Actually. I really don't think it's worth the money. I've been playing the game fully maxed out just without AA and I get 60-90 FPS even outside with 2 460's.

At 2x AA it drops to 30-40 and at full 4x AA it's in the teens but the small difference between AA and no AA is not worth all the money. I'm perfectly content playing without AA. It looks like the VRAM wall only applies if you turn on AA. #firstworldproblems. lol.

10/29/2011 9:17:54 AM

Are you guys playing the game or just beating off to video cards?

10/29/2011 10:10:59 AM

Both.

10/29/2011 11:15:53 AM

This video card talk between you two is getting out of hand - I'm moving over to the other thread even though I play on PC

10/29/2011 11:59:20 AM

this is a pc fps. the entire purpose of the game is to drive pc (component) sales and tweaking. the xbox and ps3 copies are just to keep the unwashed masses happy. if you have unique gameplay mechanic tips that are actually worth discussion, bring them up, but don't be surprised people are interested in how to make the game look good/play smoothly

10/29/2011 1:28:47 PM

Just finished single player. Took about 6 hours. Very linear but still fun.

10/29/2011 2:07:33 PM

Want your BF2 (or other BF game) Veteran dog tag?

http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/veteran

Login here with your Origin ID and click on the games shown and follow the instructions.

You should see the icon colorize from grey when successful. It took 2 or 3 tries to succeed for me.

Oh and it'll be a couple hours later when the dog tags show up.

[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 4:02 PM. Reason : .]

10/29/2011 3:53:15 PM

can I run this game on a 2011 Alienware M11x with the 2.6? I run warecraft on ultra and starcraft on high if that helps at all

[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 4:31 PM. Reason : or would it be so shitty I should just get xbox version?]

10/29/2011 4:31:36 PM

Processor won't matter too much in this game. Which video card do you have?

10/29/2011 5:41:23 PM

Quote :

"Actually. I really don't think it's worth the money. I've been playing the game fully maxed out just without AA and I get 60-90 FPS even outside with 2 460's"

You are fine without AA and others are fine playing the game at all low settings and at low resolutions. I was simply saying if you are going to put money into something to get better IQ or FPS out of BF3, that the video card was the main thing to invest in. Also I was discussing the importance of larger amounts of VRAM cards in this game because of how much usage I am experiencing at my resolution and settings. It just keeps the min FPS up and the avg (obviously), creating a smoother experience. Since I am monitoring BF3s VRAM usage during game, I can give a good guess for people on how much VRAM they need to be safe from running out on their personal setup and IQ. Kepler is going to come out sometime in Q1 2012 or Q4 2011 (according to the latest rumors), but the performance gain over Fermi is not going to be nearly as big a jump as Maxwell will. Maxwell should be a completely new architecture, this is why they are guessing such a large FPS jump IMO. I see Kepler as the G80 vs G92 (which was awesome for budget gaming), while Maxwell as GT200b vs GF100/110/114/116 (so many Fermi revisions).

To the babies complaining about discussing hardware or "fighting" (there is no fighting, just opinions and discussions), skip over the posts if you don't want to read about PC Hardware. Almost all posts with hardware being discussed do not include BF3 gaming discussions. This makes it pretty easy to skip over a post about hardware. Like many people have said, discussing PC hardware goes hand in hand with discussing the PC game. High requirement PC games drive hardware sales and even vice versa for a lot of people. There is a feeling after spending money on new hardware they should have a tough game to show it all off. Feel free to go read the console discussion, they can give you 24 player map strategies, lol.

Quote :

"Want your BF2 (or other BF game) Veteran dog tag?"

I have tried on multiple occasions to register BF1942 and BF2, neither will go through their veteran system. I have the CD Keys for both games and hell, I even have the boxes for those games. BF2 wants you to log in to GameSpy (which I do) and then nothing happens. BF1942 wants a CD Key and I get a system error from the Veteran Status website telling me to try again later. I've been trying since BC2 came out to do this with the same problems on both games. Does it matter if you have multiple GameSpy accounts? I did the whole linking thing, but nothing happens and GameSpy says it can't see BF2 in my game manager. I bought both games at the store, so maybe that is why it won't go through an online system?






[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 6:30 PM. Reason : _]

10/29/2011 6:19:33 PM

Quote :

"You are fine without AA and others are fine playing the game at all low settings and at low resolutions."

Well there's a big difference there. I could justify upgrading if I could only run things at low or medium but being able to run at Ultra with Medium AA and no post-AA or whatever doesn't warrant an upgrade.

