Pretty interesting Battlefield 3 preparation article, Sager up to the task?

Preparing your PC for Battlefield 3 Article - - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

I wonder how our Sagers with 460m-580m are gonna fare against the full retail version's single player graphics. I already did some benchmarks of the game during the beta using my 485m, but i could tell the multiplayer graphics just aren't the same as what i'm seeing in these single player screens.

Here's my benchmarks...

Battlefield 3 Beta - Sager NP8170 with GTX 485m - Maxed Out Caspian Border Gameplay - YouTube

Battlefield 3 Beta - Sager NP8170 with GTX 485m - Maxed Out Ultra Settings - YouTube

At max settings, I got 30-50 fps outdoors, 60-70 fps indoors, but this was at 720p.

Based on the suggestions of the article above, what are your thoughts? I guess we will know either way in a few days.

I have to wonder if an x7200 clevo with dual 580ms is gonna reach the all holy 1080p60 grail with this game.

 

Taking advantage of their topic.

I have the same configuration as yours.

I wonder if replacing the processor to a
Intel ® Core ™ i7-2760QM Processor (2.4GHz Turbo Boost 3.5GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)

I will have a significant gain in FPS?

 

I would guess maybe 2-3 fps.

 

Your GPU is bottle-necking the performance, not the CPU. Try spending some cash to upgrade your 485m. I'd recommend waiting ~6 months until the new NVIDIA / ATI cards are released just to make your setup that much more futureproof. And heat proof =]

 

Maybe not even that much. Most modern games are GPU limited, not CPU (with a few exceptions). Laptop GPU's just aren't anywhere near their desktop counterparts, while CPU's generally speaking are fairly close.

Unless you can go SLI or crossfire, there just isn't a huge performance difference with a new CPU.

 

No single mobile GPU can cause a Sandy Bridge quad core to be the bottleneck.

Maybe at medium settings. Maybe.

 

If you call 720p @ 30fps "the way it's meant to be played", then maybe a laptop is fine. I was set on getting a Clevo based laptop, but seeing the benchmarks made me convinced I should either build a custom desktop or wait for the 28nm GPU. I have a 3 year old desktop with a 285gtx that I'll try to run the game in medium on. I think it's far better to run it crippled than to get a brand new laptop that can only run the game just a little better. Even the 580m and 6990m are on par with a mid range desktop card.

Those youtube videos were running the beta. Supposedly, many things were disabled in the beta so they might not get 30fps in the final version, even at 720p.

 

The beta ran anywhere between 30-70 fps, more often it ran above 40 fps. And that thing about the beta not having true ultra settings was just a rumor.

 

Dual 580M's i'm pretty sure will attain high settings, probably not ultra though.

 

Crickee, I've got a May11-era 8130. Beginning to wonder if I'm going to be able to run BF3 or not.

nVidia GeForce GTX 460M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache)
8,192MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)

nVidia website DX11 version doesn't include 4XXM series GPUs?

 

You'll definitely be able to play it. I'd say smoothly on low to medium settings.

 

New GeForce drivers were released today (285.62) but I can't get to the notebook version:

Articles: NVIDIA GeForce 285.62 WHQL Drivers Released - GeForce

 

Thanks!

Just started looking into updating drivers.

The nVidia site has brand new BF3-optimized drivers for the GPU series including the 460M.

However, the Sager-site nVidia drivers are from Feb 11; months before my build.

Should I just go for it and install the new nVidia drivers?

 

Yup, go ahead and install the latest drivers, see if they help

Usually resellers suggest sticking with the stock drivers, but you can always roll back to them if you have any issues with the newer ones.

 

Retail Benchmarks:

 

Source? 10ch

 

Sorry. Source.

 

Here is the notebook drivers for GeForce 285.62 WHQL released today:

Graphics Driver - Verde 285.62 Driver - GeForce

 

Note that the benchmarks are for desktop GPU's. Expect ~30-40% less performance with the notebook equivalent.

 

460m? You'll be able to run BF3, just don't hope for anything above 720p. You'll probably won't go above medium settings either. Basically, you're in the same boat as me. My desktop 285gtx should still be a lot faster than your 460m, but it's not DX 11 so you may be able to turn on some tesselation and I won't. Just remember that 580GTX SLI (desktop) are require to run this game in ultra high at 1080p. A 580m is about a mid-range desktop card. A 460m? Well, you can do the approximation in your head. From what I've seen on youtube, 720p doesn't look too bad.

