Battlefield 3 and GPU upgrade

[Jacky60]

Having looked at the first Battlefield 3 ( and also Elder Scrolls 3) in game footage I reckon I'll need to upgrade Video cards in autumn (fall) to keep eye candy to the max. http://www.techspot.com/news/42550-first-footage-of-battlefield-3-and-elder-scrolls-v-released.html

Any opinions as it looks way better than anything else I've seen on the PC from the few seconds shown above. The forest scenes in Elder Scrolls 3 look ready to bring my rig and 3 5870's to their knees.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Lol...you'll be fine.

 

[Dribble]

Early trailers of COD : MW looked more impressive imo and that ran fine on an 8800GT. Not that you can really tell anything from about 10 seconds of low quality video anyway.

 

[RussianSensation]

The best advice anyone can give you is to wait until the game is released. Not only will you have an exact idea of how your current hardware will perform, but the videocard landscape will have changed. By the time the game is released, prices will change and/or some faster videocards will be around. There is no guarantee either that the game will ship on time, making any current recommendation worthless. Half life 2 anyone?

 

[Qbah]

A HD5970 is faster than a GTX580. 1.5xHD5970 shouldn't be noticeably slower than 2xGTX580, arguably the fastest setup you can get today.

You should be fine, especially since we don't really know what kind of hardware is needed to run those two games maxed. Not to mention there's hardly anything faster than what you have right now...

 

[nanaki333]

anything you get that's out now will be a side-grade. i guess 3x 6970 will give you a little boost due to better scaling.... but not worth the hassle. wait til it comes out like everyone else said.

 

[GullyFoyle]

At least wait until the _BETA_ is released

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Elder Scrolls 3, crysis 2, Battlefield 3. I thought they said pc gaming was dead? This is shaping up to be one of the best yet.

 

[notty22]

Elder Scrolls 3, crysis 2, Battlefield 3. I thought they said pc gaming was dead? This is shaping up to be one of the best yet.

Dirt 3, NFS Shift 2, Witcher 2 as well. Wish they would all get here before the Hot Weather !

 

[dudeofdur]

Elder Scrolls 3, crysis 2, Battlefield 3. I thought they said pc gaming was dead? This is shaping up to be one of the best yet.

you got to keep in mind that they're releasing these for consoles too. I'm a pc gamer myself but in games such as dragon age etc it feels that the developers just half a55ed the port from console to pc which is unacceptable.

 

[OCGuy]

I'm going with the opinion that you really wont need to upgrade.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Its not just about whether he'll need to, its also about whether or not he will want to.

That being said, 3 x 5870s will trump just about any other possible solution outside of spending a redonkulous amount for at best a trivial boost when strictly considering today's options...

Since the game is due out in Q4 there's a good chance we'll see newer cards by then with both nVidia's Kepler and AMD's Southern Islands still on track for that time frame.

I know I'm eying Kepler as I use CUDA, although I don't really need more power than one of my single 470s for that purpose so I suppose either would do if I create just a gaming specific rig separate from my work one. At any rate we really don't know enough about either to even begin to make a guess as to which might even be close to having the upper hand in performance or features or price or specifically for BF3.

 

[Edrick]

Just always upgrade to the latest and greatest and you will be ready for any game at any time. And never have to ask if your rig can handle it.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I wait for game to be released. Then even if I buy it, I play it on current set up.

If I like it A LOT > I upgrade.

I try never to skip above.....or my wallet hates me.

 

[Mr. President]

I'd be highly surprised if either game even comes close to bringing your system to its knees. Keep in mind that Elder Scrolls will almost certainly be a console centric game and that the BF3 engine will likely be an incremental upgrade over its current incarnation.

The only exception would be if BF3 scales poorly to a triple GPU configuration. Not only is it doubtful but, quite simply, no one outside of DICE knows.

 

[Baasha]

You have a 5970 (dual-GPU) and a 5870 OC'd. I don't think you'll have too much of an issue running BF3 on high settings. The only question is, what resolution(s) are you going to be gaming at?

If you're gaming with anything less than a 30" monitor, you will be absolutely fine. If you're doing 30" or more, then perhaps get dual 6990s (CrossFire) or dual GTX-590/595 (SLI) and you'll own Frostbite 2.

 

[james1701]

Did you read the Game Informer article on BF 3? How hard is the ANT engine on equipment? As of right now, the entire map is destructible.

 

[Campy]

As a side note, i think you mean elder scrolls 5

 

[imaheadcase]

Devs for BF3 already said a GTX 460 will run the game perfectly.

 

[dangerman1337]

Devs for BF3 already said a GTX 460 will run the game perfectly.

I remember that twitter exchange but nothing about playing it all on (very) high settings or similar.

 

[imaheadcase]

I remember that twitter exchange but nothing about playing it all on (very) high settings or similar.

I play on very high now in BFBC2 without any problems. So i suspect it won't be that hard of a stretch.

 

[Jacky60]

Devs for BF3 already said a GTX 460 will run the game perfectly.

Yes BUT that doesn't mean I can get 60fps all over the map which is entirely destructible with 64 players and all the eye candy to the max.
I hope it won't run perfectly on a GTX460 otherwise progress will have ground to a halt.

 

[96Firebird]

I hope it won't run perfectly on a GTX460 otherwise progress will have ground to a halt.

That makes little sense. If DICE can make a game that looks great and performs on midrange cards, how is that not progress?

 

[Jacky60]

That makes little sense. If DICE can make a game that looks great and performs on midrange cards, how is that not progress?

Looking great is progress but I want better than great. Increased complexity of scenes, more textures etc at some point exceed peak fill rates of mid range cards. Unless they can work miracles with texture compression or really limit view distance then if it runs perfectly on a 460 then its not pushing the envelope.