Possible PC Upgrade

[evanc]

Hey guys...

I've always been a big Battlefield series fan and I thought I'd try ordering the new Battlefield 3 for my XBOX in hopes that it would be still enjoyable. I just downloaded and played the Battlefield 3 beta for the XBOX, but after only a few minutes I realize that I've made a mistake and will be cancelling my order for the XBOX and reordering it for the PC. The controls just feel terrible.

I built a rig a couple years ago or so, but I want to make sure that it's beefy enough to play the game. I'm not looking for out of this world graphics and to have everything turned to the max, but I would still like to be able to enjoy the game with it looking decent on my 22" monitor. I have not, and have no plans on overclocking my system either.

Some basic parts of my current rig are:

- GIGABYTE GV-R487D5-1GD Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition
- GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
- CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel

This is all running on Vista 64bit. My power supply is strong enough to handle some beefier parts if needed.

What do you guys think? Will this work or do I need to upgrade some things?

Thanks so much.
Evan

[glc]

You meet minimums, but that's about it.

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


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

[PAINx5]

Your cpu is a bottleneck. play the beta and see how it feels.

my 1090t at 3.7 ghz is around 50-60% while im playing bf3

edit:

looks like your cpu could be unlocked to a quad core. give it a try.

[evanc]

I don't know a lot of the finer details about PC building, so pardon my stupidity.

How do I unlock it to a quad core, and what would be the other effects of it? I have the stock CPU fan on the processor and the case is not full of fans. I'd hate to burn out the CPU.

If I was to upgrade the PC to get it to a better place, what components would you guys recommending and what should I upgrade them to? Again, I'm not looking for anything spectacular, just to be able to play and enjoy the game.

[Sourtop]

You're going to need a better video card most of all. A GTX 570 or a Radeon 6950 would be your best bet. A new CPU would also be a plus. Again, this all depends on what your budget is for upgrading.

[evanc]

I don't have a set budget, I can spend whatever is needed to make this work. However, I am not looking to turn the settings way up on this game. Just to play this at medium settings and have it be enjoyable.

Therefore, the cheaper the better, but I need to get what is necessary to make it work.

Thanks again.

[David M]

You don't want Minimums then. I would go for Recommended which will get you close to where you would like to be....good enough to be playable but not at maxed out game settings at 60 FPS.

[glc]

What is the exact brand and model of your power supply?

What is the exact hardware revision of your motherboard?

[birddog_61]

http://gamegpu.ru/plugins/content/ju...MucG5nfEJSfDMw

A 560 or 6950 will max it out with very respectful FPS, keep in mind the benchmark above was on an alpha build, so the numbers will likely jump up a bit for the final game since there was a lot of optimizing left to do after the alpha.

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[David M]

I wonder why they did not benchmark using Sandy Bridge processors? ...which are faster than the ones they used.

The also did not mention what sized monitor they benchmarked with which makes a difference with the rankings.

[Sourtop]

Until the actual game comes out it seems like a gamble if your set-up will run as well as you want it to. Unless you're willing to spend the money to guarantee the results you want I would wait to see what others can produce in terms of graphics and fps and then make your decision.

I guess their reasoning for not testing with the Sandy Bridge is they wanted to test the processors that people are most likely to be using when the game comes out. I doubt the majority of gamers upgraded to Sandy Bridge when it came out and it my experience (from friends and people I've talked to) a lot of people really don't understand the difference between CPU performance and clock-speed thinking a 2 year old AMD CPU is just as good or better than an i5-2500 because they can overclock it to 4.5 Ghz.

[glc]

Your system will PLAY the game as is - try it first before spending any money.

[Masaki 7-11]

Looking at your computer specs, overall it looks like the dual core athlon is your bottleneck, that being said, your computer is actually a fair bit above minimums. There is a very large difference in performance between the HD3870 and 8800GT that they specify as minimum and the HD4870 you currently have, the HD4870 is somewhere around twice as powerful as the HD3870.

I agree with glc, you should wait to try the game first before attempting upgrades, that way you can find what kind of bottlenecks you have, and you might not even need to upgrade if the performance is ok.

[glc]

The reason we need to know the motherboard rev is to research compatible processors. There were about 5 different revs.

My power supply is strong enough to handle some beefier parts if needed.

Maybe, maybe not, without knowing exactly what it is.

[PAINx5]

Just do some reading, and try and unlock your cpu.

People on the forums are saying that the cpu is a quad core, but with 2 cores locked. so you are not pushing the cpu really.

"amd x2 athlon 64 5200 2.6ghz and evga 8800 ultra stock clocks. 4gb ram

on 1280x1024 i easily get 20-32 fps with everything set low Except mesh textures and fire effect set to high. no vsync or hbao

honestly, my cpu is maxed out %100, yet my 8800u is only putting out about %60, so i need a new cpu, its not the video card thats holding me back at all"

4870 is faster than the 8800 ultra

[birddog_61]

Originally Posted by David M I wonder why they did not benchmark using Sandy Bridge processors? ...which are faster than the ones they used. The also did not mention what sized monitor they benchmarked with which makes a difference with the rankings.

Monitor size has no affect on performance, the only thing that will affect performance is resolution and it was done in 1080p.