Battlefield 3: Will you be going SLI, or waiting for the next wave of cards?

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I3eyond

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So, I have a single GTX 570...and while BF3 beta runs what some may even call "buttery smooth" on it, it's still simply not the steady 60+FPS I strive for in this hobby.

I'm debating on whether or not to go SLI. I've always been partial to single card solutions, but I want to run this game maxed ASAP. What are your thoughts on SLI vs. single card solutions?

What will you do?
 
You have to remember, the beta of BF3 is just that...A BETA...While your 570 may run smooth, youwon't be getting 60+fps any time soon. At least until the retail version of the game is released. Nvidia/ATI are working with EA/DICE on making frame rates smoother, working out bugs form the graphics engine, ect ect...

The beta is way better then the alpha, but in the end, it just boils down to strealining the game for the PC...hence why the beta is out for a few weeks...
 
You're definitely right, but benchmarks I have seen comparing a single card solution to SLI definitely shows this game will greatly benefit from it.
 
Right now, I'm using a DirectCU II 580 gtx. Given my situation, I have almost have no choice but to wait for the next batch of cards.

If I go SLI, I'll have to get rid of my soundcard (it uses a PCI slot; not PCI-e) since putting a new video card will require the space. As of right now, my Noctua DH-14 is also blocking my PCI-E slot to some degree, so I simply can't buy another soundcard. The only choice I have right now is expensive, as I'll need to buy a new CPU cooler (either a smaller one or go water) and buy a new soundcard in order to go SLI.

I could sell my 580 and buy a 590, but I don't want to do that >_<
 
"If I go SLI, I'll have to get rid of my soundcard (it uses a PCI slot; not PCI-e) since putting a new video card will require the space. As of right now, my Noctua DH-14 is also blocking my PCI-E slot to some degree, so I simply can't buy another soundcard. The only choice I have right now is expensive, as I'll need to buy a new CPU cooler (either a smaller one or go water) and buy a new soundcard in order to go SLI. "

I feel your pain, I'm In the same boat. Recently picked up a second 5870 off the forums for BF3 and don't see my existing pci soundblaster x-fi fitting between those two. Looked into pcie soundcards, but I think the one free slot is going to bump into my heatsink, so I'd have to replace the Ultra-120 eXtreme with some flavor of Corsair water cooling to use that slot. "Funny" how stuff snowballs like that.
 
Already running crossfire, but even I'm concerned my current hardware might be a bit insufficient to max the game out.
 
I3eyond said:
You're definitely right, but benchmarks I have seen comparing a single card solution to SLI definitely shows this game will greatly benefit from it.
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Anything greatly benefits from the extra GPU power... But once the final release is out and the game is fully optimized and tweaked, it might be completely fine on a single gpu setup.
 
rdz5008 said:
Anything greatly benefits from the extra GPU power... But once the final release is out and the game is fully optimized and tweaked, it might be completely fine on a single gpu setup.
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Le'ts hope so, but how much optimizing and tweaking can truly be done in a month?
 
Considering the driver teams are just getting their grubby mitts on the beta and working with the developers on the software, then with their own driver sets, I'm willing to bet they'll improve a fair amount. You're building a race car for a track that aint even done yet.
 
I have 460 SLI 1gb

I noticed in ultra I got acceptable fps but I was maxed out on my video memory even without AA...which leads to hitching and stuttering. I am almost afraid even 1.5gb gtx 580 will suffer from this at 1920x1200 at ultra settings with AA...

Not sure if its buggy beta or not but in BC2 dx11 1920x1200 max settings with hbao and bloom off with 4xAA i use about 800mb so it's probably not far off from being accurate in bf3 beta.

