£80 Budget BF3

[jasonbaldry]

Hi there,

been trying to get my mate on BF3 for ages. i convinced him to get the game and then he bought a 5770 but it was a dodgy card.

he has now said he is prepared to spend around 80 to 100 quid but preferably lower the better.

The PC i have made for him now is a quad q6600 running 8 GB of 8400 ram.

Suggestions welcome.

 

[jak731]

6850 is probably your best bet. I think they are sometimes on offer at £90.

 

[Gregster]

Something like a 6850 or a 550TI would cope but not on high settings.

 

[HankScorpio]

second hand 5870, sometimes 5850s are in the clearance section on here

 

[jasonbaldry]

oh p.s it looks like cause im using an old corporate desktop im going to be limited to a single slot card :/

 

[jasonbaldry]

however, the msi 6850 would fit i think if it hadnt got the dual pci plates.

 

[MADMAN]

yeah a 5870 u might snapp up for around 80-100 quid now adays, still a powerful card just not so brill on higher rez

 

[jasonbaldry]

hello all,

Thank you for your recommendations - we hit on another snag that being a corporate desktop the PCI express slot is only v1.0 which is something i have had problems with before.

For now he is going to see how he gets on just running it on low with a 4550 cause we know that works but it may be a tall order to find a single slot card that works in v1.0 slot... .or not?

 

[andybird123]

that's a shame, the Q6600 is still a decent CPU when overclocked, but PCIe 1.0 might be a limiting factor

I'm pretty sure pcie is backwards compatible so any pcie2.0 card will work - it might just be bottlenecked depending how high up the GPU tree you try to go

 

[jasonbaldry]

what's tricky is finding good documentation regarding each card as to whether it is backward compatible - he would be looking at a mid range card anyway so i figure we stand a good chance but its just risky when ordering online etc.

 

[ltnmzh]

BF3 on 550Ti is playable. not too bad actually. I only tried singler player mode. not sure about multiplayers.

 

[andy_mk3]

You can pick up used 6950's for around the £100 mark if you can save up a little more, well worth the extra

 

[Double07]

what's tricky is finding good documentation regarding each card as to whether it is backward compatible - he would be looking at a mid range card anyway so i figure we stand a good chance but its just risky when ordering online etc.

Perhaps but remember you always have DSR regulations to cover you if it turns out to be incompatible. Not ideal but it does mean you won't be left with something that is useless to you.

 

[MADMAN]

i played bf3 on my 5850 and q6600 and it was still smooth and good, didnt try mp though!

 

[TALON1973]

6850 for sure

 

[passey89]

6850 / 550ti all carsd should be backward compatable but it will deffinatly effect your fps

 

[TALON1973]

not tried / looked , but is there anyway in mobo bios to adjust pci-e speed to test how it affects cards ? and if that feature isnt available it should be

 

[jasonbaldry]

being an old commercial desktop the bios looked fairly limited. The pc has now been sent to my mate to slot in his existing 4550 but i think 800x600 may grate on him after a while.

i think the best shout is for an older dx10 or 11 card but then of course if it isnt compatible he wont be able to rma if its second hand.

 

[Dsteviedee]

The only problems with pci-e v1.0, have been regarding VIA chipsets.

And mainly with Nvidia cards (8800gt if I recall).

As for single slot graphics, you could get a HD5770 second hand if you are lucky.

Otherwise a Hd4850 or Gt450 also second hand would be okayish for Low- Med.

(Apparently they do make a single slot 6850 but availability?????)

 

[jasonbaldry]

haha after a few threads on here a few months back my mate got a 5770 on my recommendation but got it from ebay cause it was £50 rather than the £70+ at the time from retail sites - however - DOA and ebayer nowhere to be found.