What CPU speed is needed to run BF3?

D

dioxholster

Gawd
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Aug 11, 2010
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im trying to overclock i7 920 but have no idea what the threshold is. at 2.6 i get like 70+ frames in BC2 on a hot cpu. I want it the same for BF3. will there be benchmarks done during beta?
 
dioxholster said:
i will read some guides and see, but stupid question, how do i know its stable? what benchmarking software is most popular and what happens if computer locks up?
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Stable = when you don't BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) or just straight up crash. If the computer locks up or crashes because of an overclock, it's not bad. Today's computers typically shut themselves down if temperatures get too high, or if they are unable to handle the overclock. Just slowly increase your overclock until you are unable to keep the computer running without crashes.

Some popular benchmarks are Futuremark 3D Mark Vantage and Futuremark 3D Mark 2011.

Bad Company 2 utilized the CPU pretty extensively, so it played an important role in how much FPS you had. If Battlefield 3 is using a similar engine, I'm sure it'll even take more CPU power. No one can answer your question for sure though unless they were in the small alpha test that passed. There's other thread topics in regards to how well the game did/didn't perform and they usually post their specs.
 
Assuming you had enough GPU, GPU RAM and memory; would a Q6600 (Core2 Quad) running @ stock 2.4Ghz be enough to run BF3?

I know I'm probably expecting too much from a four year old CPU.
 
If you can't post or get into windows, it's not stable.

Always keep an eye on CPU temps, you can download Core Temp for example.

prime95 to test CPU stability, let it run for about 6+ hours.

Memtest+ tests both CPU stability and memory stability.

3DMark11 will test CPU stability and GPU stability.
 
Saturn_V said:
Assuming you had enough GPU, GPU RAM and memory; would a Q6600 (Core2 Quad) running @ stock 2.4Ghz be enough to run BF3?

I know I'm probably expecting too much from a four year old CPU.
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Enough? Sure, but great fps? I doubt it. I ran Bad Company 2 on a stock Q9550 and as soon as I upgraded to i5-2500k my fps skyrocketed.
 
i just realized something, overclocking is hard! is it just a matter of changing voltages and stuff? how does one figure it out? the ppl for example.
 
reading the sys requirements, no dx9 card support? :(

anyway, you dont want to just mess around with overclocking. especially voltages. sounds like youre on a stock cooler? Look up a review for your motherboard. most decent reviews will have its own section about overclocking, and show you what you have to do.
 
dioxholster said:
i just realized something, overclocking is hard! is it just a matter of changing voltages and stuff? how does one figure it out? the ppl for example.
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Learning to overclock can be quite confusing at first and is not recommended for impatient people. The best way to learn is to use google. When i first started i would google "Overclocking Gigabyte P965-UD3" Or whatever model your motherboard is. You will find hundreds of reviews, and other forum posts from people with your exact motherboard and most of them have the specs they used to achieve their overclock. Once you read through a dozen or so of those you will find the settings commonly used to achieve certain clock speeds.

Just remember to take it slow and not try to go to 4.5ghz on your first boot, and ensure that you are monitoring your temps after each setting you change.
 
And after you overclock, get prime95 and put it under stress and monitor the temperature. Leave it on for hours :)
 
Saturn_V said:
Assuming you had enough GPU, GPU RAM and memory; would a Q6600 (Core2 Quad) running @ stock 2.4Ghz be enough to run BF3?

I know I'm probably expecting too much from a four year old CPU.
Click to expand...

I tested the BF3 Alpha on my machine which is a Phenom 9850 at 2.5ghz and a Radeon HD4850. I got average 30-35fps on medium settings. On Battlefield Bad Company 2 I got 45-50fps on medium settings.


mnewxcv said:
reading the sys requirements, no dx9 card support? :(
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They announced that a long time ago. No DX9 and No Windows XP support. You must have a DX10 card and Vista/Win7 as a minimum. DX11 card is the recommended.

You guys should head to the games section on these forums more often. These types of questions were answered in the BF3 thread months ago. ;)
 
Honestly, no DX9 and winxp support? Ok, No DX9, I can sorta understand, although why, I definitely play it at the lowest DX for maximum fps. Fair enough.

No WinXP support? That is fairly stupid of them. I guess I wont be buying the game. Theres $60 they just lost.
 
Retsam said:
Honestly, no DX9 and winxp support? Ok, No DX9, I can sorta understand, although why, I definitely play it at the lowest DX for maximum fps. Fair enough.

