Best GPU upgrade for bf3?

[Hicks12]

As per title, been playing the beta and im sure its a combination of my god like e8400 showing its age along with my gtx460 just showing it is a budget card . I can play metro the rush map (mostly like cod/bc2 style) with like 40fps but thats on medium and the minimum is still like 20/25 which is to low really. However the real kicker is the fact i got onto Caspian borders map (bf2 style!) and well i get a max fps of 40 but it drops to as low as 5fps (on low its 10fps lol!) but it drops to frequently like its never staying near 40 and my average is probably 20fps which is almost unplayable.


Now im not sure how much drivers and dice program efficiency will improve by the time of release next month so i thought best to look now as a potential solution if fps is still poor when i get it. Ideally i was aiming to wait for the new AMD 7000 release as their high end side seems to be using the xdr2 ram which should give a very big boost, and i presume they will come out like £250+ so want to save most of my budget for that later on (spending £750 on new cpu/motherboard/ram/gpu, getting cpu and that when BD is out so can compare with SB).

What is the most cost effective solution to improving fps? Ive overclocked the card and its given like 3fps more, my motherboard is SLI compatible so getting a second 460 would be an option and i presume that would tie me over till new gpu's and i would only take a hit of like £50 since they are <£100 to buy at the minute. However is there a better alternative? Sell my current 460 and get xx card?


Any help is appreciated as i really want to play bf3 on good settings when its out!

[kalniel]

Wait till it's out proper and the drivers have had a chance to be fixed, then look at the benchmark reviews.

[Hicks12]

ta, i thought that would probably be the wisest option just had my mate constantly trying to get me to upgrade so he can upgrade his 8800GTS (my old card funily enough lol!)by stealing my card

[teejay73]

Would of thought the GTX460 would handle pretty well tbh, though that said what 460 is it? I have the msi "talon attack" GTX460 and that pretty much bashes everything I throw at it, at high settings @ 1080 res. Wouldnt class your card as budget either though, I am sure there are more candidates that fall into the budget class gpu, if you can upgrade to sli then I am sure you would notice massive gains in BC3 Beta.

[EvanJackPenn]

I would personally wait, but based on the beta...



It's not too great - doesn't really list that many GPUs. But it's a (bad) guide.

[teejay73]

I would personally wait, but based on the beta...

Ooops need a few more posts before I can post URL`s

It's not too great - doesn't really list that many GPUs. But it's a (bad) guide.

Based on that guide, nothing plays it really well @ 1080, though to some it is subjective to a degree as some people would be happy to play at 30-40fps, but if it is reflective of the real game then even high end cards will struggle to play at a higher res with decent framerates, as you said, much better to wait until the game is released then make your decision, for me though I wont be upgrading my gfx just for this game anyway, so if I have to tone settings down then so be it.

[mikeo01]

Disable background processes, services, increase priority of the program.
Defragment hard drive, the usual stuff!

Not always about upgrading to the best, I have a HD 4830 512MB which can run some newer games just. It ran BF:BC2, ARMA II, Cryisis (yes my monitor is small)

Not only that yeah does depend on resolution and video settings such as shaders, vsync etc etc. Bigger monitor unfortunately means newer graphics cards. I would rather run a game on high on a small monitor than medium/low on a large monitor.

A GTX should be able to handle that easily, along with your processor.

[danbt]

GTX570. Would be perfect. Not toooo expensive. But good enough

[Hicks12]

id rather not defrag my ssd .

Just to update, i havent bought a new gpu as im stick to waiting however i have noticed its extremely cpu limited on my end, 100% on each core and overclocking gpu is giving like a mere few fps increases and the difference between low and high (without aa and a few other options) is about 5 fps in it. My mate just got a rediculiously expensive pc with the i7 980extreme! (idiot imo as he does gaming, should have gone sandybridge ) and a 560ti which playing the beta on max seems way better (didnt have fraps installed), so fluent and since a 560 isnt a huge jump from my 460 it makes me lean towards cpu being bad .

Thankfully new cpu will be ordered next week when BD benches are out hehe!