Battlefield 3 Alpha benchmarked (translation)

UPDATE: Battlefield 3 on Amazon is down to $50.99

Battlefield 3, the direct followup to tactical first-person shooter Battlefield 2, is currently in an early test period right now, and a few lucky folks outside the company get to playtest it. One site, GameGPU.ru, has even gone so far as to benchmark the game on several different systems.  Unfortunately for most, the site is in Russian, but thanks to modern technology this isn’t a problem.  The original site can be found here, and an English translation follows. All content belongs to GameGPU.ru and is run through Google translator and copied here for your convenience. They are the original source.

If you want to build a PC for Battlefield 3 (which by all accounts will be the best version of the game), check out our guide with four price points and full parts lists for your convenience.

Battlefield 3 – a computer game in the genre of the tactical first-person shooter, developed by studio EA Digital Illusions CE and published by the company Electronic Arts. The game will be released for PC platforms (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. «Battlefield 3″ – a direct sequel to «Battlefield 2,” which was released in 2005.

 

Unlike other high-budget games this time, the main gaming platform “Battlefield 3” is the PC rather than console gaming. In the PC version of the maximum number of players on one card will be 64 players in the console versions of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players will be the maximum number of 24 players. Also, the PC version will have other advantages and differences compared to the console versions.

Exit Games will be held in October 2011.

 

Review: Graphics

For a month, developers do not spoil us with fresh products. And about the same time remaining before the opening game of the autumn season. And at this point, we introduce you to test Battlefield 3 Alpha, in which we can learn, and be defined with parameters indicative of performance graphics cards using the Frostbite 2.0.

There are currently testing the game only supports the basic settings, and the number of visual effects, notably poubavleno, but to test the multiplayer for developers is more than enough. In his video, you can get a little lower.

 

The game engine Frostbite 2.0, according to the developers, is a completely new engine, not based on Frostbite 1.0 or Frostbite 1.5. According to DICE, the first version of Frostbite did not allow the studio to implement all its plans regarding Battlefield 3, so the parallel with the development of games for Frostbite 1.0 has been allocated a separate team working on Frostbite 2.0. According to the DICE in February 2011, the team Battlefield 3 just started to learn the technological potential of Frostbite 2.0.

Frostbite 2.0 was originally designed to work with DirectX 11, but DirectX 10 is also supported. DirectX 9 is not supported, so Windows XP is not suitable for the game. Older cards will have just gone, as well as all those who tried to delay the transition to a new operating system will have to change their prejudices.

Minimal version of Microsoft Windows to play is Windows Vista, but we believe the most optimal use of the game is  Windows 7. Many graphical elements were excluded from the alpha version, and below we give a little roller technological capabilities Frostbite 2.0

As a physics engine, as in previous versions of Frostbite, using Havok Physics of production of the same company. However, the system of environmental destruction «Destruction», based on Havok, has been updated to the third version. This version provided more extensive and precise destruction.

Destruction in Battlefield 3 Alpha available for almost everything, but it also depends on the type of weapon used … According to DICE, in theory they could with the help of «Destruction 3.0» model to simulate the destruction of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai city center.

Next, we turn directly to the actual test cards.

Review: The resource-intensive games

All the cards were tested with the highest quality graphics program, MSI Afterburner. The purpose of this test is to determine the behavior of the cards from different manufacturers under the same conditions. For the performance index takes the minimum and average frame. Below is the configuration of our test systems.

