News

Battlefield 3 system specs revealed
Posted: 20.09.2011 15:56 by JonahFalcon Comments: 18
DICE has released the system specs for the PC version of Battlefield 3. Check them out and see if you need to upgrade your rig to enjoy their upcoming military shooter.


Minimum:

OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-bt
Processor: 2 GHZ dual core (Core 2 duo 2.4 GHZ OR Athlon 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:

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
Related games: Battlefield 3 (PC)

Comments

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Sep 20, 2011
nocutius
As expected, i need a new GPU for the recomended settings :).
By Revan (SI Elite) on Sep 20, 2011
Revan
Lets see..
So I'll need to get Windows 7, the GTX 560, the soundcard, dvd drive, and...oh yeah, a keyboard.
Almost there! :P
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 21, 2011
herodotus
My GFX 560Ti exceeds the performance of the newer 560, but I'll bet a 580 is what you'll really want.
Should be okay as everything else in 'recommened' is met in my rig.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 21, 2011
FoolWolf
I think that my rig will have no probleem. I usually turn down on some of the eye candy like glaring, depth, shadows etc since it actually makes it harder to spot things on screen and getting older and slower on the reflexes - I need the help I can get ;)
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Sep 21, 2011
nocutius
I'm pretty sure they mean the 560ti when they mention 560, as the 560 and 6950 are not in the same class but 560ti and 6950 are.

And yea, lol at the dvd drive, i didn't even notice it previously :).
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 21, 2011
FoolWolf
Well, 6950 could be overkill but the step down is steeper and a 560 would do well to match pretty even with the 6950. The TI version kicks the 6950 in many games where the 560 and 6950 are more on par. Then again - there are games where the AMD cards outshines the GF ones...
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
nocutius
No way the 560 competes with the 6950, the 560 it's more of a competitor to the 6870. 6950 is definitely in the same class as the 560ti.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4344/nvidias-geforce-gtx-560-top-to-bottom-overclock/6
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 21, 2011
herodotus
Have to agree there nocutius. I did extensive research between AMD and Nvidiea before deciding on the 560Ti and it kicked the 6950 all over the place in many games, but not in "BF:BC 2". AMD did better, not that I have noticed. I did just as much research when the 560 came out, and it is way lower in Benchmarking than the Ti.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
FoolWolf
I would say they rank like this: 560, 6950 and 560 TI...
6950 - if you have the 2GB version will kick the 560 TI in some games and there is nothing you can do about the fact that some games just are way better with one card that shouldn't be able to outperform another - but the general trend is usually that AMD is stellar in a few and GeForce is the generalist winner.

I was also having a hard time deciding between cards, I was looking at the 6950, 560 TI, 6970 and the 570 cards. I choose a 560 TI OC version from ASUS that simply rocked and had decent power usage and sound quality and it won many awards on the "just keeps running" factor. Still I don't think any of the "workhorses" in these segments will disappoint you. I think that mostly the difference to be noticed is when you step up to 6970 and especially 570 cards...
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
nocutius
Ranking doesn't exactly tell you much when the cards are in different categories of performance.

A ranking like this for example:
Opel Corsa, Lamborghini Diablo, Ferrari Enzo.

Ok, a bit unfair as you can never overclock a Corsa to be on the same level as the other two.

The 560 only competes with the 6950 when it's overclocked but at the same time it also competes with the 560ti not just 6950.
It's normal for a card to compete with a range higher when overclocked, but those cards a range higher can also be overclocked in return.

Anyway i still stand by my statement that the regular 560 is a range lower compared to the 6950 :).
When you take OC into account things can change a bit but stock to stock things should be clear enough.
By fltatk (SI Veteran Member) on Sep 22, 2011
fltatk
Just bought 6850, hope its good enough for 1080p :P
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 23, 2011
FoolWolf
It should be, could take a hit in the shadows department and effects though if the game is heavy on tesselation and light effects, but otherwise should be giving you an OK experience.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Sep 23, 2011
nocutius
It definitely is good enough for 1080p it's just a matter of figuring out the right settings to give you a smooth frame rate :).
Like FollWolf mentioned the first thing to compromise on are usually the shadows and AA, at least that is what i usually do when i have to lower the settings.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 23, 2011
herodotus
Daniel Matros, community manager for DiCE was asked on Twitter if a rig meeting the Recommended Req's would allow the game to be run with Ultra settings. He answered "no", and that "recommended" would mean "medium settings". Two x 580's running in SLI might allow you to run the game on Ultra but not one 580, or anything below it.
This could just be a marketting ploy bu both Dice and Nvidea to plug the 580.
Won't know until the game comes out, but Nvidea is really being promoted with the game, unlike "BF:BC 2" which promotes AMD.
Otherwise we will have another "Crysis" on our hands - Crysis/Crisis...get it? Ahem!
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Sep 24, 2011
JonahFalcon
Well, if you buy BF3 off Origin, Direct2Drive, etc, you won't need the DVD drive :)
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 24, 2011
herodotus
The price on Origin (it's unavailable on D2D in Australia) is $80, while the steel-cased DVD retail copy is $88 here. I'm getting the retail copy...well I've already pre-ordered.
Prices are very high here, even for digital downloads (Steam has many now at $90).
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 24, 2011
FoolWolf
Well, considering that one decent 580 cars today costs the same as a brand new Xbox 360 with Kinect and perhaps even an extra controller - a SLI configuration of two 580 cards to run Ultra settings would mean that the graphics is just bloated - or HUGE mpas that are inefficient compared to graphics that is made for Xbox 360 or PS3 - a 560 TI card can shug out graphics that makes the Xbox and PS3 cry... a single 580 card should be enough unless you are into making small graphic things that you won't notice in a shooter like this.

I'm sceptical...
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 25, 2011
herodotus
As I said Wolfy, I'll bet DiCE and Nvidea have a kickback system going, and the newer Nvidea cards are simply being promoted by the sort of statements by Matros. I'll bet my 560Ti will run the game on Ultra just fine.