Battlefield 3

[BenYahtzeeIsGod]

Any suggestions on a new computer which will help me play this at full spec?

 

[Slaanesh]

First question, do you have $2000 available? If yes, then we can proceed to build that rig. If not, then I laugh at you. Haha.

Its been stated that 2 GTX580 cards would be needed to run on ultra, those 2 alone would be 1 grand. Plus the RAM, the high wattage power supply, the high end cpu and the mobo. Seriously, if you have a lot of cash, then go ahead.

 

[BenYahtzeeIsGod]

Ok I'm 19, so no, I don't have two grand

 

[Rawne1980]

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
OS: WINDOWS VISTA (SERVICE PACK 2) 32-BIT
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 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

Those are the minimum and recommended specs which will run the game on low and medium respectively.

As Deathleaper said, they recommend 2 580s to run on ultra.

My machine is just above the recommended but still not enough to run this game on ultra. It really will take a beast of a machine.

Not something you will be able to get "on the cheap" anyway. Mid spec PC's are cheap enough to come by but you are talking investing your house and maybe a limb or two to get a PC to run this on full.

 

[Irridium]

Um, you do know that you don't need to run at full-spec to enjoy it, right?

For $500-$600 you can build it based on the recommended system specs for the game. Which I'm pretty sure is med-high settings.

Then again I never did understand all the lust for graphics, so whatev's.

 

[BenYahtzeeIsGod]

Sweet Jesus fair enough, yeah screw running it on ultra then for that graphics card price. Well this is the machine I own at the moment; HP s5565uk which has AMD Athlon II X 4 635 Processor 2.9 GHZ, memory: 4096MB RAM. beyond that my knowledge on this computer deminishes. I've seen the recommended requirements (thanks for posting) so not sure if this could run it well at all. Also I think my graphics card is GeForce G210 if that helps

 

[Thamous]

First question, do you have $2000 available? If yes, then we can proceed to build that rig. If not, then I laugh at you. Haha.

Its been stated that 2 GTX580 cards would be needed to run on ultra, those 2 alone would be 1 grand. Plus the RAM, the high wattage power supply, the high end cpu and the mobo. Seriously, if you have a lot of cash, then go ahead.

You realize he wasn't being serious when he said that right? If you think you need 2000$ to do this you are painfully mistaken. You could it with half that and still be fine.

 

[Black Arrow Officer]

Relax, I can play the Beta with my decent computer just fine at "High" settings. You don't need OMGITSSOBEAUTIFUL graphics to enjoy the game. I honestly don't notice the difference between "High" and "Ultra" besides slightly sharper textures, shadows and lighting that you'll never notice unless you look really closely. Just enjoy the amazing firefights, fun squad gameplay and beautiful sound design.

 

[Slaanesh]

First question, do you have $2000 available? If yes, then we can proceed to build that rig. If not, then I laugh at you. Haha.

Its been stated that 2 GTX580 cards would be needed to run on ultra, those 2 alone would be 1 grand. Plus the RAM, the high wattage power supply, the high end cpu and the mobo. Seriously, if you have a lot of cash, then go ahead.

You realize he wasn't being serious when he said that right? If you think you need 2000$ to do this you are painfully mistaken. You could it with half that and still be fine.

Oh, I am so terribly sorry I didn't pick up the possible sarcasm through text!
He asked what is needed to play "full spec", i.e Ultra settings. I gave him a good idea of what is needed. I know you don't need $2000 to play this, but if you want Ultra settings, right now, the price range for an entire new PC would be around there.

 

[Thamous]

First question, do you have $2000 available? If yes, then we can proceed to build that rig. If not, then I laugh at you. Haha.

Its been stated that 2 GTX580 cards would be needed to run on ultra, those 2 alone would be 1 grand. Plus the RAM, the high wattage power supply, the high end cpu and the mobo. Seriously, if you have a lot of cash, then go ahead.

You realize he wasn't being serious when he said that right? If you think you need 2000$ to do this you are painfully mistaken. You could it with half that and still be fine.

Oh, I am so terribly sorry I didn't pick up the possible sarcasm through text!
He asked what is needed to play "full spec", i.e Ultra settings. I gave him a good idea of what is needed. I know you don't need $2000 to play this, but if you want Ultra settings, right now, the price range for an entire new PC would be around there.

