It seems the game engine is already well optimized, so it can only get better from here.
Your new to PC gaming, arent you
Definitely, BF3 with AA on was eating around 1.5-1.9GB :S
Out of interest, seeing as you've got the same card in xfire and you're using MSI-A, is it reporting Mem as 1.5-1.9gb, or is it showing them individually?
I saw someones screenshot earlier which had Mem1 & Mem2, mine only shows Mem and seemingly combines the vRAM to give 1.8gb usually, rather than 900 & 900.
Theres a fair bit of hating on Op.Metro/Rush on here, its not my prefered game mode, i prefer the freedom like most it seems, but there are a lot of people who prefer Rush over Conquest, so i wouldnt say its to save face having included it in BC2 (as someone earlier hinted at).
IMO thats a much more interesting Rush map than those before it, in the past its basically been a restricted bottle-necking revamp of a map perfect for conquest. This one is far more complicated, and i think people (myself included) need to learn to adapt to how it works.
From a bright open outdoor area, to close quarters in poor lighting, and back outside again, you have to adapt to the surroundings, and not just stick with your original load-out and expect the game to play how you want it.
I think you'll be rewarded for considering your options more carefully based on the situation, and not being stubborn and refusing to adapt to its style of play.
Im certain 90% of my future game time in BF3 will be spent on Conquest maps, and the other 10% will be thinking it'd be so much better if this was a conquest map, but it doesnt take much effort to appreciate modes like Rush for what they are, they mix it up, make you adapt to the circumstances and hopefully reasses how you play, rather than have people who have to be in tanks/helis/jets, have to hide on a mountainside and snipe people in different servers! You want to get involved, you have to mix it up a little.
I might not want to play it, but i can appreciate it.
Casp B is stunning though, it still gives me cause to rage from time to time (frequently feel like im not getting any hit/dmg indication, so i'll just collapse in a pool of blood without ever seeing or hearing anything), but everything about this game gets me excited. It may get released with annoying bugs, but i doubt any will be enough to stop me enjoying it, i just wish more companies would push their games the same way DICE have with BF3.
On the subject of getting into the Casp B servers, you want to be sticking to the EU MPUK servers, the US ones work too (myIS worked, and MPUK too), however the EU one for i3D in Amsterdam seems to be on a different password. Easiest way to find out if the pw is right is find a full server, try to join and if it refuses the PW it may have changed, if it says its full, you know the PW is fine. Looks like it'll be changing every day at 6pm CET (7pm BST i think) from what Zh1nt0 has reportedly said (He apparently told EA UK forums the password).
You just have to wait for a server to finish the round, boot everyone out, and then let it reset itself and in that time you just keep trying to join. Its a beta, and its a map were NOT invited to play on, so when considerably more people than were ever intended to be connecting to it, are all trying to get in the few servers running that map, theres going to be a fight for those slots. Its not the games fault, its not the connection system, its supply & demand and people who shouldnt be accessing it getting in. If DICE want us to play in there properly (like Rush/Op.Metro) then im sure they'll make things better. Till then, enjoy it for as long as we have access and they decide otherwise, were not entitled to anything other than Rush/Op.M till release.