News - EA-DICE publish Battlefield 4 PC minimum/recommended specs

Quote:

---

"Is your rig Prepared4Battle?"

---

Read more.

hoping my laptop won't wheeze too much over this ~:D Bring on the Beta already!

Game requirements are always so vague. They don't say what exactly the requirement is for! No mention of what sort of resolution and frame rate you will get with the recommended. Judging by bf3 I would say that's for medium-high settings at 720p with no msaa @60fps on full size mp battles. Definitely wanting more gpu power than what is suggested for higher settings and res!

I think this might be the time for my 6870 cf setup to be upgraded. While it has the performance punch, the memory limit of a single card is going to make this game suffer.

The only big requirement on the recommended is the 3GB GPU memory when even the majority of 770's are only 2GB.

As above, without resolutions or frame rates these are useless. I guess we will need to wait until the beta to establish what is suitable and what isnt

3 GB for graphics?? *_* hope it wont let me down with that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirky

As above, without resolutions or frame rates these are useless. I guess we will need to wait until the beta to establish what is suitable and what isnt

---

My thoughts too - minimum specs tend to be exactly that - what's needed to be able to see past the loading screens. So if the "Recommended" spec is that high (I fail on the system memory requirement) then is this spec the one they recommend to get "the game the way it's meant to be played", i.e. is it effectively a benchmark spec for a rig that will play this well?

That said, if you're looking for a graphics card to exceed that then you're surely into the £400+ territory alone.

Still think BF4's worth a pre-order.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crossy

That said, if you're looking for a graphics card to exceed that then you're surely into the £400+ territory alone.

---

But then it'll run fine on the XBone and PS4 at 1080p so £400 of hardware in total should do the trick right?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jimbouk

But then it'll run fine on the XBone and PS4 at 1080p so £400 of hardware in total should do the trick right?

---

Yes, I might go next generation myself rather than the pc route to play BF4. The 3GB graphics memory spec is going a annoy a friend of mine, who went for a 2GB 680 card less than a year a ago.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jimbouk

But then it'll run fine on the XBone and PS4 at 1080p so £400 of hardware in total should do the trick right?

---

True but it will probably be a restricted version of the game again - the console versions of BF3 were truely awful in comparison to the PC version, (gameplay/graphics) and although it will be a better comparison this time I still expect the PC version to be better. Gotta hope so anyway - esepcially if servers are remaining platform specific (wouldn't want all the PC games to jump to a console). I'll stick to COD on the PS4, BF on the PC :)

The one big plus is that this time around consoles at least get 64 player mode, so they can finally enjoy a battlefield game /amost/ how it was mean to be played :) If we're lucky this will mean we can have a jump to 128players on the PC officially..but I think I am just dreaming there :D Planetside 2 will have to do for large scale FPSing for now...

Happily my 5 year old mac pro should run this fine - only ever had to change the graphics card from that machine..happy that it's still going strong!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crossy

.....
Still think BF4's worth a pre-order.

---

No game is worth pre-ordering any more. Just look what happened with Sim City or Rome II. Huge hype generated to drive sales only for the game to released incomplete / broken. A lot of gaming sites are asking people to stop hopping on the hype train by pre-ordering. Or we're going to see more and more unfinished games being released with a promise to fix it later.

As a BF3 server admin I several reasons to stay well clear of BF4 for the time being. Top 3 being;

1. There has been no fix, as promised, for the DDoS saga. DICE Executive Producer Patrick Back was recently interviewed and side stepped the question
2. Punkbuster has been bypassed by a new hack. Thats right, it does nothing. Cheaters can play, even if banned.
3. EA have cut the list of approved server providers. This has drastically cut choice. No explanations given. All we know is top providers like Rackage & Gaming Deluxe have been kicked out the party.

A real shame that once again, what decides whether or not players enjoy Battlefield, depends on the drama played out in the background and not the game itself.

The large VRAM is interesting, I was under the impression that more VRAM was only beneficial at > 1080p res?
I am playing at 1680x1050 on ultra with my current setup, although I am tempted by a new 1080p monitor..

3gb for the graphics isn't to bad considering what the next gen consoles have to play with.

sorry double post

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Firejack

No game is worth pre-ordering any more. Just look what happened with Sim City or Rome II. Huge hype generated to drive sales only for the game to released incomplete / broken. A lot of gaming sites are asking people to stop hopping on the hype train by pre-ordering. Or we're going to see more and more unfinished games being released with a promise to fix it later.

---

Yeh everything is broken on release these days. I tend to wait at least a week or more to buy new games. They always need patching..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirky

The large VRAM is interesting, I was under the impression that more VRAM was only beneficial at > 1080p res?
I am playing at 1680x1050 on ultra with my current setup, although I am tempted by a new 1080p monitor..