My apologies, I figured you were referring to the video where the rep talked about needing two 580's. Anyway, at all the demos they were running computers with a single 580. This tells me that this will be enough to max it out. The 580 and other parts will fall a little over a 1000$, less if you can bring over some parts from a previous build.

 

[Slaanesh]

First question, do you have $2000 available? If yes, then we can proceed to build that rig. If not, then I laugh at you. Haha.

Its been stated that 2 GTX580 cards would be needed to run on ultra, those 2 alone would be 1 grand. Plus the RAM, the high wattage power supply, the high end cpu and the mobo. Seriously, if you have a lot of cash, then go ahead.

You realize he wasn't being serious when he said that right? If you think you need 2000$ to do this you are painfully mistaken. You could it with half that and still be fine.

Oh, I am so terribly sorry I didn't pick up the possible sarcasm through text!
He asked what is needed to play "full spec", i.e Ultra settings. I gave him a good idea of what is needed. I know you don't need $2000 to play this, but if you want Ultra settings, right now, the price range for an entire new PC would be around there.

My apologies, I figured you were referring to the video where the rep talked about needing two 580's. Anyway, at all the demos they were running computers with a single 580. This tells me that this will be enough to max it out. The 580 and other parts will fall a little over a 1000$, less if you can bring over some parts from a previous build.

Definitely less then $1000 if you scavenge parts from a slightly older PC. A single 580 probably would run it on high settings.

As for ultra settings on an entirely new PC, I did some math on Newegg, the "Battlefield 3 Rig"(my name for it) is around $1600(and thats being generous with only 4 GB of ram and a small HDD). So still, running on ultra costs a pretty, sexy, scandalous penny.

 

[tomvw]

My apologies, I figured you were referring to the video where the rep talked about needing two 580's. Anyway, at all the demos they were running computers with a single 580. This tells me that this will be enough to max it out. The 580 and other parts will fall a little over a 1000$, less if you can bring over some parts from a previous build.

You could probably build a PC matching the recommended specs around that price, I have seen a i7 2600K + Radeon 6950 + 8Gb RAM + 1Tb SATA2 drive at my local store for about 1200$. Putting in a 580 would probably add about 200$, unless you choose a lesser CPU. But a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 560 should be able to handle High at around 60fps or maybe Ultra at around 30fps.

Also, I'm guessing you need two 580's for Ultra + heavy AA or Surround, it seems a bit overkill for a multi-platform game. I have two 570's and a i7 950 and 99% of games run smooth as butter (only Crysis 2 on Ultra is a bit of a problem).

 

[Thamous]

My apologies, I figured you were referring to the video where the rep talked about needing two 580's. Anyway, at all the demos they were running computers with a single 580. This tells me that this will be enough to max it out. The 580 and other parts will fall a little over a 1000$, less if you can bring over some parts from a previous build.

You could probably build a PC matching the recommended specs around that price, I have seen a i7 2600K + Radeon 6950 + 8Gb RAM + 1Tb SATA2 drive at my local store for about 1200$. Putting in a 580 would probably add about 200$, unless you choose a lesser CPU. But a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 560 should be able to handle High at around 60fps or maybe Ultra at around 30fps.

Also, I'm guessing you need two 580's for Ultra + heavy AA or Surround, it seems a bit overkill for a multi-platform game. I have two 570's and a i7 950 and 99% of games run smooth as butter (only Crysis 2 on Ultra is a bit of a problem).

1200$ For just those 4 components or am I missing something?
Regardless, an i7 isn't going to do anything better gaming wise than an i5 so that's 100 dollars you don't need to spend.
Yeah, if your running more than one monitor you'll need more than one card but 90% of gamers only use one so I don't really worry about that.

 

[tomvw]

My apologies, I figured you were referring to the video where the rep talked about needing two 580's. Anyway, at all the demos they were running computers with a single 580. This tells me that this will be enough to max it out. The 580 and other parts will fall a little over a 1000$, less if you can bring over some parts from a previous build.

You could probably build a PC matching the recommended specs around that price, I have seen a i7 2600K + Radeon 6950 + 8Gb RAM + 1Tb SATA2 drive at my local store for about 1200$. Putting in a 580 would probably add about 200$, unless you choose a lesser CPU. But a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 560 should be able to handle High at around 60fps or maybe Ultra at around 30fps.

