Upgrading For The Awesome Battlefield 3

ScottMC7000 · 11 Sep 2011 at 23:55

Hi dudes, having earlier this year stumbled upon Battlefield Bad Company 2, I'm looking to upgrade my current system, I've read something new about the 7 series, from my knowledge that was introduced way back in 2006 when I got my Gainward 7800 GS+ 512MB graphics card to put in my old Athlon 64 3500. I can't find anything about the 7 series which is supposed to be later this year/next year that I've read on these forums. I know they are supposed to be 28nm ( nanometre) die's but thats about it. Anyway I've got My Geforce Palit 250 GS 1 Gig Card, and Battlefield Bad Company does push it to it's limit with heavy action going on, so I know Battlefield 3 is going to want some proper grunt.

After Burners activated

Additional internal Hard Drives have been added since this picture was taken.

____________________________
Images taken Januray 2010
Before actual build..

Side panel on

Gigabyte UD5 Motherboard, ram slots.

Through front of case Ballistix Ram.

Old Athlon 3500 at the top.

Toshiba 15.4" Laptop 1.73 GHz Dual Core 2 Gigs of Ram, (now with 500 Gig internal Hard drive)

_____________________________________
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5

Zalman CNPS10X Extreme HSF ( which includes a detachable remote controller)

3x2 (6 Gig) 1600 Mhz Ballistix DDR3 Ram

750W Blue Antec Truepower New PSU

GeForce GTS 250 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Samsung F3 500GB 16MB Sata II HD502HJ

Sony 24x Internal DVDRW SATA Black oem

Coolermaster Storm Scout Case

ss_preview_bf3___mp___caspian_border___gamescom_02.jpg.jpg

Too Tall · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:08

I dont get the point of this thread, what do you want to know?

Nymins · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:10

I dunno why, but I really like your post!

Anyway, you have a very good specced computer, apart from the GPU. The 7 series refers to the new Radeon line of graphics cards that aren't released yet. We are currently on the 6 series for Radeon and 5 series for NVIDIA.

There is no solid date for when the 7 series will be out. It's not looking likely that it will be before Battlefield 3, so your options are to either upgrade now, or wait until the 7 series come out.

What's your budget and resolution you game at?

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:12

The only thing you are going to need to update is your graphics card. In its day, the GTS250 was a good card, like my HD5770, best sub £100 graphics card you can buy according to PC Format Mag.

I would update to either a 6870 or a GTX560ti which both some in just under £100:

GTX560Ti: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-247-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

6870: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-126-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

Both are beasts of cards and the MSI 6870 has great cooling with the TwinFrozr cooling on it... The Asus one ain't too bad too.

Both great cards and will run B3 all day long at great frame rates.

If you can afford more i.e. around £200 or a little more Get the 6950 or GTX570, or pick up an older GTX480 as it runs at same pace as the 570 but cheaper second hand.

Hope this helps...

CinderzFTW

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:13

BTW... LOVE THAT CASE!!!!

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:25

Wait for the game to actually come out. Everything you see for sale now will be much cheaper once the next gen hits, remember this isn't an incremental rise in gfx performance, it's a substantial die shrink and maybe close to twice the performance of the 6xxx series counterparts. If the above mentioned cards play the game well you can then buy one and save some money or spend the same money and get something more powerfull

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:31

Ill agree with the morning star... The 7 series will be amazingly power, a lot more powerful than the 6 series, but they will cost a lot more. They are not scheduled out until around march/april 2012, so that is a long wait, as the game comes out next month... id pick up a 6870 or nvidia equivalent for less than 200£ and it will do you with your cpu and memory for a good year and a half to two years with good frame rates even in future titles.

and as i stated above, if you can afford the 6950, DO IT!!!!! what a card that thing is and highly overclockable and if you can get one of the older ones (first edition) you can flash it to unlock the juniper gpu core to make it run at the same pace as a 6970! with the dual bios, its very easy, but you can kiss goodbye to your warrenty though lolz.