---

Don't listen to people who say you only need X amount of VRAM for X resolution. It's complete crap. Totally depends on details of effects and textures. Try modding Skyrim with high res texture mods and other eye candy, even at 720p. See how quickly that vram gets eatean up lol... And yes, I know that some of these mods are not as optimised as could be. But whatever, they're still eating the vram. Bf3 textures were mostly pretty bad in my opinion. Bf3 eats about 1.6GB of vram with the settings I play at. So even if we had the exact same game but just with higher res textures - I can definitely see how you would need over 2GB! But I'm sure playing it with 2GB will be just fine :) You just wont be able to push the highest settings without issues..

Ah cool that makes sense thanks, I guess it will be a wait and see situation :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jimbouk

But then it'll run fine on the XBone and PS4 at 1080p so £400 of hardware in total should do the trick right?

---

Yep, I suppose that's one way to look at it. Although if BF3 is anything to go by then "run fine" means "runs enough to be playable". I got BF3 on PC first then XBox, and I'm utterly convinced that the PC version is superior in every single metric other than cold-start-time (i.e. the time between deciding that you need a shot and actually being able to start spraying lead).

Then again, what am I whinging about, the 7970 I bought in March is a 3GB model, I've got a six way PhenomII, and I reminded myself at lunchtime that I've got 8MB RAM not 4MB, so I'm sorted. :D

Or at least I will be once I actually put the effin' pre-order in!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Spud1

The one big plus is that this time around consoles at least get 64 player mode, so they can finally enjoy a battlefield game /amost/ how it was mean to be played :) If we're lucky this will mean we can have a jump to 128players on the PC officially..but I think I am just dreaming there :D Planetside 2 will have to do for large scale FPSing for now...

---

128 player, that's barely above console trolls. Now for a real MMPFPS you need to go back to Just Cause 2, see this kotaku article, and there's other 1000+ player mods out there. :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Firejack

No game is worth pre-ordering any more. Just look what happened with Sim City or Rome II. Huge hype generated to drive sales only for the game to released incomplete / broken. A lot of gaming sites are asking people to stop hopping on the hype train by pre-ordering. Or we're going to see more and more unfinished games being released with a promise to fix it later.

---

I get what you're saying - and I'm sure SWMBO would appreciate it if I didn't preorder this years CoD or BF - but the MP screw ups don't really bother me and BF3 was "finished enough" that I didn't really hit any of the issues.

Actually I've had a LOT more issues with MoH:Warfighter - that's a relatively old game now and it's a coin toss whether it works or BSOD's on my rig. This being the same rig that'll run SRIV, Bioshock Infinite, etc for hours at a time. In my book EA's record on speedy patching stinks more than a backed up pub toilet at closing time. Although I've found their customer service folks quite helpful (unlike Kactivision's)

For anyone fretting over the GPU requirement, remember direct X 11.2 will be using tiled resources .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Beanstalkhiker

For anyone fretting over the GPU requirement, remember direct X 11.2 will be using tiled resources .

---

i could google it :P but would you mind elaborating on what you said there?

For the 1st time in my computer history i think i have the high spec needed for a new updated game :) Apart from the Windows 8 option !!

oh well lucky i can should be able to play easily with my dual 4gb 680s classifieds

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crossy

Then again, what am I whinging about, the 7970 I bought in March is a 3GB model, I've got a six way PhenomII, and I reminded myself at lunchtime that I've got 8MB RAM not 4MB, so I'm sorted.

---

Slightly amusing personal twist to this story - I went to double check my PC specs last night and discovered that it was reporting 8GB installed, but only 4GB usable. :o After some Googling and BIOS checking I discovered that one of my DIMM's looked to have come slightly adrift. Removed them (pair), swapped 'em over and put 'em back in and now I'm back to 8GB again. :D

Strange that the PC or OS didn't flag that the amount of available memory had dropped from one boot to the next.

Well at least my 4 year old system can play it (apparently).

Well...time to upgrade again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dottorrent

Well...time to upgrade again.

---

Bf3 gave me the worst case of upgradeitis ever! But luckily I have built up a bit of an immunity to it since then, which I still hope is holding out strong by the time it releases! Looking at your setup though, you will probably want to do an upgrade yeh. I'm sure you'll be glad you did once you play it :)

Since AMD's high end GPUs for over a year have had 3GB, it's no surprise BF4 might make use of it, given it's an AMD game. The new high end ones are rumoured to have 4GB as standard.

3GB of graphics is for those who play at a greater resolution than 1920x1080 or for those with 2/more screens.

I thought 3gb was a error as the 2 cards quoted as the recommended one both only have 2gb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dfour

I thought 3gb was a error as the 2 cards quoted as the recommended one both only have 2gb.