Also, I'm guessing you need two 580's for Ultra + heavy AA or Surround, it seems a bit overkill for a multi-platform game. I have two 570's and a i7 950 and 99% of games run smooth as butter (only Crysis 2 on Ultra is a bit of a problem).

1200$ For just those 4 components or am I missing something?
Regardless, an i7 isn't going to do anything better gaming wise than an i5 so that's 100 dollars you don't need to spend.
Yeah, if your running more than one monitor you'll need more than one card but 90% of gamers only use one so I don't really worry about that.

Ugh! My mistake, I'm still under the naive impression that 1? is about 1$, apparently that isn't the case anymore (I deserve a facepalm). So it would probably be closer to 1500$-1600$, but that is a fully built machine, with DVD-RW and a card-reader.
And yeah, I agree that currently there isn't a huge difference between the 2500K and the 2600K aside from HyperThreading and a slightly bigger cache, but that won't justify a 100$+ price difference for most gamers.

 

[Thamous]

My apologies, I figured you were referring to the video where the rep talked about needing two 580's. Anyway, at all the demos they were running computers with a single 580. This tells me that this will be enough to max it out. The 580 and other parts will fall a little over a 1000$, less if you can bring over some parts from a previous build.

You could probably build a PC matching the recommended specs around that price, I have seen a i7 2600K + Radeon 6950 + 8Gb RAM + 1Tb SATA2 drive at my local store for about 1200$. Putting in a 580 would probably add about 200$, unless you choose a lesser CPU. But a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 560 should be able to handle High at around 60fps or maybe Ultra at around 30fps.

Also, I'm guessing you need two 580's for Ultra + heavy AA or Surround, it seems a bit overkill for a multi-platform game. I have two 570's and a i7 950 and 99% of games run smooth as butter (only Crysis 2 on Ultra is a bit of a problem).

1200$ For just those 4 components or am I missing something?
Regardless, an i7 isn't going to do anything better gaming wise than an i5 so that's 100 dollars you don't need to spend.
Yeah, if your running more than one monitor you'll need more than one card but 90% of gamers only use one so I don't really worry about that.

Ugh! My mistake, I'm still under the naive impression that 1? is about 1$, apparently that isn't the case anymore (I deserve a facepalm). So it would probably be closer to 1500$-1600$, but that is a fully built machine, with DVD-RW and a card-reader.
And yeah, I agree that currently there isn't a huge difference between the 2500K and the 2600K aside from HyperThreading and a slightly bigger cache, but that won't justify a 100$+ price difference for most gamers.

A dollar right now is around .73 so 1600 is about right. You could build that same i7 build for much less and get more performance out of it if you build it yourself.

 

[HeallunRumblebelly]

As someone running a 450 GTS card, 6gb ram and a 3.0-ish quad core, the game runs like a dream. haven't really tweaked the settings but it's sitting on high atm, and if i could find a damn .ini setting to remove this bloom it'd go probably better...why would they put an option on that would blind me intentionally?! Damn you BFBC snow / dust ~

 

[octafish]

Sweet Jesus fair enough, yeah screw running it on ultra then for that graphics card price. Well this is the machine I own at the moment; HP s5565uk which has AMD Athlon II X 4 635 Processor 2.9 GHZ, memory: 4096MB RAM. beyond that my knowledge on this computer deminishes. I've seen the recommended requirements (thanks for posting) so not sure if this could run it well at all. Also I think my graphics card is GeForce G210 if that helps

The G210 isn't as powerful as a 8800gt which is the minimum specced card in the requirements. That is if your card really is a Nvidia 210.

Being an HP machine I'd say you won't get much salvage from it, possibly the HDDs and maybe the RAM and CPU. I'm dubious about HP mobos but if it a decent brand and not an HP part you may be able to scavenge that as well. Make note that you will need at least DX10 to run BF3 and that means Vista or Windows 7, not XP.

You will probably need a decent AMD mobo (maybe but nonetheless these are cheapish) GPU (Might as well stick to AMD and get a 6950 which offer good bang for your buck) PSU (HP PSUs suck, stick to the 80+ certified ones I like love Corsair) and a case (maybe you can reuse the HP one).

I don't know the prices in the States, but in Australia you can get a Gigabyte 6950 for $260, a Corsair 750watt PSU for $150 (enough for two 6950s if Crossfire tempts you later down the track), and a Gigabyte GA-880G-UD3H for $115 (crossfire capable).