Thread: Need some help with running BF3

According to the minimum specs of BF3, my brothers pc should be able to at least run it at the minimum settings, however it seems like his CPU is constantly at 100% whenever BF3 is up and running.

His CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 5800+ - 3.00 GHz
4 GB of RAM
64 bit OS Windows 7
Two Radeon HD 4800 series in crossfire

I know these specs are pretty much the bare minimum, but if there is anyway to get this rig to at least run BF3 at low settings I would be greatly obliged

EDIT -

It's not that he can't boot BF3 up, he can, its just that the game is a bit choppy the sound is wonky and the CPU usage is constantly at 100% so I'm assuming it's got to be related to that as the auto settings say he should be running at high? Not sure if the auto settings are wrong, but I assume they are

Have him try it after manually adjusting the video settings to low. I'm sure BF3 is similar to BC2 in that it is a CPU intensive game. My older rig should have played BC2 with decent performance, but it ran terribly due to a maxed out CPU. I had to upgrade to a quad core to get decent frame rates (I also upgraded my GPU).

Originally Posted by Viktor_Olin

Have him try it after manually adjusting the video settings to low. I'm sure BF3 is similar to BC2 in that it is a CPU intensive game. My older rig should have played BC2 with decent performance, but it ran terribly due to a maxed out CPU. I had to upgrade to a quad core to get decent frame rates (I also upgraded my GPU).

Yeah we set everything to low and still had issues, we didn't lower the resolution though. Think it's still at 1024x768 I think

Crossfirex may have problems.
"Concerning the CrossFireX stuttering mentioned above, AMD has informed us that the 11.9 CAP 3 that was recommended to install for BF3 is actually the culprit for the stuttering behavior with CFX in this game. AMD recommends to uninstall the CAP and only install Catalyst 11.10 Preview 3 driver. If you already have the CAP installed, your best bet is to uninstall the CAP as well as the driver, and re-install just the driver with no CAP. We have tested this by removing the CAP, and on our system the stuttering with 6970 CFX is gone. We experienced no negative impact to performance in the game by removing the CAP. The gameplay experience is much better with the CAP uninstalled."

source: HARDOCP - Single Player Performance Preview - Battlefield 3 Preview Performance Preview

BL

Yes. You'll want the 11.10 Preview V3 drivers and uninstall any Application Profiles you may have installed. Viktor is correct though. I'd wager you'll be EXTREMELY limited with your CPU. You might be able to hit eBay and find yourself a quad core Phenom that would help you out some.

I think his current cpu is a socket am2, will a am3 quadcore work? Just want to double check before ordering

Depends. You'll have to see if your motherboard is compatible with AM3 processors... Some were classified as AM2+ and supported AM3 cpus...

Originally Posted by WileECyte

Depends. You'll have to see if your motherboard is compatible with AM3 processors... Some were classified as AM2+ and supported AM3 cpus...

Mine is AM2 (released before AM2+) and it supports a bunch of the AM3 processors. The BIOS update supports up the 3.1ghz Phenom II Quad Core but you can manually set it to support any of the Athlon II and Phenom II quads, but it cannot support the X6's.

The AM3 processors have memory controllers for both DDR2 and 3... Generally, an AM2 nor AM2+ mobo will support any AM3 as long as the BIOS can configure the voltage and timings it requires and in some cases you can manually configure it too.

CPU-Upgrade: motherboard upgrade and processor upgrade resources

Most mobos are here and people have listed and verified many different CPUs in many mobos.


FInd the mobo in there and see what it supports!

Originally Posted by SoySoldier

CPU-Upgrade: motherboard upgrade and processor upgrade resources

Most mobos are here and people have listed and verified many different CPUs in many mobos.


FInd the mobo in there and see what it supports!

Thanks Soy, I'll look into it!