---

Yeh I noticed that too. Though 3GB is probably still the ideal amount for running ultra settings, I'm sure. But if you're running it at settings to suit a 7870 or a 660, then that's probably not going to require 3GB. Well, it's not like it's available on those cards anyway :P I think they likely should've suggested more powerful graphics cards for the recommended requirements based on Bf3's performance. But they want to sell the game to more people who think it will run nicely on ultra with less powerful setups.

here's a thought. Will the i5 still cut it ? Should I take the i7 option ?
Bearing in mind I mostly play 64-player large maps ?

BF3 is more gpu driven so your 7970 should cope IMHO if bf4 is the same way.

I'm ok with the GPU. It's the CPU I was thinking of.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phage

I'm ok with the GPU. It's the CPU I was thinking of.

---

Why not just wait and see I dont really see your overclocked ivy will have much problems with it. Does it stuggle now?

No, not at all. Paranoia I guess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phage

No, not at all. Paranoia I guess.

---

or upgraditis :)

Dude I would sooner put another 7970 in that setup than a better cpu. I'm running the 2500k at 4.5ghz and I think it may be pushed hard in Bf4, but not 100%. I don't see why your cpu would be pushed any harder. I also have a 7970 and I'm more concerned about that than my cpu. But I may be wrong here. I would just hold out until the Beta in the coming weeks and see how it goes then :)

Aye. Will we all have access, or is it some testers only ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phage

Aye. Will we all have access, or is it some testers only ?

---

Quoted from EA's website:

"Exclusive Beta Access can be obtained in the following ways:

*Pre-order the Origin Digital Deluxe Edition of Battlefield 4 (PC only) through the Origin store.

*Own Battlefield 3 Premium Membership.

*Alternatively, if you are a registered owner of a Digital Deluxe or Limited Edition copy of Medal of Honor Warfighter, you will also gain access when it is available.

Below you can find information on how to check your Battlefield 4 Exclusive Beta Access eligibility:

Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe Edition Pre-orders
If you pre-ordered the Origin Digital Deluxe Edition (PC only) of the game from a region that offers it, a 'Battlefield 4 beta' product icon will be attached to the entry for the pre-order. To confirm this please do the following:

In your Origin client, open your 'My Games' tab
Right click the product icon for Battlefield 4
Select 'Show Game Details'
Scroll down to the 'Expansions' section
The Battlefield 4 Beta icon will be visible.

Note, if you've If pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe edition of Battlefield 4, but accidentally removed yourself from Exclusive Beta Access eligibility while pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe edition, please contact our Customer Support Team."

You only need to meet one of those requirements to play it of course :)

Righto. There's my opportunity for proper testing. Do I need moar POWAH or not ?

cant wait for this :)

3gb memory

I smell red amd :D

I think ill get 7950

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phage

here's a thought. Will the i5 still cut it ? Should I take the i7 option ?
Bearing in mind I mostly play 64-player large maps ?

---

You could always look at this Intel Processor Comparison and check what your current processor spec is. Took a quick look myself and the majority of i5's seem to be quad cores, and all of them seem to be capable of quad-thread. And therein lies an interesting question - do DICE mean 4 actual/physical cores or just that they need to run 4 threads simultaneously? I suspect the latter.

i7's nice (fancy one myself to replace my six way Phenom II) but I would have thought that ripping the heart out of your rig (with all the resulting rebuild etc hassle) would be a lot of unnecessary expense. Kind of like me doing my jump to i7 because of the memory issues I've got with the current rig (and it's this kind of nonsense that makes me prefer console gaming)

That said, BF4 is a whole lot more likely to cause me to want a PC upgrade than this year's CoD.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by evisceratrix666

3gb memory

I smell red amd :D

I think ill get 7950

---

I think it is a AMD sponsored game as it was rumored to go in the AMD Never settle bundles

Hope my GTX 650ti boost will handle this game, it's amazing!

This says nothing, its a bit messed up, real testing shows you everything. And till it comes hope I will sell my xbox 360 and buy a better PC...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by loyal986

This says nothing, its a bit messed up, real testing shows you everything. And till it comes hope I will sell my xbox 360 and buy a better PC...

---

Yeh exactly. Recommended requirements are usually what you would actually want to play a game at mid kinda settings. No one is gonna be playing this smoothly on ultra with the recommended specs..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dfour

Why not just wait and see I dont really see your overclocked ivy will have much problems with it. Does it stuggle now?

---

With certain graphics cards and settings, my overclocked ivy can top out at 100% in BF3. If I stop all non-essential windows services (including MSSE) I can keep the CPU usage down to 85-99%....but still get the occasional 100%

How much does it effect gameplay though? IMO, not much, although I am sure there are others that may disagree.

For BF4? Who the hell knows? :wallbash: