Battlefield 3 recommended GPU specs out

[badb0y]

Look at that 5870 go ,Jesus.

6950 I am disappoint.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

As someone that plays competitively, I adjust lower my settings to gain an advantage(ie. remove shadows/fog/dust/etc). However, just upgrading to a GTX 580, I can see the difference of having higher settings even in BC2. I never noticed the blood splatter caused by bullets til the upgrade and being able to crank everything to max. And so, yes it's nice to have all of the eye candy when pubbing.

Seriously, I think your whole post is silly.

I don't think you understood my post.

 

[Silverforce11]

Look at that 5870 go ,Jesus.

6950 I am disappoint.

That bench was done on multiple configs, different GPU + CPU combos, NOT comparable given how CPU intensive BF3 is.

Wait for the release benchmarks.

 

[lehtv]

Glad it seems like 560 Ti will handle this game fine

 

[Will Robinson]

Look at that 5870 go ,Jesus.

6950 I am disappoint.

The 5850 and 5870 earned their places amongst the great ATi cards.
I doubt the competing GTX470 and Thermi 480 will be so fondly remembered.

 

[Stuka87]

My earlier post: I'm not a fanboy , but i'm also not completely blind. PC game sales peaked in 2000 and steadily declined exponentially since then. 2002 $1.4 Billion
2003 $1.22 Billion
2004 $1.08 Billion

Uhm... are you aware of what the word "Exponential" means?

 

[Arkadrel]

My earlier post: I'm not a fanboy , but i'm also not completely blind. PC game sales peaked in 2000 and steadily declined exponentially since then.

2002 $1.4 Billion
2003 $1.22 Billion
2004 $1.08 Billion

I'll give you 5 guesses on 2010, and its far less than 1 billion. You can also guess the console figure if you wish.

From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game

PC game sales (2006) in $ = 1.10 Billion (it went up from 2004's nr's)
Consol games + portables (2006) $ = 6.20 Billion



HOWEVER..... this only reflects the actual CD box sales in retail shops.

It does not show, degital downloads from Stream ect.
*IF* we assume 50% of pc games are digital downloads (might be a over exageration), then suddenly pc games are ~2 Billion.

There is nother huge BUT here....

pc games come with much higher rates of online play, than consols.
This usually means more monthly subscriptions (from team fortress fps, to MMO's).

Id wager that the money in pc gameing is actually closer to consols+portables than people expect, simply because their numbers dont reflect ditigal downloads and monthly subscriptions fee's.

WoW claims around 10million sub or so.
10 million subs x ~15$ each x 12 months/year = 3.6$ billion.

(might be off, but still likely that WoW makes silly amounts of $ from sub fee's)

Thats 1 (granted hugely success of a MMO), but there are tons of PC games like this, with monthly fee's.


Saying PC gameing is dieing is silly.
Theres more money in the gameing industry than in the movie industry.

Does that mean that movies are dieing? one day no more TV or theature features? No it doesnt.


***** extra Edit:

free2play games, MMOs, FPS that you play online on the pc for free.

These game developers "live" off of virtual item sales ect.
They make enough $ from it to give people "free" games.
(this counts as pc gameing profits, but isnt shown in CD box sales #'s)

When was the last time you played a free game on a consol?








------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/10/pc-gaming-revenue-grew-in-2009-as-retail-pc-game-sales-shrank/

Despite fears about the languishing PC game industry, revenue seems to have grown a bit in 2009. According to PC Gaming Alliance's Horizons Report, revenue hit $13.1 billion in 2009, versus $11 billion in 2008.

Don't expect that growth to translate to increased shelf space for PC games, however. The report notes that digital distribution sales are way up, as are the sales of virtual items. "In 2009 we saw North America and Europe experience a rapid uptake in purchasing virtual items," PCGA president Randy Stude said. "This model is what drove growth in Asia and we think it is just starting to come to Western markets."

As expected, given the rise in digital distribution, packaged game sales have dropped for a second year, now accounting for just 20 percent of PC game revenue. It appears that PC games are going to go all digital unless we start seeing some really awesome cloth maps.

2009 sales estimates, over 13.1$ Billion (growth of about 20% vs prior year's 11$ Billion).

Thats with monthly fee's and digital downloads, virtual items ect ect.

And guess what? its a growing trend, because more and more games are going online with monthly subs, or free2play + virtual items ect (this doesnt show in sales $ of CD box's)
(ei free2play, or digital downloads, but that doesnt mean people dont play games this way).



