
core i5-430M 2.25 ghz
ati radeon 5470HD, 512 mb
3 gb ram,
Win 7 64 bit...
can i run and play this game on my laptop??
This is just for anyone with the same CPU wondering if their system will work OK on BF3. I'm basically using two HD6970 2Gb cards in crossfire which are hardly being taxed at all (50%). Time for the mobo/cpu/memory upgrade.
Intel core 2 duo @ 2.33 ghz
4 GB RAM.
1 GB amd radeon hd4870
this will be enough to play on what settings? Thanks a lot
ati radeon 5450 1gb gddr3
4gb ddr3 memory
geforce.com/GamesandApps/games/battlefield-3
6850 1 gig
4 gb ddr3 corsair
geforce.com/GamesandApps/games/battlefield-3
gpu: amd radeon 6450hd 1gb ddr3
ram: 2gb
os: window 7 32-bit
CPU Manufacturer:Genuine Intel
Number of CPU: 1 (2 Core(s)/CPU, 1 Logical(s)/Core)
CPU Type: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8600 @ 3.33GHz
CPU Speed: 137.4 MHz
Cache size: 6144KB
O/S: Windows 7 (WIN64)
Mother Board: P5Q-PRO
Total RAM:4095.0 MB.
Video settings: 1680x1050x32
ATI Radeon HD 4850 x 2 in Crossfire.
Using max settings in 1080p my Core 2 Quad 3.3 GHz would choke with 2 x HD6970 in crossfire during the most intense, graphic hungry portions of B3. I upgraded my CPU to an i5 2500k 4.5 GHz and I can play everything maxed out with the two 6970 cards but B3 still taxes the cards. Skyrim gets my cards running warm at about 85% usage on both cards but I don't see a CPU bottleneck any more.
It still depends on your settings. 1680 x 1050 is helping your video cards out right now so perhaps a cpu upgrade would be worth considering.
3.46GHz, 12MB L3 Cache, 6x256KB L2 Cache, 3200 MHz Bus, Socket LGA 1366 - MPN: BX80613I7990X,,,,,two gpus nvidia gtx 490 and 8 gigs of ram with os 7 64 bit with lot of coolers and that #..