Disappointed with Battlefield 4

[Tranquil]

That's a top end SLI rig... similar to the setups I run. To run BF4 with great graphics, you'd be fine with a sub 2,000$ computer. AMD just released a new line of graphics cards that are fantastic for less than 500$, and Nvidia is dropping prices as well. If I were to budget for a computer specifically built for BF3 and similar games, I'd budget it along these lines:

Processor - 320
Motherboard - 120
Graphics Card - 460
RAM - 80
Case - 100
Power Supply - 120
HDD - 50 for HDD (Give or take if you want a SSD)
CD Drive - 10
Monitor - 130

Under 1400$ for a machine that could easily play it on max settings with current hardware and major room for improvement. (Multiple graphics cards, RAM upgrade, SSD etc) - But if you're only gaming on one monitor, you really only need one graphics card. Unless it's a 4k res monitor, of course.

 

[Tanfodude]

Asus Rampage IV Formula ROG X79 motherboard
Intel I7 3930K six core processor 3.2Ghz currently running at 4.5Ghz
16GB of Mushikin Redline 1600Mhz RAM
Corsair H100 Liquid CPU cooler
512GB Samsung SSD main harddrive
1TB Western Digital backup HD
Antec HTC 1000w powersupply
2x EVGA 680GTX 4GB video cards in SLI
Pioneer BluRay burner
Asus DVD burner
Asus Xonar sound card
Windows7 Pro 64bit
NZXT fan controler and 6 120mm fans
and lastly a CM Storm Trooper full tower case

This PC will run anything I have thrown at it on max , the one game it has to work the the hardest on is the original Crysis......Haven't tried BF4 yet , but I will.
Oh and the price tag for that build was a bit north of $3900.00.........

I'm close to your set up but did not cost as much as yours.

Intel i7-3770 3.4ghz
EVGA Geforce GTX 680 in SLI
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77
Cooler Master Hyper N520
CORSAIR Vengeance 1600 16GB
Intel 520 Series Cherryville 180gb SSD in RAID 0
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG1200M 1200W Power

This is my gaming HTPC rig. Looks really good when using your TV as your monitor. I doubt our rig is outdate, played Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 and really smooth gameplay at max settings in everything with res of 1920 x 1080.

 

[SpaldingPM]

I'm on newegg right now, pricing out parts... and I'm so overwhelmed!
When I was about 16-18yrso, I knew EVERYTHING about the current hardware, I could tell you what everything meant. I'm 24 now, and this new stuff is absolute jibberish to me!

What is the difference between an i7-4770 Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD, and an i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD... because the price tag is VERY DIFFERENT! Is there that noticable of a difference?

Also, I was in the days of AGP graphics cards.... now I'm seeing that pretty much everything is PCI Express. What is the huge advantage over PCI Express? I understand you can link two graphics cards together to "double" the output, but good lord I'm so cave man status!
Is there a huge difference when choosing different manufactures for the graphics card? I'm seeing many cards that are the exact same, but with different manufactures. Is that kinda like..... a Taurus 1911, a Colt 1911, and RIA 1911... obviously the colt 1911 is the best out of them, but the others will still get the job done?

It really sucks to use to know hardware so well, and to now be so lost!!!!

 

[kiddchaos]

I'm doing this one, on an i7 laptop with graphics card.
Arma 3 | Official Website

 

[68_F100]

I'm on newegg right now, pricing out parts... and I'm so overwhelmed!
When I was about 16-18yrso, I knew EVERYTHING about the current hardware, I could tell you what everything meant. I'm 24 now, and this new stuff is absolute jibberish to me!

What is the difference between an i7-4770 Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD, and an i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD... because the price tag is VERY DIFFERENT! Is there that noticable of a difference?

Also, I was in the days of AGP graphics cards.... now I'm seeing that pretty much everything is PCI Express. What is the huge advantage over PCI Express? I understand you can link two graphics cards together to "double" the output, but good lord I'm so cave man status!
Is there a huge difference when choosing different manufactures for the graphics card? I'm seeing many cards that are the exact same, but with different manufactures. Is that kinda like..... a Taurus 1911, a Colt 1911, and RIA 1911... obviously the colt 1911 is the best out of them, but the others will still get the job done?

It really sucks to use to know hardware so well, and to now be so lost!!!!

Get the Haswell CPU and a good board to back it up. Ivy will be end of life soon.

I like Nvidia cards for graphics. The higher your monitor resolution the bigger card you are going to want. 3gb of GPU memory should be ok for most setups. If you go Nvidia look for the GTX 760 if you are on a budget. It's around 300$ and should work well. If money isn't an issue a 780GTX is nice. I run two 680 GTX cards in sli and i7 2600k overclocked to 4.7 water cooled. I get around 160 fps in all maps.