******* extra edit:

Id go so far as to claim, that if u put all the free2play games virtual items sales + all digital sales + all monthly subs of online play costs ect together then there is probably more money in PC gameing, than in consols.

This is something all these consol fanboys overlook, whenever they pull out retail CD box sales #'s and claim pc gameing is dieing.

 

[blackened23]

So what are you arguing. That PC game sales aren't crap compared to console game sales? First of all, NPD does track digital sales now and they're still garbage compared to the console retail market. Furthermore, industry insiders have complete access to the DD sales information and it is not enough to scratch the surface of console game sales -- in fact, I mentioned this earlier in the thread but this is EXACTLY what George B from epic (developers of GEARS OF WAR) said, and this is also what Tim Willets from ID software has said. To me this is defending your favorite platform while being blindfolded to the facts. The biggest developers have gone multi platform, developing for consoles primarily (BF3 the exception). How many triple A PC game titles have you seen in the past 3 years? Besides blizzard games, None. Oh -- blizzard is planning on going multi platform in the future to capitalize on console game sales.

Look, I'm a PC gamer too. 10 years ago you could easily go into an EB and find shelves upon shelves of PC games, with PC specific titles. PC gamers were the norm, not the exception.

 

[blackened23]

I found it- This is a post from George B of Epic. Developers of Unreal, UT2k3, UT2k4, previously a PC ONLY DEVELOPER forced to go multiplatform.

This is why Gamestop has virtually no shelf space for pc games anymore (and most retail shops are similar). This is why no publisher will sign a PC only game and every dev has to do console first, and primary, then port to PC for some residual sales. This is why the overall PC market has shrunk year over year for a decade (coinciding with the rise of powerful gaming consoles).

You can point at whatever you want, but the reality is that games cost too much money to make today, and due to that cost, they are required to be cross platform products so that they can try to make as much money as possible. The PC is always last in terms of consideration. Trust me. No matter what any dev says in public, the truth is that in most cases, on most game the PC is last. This is why the pc sku's always get the shaft in terms of quality, patches, bug fixes, dlc and whatever else.

That doesn't mean there aren't and won't be great games to play, but it's a declining market compared to consoles, even if the overall market grows over 10 years and pc games today sell more than 10 years ago. It's about the ratio of sales and that ratio dictates priority.

There are bright spots. MMOs. Indie games. Steam. But it is what it is and it will never change unless the money situation changes and that likely won't happen because people move to consoles but very few move back to pc. It isn't gloom and doom. It's reality. Don't be defensive and try to fool yourself to the contrary.

^ Thats what one of the biggest PC game developers of all time has to say.

 

[Arkadrel]

So what are you arguing. That PC game sales aren't crap compared to console game sales? First of all, NPD does track digital sales now and they're still garbage compared to the console retail market. Furthermore, industry insiders have complete access to the DD sales information and it is not enough to scratch the surface of console game sales -- in fact, I mentioned this earlier in the thread but this is EXACTLY what George B from epic (developers of GEARS OF WAR) said, and this is also what Tim Willets from ID software has said. To me this is defending your favorite platform while being blindfolded to the facts. The biggest developers have gone multi platform, developing for consoles primarily (BF3 the exception). How many triple A PC game titles have you seen in the past 3 years? Besides blizzard games, None. Oh -- blizzard is planning on going multi platform in the future to capitalize on console game sales.

Look, I'm a PC gamer too. 10 years ago you could easily go into an EB and find shelves upon shelves of PC games, with PC specific titles. PC gamers were the norm, not the exception.

Funny but Tomshardware has this artical today on their site:


http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-pc-console-sales-battlefield-3-bf3-pc-gaming,13499.html

Nvidia: Console Software Sales are Flat, PC on the Rise


PC gaming is dead? Not so fast...





I'm not quite sure how it happened, but PC gaming seems to have gotten a bad rap over the last several years. It isn't from journalists like me, and it's certainly not coming from sites like Tom's Hardware; but at some point "they" decided that the PC should play second fiddle to the Xbox and PlayStation, instead of the other way around...or at the very least, seeing every player in the gaming space as equal.


Nvidia certainly has something to say about that, and the company's response isn't a sleek new near-$3,000 gaming laptop, nor is it some hot new PC title...despite Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Rage being right around the corner. Instead, Big Green is bringing cold, hard facts to the table. In short, it's all about the almighty dollar and how that cash is wielded by you, John Q. Consumer. I met with Nvidia recently to talk about gaming in general, as well as look at some exciting new hardware coming out in the near future. The latter is hush-hush until next month, but when it comes to the state of PC gaming, it's open season.

While Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo continue to sell consoles, game software sales for their respective platforms are stagnant, and Nvidia's research says that trend won't be changing anytime soon. Despite a 41 percent buffer in 2008, console software revenue will be eclipsed by PC games revenue in 2014. Console software revenue is flat, floating between roughly $21 and $24 billion, yearly, while revenue generated by the PC gaming market balloons from $13 billion in 2008 to a projected $23-ish billion in 2015. Nvidia breaks it down even further, showing that the bulk of PC games revenue is coming from digital downloads (Steam, Direct2Drive, etc.), meaning we're all spending less and less money on PC games when we go to Best Buy or GameStop. And rightfully so, since the latter's "PC Games Section" is one wire shelf amidst a sea of console paraphernalia and preorder-crazed salespersons.

Nvidia doesn't break down its data according to genre or service, but much of this newly-discovered cash is coming from the social gaming crowd, as well as from new business models. There's no denying that Facebook games like The Sims Social and micro-transactions in more "hardcore" titles like World of Tanks and League of Legends are pushing revenue streams and profit margins up for many developers and publishers. If that means publishers are either going to pump more money into PC games development, or come back to the[FONT=inherit ! important][FONT=inherit ! important]platform[/FONT][/FONT]that they've abandoned (Epic Games, anyone?), then I'm all for it.


Of course, the PC crowd should take these figures with a grain of salt since this information is coming from a company that eats, sleeps and breathes PC gaming hardware. That said, there's only so much you can do with numbers to make a given side look good, and these figures are painting a pretty picture for the PC gaming sector. If a mouse and keyboard are your weapons of choice (and I've been wielding mine since the days of Space Quest III and Catacomb 3-D), then believe me when I say PC gaming isn't dead. In fact, it's very much alive.


In other Nvidia news, the graphics hardware maker is tickled pink about the impending release of Battlefield 3, as it should be. The game is going into beta early next week (and by beta, EA really means "demo"), and quite frankly...[FONT=inherit ! important][FONT=inherit ! important]the [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=inherit ! important][FONT=inherit ! important]game[/FONT][/FONT] looks incredible. Nvidia is throwing a huge LAN party next month to commemorate the launch of this latest BF title (rest assured, Tom's will be in attendance), and it should be one for the ages, especially since it's being held on a decommissioned aircraft carrier.
If you doubt how sweet Battlefield 3 is going to be, or how stunning the graphics and visuals are, here's a side-by-side comparison with an old favorite: 2005's Battlefield 2. A lot can change over the course of six years!

^ nvidia thinks things are differnt.

"Nvidia breaks it down even further, showing that the bulk of PC games revenue is coming from digital downloads (Steam, Direct2Drive, etc.), meaning we're all spending less and less money on PC games when we go to Best Buy or GameStop. And rightfully so, since the latter's "PC Games Section" is one wire shelf amidst a sea of console paraphernalia and preorder-crazed salespersons."

Console software revenue is flat, floating between roughly $21 and $24 billion, yearly, while revenue generated by the PC gaming market balloons from $13 billion in 2008 to a projected $23-ish billion in 2015.

Consol market revenue is flat (but bigger than PC revenue).
PC market revenue is growing (but currently smaller than Consol revenue).

However if current trends stay the same way for ~3-4 years,
PC gameing revenue will be LARGER than consol one.

 

[RussianSensation]

there is probably more money in PC gameing, than in consols.

This is so incorrect, I don't even know where to begin. No one is arguing that PC gaming is dead, it's just not comparable to console sales, not even close, when we are talking about the most popular titles. Sure, if you add all the casual PC games and so forth, then PC game sales overall are good.

For starters:

1) There are more than 400 million consoles (across modern consoles only: 360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii).

2) Console games cost $29-59, while PC games are $10-15 on Steam within 12 months. There is WAY more revenue and profits in console gaming.

3) You can sit here until you are blue in the face, but MW3 will outsell BF3.

4) Using Blizzard (the most successful PC game developer) as an example doesn't do anything about the 90% of everyone else who struggle to sell more than 2 million copies of some of the most popular games. All the top franchisees on consoles have little trouble selling above 5 million copies on each console. What game on the PC sold 5 million units at $49.99-59.99 in the last 5 years? Besides SC2, I can't think of any.