10/29/2011 6:46:56 PM

The settings you can run depend greatly on the native resolution of your monitor. Also I don't ever remember telling you to upgrade or that you couldn't run certain settings. Prospero quoted me so I spoke directly to him on a few hardware things, but all that matters is you are happy with your performance and IQ. I'm simply giving my opinion on BF3 VRAM usage to someone reading the thread who is shopping for either a new PC or a new hardware upgrade with a large res monitor.

Also I'm confused, in your first post you said you were using no AA, now you say you are using "Medium AA" which is not an option. It goes 2x and 4x, so technically there is no medium, either low or high.


BTW no one commented on THG claiming they are using FXAA in BF3:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-5.html

See the Green Bar, that is supposedly FXAA by itself and the black bar says FXAA + 4x MSAA. If this is possible any NVIDIA user should be dying to know how you can do it. FXAA is 10fps faster than 4x MSAA and by using shader based AA, FXAA is sometimes the better looking AA. With AA Post Processing I think FXAA would be perfect, since the main flaw of FXAA is edges and AA Post Processing deals with these.

They claim they can use FXAA by itself and in combination with MSAA. I don't trust their benches, haven't for years, but this is different. How in the hell do you enable FXAA which NVIDIA says can't be forced by driver in game that lacks FXAA. I thought maybe they were calling AA Post Processing FXAA without noticing it, but they show a bench with FXAA by itself. How the hell are they doing this, or is it just THG being THG?


Oh and I finally got BF1942 to go through the Veteran System, I guess it actually was their system error. However still no luck with BF2, is there someway to add a game to GameSpy by using the CD Key? I just don't understand why they are going to GameSpy to see if I own BF2. Why isn't there a 2nd option just to enter my key?






[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 7:53 PM. Reason : _]

10/29/2011 7:29:02 PM

sweet, finally got my 570 SLI to work perfectly now. Ultra is amazing.

Also, I tried my 2142 and BF2, both don't work. Word from origin tech support says that older keys were made invalid when they switched to origin, but they are trying to get them validated in the near future. kinda sucks.

10/29/2011 7:56:21 PM

BF1942 obviously has the oldest keys and I got mine to go through, it just took a few hours after the veteran page took it. How are you trying to use a key to validate BF2? I only have the option to sign into GameSpy and it doesn't show I own any games because I haven't purchased anything through them. All my BF games except BF3 were bought in actual stores.

If someone knows a way to add a game to GameSpy Game Manager with a valid key from BF2, please explain it.

10/29/2011 8:00:11 PM

FXAA is Anti-Aliasing Post. MSAA is Anti-Aliasing Deferred. There's two different settings, you can control them separately. It was addressed in the benchmarking guide from AMD:
http://www.ngohq.com/news/20747-amd-recommends-using-nvidias-fxaa-in-battlefield-3-a.html




[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 8:27 PM. Reason : .]

10/29/2011 8:24:33 PM

Of course AMD wants FXAA, it works on every video card and does a good job at AA with a much smaller hit on FPS than MLAA (AMD/ATI only support) or any other AA Technology. THG just gave AA Post Processing the name of a technology already patented by NVIDIA, confusing and stupid on THG's part.

FXAA WhitePaper:

http://developer.download.nvidia.com/assets/gamedev/files/sdk/11/FXAA_WhitePaper.pdf


That is a good read even if it is not in the BF3. There are rumors of a NVIDIA GPU only FXAA technology which takes much greater use of Fermi and the GT200/GT200b based cards. It is rumored this new FXAA can be forced through drivers like NVIDIA Supersampling is done and it has better IQ and Performance than the current FXAA. NVIDIA SS technology is awesome, but it eats up VRAM fast, even at only 2x. I found running 2x MSAA with full AA Post Processing + NVIDIA 2x Supersampling was better looking than 4x MSAA w/ Full AA Post Processing without NVIDIA SS. The VRAM hit was too high though in certain large maps, so I had to go back to 2x MSAA with High AA Post Processing to keep the VRAM between 1.4Gb and 1.5Gb (the sweet spot for the 480 and the 1.5Gb 580).


Basically it is idiotic to name something with the name of something completely different and well known by anyone who has a game with FXAA available to turn on.



Haha the first comment on your link is almost identical to what I said, but even how he words it sounds like he made FXAA work in BF3. Someone please figure out how to do this if it is possible, because it is not in the normal video options screen.