I am hoping the new ATI card will BE substantially faster than gtx 580 so I can just get one and be happy cuz i hate crossfire I ALWAYS HAVE ISSUES.
I think the sweet spot might be gtx 560 2gb SLI honestly for cost effectiveness and I think 6950 Crossfire is enuff but I am scared of crossfire still...
 
fattypants said:
Waiting for the next wave. I'll hobble along on my old 5870 for a while longer.
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5870 is still a monstrously powerful card, comparable to current generation gtx 560/560ti.while u ppl r worrying about soundcards, motherboard slots, etc. im not worried at all with my overclocked gtx 580's :)
 
I'm running an XFX 5970 BE....I'm not even thinking about anything until at least the next generation of cards come out. Ideally I would have a pair of them as I use 3 22" monitors in eyefinity...but I don't want to use any more wattage than I'm already consuming.

Definitely interested in the next round of cards, it seems like there hasn't been much movement in the video card arena in the last 8 months or so....
 
I have a MSI Lightning on a 30"Dell and Im waiting on 7990 or 690.
 
I'm going to hold on to my 5970 and when I upgrade mobos maybe get a 5850 for some tri-fire. Then just wait for 7xxx.
 
I3eyond said:
So, I have a single GTX 570...and while BF3 beta runs what some may even call "buttery smooth" on it, it's still simply not the steady 60+FPS I strive for in this hobby.

I'm debating on whether or not to go SLI. I've always been partial to single card solutions, but I want to run this game maxed ASAP. What are your thoughts on SLI vs. single card solutions?

What will you do?
Click to expand...

I have my settings on medium for buttery smooth. There is no way in hell am I going to spend $1000 now when next gen is coming out in four to five months. I will suck it up till then.
 
Gonna pass on Battlefield 3 until some time early next year when it's patched to my satisfaction. They simply have too much work ahead of them and I don't anticipate dice will get the eyefinity stuff and all the other bugs ironed out until then.

Then around that time I will bitch slap BF3 with triple high end Kepler or Southern Islands and max everything @ 3240x1920 120hz
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Gonna pass on Battlefield 3 until some time early next year when it's patched to my satisfaction. They simply have too much work ahead of them and I don't anticipate dice will get the eyefinity stuff and all the other bugs ironed out until then.

Then around that time I will bitch slap BF3 with triple high end Kepler or Southern Islands and max everything @ 3240x1920 120hz
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Eh just get another 6950!
 
crossfire 6950's with 3x 20's in portrait is actually working well... i7 [email protected] and the cards flashed and o/c'd (999/1400 on both)

atleast in metro I pull 60fps with vsync enabled (to help with some of the tearing issues)
 
Just played some beta. Very slick, I love being a gamer in 2011. Set performance to ultra and it was super smooth at 1920x1080. I'm going to try and avoid buying any new hardware for at least a year... gaming at that res, it should not be necessary.
 
For the first time my 570 meet it's match. Same results as the OP, runs good but just under that 60fps mark in outside environments.
We'll see what the retail version brings, but I rather wait until the new gen of cards. One 7970/680 will run BF3 just fine.

I only want to go SLI if I have a 30" or multi-monitor setup, because for all other games SLI is overkill on one monitor.
 
I have a 5870 .. but I also have a 30 inch monitor.

I have had to reduce settings to medium and reduce resolution (letter box) to get it to run OK.

I will be picking up a 7xxx card the day they come out.
 
Running crossfire 6950s right now & its not enough gpu power to run eyefinity on the Caspian Border Map. Game ran perfect in Metro, with low settings but I wana be able to turn up settings to at least high and get descent framerate on the bigger conquest maps. Going tri 6950s soon or quad-fire with 6990 + 2x 6950s
 
SLI 580's here and the game doesn't perform up to my standards. If I pay $1000 for a pair of GPU's, I expect to max the game @ 1080p with a constant 60+fps and that is absolutely not the case. I am experiencing drops lower than 30fps when the action kicks in on Caspian Border. I am definitely upgrading again during summer. ATM, I am just going to play on High and forget about max settings, FPS over image quality for me.