The charts you linked clearly show that in the years 2008-2011, console sales easily outpaced PC sales. That might change in the future, but we are discussing today. Not only that, but you should have read the article in detail: "Nvidia doesn't break down its data according to genre or service, but much of this newly-discovered cash is coming from the social gaming crowd, as well as from new business models. "

Besides, If you guys want to argue console vs. PC sales, start a new thread.

 

[blackened23]

Nvidia breaks it down even further, showing that the bulk of PC games revenue is coming from digital downloads (Steam, Direct2Drive, etc.), meaning we're all spending less and less money on PC games when we go to Best Buy or GameStop. And rightfully so, since the latter's "PC Games Section" is one wire shelf amidst a sea of console paraphernalia and preorder-crazed salespersons."

The graph you posted proves the very point. While nvidias source is sketchy to say the least, its based on a projection that PC game sales "might " overtake console games in the future. Steam doesn't release sales data to anyone except NPD and developers -- so there's no way they could have access to that information. I think its a good fantasy though, and a good marketing angle for nvidia (who produces PC GPU hardware). AMD probably could care less since they have parts locked in for both next gen consoles.

And digital sales are the majority of sales -- Uh, I think everyone knows this. Please point me to where i've said anything otherwise. Even with DD, PC game sales are poor compared to consoles. The bright spot is MMO revenue but with F2P games proliferating, that seems questionable for everyone except the top 1% of the industry (ie blizzard)

Anyway, i'm perpetuating this tangent even longer. Still looking forward to BF3 Beefjack (gaming website) indicated that the PC version was far, far prettier than either console version, can't wait.

http://beefjack.com/news/battlefield-3-platform-comparison-ps3-vs-xbox-360-vs-pc/

 

[blackened23]

Look at that 5870 go ,Jesus.

6950 I am disappoint.

Whats up with the 590 there. Must be a driver issue preventing SLI from working properly.

I'll probably play this one on the 580 rig,xfire microstutter drives me insane.

 

[Arkadrel]

The charts you linked clearly show that in the years 2008-2011, console sales easily outpaced PC sales. That might change in the future, but we are discussing today. Not only that, but you should have read the article in detail: Nvidia doesn't break down its data according to genre or service, but much of this newly-discovered cash is coming from the social gaming crowd, as well as from new business models.

Does it matter if its a Free2play MMO ish type game, that sells virtual items to make money? or a social gameing crowd game type?

Its still part of the pc gameing crowd.
Granted neither are the First person shooter types much, but...

This wasnt a question of the gameing type, simply about how much $ in revenue there was in each.

 

[TheAdvocate]

 

[Grooveriding]

Whats up with the 590 there. Must be a driver issue preventing SLI from working properly.

I'll probably play this one on the 580 rig,xfire microstutter drives me insane.

SLI/CF were not working in the alpha until very close to the end when both vendors released some beta drivers that supported it.

 

[peonyu]

I found it- This is a post from George B of Epic. Developers of Unreal, UT2k3, UT2k4, previously a PC ONLY DEVELOPER forced to go multiplatform.



^ Thats what one of the biggest PC game developers of all time has to say.

PC gaming is dead has been shouted since the first XBOX came out. It hasn't happened entirely yet, but the relative power of consoles compared to PC has increased ten fold compared to how it was prior to the XBOX.

A PC killer app game like DooM when it first came out could not run on a SNES [there was a very shitty chip-enhanced port I know] and if a PC game was ported, it played utterly terrible compared to PC. So PC gamers who liked PC games had no alternative but the PC back then. Today a Xbox-360 port looks half as good as the PC [but it is not ugly despite that] and it still plays great and that is good enough for most people. So its no surprise that the PC has lost customers considering consoles are cheaper and they can play most PC games/ports extremely well. The 360 is also 7 years old, for tech that old that is impressive. Next generation consoles, will truely give the PC market a kick in the groin if this generation is anything to go by.

 

[Arkadrel]

I know this is Off-topic but people derailed it before I did
(why else where theyre be "pc gameing is dead" posts in a thread about battlefield 3 recammended specs).


What I dont get is if:

Consol gameing makes $24B revenue.
PC gameing "only" makes $18B revenue. (33% less)

How does that spell the "PC gameing is dieing"?

Billions of $..... small potatoes, right?

Like nvidia's charts show, the PC revenue from gameing is growing at a faster rate than the Consol markets revenue. Why does this mean PC gameing is dieing?

 

[blackened23]

I know this is Off-topic but people derailed it before I did
(why else where theyre be "pc gameing is dead" posts in a thread about battlefield 3 recammended specs).


