Battlefield 3 Questions

ashehadeh1

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Hey Everyone,
Battlefield 3 was on sale for $10, and I decided it was time I upgraded my gaming standards. The only game I’ve ever played consistently is Counter-Strike 1.6. I’ve played since 2002, but considering I just bought a Gigabyte GTX 670, I figured it was a good time to buy a more graphic intensive game to see where all that hard earned money went. Naturally, I ran into a lot of questions when playing BF3 for the first, so I decided to make a thread with A LOT of questions. Hopefully these will be answered, and who knows this might become a nice reference thread for future searchers. Let’s begin with my computer specs:


MB: ASUS P8P67-PRO (Rev 3.1)
CPU: i5-2500k (4.5ghz)
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 670
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb (2x4gb)
PSU: Antec 620w
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 240gb
HS: Hyper 212+ (Artic Silver 5 thermal compound)
2x120mm mounted on Hyper 212+ (Push/Pull)
1x200mm, 1x120mm ( Intake)
1x200mm, 1x120mm ( out)
Push/Pull Configuration
Mouse: Razer Deathadder 3500dpi
Monitor: BenQ XL2410T 120hz (1920x1080)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Questions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. What kind of benefit will I receive in-game by having my CPU overclocked?
2. What kind of benefit will I receive in-game by having my GPU overclocked?
3. What are the optimal 3D settings (in NVIDIA drivers)?
4 . What are the optimal settings within BF3?
5. I have the digital version of BF3, is the only way to play via the launch website/origin?
6. Is there anyway to load a pre-made config like in 1.6 to get better registration/ other player key bindings?
7. How can I see my FPS in-game?
8. Is there a specific resolution that gives you better bullet registration in-game, like in counter-strike?
9. Are there certain commands that I can input into the BF3 console to give me better registration/FPS/smoother game play such as in counter-strike? (Example: rate 25000, cl_cmdrate 101, cl_updaterate 101)
10. Is there an optimal mouse DPI that tends to do better in-game?
11. While playing BF3 on a GTX 670 on Ultra settings, is it normal to see tearing and occasional lag in-game?
 
Solution
The 120hz has nothing to do with needing AA, the resolution of your monitor has to do with that. Thing her resolution, or, the higher pixels per inch I should say, the less of a need there is for AA.

I have a similar setup. I own a 120hz monitor and a GTX 680, and I also play BF3. I run most things on high, with no MSAA(AA), HBAO turned off, mesh and shadows turned down, and I think motion blur off. So with those settings which is roughly a mixture of medium-high, I get 100-120fps most of the time. The game still looks amazing at those settings too.

ashehadeh1

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I used to turn Vsync off for Counter-Strike, It would cap my FPS at 60, but that was before I had an 120hz monitor + GTX 670, has anything changed with that concept? Will I still get capped at 60fps? I never really knew how that worked.
 
You'll get capped at same fps as your monitor has hertz. So that would be 120 Hz. It would stop the tearing and stuttering, though.

Anyway, having more fps than your monitor refresh rate is useless: Monitor cannot display more than that.
 

ashehadeh1

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Is a constant 120fps with a GTX 670 possible on stock clock? If not, is it possible with an overclock?
 

ashehadeh1

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Could I ask you to elaborate on why that is? Sorry I'm just trying to get everything "dialed in" correctly.
 
Well, battlefield 3 is just too demanding :p.

And Adaptive VSync turns VSync on only when you get more fps than you monitor refresh rate, and turns it off on the fly when it drops below that threshold. That's why it works at any FPS number :).
 

ashehadeh1

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battlefield%201920.png


According to this you can get almost 30 more fps by turning AA off. My understanding of Anti-Aliasing is it smooths out edges etc. Would it make sense for me to turn it off since im playing on an 120 hertz monitor?
 

trogdor796

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The 120hz has nothing to do with needing AA, the resolution of your monitor has to do with that. Thing her resolution, or, the higher pixels per inch I should say, the less of a need there is for AA.

I have a similar setup. I own a 120hz monitor and a GTX 680, and I also play BF3. I run most things on high, with no MSAA(AA), HBAO turned off, mesh and shadows turned down, and I think motion blur off. So with those settings which is roughly a mixture of medium-high, I get 100-120fps most of the time. The game still looks amazing at those settings too.
 
Solution

ashehadeh1

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Nice, that was precisely the information I was seeking. Did you OC your 680? Could you possibly take a screenshot of your NVIDIA 3D Settings so I could match settings?
 

trogdor796

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My GTX 680 is a reference EVGA one, running at stock clocks. It of course has the auto boost feature(think intel turbo clock but for graphics cards), but I haven't touched voltage levels or clocks manually, simply because I haven't seen the need.

I'll try to get some pics and upload them later tonight, but got some class work I gotta finish so no promises :(
 

ashehadeh1

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Will the EVGA drivers work for my Gigabyte 670? and most definitely I understand man! Thanks ahead of time if you do get a chance to upload them!
 

trogdor796

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No, I don't have any specific EVGA drivers, just the official Nvidia ones.

For the GPU boost thing, I just looked on Nvidia's website, and all 670's and 680's have it. It's a feature of the 600 series of cards, not a a brand specific utility/drive. So yours should already be doing that, assuming you have latest drivers installed correctly.
 

ashehadeh1

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I guess I do have it, but I got a little confused because I didn't know there was an auto overclock feature. Hypothetically, would say MSI Afterburner be compatabile with my Gigabyte 670? I prefer to use Afterburner over precision X & other programs.
 

ashehadeh1

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Thanks man. You should add me. I don't think I'm too bad. This was my 2nd game, I'm not really sure what a good score is in BF3, but I was just happy to get a positive KD ratio.
eao9af.jpg
 

trogdor796

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That's great for your 2nd game! I'll be sure to add you next time I'm on battlelog, always looking for people to squad up with. I'm not the best player either, we all have good and bad games.

As for the config thing you linked, not sure. It just seems to change the layout of the battle log page from what I can tell.