Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3 At 1280x768
What does it take to make the A8 configuration playable in Battlefield 3? As described, we had to dial all video settings down to their lowest levels, so expect a less engaging (albeit still fun) experience. Then, we stepped down through the various resolutions, looking for something that would finally average at least 30 FPS. We have the results at 1920x1080, and then the follow-up at 1280x768.
And the total frames generated:
It turns out that this setting only gives us 30 FPS when you turn ambient occlusion off and don't mind dips into the 20 FPS range. Considering the pace of Battlefield 3, we can't consider this ideal. We could have tried even lower resolutions, but even on a notebook (with a lower-end APU, mind you), that's not very practical.
We see the theme of nominal system impact from HBAO continue at this lower resolution. Yes, the difference between 31.8 and 27.6 fps is 15%, which sounds big, but we’re really experiencing a difference of only 4 FPS.