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:38

Ahhh man I thought they where hitting this year? Is there any kind of official release date?

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:43

nope... not from what i heard... in my line of work i get all the latest news, reviews and samples of the next gen stuff and all i heard is late q1 of 2012

ScottMC7000 · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:44

Nymins said:
I dunno why, but I really like your post!

Anyway, you have a very good specced computer, apart from the GPU. The 7 series refers to the new Radeon line of graphics cards that aren't released yet. We are currently on the 6 series for Radeon and 5 series for NVIDIA.

There is no solid date for when the 7 series will be out. It's not looking likely that it will be before Battlefield 3, so your options are to either upgrade now, or wait until the 7 series come out.

What's your budget and resolution you game at?

Yeah.. I'm pretty happy with the system I have, not had any problems with it really, I did over clock it to 3.63 Ghz, from the 3.360 I had it at, but it didn't make a huge difference time wise when I was using it for rendering stuff in Cinema 4D R11.5 XL ( for the sake of stability and patience tweeking the BIOS all the time i set it back to 3.360 Ghz), I use it for music production also but of course thats more CPU than GPU which is what this thread is about.

I didn't know the 7 series was based around the ATI manufacturer and I'll never buy any of their cards because of the issues they have in poor driver support and issues they have with 3D graphic programs in the Open GL department. NVidia have always been rock solid for me in that area and friends share that experience too.

If that's the case and there is nothing imminent from NVidia I'll be buying in the next few weeks, I'm sure it was earlier this year that Nvidia introduced their new range of DX11 cards when I was looking forward from late last year.

My price for a new card is going to be up to say the £180 range, my old Gainward that I mentioned in my opening post cost £240 back in 2006 and the most expensive that I bought ever. I'm not so sure that I need to push up to that price range though considering my CPU has a fair bit of power. The resolution I run at is 1920x1080 on my 24" Samsung TFT. My other DGM 1920x1200 has been sent back to Digimate as it died a month ago, luckly I managed to send it back just a week before the 3 year warrantee ran out. God knows when I'll get it back or indeed have it repaired, or replaced. Luckily I had my Samsung to use.

I was looking at the Geforce 560 Ti DX11 card.

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:45

there have also been rumours (and i mean rumours) of nvidia and ati not releasing until the end of 2012/q4... not sure why, but hey, cannot be helped!

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:52

GTX560ti is a capable card, and will give great results for a few years.

I use an hd5770 and not had a problem with it in any way and love it. I aint got much money, so upgrade on what i need, but i am saving at the moment to build a bulldozer rig with a 6950 in it...

other reasons for picking ati over nvidia is price (nvidia cards are ALWAYS over priced, especially their newer cards i.e. 6950 on OCUK around 200, gtx 570 going for around 250+... i know the 570 is faster, but the 6950 out trumps the 560ti by a bit of a margine...

I would go ATI, and with their monthly driver releases, the cards will get faster and faster with improved drivers and better overclocking capability.

They ain't as bad as they used to be you know xD

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:14

I have never had any driver issues with ATI cards but then I don't play every game that hits the stands, very few infact. I myself was toying with the idea of getting a 560ti that I could later use as a dedicated physics card when the 7xxx series cards came out. I may think about that again if it really is looking to be march/april.

CinderzFTW · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:22

I am waiting until Bulldozer comes out this month and then will get a 6950.

ScottMC7000 · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:47

Thanks CinderzFTW for your time posting, yeah.. the Storm case is pretty nice and also pretty solid in construction, (kinda like a tank in much respects). It's currently on it's side under my desk which minimises the pur of the fans. I see 3 blue lights from the PSU from a mirror reflection however

.