No WinXP support? That is fairly stupid of them. I guess I wont be buying the game. Theres $60 they just lost.
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did you read what you typed or not?

how is no dx9 support ok, but windows xp support would be ok?

no dx9 = you can officially support windows xp because it doesnt officially support a DX higher than 9.

im not saying you cant get dx10 working on XP but why would the devs after chooosing not to support dx 9 worry about supporting a version of windows with no official support for the dx the game uses?

seems like it would be a pain in the arse for EA/Dice tech support staff and a headache they shouldnt need to deal with for people too stubborn to let an OS die.


also there is no reason a dx11 game cant run just as fast or faster than a dx9 game. i dont think we have gotten a truely dx11 only game from the ground up yet to really see how one will run

and just because a game is dx11 doesnt mean the quality cant be scaled back to increase fps. its upto the devs how scalable down they want the graphics to be not the version of DX
 
In many games you can change the DX mode used. Why wouldnt that be possible. Make it so the game detects the OS. If detected OS is XP, then DX11 or whatever would be greyed out and it runs in DX9 mode. Seems logical to me.

Also, there is nothing wrong with winxp. There are, which obviously you are not aware of, reasons to use winxp over win7 just fyi..... I have both win7 and winxp gaming boxes, I know what I am talking about in this regard.

"also there is no reason a dx11 game cant run just as fast or faster than a dx9 game. i dont think we have gotten a truely dx11 only game from the ground up yet to really see how one will run"

That statement also makes no sense to me. Higher DX = less fps. Period. Always. Obviously newer and more expensive video cards can handle the quality differences much more efficiently than older ones, but that is always true and always the reason for using an older DX mode for people who want maximum fps, not pretty bushes and lighting. No, there is no reason a dx11 game itself cant run as fast as older dx, but the hardware being used could be a reason.
 
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obliv said:
Learning to overclock can be quite confusing at first and is not recommended for impatient people. The best way to learn is to use google. When i first started i would google "Overclocking Gigabyte P965-UD3" Or whatever model your motherboard is. You will find hundreds of reviews, and other forum posts from people with your exact motherboard and most of them have the specs they used to achieve their overclock. Once you read through a dozen or so of those you will find the settings commonly used to achieve certain clock speeds.

Just remember to take it slow and not try to go to 4.5ghz on your first boot, and ensure that you are monitoring your temps after each setting you change.
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Do i have to overclock the ram as well? from what i read DRAM timings are part of the overclock, which is something i find unecessary because i dont see how it adds to cpu speed? And im using standard ram not meant for overclocking. I will post what im planning to do before messing with anything first.
 
Is this good overclocking advice? Its old, I got it from another forum about my mobo:

I have a P6T and two 920 CPUs. They are very close in performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if your cpu is very similar to my two.

Your challenge is your DDR3. In order to get a 4.0Ghz overclock @ 190 BLCK with turbo enabled, you would need to get your DDR3 up to 1143Mhz. How much volts do you need to get there? Find out by doing an experiment at 143 BLCK. Set in 1.35V for both CPU Voltage and for QPI/Dram volts. This is important because you don't want to ever let your Dram volts get more than .5V above QPI volts or you can burn out your CPU's memory controller. Asus says 1.65V max for ddr3 volts, but I've heard you can go up to 1.87V before your likely to kill the cpu mem controller, provided your QPI volts are within .5V of your DDR3 volts. In BIOS, highlight DRAM Freq, hit "Enter" and select "1143Mhz" from the choices. See if your DDR3 will operate at 1143Mhz at 1.64volts (you can't select 1.65). If so, you're ready to move on. If you need 1.7v, don't ever set your QPI to less than 1.2v, etc.

Now, let's get you up to 4Ghz or somewhere close...
In Ai Tweaker of BIOS set:
1) Ai Overclock Tuner to Manual
2) BLCK freq 185 (try 180 if it doesn't work)
3) Dram Freq: hit enter and select 1113Mhz (none of the other choices will work for your ddr3) You will need to make a change here if you tested at 143 BLCK
4) CPU volts: 1.35v
5) CPU PLL: 1.96
6) QPI/Dram Core Voltage 1.35v
7) Dram Bus voltage: set in the voltage you've already discovered works with 1143Mhz speed
8) CPU Differential Amplitude: Set 800mV
9) You may leave all other settings as they came in the BIOS

Now save your BIOS and boot up at 185 BLCK. If Vista loads okay, start Realtemp or coretemp and monitor temps. These chips run really hot. See if Prime95 will succeed at 185 BLCK. You are not likely to see a red failure for any of the 8 threads. Instead you'll see a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). If this happens, go down to 180 BLCK in BIOS and try again. Do not try to make your overclock changes with TurboV software. It is unreliable for moderate changes. Go to the BIOS.
* If 185 Primes okay for 10 minutes, restart your computer and set 186 BLCK and repeat the procedure
* Increase BLCK by 1 each time until you reach 190. You are now at 3.99Ghz
* Should you get a BSOD as you increase BLCK, increase voltage slightly in unison on CPU volts and QPI volts. One of my CPUs needs 1.368volts on each to reach 190 BLCK. The other is happy at 192 BLCK with 1.35v on both.
* When you reach your max stable overclock, run a longer Prime95 session to insure stability. Watch your temperatures! I suggest running these tests on a test stand for better cooling. Consider multiple fans to keep the CPU Cooler cool during Prime95 sessions. With two fast-turning fans on my TRUE120, I max out at 72 degrees on Prime95. I can turn the fans to a quieter setting and fly MSFS X simulator with only about 50 degrees temps later on. Like I said, do what's necessary to keep those cores cool during your Prime95 runs.
* Good luck. Let us know how you do.
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also this guide: http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html
 
