Battlefield 1 - what do i need to upgrade?

[nikko]

Hello all. Haven't kept up with hardware developments since I bought my rig in 2011. Just downloaded Battlefield 1 only to discover my video card doesn't meet the minimum specs. After getting that error message the game did load before eventually crashing.

Anyway, I'm thinking that in addition to the video card I may have to upgrade the CPU.

Here are my current specs, per the Windows 10 System Information app:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68A-D3-B3 motherboard
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
Memory: 8 GB

Would someone kindly be able to tell me what components I would need to upgrade to play Battlefield 1 at high settings? And more to the point, what I should upgrade them to? My hope is that I won't have to replace the motherboard because I only have a budget of $350-$400. I live in and will order my parts from the US.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[DesiPower]

How about a GTX 1070

 

[UsandThem]

Here are my current specs, per the Windows 10 System Information app:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68A-D3-B3 motherboard
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
Memory: 8 GB

Would someone kindly be able to tell me what components I would need to upgrade to play Battlefield 1 at high settings? And more to the point, what I should upgrade them to? My hope is that I won't have to replace the motherboard because I only have a budget of $350-$400. I live in and will order my parts from the US.

From their website:

MINIMUM SPECS

• OS: 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
• Processor (AMD): AMD FX-6350
• Processor (Intel): Core i5 6600K
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB
• Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce® GTX 660 2GB
• DirectX: 11.0 Compatible video card or equivalent
• Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
• Hard-drive space: 50GB

RECOMMENDED SPECS

• OS: 64-bit Windows 10 or later
• Processor (AMD): AMD FX 8350 Wraith
• Processor (Intel): Intel Core i7 4790 or equivalent
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ RX 480 4GB
• Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 1060 3GB
• DirectX: 11.1 Compatible video card or equivalent
• Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
• Available Disk Space: 50GB

The problem is your budget, and your "wants" (play the game a high settings). Even if you get a GTX 1060 or RX 480, that is going to eat up most of your budget, not enough left to uprade your CPU/motherboard/RAM. If you get a GTX 1070, that's your whole budget. So I'm with DesiPower, buy a GTX 1070 and just put in your new system when you build one. It will last you for a while playing on high settings at 1080p. On the other hand, the GTX 1060 and the RX 480 will handle the game at high settings just fine, you'll just have to replace them sooner if you are a hardcore gamer who always wants to play new games on the highest settings. You'll be CPU regardless of what card you end up picking up.

Here's a very long thread talking about performance in that game, with the various benchmarks. There are some in there that show the performance of a 2500k compared to newer CPUs:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/battlefield-1-benchmarks-gamegpu-the-rest.2488968/

 

[fastamdman]

I will 3rd the idea of going with the gtx 1070. It will hit your budget right at the 400 dollar mark for a brand new 1070, but it will allow you to future proof your system a bit. You should be able to play on high settings with acceptable frame rates with your setup at that point. Then when you move to a newer system later on down the line, you will see an even bigger upgrade. The thing you are lacking the most right now is a solid video card. The 2500k's were also pretty solid overclockers. If you can push your 2500k a bit further you will probably grab some extra fps as well.

 

[phreaqe]

Save your money get a 1060 or 480 and you will be just fine to run the game on ultra and get 70+ FPS. I have the 1060 and get between 70-80FPS. I have a 4690k at stock speeds so its not that much of a boost of the 2500k. It will be just fine in this game.

 

[Charlie98]

What everyone else said. I'm still rocking my 2500K rigs, they are doing fine. I do agree that you should see if you can take the 2500K a little higher... my primary business desktop is at 4.1GHz, and it's a crappy chip, my gamer is at 4.4GHz... so you should be able to get a little more out of it... just make sure you invest in an aftermarket CPU cooler.

I don't know how OC savvy you are, but I don't recommend using any of the Gigabyte OC utilities... manually OC your chip if you haven't already done so.

 

[DesiPower]

Although one think to consider might be the PCIe standard... Sandy bridge is PCIe 2.0. Do the latest GTX 10x0 run into any bottlenecks on a PCIe 2.0

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Although one think to consider might be the PCIe standard... Sandy bridge is PCIe 2.0. Do the latest GTX 10x0 run into any bottlenecks on a PCIe 2.0

Nope