What I dont get is if:

Consol gameing makes $24B revenue.
PC gameing "only" makes $18B revenue. (33% less)

How does that spell the "PC gameing is dieing"?

Billions of $..... small potatoes, right?

Like nvidia's charts show, the PC revenue from gameing is growing at a faster rate than the Consol markets revenue. Why does this mean PC gameing is dieing?

Whats hilarious is the figures they publish include "social" gaming from facebook games as part of the figure, and they also include mobile/handheld games. The figure nvidia pulls out of their ass is so suspect its hilarious. Lastly, part of their figures are speculative (PC games to be #1 in 2 years? Uhh if you say so) - they also claim to have data on DD revenue when Steam does not release that data to anyone except respective developers and NPD.

And then you have respected leaders of the gaming industry all saying the same thing, I mean really, ID software and Epic Megagames have been leaders of PC only games for 2 decades and they've basically said PC game revenue has gone to shit in the past decade, yeah lets just completely ignore that. Wonder why they went multi platform? Wonder why epic says they would never get published in this day and age with a PC only game? I saw an interview from Gabe Newell of Valve software from a few months ago, where he said he was "terrified" of the future prospects of PC gaming due to piracy, cloud gaming and the proliferation of consoles. I'll try to dig that up later.

Its not all gloom. PC will still have good games, there will still be plenty of reason to have a good PC with a good GPU. But I definitely miss the glory days of PC gaming, remember the feeling that you -had- to get a new PC to play quake 2? Quake 3? Those days probably won't be back because the design mantra now is consoles first, PC second. Yes, there are a few exceptions but not many.

 

[s44]

Keep in mind if you go dual cards AMD seems to scale a bit better because 2x6950 (not 6970) is more or less equal to 2x570.

But remember this. Average FPS reflects actual viewing experience a lot better for SLI than Crossfire -- or at least it did in BC2.

 

[RussianSensation]

SLI/CF were not working in the alpha until very close to the end when both vendors released some beta drivers that supported it.

I think you have nothing to worry about with 3 GTX480s! That's at least 2.5x the graphics power of an average high-end gaming PC. A single 480 broke 60 fps. You have 3 of those + GTX480 overclocked passes a GTX580. No sweat.

 

[Grooveriding]

I think you have nothing to worry about with 3 GTX480s! That's at least 2.5x the graphics power of an average high-end gaming PC. A single 480 broke 60 fps. You have 3 of those + GTX480 overclocked passes a GTX580. No sweat.

Agreed, I think I am good on the GPU front I do get some funny behaviour in BFBC2 though that I'm hoping I don't see in BF3. It relates to the physics engine. Whenever there is a lot of destruction or large smoke clouds in multiplayer I get 40 FPS dips.

My guess, this is a CPU thing, but I have never taken the time to monitor CPU/GPU usage through those episodes. I actually should I think, it always happens in relation to heavy destruction.

 

[96Firebird]

Agreed, I thank I am good on the GPU front I do get some funny behaviour in BFBC2 though that I'm hoping I don't see in BF3. It relates to the physics engine. Whenever there is a lot of destruction or large smoke clouds in multiplayer I get 40 FPS dips.

My guess this is a CPU thing, but I have never taken the time to monitor CPU/GPU usage through those episodes. I actually should I think, it always happens in relation to heavy destruction.

Definitely sounds like a CPU thing, I get the same thing although my CPU is not powerful enough to run the game smoothly as is. I'm just hoping my E8400 can hold out until I build a new i5 system...

 

[Silverforce11]

But remember this. Average FPS reflects actual viewing experience a lot better for SLI than Crossfire -- or at least it did in BC2.

I think you missed the conclusion. Where NV released info on how their hardware works and how FRAPs is unable to be used as an indicator of viewing experience. Or, how fraps reported bad stutter on the 6870 setup but in reality, it plays fine.

Oh, stop using the EPIC dev statement as evidence of the death of PC gaming. They have shown repeatedly in the past few years they cannot make a good game and thats why PC gamers refuse to buy their Spyware DRM filled crap games. After these episodes, the dev goes on a rant why PC games are dying cos nobody buys their games..

PC games are not dying, never have been. They have evolved, keep up, or be like EPIC and lose the PC market.

 

[Will Robinson]

Vot iz ziss Origin zey speak off!?
Achtung!!
http://beefjack.com/news/battlefield-3-pc-will-require-origin/