A few questions:
Did you overclocked your CPU and GPU?
was it overclocked before or just underclocked to to see if that solve the issue?
Did you tried the beta graphics drivers-?
Please download the latest NVIDIA videocard physx driver
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.11.1107-driver.html
Go to your custom settings of your video-card software. Disable all extra options for enhanced graphics and set the preferences for AA and anisotropic to “use application settings”.
Set the BF3 graphic options to “low quality” or reduce AA and anisotropic filtering to a minimum.
Launch the game, if the issue is solved, you can try to set the graphic options higher.
That doesn't mean that you only could run BF3 in low spec. Sometimes, there might some special graphic setup what causing trouble with your hardware. Especially in combination with your graphic software, the NVIDIA control panel.
Sometimes, this issue can be related to the cloud storage.
Open your Origin client, click on “Show Game Details”. Then you go to the cloud button on BF3 and uncheck the “enable cloud storage for all games” box. Launch the game.
If that helped, you can try to enable the cloud storage after a restart; it might work after with the cloud storage function. Make sure to use the local data when the information box popping up.
Sometimes This problem occurs when "Ambient Occlusion" is disabled in the Nvidia Control Panel. If you disabled it within the NCP the Graphics Engine will report an error due to missing command sets. Just disable it in Battlefield 3 (Video Settings - Ambient Occlusion Off) or set it to "Performance" or "Quality" settings in the NPC.