 

[SpaldingPM]

So in comparison to say a GTX 760 paired with a has well 3.4Ghz i7 quad core... how does the PS4 stick up. How many x less powerful is it, if that's measurable

 

[68_F100]

So in comparison to say a GTX 760 paired with a has well 3.4Ghz i7 quad core... how does the PS4 stick up. How many x less powerful is it, if that's measurable

That's a hard comparison to make. A ps4 is a standard hardware configuration developers have to stay in the confines of. But they can optimize every aspect of a game to work within that scope. With a PC the hardware combinations are limitless so it's best guess for developers.

 

[Bonehead]

It took me a month or two of research to finalize what I wanted in my build.......lot of reading reviews and computer forums till my head hurt LOL

 

[Maximinus Thrax]

Overall, I love it, however something just doesn't seem right about it. For a late production game, in comparison with many others, the texture and graphics are god awful. The gameplay is excellent, minus the dbag kids who only snipe 24/7. I have it on Xbox 360.
I plan on selling a 1911 to fund a ps4 upon release, and upgrade to BF4 on the new system, but until then... I'm insulted with the graphics. It looks bad... very bad. BF2 had better texture.

Is there any news of a HD texture patch like bf3 had?

Yeah, they're called the xBone, PS4, and the PC. I expect they've dumbed it down for the 360.

Keep in mind that the 360 is a 7yo computer system. Good luck playing anything released recently on a computer built 7 years ago and have it look all nice and pretty.

 

[Jludo]

I hope they fixed it but when I was playing the Beta I couldn't run my graphics cards in SLI/Crossfire mode. Needless to say it was pretty terrible, trying to run BF4 on a single Radeon 6850.

 

[SpaldingPM]

Yeah, they're called the xBone, PS4, and the PC. I expect they've dumbed it down for the 360.

Keep in mind that the 360 is a 7yo computer system. Good luck playing anything released recently on a computer built 7 years ago and have it look all nice and pretty.

I believe you missed the point...
BF3 had an optional HD texture update that you could download. It made the game look a hell of a lot better. BF3's graphics are still steller imo, especially for a "7 year old computer."
I would compare BF4's graphics to BF2, but with even less texture and bad frame rate drop in times. It just doesn't seem to run very smooth.
I just don't know how you can go from BF3 with the pre-rendered graphics and background scenery looking gorgeous, to BF4 looking like the audience in fight night round 1.
I understand 360 runs on 30fps and the newer systems will be 60fps, but still... BF is known for an over the top realistic pre-rendered atmosphere, and you just don't get that on BF4.

 

[Maximinus Thrax]

I believe you missed the point...
BF3 had an optional HD texture update that you could download. It made the game look a hell of a lot better. BF3's graphics are still steller imo, especially for a "7 year old computer."
I would compare BF4's graphics to BF2, but with even less texture and bad frame rate drop in times. It just doesn't seem to run very smooth.
I just don't know how you can go from BF3 with the pre-rendered graphics and background scenery looking gorgeous, to BF4 looking like the audience in fight night round 1.
I understand 360 runs on 30fps and the newer systems will be 60fps, but still... BF is known for an over the top realistic pre-rendered atmosphere, and you just don't get that on BF4.

No, I get your point. I just didn't set my expectations very high with BF4's graphics capabilities in comparison to BF3. The 360 release isn't really the mainstay of the game. Sure, some additional effort could have been put into it but how much does it really matter when people are going to be shifting over to the newer systems within a couple of months anyway? How relevant is the 360 version going to be in 6 months? In a word-->zero. Releasing BF4 on 360 is almost like releasing a Beta on a massive scale but people are paying big money for it and they're not building new infrastructure to support it. Personally, I think it's brilliant.

As to the pre-rendered atmosphere, there were still plenty of problems with BF3 rendering even as updates leveled out. How many times were you flying your attack chopper or jet just a little too low on Karg Island only to slam into a light pole that wasn't there a second ago?

 

[ZombieApocolypse]

Keep in mind that the 360 is a 7yo computer system. Good luck playing anything released recently on a computer built 7 years ago and have it look all nice and pretty.

GTA 5 looks absolutely AMAZING. I think i'll stick with my $300 console as opposed to spending thousands.

 

[SpaldingPM]

No, I get your point. I just didn't set my expectations very high with BF4's graphics capabilities in comparison to BF3. The 360 release isn't really the mainstay of the game. Sure, some additional effort could have been put into it but how much does it really matter when people are going to be shifting over to the newer systems within a couple of months anyway? How relevant is the 360 version going to be in 6 months? In a word-->zero. Releasing BF4 on 360 is almost like releasing a Beta on a massive scale but people are paying big money for it and they're not building new infrastructure to support it. Personally, I think it's brilliant.

