Battlefield Hardline Performance Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Battlefield Hardline Performance Video Card Review - Battlefield Hardline has been released finally. We gather twelve video card comparisons and find out what you need to enjoy this game in multiplayer and campaign modes. We will look at multi-GPU scaling, D3D vs. Mantle, and VRAM usage to find out where the best money is spent to enjoy this new game.
 
Did I miss something?

The 970 is a tiny bit faster than the 290X yet you recommend the 290x

Is it cheaper now?
 
Outstanding work, [H]...thanks for another awesome review!


Did I miss something?

The 970 is a tiny bit faster than the 290X yet you recommend the 290x

Is it cheaper now?

It's right there on the conclusion page in the Summary:

Therefore, we'd opt for the less expensive AMD Radeon R9 290X as a better value over the GTX 970 at 1440p for this game.
 
Great through review that certainly took some time especially with the DRM issues you ran into. Were there a lot of Hardline servers populated when the review was done? I was thinking about grabbing this title soon, but I don't want to spend a chunk of money on something with a shrinking population like Evolve.

Last night there were more people playing Crusader Kings II (3,200) than Evolve (3170). :( And you take into account that it takes 5 people to create an Evolve session, then it really makes the low population unbearable. Thanks again for the great article as I'm sure that it will be referenced and cross referenced for a long time. :)
 
Even with Titan X's in SLI, 4k was still often getting sub 60 fps. I'll stick to 2560x1440 for the time being.
 
Interesting read. Those R9 280x cards sure have some legs to keep on going this long.
 
Interesting read. Those R9 280x cards sure have some legs to keep on going this long.

yeah the HD 7970 aka R9 280X has aged very well. 3 years from launch its still a fantastic card for 1080p gaming.
 
Damn DRM Strikes Again
I have normally 3 installations of games, i install all my games on my PC, HTPC and a laptop.

Would the game stop working if i switch machines to often in one day?
 
I have normally 3 installations of games, i install all my games on my PC, HTPC and a laptop.

Would the game stop working if i switch machines to often in one day?

As long as you don't change hardware, you should be fine. The game only allows you to run it on 5 different PC configurations within a 24 hour period. This is enough for practically everyone but hardware review sites.
 
Great article, and well done for whaling on EA about the DRM.

Just a suggestion, but you separated the resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 2160p) into separate tables. You might consider in the future combining them all into one table, with the three standard resolutions across the top (the X axis) and the GPUs (or the missions or whatever) going down vertically, with the cells containing the details (e.g. 4xMSAA, AA Off, or Not Tested). I think this would be easier to read.

If only my Titan X were here!
 
Thanks as always guys. Quick typo on the D3D vs Mantle page. First paragraph last sentence. "Our results clearly point go a winner."
should read ...point to a winner. Thanks again for the review.
 
Can you clarify which version of the R9 290X you were using? There are versions with 4GB and 8 GB of VRAM.
 
I just realized its April and we have yet to see any new AMD GPU news..

Titan X though its insanely expensive as a single card, does a really good job of showing off how unoptimized games are for SLI, and (to stay on topic) showing how old the 290X is. Its actually cheaper then buying 2 GTX 980s, so its a bargain in that context?? Weird...

Also, why the hell is Mantle running slower then D3D now?? Doesn't that make all the effort in mantle useless? What was the point if DX11 can run better with newer games? I guess they gave up after DX12's tech came out?
 
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I just realized its April and we have yet to see any new AMD GPU news..

Titan X though its insanely expensive as a single card, does a really good job of showing off how unoptimized games are for SLI, and (to stay on topic) showing how old the 290X is. Its actually cheaper then buying 2 GTX 980s, so its a bargain in that context?? Weird...

Also, why the hell is Mantle running slower then D3D now?? Doesn't that make all the effort in mantle useless? What was the point if DX11 can run better with newer games? I guess they gave up after DX12's tech came out?
Wait until the 980 Ti launches later this year. Most of the VRAM usage reports I've seen so far with the TITAN X shows most games barely breaking 5GB at 4k. The 980 Ti with faster Boost clock and 6GB of VRAM at <= $700 US would be amazing. Now I just have to find a sucker or two to unload my 970s on...
 
Damn DRM Strikes Again

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a hot topic among gamers. While the goal of DRM is to keep pirated copies of games out of pirates hands, it tends to do more harm or annoyances to the rightful owners of games whom have purchased the game.

Recently, it was revealed via a news post from GURU3D that a strict DRM was slipped into Battlefield Hardline. This particular DRM limits the number of computers one can install BFH onto.

While that sounds benign, you have to understand that even a single computer component change constitutes a "whole new computer" according to this DRM check. That is where the controversy begins. For example, a single video card change will constitute a whole new install of this game according to the software, and thus one install is used up. This may not be a big issue for most, but for hardware reviewers like us, changing out video cards all the time, you can see how this would be an issue.

It was cleared up by an EA rep that this DRM is specific to installs within a 24 hour time. That means, if it detects too many installs in a 24 hour time, it will lock you out. For reviewers like us who may switch out that many video cards in a 24 hour time, you can see how this would affect sites like ours. It is also controversial that this game tracks single component installs like that, in a system to begin with.