 

As far as I know the notebook GTX 580M is essentially a downclocked GTX 560 Ti, so with some overclocking you should get similar performance (perhaps slightly less) to that card if you're on a notebook.

 

Just an fyi, i was able to run the beta at 1080p and ultra settings at 30 fps by overclocking my 485m to 670/1340/1600. Which is a little extreme, not gonna lie, but the 485m does hold up quite well and tbh...i think 1080p is highly overrated.

 

Trust me, your 485m wont run ultra well, my 580m gets low fps on high.

The thing everyone does not understand is that the beta had locked/fixed graphic settings at high (I think that was the level locked to if I recall correct). Regardless of what you picked it did not really apply them any higher.

I am playing the retail copy now and on high on the first co-op map I was in the mid upper 20s so was not even going to try ultra. Though it may be different on co-op which I have not wanted to try yet until single player is done.

I am about to try the new drivers though. Currently was on 175.50 as only ones that did not crash, based on nvidia forum these new ones will still crash too but its said they are better for bf3...

 

Can you run ultra at 720p at least?

EDIT: Wait a second, how are you playing the game on pc already when it's not playable till tomorrow?

 

Have not tried that. I rather have more real-estate and a tad less quality though so will stick to 1080p.

For those of you that have pre-load copy's of the game you purchased people found if you set your proxy to an korea one, start game, it will activate, than you can set proxy off again. Its live in korea already. Kinda a cheat to get on early.

EA already said they don't really like this but that they won't ban anyone for it.

I happened to be on one of my work VPNs as we have an office over seas and found out by mistake but when I did some searches I found out that's why it activated. Stupid me had been hammering at it every day in hopes they would mess up and let us in early, haha, well my mistake of being on my vpn allowed me too.

Also, this game does seem to use a good deal of CPU and GPU power. Its got my cpu temps in the 80s and gpu at 81 and that was with graphic settings on auto which was one thing on ultra and rest on medium at 55fps...

 

Paint racing stripes on it. Will add another 5hp...i mean fps

 

Did you try overclocking your 580m? My overclock settings i listed above always nets me about 8-9 fps over what i normally get. The beta ran 24 fps without overclocking on ultra with 1080p and 30 with overclocking. I know you say the beta had locked out ultra settings but im positive i read a statement from an EA member themselves on twitter that no ultra settings in the beta was an untrue rumor.

 

here are some screenshots playing game all settings ultra!!fps is between 30-40.if i overclock to 800-1000 it goes up to 40-45 even 50!!!

here are the settings!!

 

Thats a pretty crazy high overclock, is it stable that high? I will definitely be playing at 720p as i really don't mind the lower res. I hope i can get 50-60 fps at that res on ultra.

Nice screens btw, this game looks gorgeous, though the gametrailers review says the story is kinda weak.

 

its not high overclock!!the default clocks are 680-900!!!its stable with very low temps!!after 1 hour and a half playing BF3 my temps was 76 max with room temp 22.5.

 

Oh weird thats a high clock speed for my 485m, are ati cards higher clockspeed usually?

EDIT: Oh nevermind i thought you said you overclocked the core and shader speed to around 800

Core Speed * 680 MHz
Shader Speed * 680 MHz
Memory Speed * 900 M

You meant the memory speed?

 

i dont know how they compare against nvidia cards.ati is using different arquitecture for shaders and clocks i think..

 

Oh ok, i was like, weird, cause that card has similar performance to the 485m but runs at higher clock speeds.

The highest i like to overclock my 485m to keep it cool and stable is 650/1300/1600 totally different numbers from the ati but similar cards, can someone explain this cause i just now realized.

 

No, not generally. It just depends on the models you're looking at.
AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Stock clock on the 6990 is 715mhz core and shader and 900mhz memory.

You can't directly compare AMD to Nvidia graphics, just as you can't compare them in processors either.

 

ahahah........

 

Thats good stuff I'm learning..... The game looks awesome...The guys over in the sand are gonna love it...