I get drops down to 50fps on High with bloom off on Caspian Border when a lot is going on. The benches released by Nvidia are far from the truth. Caspian Border maxed out is unplayable for me.

Also, more worrying than the graphics are the glitches. I hope this is some super old build because I just cannot enjoy such a glitchy product.
 
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I'm running two GTX 570's in SLI @ 1080p, and with all settings, including AA and AF, turned up as high as possible, I average about 50fps, but the first part of Operation Metro (outside), I average around 35 FPS.

EDIT: I totally take that back, I forgot to enable SLI when I downloaded the specialized drivers LOL. What a fucking fail on my part, been playing this whole time like "I really expected more performance out of my cards...".


So, godhandiscen, make sure it's in SLI mode, that may be why you're not getting such high FPS.


EDIT again: With SLI enabled I get minimum of 50fps in Operation metro, anywhere in the map
 
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3DChipset said:
Hey Samuel, any problems with Crossfire in BF3 that you experienced?
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I'm running 11.9, and not so far. I haven't tried with crossfire off to compare performance with, but the game is reasonably crossfire bug-free apart from the occasional flickering outside that everyone seems to get.

3DChipset said:
You're running Tri-Fire on a 850? Damn....
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I used to run quadfire (HD4870X2 x2) on an 850, what of it? That's plenty of power - remember, even with a 5870+5970, that's only 482W of GPU power, leaving 368W for the rest of the system, which is more than enough.
 
The thing is, if you go SLI now, you'll get the optimal experience TODAY. Kepler coild be six months off. It could be delayed. It might notvlive up to expectations, ect. It probably will be about as good as two Fermi's. Notwithetanding tue advantages of a single card, SLI probably will provide the same experience as two Fermi, but six months from now...
 
DASHlT said:
Eh just get another 6950!
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Honestly DASHIT, it's not really the performance, more like the buggyness of the game in eyefinity and in general. The scope of the game is ambitious and I forsee a lot of necessary patching. I think in 3 months time after launch that game will be polished enough and around that same time my mobo/cpu/ram and vga's will be long gone and my new ivy bridge or bulldozer triple kepler or SI rig will have hand cocked back ready for a bitch slap to the game :D
 
Well let me shed some light on this
I'm running 3 24" screens on 6970 Xfire, I checked mem usage @ 3600x1920 for BF3, It wsa 1560 mb with settings @ high and 0 AA, so for multi-screen gaming NV is out unless you snag up the 3GB cards.
 
I think it will be mid-Q2 2012 before we see the full line up of new GPUs from Nvidia and ATI on the die shrink. I would expect that ATI will launch first and if they have the market to themselves, there will be a short term price premium before all the products are released. In the meanwhile SLI / CF seems like an option, although for a multi-player game I'd lean towards lowered settings on the faster single GPU cards, but that's just me.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
Well let me shed some light on this
I'm running 3 24" screens on 6970 Xfire, I checked mem usage @ 3600x1920 for BF3, It wsa 1560 mb with settings @ high and 0 AA, so for multi-screen gaming NV is out unless you snag up the 3GB cards.
Click to expand...

How are you seeing memory usage with radeons?
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Honestly DASHIT, it's not really the performance, more like the buggyness of the game in eyefinity and in general. The scope of the game is ambitious and I forsee a lot of necessary patching. I think in 3 months time after launch that game will be polished enough and around that same time my mobo/cpu/ram and vga's will be long gone and my new ivy bridge or bulldozer triple kepler or SI rig will have hand cocked back ready for a bitch slap to the game :D
Click to expand...

I mean you gotta expect bugs in beta? Thats why they call it beta testing...you are testing the horrible bugs for bf3.

Now if retail hits and all these horrible bugs are still around, then Dice fails miserably.
 
The game's current condition would be alpha, or even pre-alpha, really. No way will all this be fixed for release.

Digital_Viper-X- said:
new gpu-z shows it.
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ah, so no UI for it then? I run my secondary display to a different PC, so it'd have to be logged.
 
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