Hardware configuration
Processors	AMD Phenom II X6 1100T BE 3.33 @ 4 GHz product of company AMDAMD Phenom II X4 940 BE 3.0 @ 3.7 GHz products are provided by AMDAMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz products are provided by AMDIntel Core 2 Quad Q9550@4.25 GHzIntel ® Core ™ i7-930@4.2 GHzIntel Core i5-760 8.2 @ 4.2 GHz
Motherboards	Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H Products provided by AMDGigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H Products provided by AMDMaximus II Formula LGA 775 socket product of company AsusMSI X58 Eclipse Plus socket LGA1366 product of company MSIMSI P 55 – GD 55 Socket LGA 1156 product of company MSI MSI 790 FX – GD 70 socket AM3 product of company MSI
Memory	GOODRAM PLAY 1600MGts (8-8-8-24) product of company GOODRAMGOODRAM Pro 2000MHz (8-8-8-29) product of company GOODRAM
Video Cards	GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB E N 8800ULTRA 768 MB product of company Asus GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB GeForce 9800 GTX 512 MB GeForce GTS 250 1024 MB GeForce GTX 260 896 MB GeForce GTX 260 core 216 GeForce GTX 280 1024 MB GeForce GTX 275 896 MB GeForce GTX 285 1024 MB GeForce GTS 450 1024 MB product of company Inno3D GeForce GTX 460 768 MB product of company Leadtek GeForce GTX 460 1024 MB GeForce GTX 465 1024 MB Zotac GeForce GTX 470 1280 MB product of company Zotac GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024 mb GeForce GTX 570 1280 MB Zotac GeForce GTX 580AMP! 1536 MB product of company Zotac Radeon HD 3870 512 MB Radeon HD 4750 512 MB EAH 4770 512 mb product of company Asus Radeon HD 4830 512 MB Radeon HD 4850 1024 MB MSI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB product of company MSI MSI Radeon HD 4890 1024 MB product of company MSI / AMD EAH 5750 FORMULA 1024 mb product of company Asus MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK 1024 mb product of company MSI Radeon HD 5830 1024 MB Radeon HD 5850 1024 MB product of company AMD Radeon HD 5870 1024 mb Eyefinity 2048 MB products provided by companies XFX / AMD Radeon HD 6850 1024 MB product of company AMD Radeon HD 6870 1024 MB Radeon HD 6950 2048 MB products provided by companies AMD / XFX Radeon HD 6970 2048 MB products provided by companies AMD / XFX Radeon HD 6990 4096 MB products provided by companies AMD
Multimedia equipment	3D-monitor LG W2363DMonitor LG E2750A set of 3D Vision Kit product of company Nvidia
Power supplies, cases, cooling systems	Corps Chenbro PC61731 product of company SyntexSeasonic X-850 Seasonic X-660 Seasonic X-760, depending on the stand – Productsprovided by SyntexCPU Cooler GlacialTech Siberia product of company It-Labs
System Software & Drivers
Operating system	Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x 64
DirectX	DirectX 11
Driver platform	Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012
Graphics Driver	Nvidia GeForce / ION Driver Release 275.50AMD Catalyst 11.7

Less powerful video cards to the level of GeForce GTS 450 and the Radeon HD 4870 tested on the basis of the Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE, depending on the resource-games, and more productive on the basis of a more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of cards represented the sponsors, were equal to conventional counterparts by reducing their clock speeds.

Our video cards were tested at a resolution of 1920×1080 and in DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 at maximum quality settings (high), allowed a game. NVIDIA 3D Vision technology and AMD Eyefinity the resolution have not been tested. At the moment, Frostbite 2.0 does not support Cross Fire and SLI, that in the future, of course, will be fixed as of the game developers, as well as the newer drivers. The test was conducted not in the resource location. To test the selected server with zero people, as in this case, repeat the same type of test items revealed simply impossible.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 DirectX 10

And though in this case showed the presence of MSI Afterburner DirectX 11, but we do know that the hardware card data to support it can not. Therefore, in this case used as a common library for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 for. Let’s say right away – the game is very picky about the video memory, so using the card with a minimum of 768 megabytes is impractical. With Full HD resolution will provide a minimum level of performance the Radeon HD 4870 or GeForce GTS 250, that very well. FPS limit of 25 frames can bypass the video card level Radeon HD 4890 or GeForce GTX 260 core 216 ..

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 DirectX 11

The minimum level of performance in DirectX 11 video cards to ensure that the forces of the Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450.   FPS limit of 25 frames can bypass the video card level Radeon HD 5830 or GeForce GTX 460. While many graphics chips Frostbite 2.0 were so to speak “off screen”, the optimization process will be long grind, but graphics cards presented for tests, were able to prove himself worthy.

Testing protsessorozavisimosti

Protsessorozavisimosti testing we conducted on 10 models of basic configurations that are most relevant for today. Protsessorozavisimosti test was carried out at 640×480 at low quality setting.

Testing at high quality setting of 640×480

As we can see a performance dual-core models in Battlefield 3 Alpha downright deplorable. Developers should pay attention to the optimization of the Hyper-threading. But let’s not make hasty conclusions. First of all, it’s just an alpha version, and secondly the multiplayer has always made more of a burden than a single.

No estimates of this case will not. Battlefield 3 Alpha is the first “test volley” to fix bugs online. Our goal was to determine how to behave Frostbite 2.0 on the modern hardware. The result was quite acceptable, almost all of our tested video cards will be able to show acceptable performance, although some optimization for dual-core processor models can not hurt. We look forward to beta-test and self-full game, which will be out very soon!