The fix, according to the latest post is to contact customer support to resolve the issue. Therefore, we contacted customer support in the hopes of having this limit removed or increased. First we connected to the lowest support tier, which we had to be bumped up to EA's "Specialist Support" line. After informing them of the issue (of which they were not aware of), we actually had to inform them of what this issue was, where it was posted, and how we were informed to fix this issue, we still had to wait on a response. After a day, we got our response, which we will gladly post for your viewing pleasure:

My name is Emmet and I am an EA specialist advisor. I can see that you are contacting us regarding increasing activation limits on hardline for different hardware within a 24 hour period.

I have investigated this for you and unfortunately we currently have no way of circumventing this limit I'm afraid. I do not know if this will be something that will be available to us in the future however if this does become available it will unfortunately not be in time to help with your issue.

I can only apologize for any frustration caused by this.

After all that, we were still not able to accomplish this. Thanks EA, you're a great help. In the end, we did not encounter this DRM issue, but that is because I actively made sure not to exceed it in a 24 hour period, which extended our testing.

Way to go EA, what a bunch of fools
 
Way to go EA, what a bunch of fools

Holy shit, I don't even understand why they would do this. Origin only lets you play on one computer at a time for MP... which is the point of BF.

Maybe I'll buy BFH when it's $5 for the SP. The multiplayer during beta bored me.

Nice review btw. I always love [H]'s game reviews.
 
Also, why the hell is Mantle running slower then D3D now?? Doesn't that make all the effort in mantle useless? What was the point if DX11 can run better with newer games? I guess they gave up after DX12's tech came out?

Driver support. AMD needs to release a driver that optimizes Mantle performance with this particular game. Hopefully it'll roll out soon.
 
Driver support. AMD needs to release a driver that optimizes Mantle performance with this particular game. Hopefully it'll roll out soon.

As much as I am a HUGE fan of Mantle enabled games (much better min. FPS, much better responsiveness... You name it); with Mantle being AMD's own API, AMD has absolutely *NO, NONE, NADDA* excuse not to have Day 1 Mantle driver if needed.

And going forward DX12 & Vulkan.
 
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As much as I am a HUGE fan of Mantle enabled games (much better min. FPS, much better responsiveness... You name it); with Mantle being AMD's own API, AMD has absolutely *NO, NONE, NADDA* excuse not to have Day 1 Mantle driver if needed.

Especially given that this is not that far removed from BF4.
 
Woohoo! I'm still safe running this game smooth with my GTX690 at 1080P. 2GB X 2 VRAM is still enough to run smooth. :D
 
Driver support. AMD needs to release a driver that optimizes Mantle performance with this particular game. Hopefully it'll roll out soon.

And here I've been running this game using Mantle, damn it! I might have missed it by skimming, but anything on the resolution slider? (Supersampling or w/e)
 
I hope this game is a complete bust and EA learns more than a few valuable lessons... but that probably wont happen. zzz
 
The Mantle performance here demonstrates why I held extreme skepticism about the API, and the same is true for D3D12.

It doesn't matter how brilliant and elegant the API's are, as long as the game devs continue to be barely one step above Jr. High competency as progammers it will still be up to the GPU drivers to hack each individual game to a playable status. It just appears the hacks are much more mature in D3D11 at the moment.
 
I just realized its April and we have yet to see any new AMD GPU news..

Titan X though its insanely expensive as a single card, does a really good job of showing off how unoptimized games are for SLI, and (to stay on topic) showing how old the 290X is. Its actually cheaper then buying 2 GTX 980s, so its a bargain in that context?? Weird...

Also, why the hell is Mantle running slower then D3D now?? Doesn't that make all the effort in mantle useless? What was the point if DX11 can run better with newer games? I guess they gave up after DX12's tech came out?


1) AMD has abandoned Mantle...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2891672/amds-mantle-10-is-dead-long-live-directx.html

2) EA is not longer fleshing support to it, and there not getting paid by AMD to do so. Unlike they were in BF4.

3) DX12 is like 4 months away, and AMD has sense abandoned Mantle due to DX12... Enough said on why its running slower the D3D11.
 
Technically, AMD hasn't abandoned Mantle since it will live on in both OpenGL/Vulkan and Direct3D 12, and AMD will continue to provide ongoing research, development, and contributions to both Khronos and Microsoft.

AMD simply needs to roll out a driver with Mantle optimizations for BFH and we'd likely see Mantle performance ahead of DX11. Even if AMD is pulling the plug on in-house Mantle development because of Vulkan and DX12, I feel AMD owes their GPU customers an optimized driver for this game since this it was released before DX12 and developed to support Mantle as a result from a partnership between AMD and the devs to get it incorporated into the game.

Unless it's going to be an upcoming optional game update in the form of paid DLC. :p
 
Thanks again for the great review.

Just curious as to why we don't see any Kepler based cards in your reviews? A big question posed by the community lately has been NVs focus on driver optimizations for Maxwell vs Kepler. It would be really neat if you could include a 780TI or 780 in your benches to verify this.
 
MSAA is a resource hog and relatively ineffective due to deferred lightning in modern game engines - try downsampling using DSR, you should achieve better results both image quality and performance-wise.
8xMSAA @ 2560x1600 is probably more taxing than 4k, so no wonder performance is bad.
I can bet dollars against peanuts that in the heat of battle you would not even notice image quality difference between 4x and 8x MSAA, while the performance difference will be immediately apparent.
 
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