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dioxholster said:
im trying to overclock i7 920 but have no idea what the threshold is. at 2.6 i get like 70+ frames in BC2 on a hot cpu. I want it the same for BF3. will there be benchmarks done during beta?
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http://gamegpu.ru/Action-/-FPS-/-TPS/Battlefield-3-Alpha-test-GPU.html

Take it with a very large grain of salt, possibly a shovel full. It's Alpha, much will change, but it's likely a good indicator for the minimum amount of performance we'll see since at this stage none of these numbers should be going down, only up as further optimization takes place.
 
To the OP: Yes that is good OC advice. Though id like to add, lock down the IOH and ICH to 1.2v. It helped me with stability.

I would also like to add, if you are really using Vista, you will stand to gain some performance by going to Win7.



Retsam said:
In many games you can change the DX mode used. Why wouldnt that be possible. Make it so the game detects the OS. If detected OS is XP, then DX11 or whatever would be greyed out and it runs in DX9 mode. Seems logical to me.

Also, there is nothing wrong with winxp. There are, which obviously you are not aware of, reasons to use winxp over win7 just fyi..... I have both win7 and winxp gaming boxes, I know what I am talking about in this regard.

"also there is no reason a dx11 game cant run just as fast or faster than a dx9 game. i dont think we have gotten a truely dx11 only game from the ground up yet to really see how one will run"

That statement also makes no sense to me. Higher DX = less fps. Period. Always. Obviously newer and more expensive video cards can handle the quality differences much more efficiently than older ones, but that is always true and always the reason for using an older DX mode for people who want maximum fps, not pretty bushes and lighting. No, there is no reason a dx11 game itself cant run as fast as older dx, but the hardware being used could be a reason.
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You act suprised - they announced no XP support immediately with the announcement of BF3. They don't want their new + high performance game to be dumbed down by a 10 year old OS. They're already getting enough flak for having to dumb it down on consoles.
Sure higher DX means less fps, but lower DX means uglier game, which means less hours spent on making the game good, and more hours spent on near retro compatibility, which to a high performance or enthusiast gamer translates into higher probability of disappointment - and with the tech they're using in this game you can see that they're aiming for high performance/enthusiast systems.

We are to the day and age where GPU power exceeds the limitations of XP, and making new games compatible with XP does not make sense.
 
What cooler do you have? If stock then go pick up a Hxx series Corsair water cooling kit.

PLL @ 1.9 is not a good idea if you plan on using your motherboard for much longer.

You obviously need to SLOW down and get a cooler that will do the job and then do a little research and over clock in steps... don't just go from stock to 4.0Ghz+ and again on stock cooling don't plan on running 4.0Ghz.

If you have 1600Mhz RAM you can go to 4.2Ghz without having to OC your RAM and don't recommend going over 1.65volts on the RAM, really no reason to overvolt your RAM.

BF3 is going to be a CPU intense game just like BC2 so going from 2.66Ghz and 4.0Ghz+ will make a good amount of difference in FPS
 
dioxholster said:
Do i have to overclock the ram as well? from what i read DRAM timings are part of the overclock, which is something i find unecessary because i dont see how it adds to cpu speed? And im using standard ram not meant for overclocking. I will post what im planning to do before messing with anything first.
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You can overclock pretty much any system, but that also means you have to OC everything from the motherboard to the RAM.

Only a CPU with unlocked multiplier can be overclocked without having to OC the rest of the system.

Also, the Intel chipset Hxx (H61/H67) motherboards does not allow overclocking at all (afaik).


go pick up a Hxx series Corsair water cooling kit.
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there are far better options
 
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snefan said:
there are far better options
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noctua weighs a ton, takes up a ton of space, is finicky to install (i dont like installing air coolers, but thats just me... its all the cuts i have from them XD), and requires good airflow to work properly. an h60/70/80 makes sense for cases with low airflow, small space, etc.

Gotta remember everything else in addition to temperatures :)
 
thesecond said:
noctua weighs a ton, takes up a ton of space, is finicky to install (i dont like installing air coolers, but thats just me... its all the cuts i have from them XD), and requires good airflow to work properly. an h60/70/80 makes sense for cases with low airflow, small space, etc.

Gotta remember everything else in addition to temperatures :)
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There are other than that one, it was just the first link on my search.

here's another
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/corsair_hydro_h80/4.htm

there are several options at half the price that performs within 5 degrees.
 
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WHO CARES!!!!!! this isn't a what is the best cooler thread!

Buy what ever you want... just dont run stock and overclock
 
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