As to the pre-rendered atmosphere, there were still plenty of problems with BF3 rendering even as updates leveled out. How many times were you flying your attack chopper or jet just a little too low on Karg Island only to slam into a light pole that wasn't there a second ago?

I am def going to have to agree with your theory.
However, the light poles in which you discussed... they are not pre-rendered. Pre-rendered graphics are those that are just that... pre rendered and are not subject to change with any thing to do with the gameplay...ie, the sky, mountains, distant buildings, distant rockets and gunfire, and water for the most part (which looks AWFULLLLLLL in BF4), and the buildings that cant be blown up. That is something that dice is known to do very well on. Regardless of the graphics and texture, I play the crap out of it and find it fun, I will def be doing g the $10 trade in for PS4 though.

And Zombie, I agree. GTAV looks fanomimal!

 

[bkeesler]

I agree with the first post. It looks weak graphically, although the game play is probably the best so far. Excited to see how Call of Duty Ghosts competes.

 

[Maximinus Thrax]

GTA 5 looks absolutely AMAZING. I think i'll stick with my $300 console as opposed to spending thousands.

In reality, you could build a BF4 capable computer for less than 1K and have something that is more useful in every way than any console. You don't need to spend thousands unless you're obsessed with ultra high-res graphics, multiple screens, and frame rates that are so ridiculous that even I have trouble fathoming them. With the stunts that Microsoft tried to pull on the xBone I'm just going to go ahead and put the money I was going to put into the xBone and upgrade my computer to run as a Home Theater PC that I also game on.

I am def going to have to agree with your theory.
However, the light poles in which you discussed... they are not pre-rendered. Pre-rendered graphics are those that are just that... pre rendered and are not subject to change with any thing to do with the gameplay...ie, the sky, mountains, distant buildings, distant rockets and gunfire, and water for the most part (which looks AWFULLLLLLL in BF4), and the buildings that cant be blown up. That is something that dice is known to do very well on. Regardless of the graphics and texture, I play the crap out of it and find it fun, I will def be doing g the $10 trade in for PS4 though.

And Zombie, I agree. GTAV looks fanomimal!

Yeah, thinking of it as a post-Beta Beta makes the graphics easier to swallow. I just assumed it even before I started playing it. I'll agree with you on the pre-rendered environments. You can definitely tell where they put their effort. However, given what systems BF4 was intended for, I'm inclined to believe that the pre-rendered issues are just sacrifices made to make it work on the 360. Keep in mind I have yet to experience it on the PC but in order to make a game as advanced as BF4 work on such an old system something had to give. They have already cut frame rates down to a minimum and the resolution isn't true HD. Where else do you make cuts?

 

[Hop]

Well crap. I just bought it for XBL 360 last night but haven't tried it yet. I hope it's decent at least. I liked the tanks, planes and choppers better in BF3 over the COD games. A good chopper pilot and crew can do some serious damage in BF3.

 

[SpaldingPM]

In reality, you could build a BF4 capable computer for less than 1K and have something that is more useful in every way than any console. You don't need to spend thousands unless you're obsessed with ultra high-res graphics, multiple screens, and frame rates that are so ridiculous that even I have trouble fathoming them. With the stunts that Microsoft tried to pull on the xBone I'm just going to go ahead and put the money I was going to put into the xBone and upgrade my computer to run as a Home Theater PC that I also game on.



Yeah, thinking of it as a post-Beta Beta makes the graphics easier to swallow. I just assumed it even before I started playing it. I'll agree with you on the pre-rendered environments. You can definitely tell where they put their effort. However, given what systems BF4 was intended for, I'm inclined to believe that the pre-rendered issues are just sacrifices made to make it work on the 360. Keep in mind I have yet to experience it on the PC but in order to make a game as advanced as BF4 work on such an old system something had to give. They have already cut frame rates down to a minimum and the resolution isn't true HD. Where else do you make cuts?

My neighbor has it for PC, and "when it works" its absolutely awe inspiring. I mean seriously, its unlike anything I've ever seen. Its hard to believe its a game.
I would love to fund a high end PC, but right now, thats just not going to be possible... now if I get on either one of the 2 police depts i've applied for, that may be a different story. The PC i currently have is a HP: model POS! I'm due for an upgrade.
I'm hoping however with the purchase of the ps4, and its 8gb of memory, I'll be able to use that as a makeshift home PC until I make the plunge.
I have a pretty high end laptop, but that's for school use and graphical software for projects. I've never really liked laptops honestly.

 

[Bonehead]

You guys are making me want to buy BF4......... but I must resist .........at least for a little while LOL

 

[SpaldingPM]

You guys are making me want to buy BF4......... but I must resist .........at least for a little while LOL

Wait to xbone or ps4