As for ATi graphic cards, I'm pretty reluctant because it's not only the driver issues I read about but also the over heating issues too and overall reliability in that regard too. As the old saying goes...( If it ain't broke don't try and fix it ). I've not had any issues with my Nvidia GTS 250 in that respect and it's been pretty solid in nearly all games, maxing out all settings with good frame rates as well as Bad Company 2 (in less intensive scenes).

I've never taken the risk of over clocking my graphic cards, and in most part the benefits are minimal as well as the cost to risk ratio. By the time the graphic cards warrantee has run out I've already upgraded to a new system anyway.

My I7 920 system cost from all the parts that were collected over the space of 4 months came to a total of around £970 inc vat and postage. I looked at all the different options to reduce the cost of the build such as using cheaper cases, a cheaper PSU and cheaper memory but I'm glad I didn't in the end. It might not be the largest of cases out there but it's nice. The Zalman CNPS10X is a pretty solid cooler, and I enjoyed using the remote and really couldn't do without it.

I'm going to be adding another 8 gigs of ram, I know there are another 3 slots spare but my Win7 64 OS is just the Premium version (Retail). I wasn't aware of the 16 GIG limit when I bought it. So maxing out 24 Gigs would need the Pro or Ultimate versions.

As for sound I use 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones for gaming as well as another separate external 5.1 soundcard interface which is used for connection to my speaker amp and music production.

Cheers guys

TheMorningStar · 12 Sep 2011 at 02:21

From My observations regarding gfx cards from ATI/Nvidia, they both have driver problems now and then, perhaps more from ATI granted but as far as overheating goes this is where Nvidea really fail ATI are really cool by comparison. Not that I'm trying to sway you, just trying to dispel a few myths

BTW I wasn't aware of the 16gb limit myself, by chance I have pro luckily, not that it matters as I cant see me going over 16gb on my next build.

C64 · 12 Sep 2011 at 02:33

Games won't benefit from over 4gb ram you do know that right ? as for upgrade obviously I'd get a new gpu and overclock that cpu I would wait and see how the gpu's perform in the game first then decide.

C64 · 12 Sep 2011 at 02:45

CinderzFTW said:
I would update to either a 6870 or a GTX560ti which both some in just under £100:

GTX560Ti: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-247-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

6870: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-126-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

Both are beasts of cards and the MSI 6870 has great cooling with the TwinFrozr cooling on it... The Asus one ain't too bad too.

Both great cards and will run B3 all day long at great frame rates.

Nobody knows yet and which resolution will you be running at ? 1920x1080 is going to need serious grunt 1680x1050 less so anyway really no point buying before the games release just wait a day and see what performance cards are getting.

ScottMC7000 · 12 Sep 2011 at 02:54

C64 said:
Games won't benefit from over 4gb ram you do know that right ? as for upgrade obviously I'd get a new gpu and overclock that cpu I would wait and see how the gpu's perform in the game first then decide.

Yep, I do know that, however I use 3D graphic applications and I will be upgrading my Propellerheads Reason 5 software to version 6 which is now fully 64 bit aware and allows for larger samples to be loaded.

Battlefield 3 is a 'Next Gen' title though and there is also the operating system to consider.

Psyoletic · 12 Sep 2011 at 03:05

CinderzFTW said:
there have also been rumours (and i mean rumours) of nvidia and ati not releasing until the end of 2012/q4... not sure why, but hey, cannot be helped!

So far Nvidia said 2012, when in 2012 is anyone's guess.

ScottMC7000 said:
Yep, I do know that, however I use 3D graphic applications and I will be upgrading my Propellerheads Reason 5 software to version 6 which is now fully 64 bit aware and allows for larger samples to be loaded.

Battlefield 3 is a 'Next Gen' title though and there is also the operating system to consider.

6GB ram should do you proud. Battlefield 3 is going to be resource hungry but don't believe what users say when you need thousands of pounds worth of computer to play it. The game is close to beta so its difficult to say exactly what will and what won't play it at comfortable fps.

Wait until beta, that's my suggestion and it could save you money