 

Playing maxed out(1920x1080) on a np7280(990X and 580M's SLI) everything at stock and no issues so far except for some micro stuttering on occasion. But i am using the 280.36 drivers still will swap to the recommended at some point. Only other issue i had was was playing on a single power supply and it ended up tripping so had to plug in the other one. Temps are pretty cool as well max temp for the cpu is at 68C and cards running at a max of 67C this is with max fans running as well. Well so far so good anyway pretty impressed up to this point.

 

You have to use two power supplies for the 990x?? O_O

 

Yep, if you're running with the 990x and dual 580's they can pull more power than one can push if you're under full load. Only the maxed out configurations require running that second supply though.

 

What's considered a maxed out config?

 

It would be only models that have the 990x and SLI/Crossfire of the highest end cards, in this case the 580m and sometimes the 6990m (though the 580m seems to require it more often). Overclocking will also make a difference as well, so it depends on how you use it.

Note that this is only referring to the x7200.

 

Boy, I am glad I didn't blindly buy a new laptop or build a custom desktop to play this game. Played it for 30mins and felt nauseated. Maybe it was the lag or maybe it was my weak graphics card. I might spend some money and replace my broken PS3 to play Uncharted instead.

 

You should look at the forums on battlelog for PC, lol its a mess. People bitxxing up and down.


TBH I have not had any issues with it on my rig. I got the driver TDR issue with all nvidia drivers 28x and newer but seems to mainly happen with firefox.

The game itself though is just full of nothing but people wanting to camp and snipe. Its messing it up for those of us that like to go be in the action when you have 64 players and 25 of them are snipers lol.


But I think even on medium the graphics look great still, so people don't need a new PC or upgraded one really even. Low=console graphics so medium is already beating it, and if I can run on High with some Ultra with fps in mid 30s I am sure the older stuff will run medium fine.

Whats odd is this game makes my CPU temp get to about 84c. Considering I never really seen many games use much CPU this sucker sure makes this lappy hot and my cpu should be massive overkill for this game even.

 

I was cranking BF3 last night (god bless the proxy trick as in the UK). Set video to custom with everything on ultra, AA deferred off, AA post on medium, AF 16x, AO off.

Playing at 1920x1080@60 gives me 45-50 fps. Max GPU temp was 81.

Am running P150HM/Core i7 2630/ATI 6990M.

VERY pleased with the result. The game looks amazing at 1080p that you don't really need AA on and AO has never really seemed worth it to me.

Edit: Oh and that is with stock gpu speeds. If I overclock to 800/1050 I can squeeze another 5-7 fps out of her.

 

That sounds like about what i was getting in the beta at 720p. Though Caspian Border only ran like 35-40 fps for me. I'm surprised you are getting those framerates at 1080p. Is that during single player or multiplayer? also you have to factor is whether you got those frames indoors or outdoors.

I would get 50-70 fps indoors but 30-50 fps outdoors. This was all at 720p though.

 

I've got a few year old Sager/Clevo 5790 modded up; X9000 CPU instead of the older, and got the 8800M GTX put in. Top of the line a couple years ago..

.. and I just had twins, so suddenly my only option for PC gaming is the laptop, while my serious desktop rig sits untouched (can't get to it while up watching babies all night.)

Is there a chance I can run BF3 on this box? If I can get 20fps on multiplayer at 1400x900 or something, might be okay.

(I also have xbox .. but hate FPS on xbox :/)

jeff

 

Jeff you should be able to run but on low settings, i really don't see you having any issues.

 

Checked out a video comparing Low to Ultra, and Low looks pretty good (at least at 1920x1080); I'm betting I'll have to drop the rez quite a bit, but might be worth doing. Better than playing on xbox .. need mouse_keyb

Thanks,

jeff

 

What is considered better graphics:

- 1920x1080 on Low-Medium
- 1600x900 on Medium-High
- 1280x720 on High/ultra

What's the trade off between lowering Resolution and increasing the details? Or is it more of a personal thing?

Should I bother with AA and all that or just leave that a 0?

Which detail settings make most difference/take more performance? I like to think it's textures and object detail but i might be wrong.

Playing on P170HMx with GTX 580M

 

Really depends on your preferences; myself, I tend to prefer resolution and speed over effects, but those two are often at odds. Lowering the rez is an easy way to often get speedups.

AA can be ignored at higher resolutions imho, but lower ones you'll want it to smooth the jaggies.

So myself, I tend to take res + low if I can, but if its too slow (for an FPS say) then crank down the rez as needed.

jeff