Quote :

"Of course they recommends FXAA. They get lower impact (compared to GeForce) with this technology. I tested BF3, and with FXAA (without Deferred MSAA) the HD6970 is as fast as GTX 580, or faster in some case. With MSAA 4x the GTX 580 is faster. Well of course both card got a much slower results compared to FXAA. "

In the first part of the link from ngohq makes it sound like FXAA is possible to run in BF3, however it is not possible in BF3's current state. I don't know how hard it is for DICE to go back and add FXAA as an option for AA. AA Post Processing is not FXAA, you can't run two different AA technologies together and NVIDIA hasn't figured out how to force it by drivers as far as I know.






[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 9:15 PM. Reason : _]

10/29/2011 9:02:26 PM

Anyone watching the Clemson vs Georgia Tech game (which has been crazy), that "Is It Real" commercial is awesome. EA is putting some serious money into advertising and doing things like that is what gets people to buy the hardware needed to play the game. When they see the game running on their main TV and are blown away. Shit I own the game/hardware and I was thinking, holy shit..

The funny part is they are showing the PC at maxed settings, but advertising it for all platforms. There is only one thing to play BF3 on, PC; 24 players is a joke compared to 64.




[Edited on October 29, 2011 at 11:17 PM. Reason : _]

10/29/2011 11:15:34 PM

Lets get this back on topic

Origin Friends list add:
seedless: tang0d0wn
Prospero: ProsperoLT
JBaz: BazTech
smoothcrim: hollablack
BEU: BeepBeep19
brianj320: sil3ntfury
FriendlyFire: GeneralShatton
BlackDog: ledhed
Air: Redneckvtek
gs7: gs77
neodata686: kpshaver
Azaka: AzakaEX
Golovko: golovko21
mikey99cobra: NCSUCobra
WolfAce: Wo1fAce

10/30/2011 6:20:26 AM

Yes posting the list of Origin names that hasn't been updated since the last time it was posted (you just reposted it) that are rarely in game is getting this thread on topic... When did we leave the topic? We are discussing performance and IQ settings using specific PC Hardware for a PC Game thread (since there is a console BF3 thread). My last post was about BF3 commercials during a huge game that millions watched on ESPN and ABC, I don't see how that is off topic.

People are taking the thread further off topic by making posts about how they don't think what we are talking about is on topic.




[Edited on October 30, 2011 at 9:05 AM. Reason : _]

10/30/2011 9:02:52 AM

well im still using the same name. I usually play at night if anyone wants to play. I also want to try Co-op if anyone is interested.

10/30/2011 10:35:41 AM

gheeze blackdog, you take everything personally dont you. and seriously... you've only played an hour and a half of this game and bitch like you've played for the past year...

And yes, that's the latest list, which hasn't been posted since page 5 or something. hopefully, lets get some tdub ppl playing together than bickering about IQ for 8 pages.

10/30/2011 2:14:49 PM

Add me:

Kinge21: TheDogShepherd

10/30/2011 2:19:55 PM

Origin Friends list add:
seedless: tang0d0wn
Prospero: ProsperoLT
JBaz: BazTech
smoothcrim: hollablack
BEU: BeepBeep19
brianj320: sil3ntfury
FriendlyFire: GeneralShatton
BlackDog: ledhed
Air: Redneckvtek
gs7: gs77
neodata686: kpshaver
Azaka: AzakaEX
Golovko: golovko21
mikey99cobra: NCSUCobra
WolfAce: Wo1fAce
KInge21: TheDogShepherd

10/30/2011 2:24:15 PM

Quote :

"gheeze blackdog, you take everything personally dont you. and seriously... you've only played an hour and a half of this game and bitch like you've played for the past year..."

I have posted on TDub and messaged TDub members on Origin and anyone that has been playing knows why I have not been able to. I had a series of neck injections and I can't sit at a gaming computer and keep my head stuck in one position for any extended period. I should be back to normal in 2-5 days depending on my neck. Also I have spent time playing Co-Op for around 1.5 hours, so I'm not sure which play time you are looking at. MP and Co-Op together should be at least 4 hours which is pretty damn long if you were in my condition right now. I'm not the one bitching in this thread, everyone complaining about PC Hardware discussions are bitching. Also how does someone not assume you are talking to them after they post the last 2 posts in the thread before your post to come get the thread back on "topic"?

Plus I did the Alpha test and the closed and open Beta, so yes I have played the game a decent amount, but no where near the time I would like to have played the RC. Some of us can't spend hours a day sitting at a computer, but I wish I could so I could dial in my joystick and get some flight time in. It is funny you say I take everything personally and then try to call me out on my playtime which you can't even get right. I played at least 1.5 hours the first day the game came out between Co-Op and MP. However thank you for making me feel like I need to subject myself to pain in order to post in the thread. I have been playing BF since BF1942, so I think I can comment on what I've seen in the game, especially the hardware aspect. If you looked at my library of screen shots one page back (http://steamcommunity.com/id/NCSUZoSo/screenshot/613840910984319336?tab=public&filter=shortcut_70775) you would see there is no way 1.5 hours adds up since every screenshot has a time stamp and is taken live through Steam.

