Cheapest build to run bf3 maxed out

It depends on the resolution you are playing at, as well as your budget.

If you've got $800 I'd use it but you could realistically do it on $650.

Intel Core i5-3450
2x4GB Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 1.5v C9
ASRock B75M-DGS
Sapphire HD 7850 2GB
Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200RPM Sata 6GB/s
Corsair CX-430 430W
Fractal Design Core 1000
Lite On DVD Burner

Total - $650.92 on Newegg (Before shipping and $35 rebates)


If you have a bit more cash, first thing I would upgrade is the GPU. The HD 7870 would be nice. Get the 500W version of the PSU if you do that. Next thing would be to get the K model of that CPU with a Z77 motherboard. That would bring you up to $800 giving you a bit more performance and a bit of upgrade room.

you are crazy to think this would run bf3 on ultra at 1080p. the cpu isnt good enough for 64 player maps as it will have small fps drops and the gpu is not good enough either.

What would you exactly suggest that would do better than this in terms of BF3 that's moderately priced?

its the fact that the OP asked for something to max it out under 1000 and that reply only spent 650. you can max out bf3 with 900 if you pinch pennys get a 3570k and 7970 with a moderate overclock. you can do it.

Well, my old 6950 (flashed to 6970) was able to max BF3 with my 2500K at stock clocks. Seeing as the 7850 is a tad faster than that, I would think that setup above would return good settings in the game.



Yes it does struggle at very high res on ultra, but I think it would do fine at 1080.

sorry to be blunt but either A: you are at a resolution below 1080p B: there is something you arent telling us or C: this is a lie.

i say that because i cant even max it out with 2 6950s and im not even hitting there vram limit either. they are both at 100% on 64 player maps and i can run everything on ultra except the filters aa msaa and the sort. i run them on low and i get maybe 70fps average with an occasional dip to 40.

Well, I havent tried the multiplayer, and that's probably where my computer would have struggles.

Obviously, I haven't used my 6950 in a bit, as I swapped it out for my older GTX460. I might try it again.

You're probably right though.

I find it very hard to believe that a brand new i5 would struggle to play any game at out there today regardless of settings. Are you saying that to play it on ultra high settings, you would have no choice but to overclock?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graph...

That shows an i7-2600k at stock clocks averaging ~55FPS at 1080P and hyperthreading only makes the performance worse so the newer i5 should average around 60FPS.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graph...

This one shows the HD 6950 averaging 40FPS and the HD 6970 averaging about 45FPS and the HD 7850 should be a little bit worse than the HD 6970 I think. The HD 7850 is a great overclocker as well so you might even get it up to 50-55FPS. Both benchmarks I have shown are at 1080P and ultra high settings as well.

Anything over 30FPS should be perfectly playable even in a FPS game. You would probably see the benefit in getting something more powerful, just saying it should be playable even on ultra with that build.

heres the thing that people who havent ever played bf3 dont realize for some odd reason. Single player is a totally different game then multiplayer and multiplayer requires a totally different hardware setup to max out. when i bench with fraps on the same 64 person map and compare overclocked and none overclocked data i get much smoother fps but not a lot higher. the gain is 3-4 fps but the drops are much more none existent.

if someone i am playing against is playing at 30 fps online i have a huge advantage over them cause as soon as they get an explosion next to them or something like that they will lag bad. for first person shooters you really need 60 fps.

I'm not going to get sucked into some kind of argument, I'm just saying that it will almost definitely be playable even on ultra settings with that build. Yes someone with a HD 7970 will have a slight advantage because it will be a bit more smooth for them in explosions etc. but that doesn't mean it isn't playable on the HD 7850. It depends how serious you are about it.

if two 6950s cant max it out on ultra one 7850 cant. that is all im saying.

Honestly I think 2 6950's would be able to pull it.

when i set it to ultra it bounces around 30 fps and i get my ass kicked cause its just not fluid enough.

I would like to have some wiggle room so that I can crossfire or SLI later on. Also I forgot to mention I already have peripherals, My monitor is a 32inch samsung so I dont know if its harder on the pc to do that or if Its the same.

If 'playable' isn't good enough and it has to be absolutely flawless on the highest of settings, I'd get the i5-3570K overclocked to 4Ghz+ with the HD 7970.