Has anyone else had needles stuck through their chronically spasm neck muscles in the last 4 days? Yesterday it felt like my neck was literally burning while I could feel the muscles pulsing, which is actually a good sign that the Botox was put in a good location. Today it is not as bad, so I may be able to get some play time in, hopefully.

(I make these posts laying down on a couch from a laptop and even this comes at a small pain cost and no I don't want your pity. I just wanted to let you know what others know, why I can't play a lot currently).







[Edited on October 30, 2011 at 3:24 PM. Reason : _]

10/30/2011 3:08:44 PM

^ stop taking everything so personally

10/30/2011 3:16:10 PM

stop posting shit like this:

Quote :

"you've only played an hour and a half of this game and bitch like you've played for the past year..."

10/30/2011 3:19:06 PM

is it just me or are the jets harder to fly than in the beta?

10/30/2011 3:22:57 PM

You know as big as this group is getting, we should really have our own clan or squads and kick some ass together...

10/30/2011 3:24:24 PM

Yea we can setup a TWW squad so it is easier to find people and make a Party Group which tries to keep you on the same team/squad after you enter a server. Someone just needs to set it up and then invite all the names on the list.




[Edited on October 30, 2011 at 3:26 PM. Reason : _]

10/30/2011 3:25:35 PM

@BlackDog

Quote :

"stop taking everything so personally"

Not everything in this thread is directed towards you... Jesus fucking egomaniac Christ. Do you want a fucking cookie?

yeah, i tried to make a platoon last night as was thinking about it, but damn the platoon emblem maker really sucks. I can't make anything look ncsu like.

10/30/2011 3:28:27 PM

Yea, repeatedly saying the same thing over and over is really going to keep the thread on topic. Yes I would like a fucking cookie, but only if it is made with THC oil. I can give you my mailing address if you'd like.

You are able to upload any Platoon emblem (I thought squad was the wrong name, but can't see Battlelog from this computer). Or either my old clan can really use an emblem maker well. I'm totally down for a BF3 Tdub clan/platoon if we can actually get a decent amount of people playing together.

10/30/2011 3:34:49 PM

Ok, made the TWW platoon, invited some peeps. others find it and join up. I just gave up and make some bull shit emblem, hopefully someone can make a decent ncsu logo or wolfweb logo with the stupid emblem maker.

10/30/2011 3:37:17 PM

It should pop up in the left corner of the Battlelog screen the next time the people invited log on.

10/30/2011 3:45:32 PM

I'm having 2 really annoying issues related to joining games:

1) I'll join a game and the little status indicator will say "Playing!", but when I locate and click on the game window, it is a windows error saying "Battlefield 3 has stopped responding" and give me an option to close. Re-joining the same game usually works.

2) I'll finish a match, it'll go to the waiting screen in between games and instead of starting up the next match, it'll just go to a black screen and stop responding until I ctl-alt-delete stop the BF3 process.

Anyone else having these issues? Would you guess they are graphics related?

10/30/2011 3:50:28 PM

I have had the 1st one happen twice, but I think it was server related. Some servers are having trouble dealing with the amount of info from a large map with 64 players. I've seen at least 5 servers crash and I know it was the server because my friends in the server also got disconnected and at the same time.

10/30/2011 3:58:26 PM

Ok performance is good most of the time but I get the annoying frame drops and stuttering indicative of not enough VRAM.

Might just go ahead and pick up two of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127589

Any recommendations on 1200 watt PSU?

10/30/2011 9:06:22 PM

why not (3) 580's????

[Edited on October 31, 2011 at 12:07 AM. Reason : .]

10/31/2011 12:06:44 AM

Pick up an even 4, just in case you're low on VRAM again

10/31/2011 1:26:24 AM

nah bro, liquid cool it and go for 8.

10/31/2011 1:55:34 AM

Origin Friends list add:
seedless: tang0d0wn
Prospero: ProsperoLT
JBaz: BazTech
smoothcrim: hollablack
BEU: BeepBeep19
brianj320: sil3ntfury
FriendlyFire: GeneralShatton
BlackDog: ledhed
Air: Redneckvtek
gs7: gs77
neodata686: kpshaver
Azaka: AzakaEX
Golovko: golovko21
mikey99cobra: NCSUCobra
WolfAce: Wo1fAce
KInge21: TheDogShepherd
Stimwalt: Stimwalt2

10/31/2011 9:12:36 AM

Diminishing returns man. Plus I don't think I could fit all three on my motherboard although it does have 3 PCI-E slots...

I just want to dat 120fps at 1080p!!

10/31/2011 9:14:30 AM

Really surprised at how well this game runs.........everything at Ultra and Post AA set to High @ 2560x1440 never drops below 60fps with two 6950 (to 6970s) @ 930/1375. It looks better than about every PC game and runs even better than most. Amazing engine.

Played a 64-player Conquest match in Operation Metro last night.....damn, what a clusterfuck. The amount of explosions and just intensity of the match made me have to take a break afterwards. It's definitely the most realism I've felt in a game...ever.

10/31/2011 9:59:52 AM

^Agreed. Really enjoying this game.

10/31/2011 10:08:40 AM

Quote :

"Really surprised at how well this game runs.........everything at Ultra and Post AA set to High @ 2560x1440 never drops below 60fps with two 6950 (to 6970s) @ 930/1375. It looks better than about every PC game and runs even better than most. Amazing engine."

Yeah because of the 2GB on board ram.

I don't know about better looking than every other PC game. I still think the textures/foliage look better in even Crysis 1. I was expecting more from Battlefield 3. The foliage doesn't even move when you walk through it!

10/31/2011 10:46:20 AM

shit, you guys are insufferable about this onboard VRAM

i have 1.25GB of onboard VRAM and the 570 can run better than the 2GB 6950 at nearly every resolution, so just because you have problems with it on 460's doesn't mean it's applicable to every situation. i have a real hard time believing BlackDog that his 2GB 480 has problems with VRAM (aside from Nvidia supersampling) considering my 1.25GB 570 does just fine.... even at 1080p the 570 framerates are higher. i'm not saying it's not an issue, and i'm not saying i would reduce my memory at all... but there's only so much i'd be willing to pay. hell for $600 i'd MUCH rather have (2) 570's than (1) 580. You do realize the 580 is like 5-10% faster than the 570 and you'd be paying TWICE as much.... now THAT is diminishing returns.

[Edited on October 31, 2011 at 10:55 AM. Reason : .]

10/31/2011 10:53:32 AM

don't really care...works great, looks good, 60fps

feels good man

10/31/2011 10:55:29 AM

^that's what i'm saying, that's fine

10/31/2011 10:58:23 AM

Quote :

"i have a real hard time believing BlackDog that his 2GB 480 has problems with VRAM"

He has the 1.5GB 480 and he's hitting the vram wall.

I'm not saying it's an issue for everyone I'm simply saying I've read enough reviews online that say the game has the potential to use close to 1800MB of vram and more if you're running in Nvidia surround and many people are having frame drop/freeze issues even with 1.5GB of vram.

Quote :

"hell for $600 i'd MUCH rather have (2) 570's than (1) 580. You do realize the 580 is like 5-10% faster than the 570 and you'd be paying TWICE as much.... now THAT is diminishing returns."

Yeah but after everything I've read there's no way I'd spend money on 2 570's if I'd only get 1.25GB of vram. Not only will you be running out of ram but you won't be future proof.

Even if I only hit the limit every few minutes you still get the annoying freezes/frame stutters.

Plus I think I'm picking up 2 MSI 580's anyway. Selling a laptop I no longer use to buy them plus the 2 460's. Playing around with Nvidia surround on 3 24"s was awesome especially in vehicles. Would need both 580's to maintain that ability. Not to mention I want sustained 120fps for the Acer.

10/31/2011 1:07:00 PM

yea, i mean if you have the money to spare why not i guess.

(2) 6970's would still be better and only $700... I just have a hard time believing that (2) 580's are worth spending $1200 bucks on.

dude, i didn't even SEE blackdog's last 3 posts on the last page.....

Quote :

"I managed to break 6000P in 3DMark11, that is the performance of a stock 580 w/ an i7 920."

Congrats, I hit 6400 at lesser clocks with my 570 and i5-2500k.
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2055172

[Edited on October 31, 2011 at 1:16 PM. Reason : .]

10/31/2011 1:09:42 PM

I'm selling a few things. Not going to get the 2 580's unless I come out even or profit.

-I get P7409 with my i7 950 and 2 460's.

Quote :

"2) 6970's would still be better and only $700... I just have a hard time believing that (2) 580's are worth spending $1200 bucks on."

From most of the reviews I've read the 580's still come out slightly on top especially the MSI/EVGA 3GB versions. Plus I'd rather have the 3GB onboard memory than just the 2.

[Edited on October 31, 2011 at 1:21 PM. Reason : s]

10/31/2011 1:15:11 PM