Battlefield 4 – PC Performance Analysis

Battlefield 4 v5

Prior to its release, Battlefield 4 was advertised as a genre-defining all-out war experience brought to life with unmatched visual and audio fidelity, superior character animations and dynamic destruction that would show people what Frostbite 3 is capable of. Well, Battlefield 4 has finally been released and it’s time to see how this puppy performs on the PC platform.

As always, we used an overclocked Q9650 (4.2Ghz) with 4GB of RAM, an Nvidia GTX690, the latest version of the GeForce ForceWare drivers and Windows 7 64-Bit. According to its official specs, Battlefield 4 requires at least a dual-core CPU. Now we have to be honest here; those with weaker dual-core CPUs will encounter A LOT of stuttering issues with BF4. While simulating a dual-core CPU, we found BF4 unplayable due to the constant stuttering and the really low framerate (even on low details). DICE suggests an Intel i5 as a minimum requirement, so that CPU may fare better than an older dual-core CPU.

According to the official specs, 8GB of RAM is required for 64-Bit OSs, while GPUs packed with 3GB of vRAM are a must. Well, we are happy to report that Battlefield 4 did not use more than 2.5GB of RAM. Not only that, but the game was running fine on max settings at 1080p on our GTX690 (well, apart from various scenes but we’ll get on that later). As you may already know, a GTX690 is packed with 4GB of vRAM. However, those 4GBs are split in two, meaning that each core of our dual-card has access to 2GBs. In other words, GPUs with 2GBs of vRAM will be able to handle this title with ease. The only way to push the limits of the vRAM is by forcing higher resolutions than 1080p with MSAA enabled, or by using 200% scale at 1080p (which is basically running the game at a 4K resolution).

BF4 PC Performance

A lot of our readers wondered why we’re still using a Q9650 instead of a newer CPU. The answer is simple; we want to see whether games will finally take advantage of our CPU cores. As we’ve seen in the past, most games are optimized for tricores, meaning that our quadcore has not been pushed to its limits. And this is what our analyses are mainly for; to see whether a game is pushing the limits of all CPUs and GPUs instead of relying to the additional raw power found on newer CPUs.

Frostbite 3 is meant to be an engine that takes advantage of more than three CPU cores. Well, we’ve got some good and some bad news for you. The good news is that there were two occasions where we saw slight differences between a tricore and a quadcore. In short, Frostbite 3 seems able to use more than three CPU cores. The bad news is that most of the times – and especially when we were CPU limited – there was no difference between a tricore and a quadcore, meaning that Battlefield 4 could run better than its current form.

quadcore no4 performance differencestricore no4 performance differences

Let’s take a closer look at some scenes, shall we? As we can clearly see in the following comparison shots, the difference between tricores and quadcores is almost non-existent. Yes, Battlefield 4 scales amazingly well on quadcores as we can see from the CPU graph, however there are no significant performance gains.

quadcore no1tricore no1quadcore no2tricore no2quadcore no3tricore no3quadcore no4tricore no4

Furthermore, some scenes are not properly optimized. Take for example this particular scene. As we can see, we were getting 63fps on that scene but when we moved a little forward, we witnessed an enormous 30fps jump. In order to avoid any SLI scaling issues, we disabled SLI and noticed the same behavior. And no, we were not GPU limited in that scene. We’ve also noticed significant slowdowns at the end of the Shanghai mission, even though there was nothing on screen to justify the low framerate. The funny thing here is that the game ran amazingly well at the start of that particular mission, even when there were a lot of NPCs on screen.

scene with performance issues defaultscene with performance issues moving slightly forward

Nvidia and DICE claimed that the latest GeForce driver is the one we should be using. Unfortunately, the game suffers from a lot of flickering when SLI is enabled. The only way to fix this issue is by disabling SLI, therefore we strongly suggest PC gamers with such systems to either wait for a new driver or to disable it. But then again, what’s the point of owning an SLI system if you can’t take advantage of it? Apart from those flickering issues, Nvidia’s SLI profile seems to be working fine, though there were occasions when SLI scaling was not ideal (despite the fact that we were not CPU limited). Hopefully Nvidia will fix/address those issues in a new driver version.

Battlefield 4 ran fine on our test system, though there were scenes in which our framerate dropped to 40s. Still, the overall gaming experience was wonderful, proving that an ‘ancient’ CPU is more than enough for next-gen titles. DICE has included a lot of graphics settings to tweak, so those with older GPUs will be able to adjust the game to their likings. There is also a FOV setting, so kudos to DICE. A single GTX680 is able to run Battlefield 4 at max settings, provided the in-game AA is disabled. Sadly, we could not test the game under Windows 8.1, so we don’t know whether there is any significant performance improvement (especially when it comes to the aforementioned scenes). However, we can comment on the difference between the x86 and the x64 versions of the game which is… non existent.

bf4 2013-10-30 04-19-29-40

Graphics wise, DICE’s shooter is the most beautiful FPS to date, and a title that pushes environmental destructibility to new heights. And no, we are not talking about the scripted events. Players can cause havoc on the game’s levels, can destroy houses, walls, ladders, you_name_it. Battlefield 4 does not provide FULL environmental destructibility (meaning that some objects and walls are indestructible), however what it’s offering is by far beyond anything we’ve seen thus far. DICE has used assets of high quality. The detail of the in-game characters surpass those found in Crysis 3, as is the overall destructibility. Battlefield 4 is better graphically than Crysis 3, that’s something we can now say with certainty. We know, we know – people will be able to notice some low-res textures here and there but we can safely say that the overall image quality seems to be on par with… The Division. You know, that next-gen title that turned a lot of heads? Well, the second mission of Battlefield 4 is more impressive – graphically – than what we’ve seen from The Division’s E3 gameplay footage. And that says a lot.

All in all, Battlefield 4 seems unable to properly take advantage of four CPU cores most of the times, though there are a few scenes where we can notice a slight difference between tricores and quadcores (only 5-6fps). Apart from that, the game performs great on older PC systems, though it is not as optimized as we had hoped to. And if the driving sections are any indication then we can safely say that Need For Speed: Rivals will not be as demanding as most people believe it to be. Frostbite 3 pushes the best visuals we’ve seen so far, and is the game that most of you can use to showcase what your GPUs are capable of. Well… that is if you are owners of Single GPUs as SLI users will have to wait for a new driver from Nvidia.

Enjoy!

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  • Stan

    test radeon GPU pls and 6 core cpu amd

    • John Papadopoulos

      hopefully we’ll have an R9 290X to test when Mantle is made available via a patch in December

      • Stan

        Thank you a lot

  • born2expire

    multiplayer benches please

    • randir14

      I can tell you already that multiplayer runs much better than single player. It doesn’t have the performance-killing bokeh filter from single player.

      • obimas

        Bokeh filter for realism i suppose. I hope for option to disable that and motion blur, the most pointless thing.

        • randir14

          There is an option to disable motion blur, or set it to whatever percentage you want.

  • Gmastershief

    Thanks, well my Gigabyte GTX 770 OC will rock ^^

    • Ayman Zahran

      you don’t need to worry about any game coming in the near future then you have a card for the future since it is better than GPUs of consoles
      I,myself still can crank the graphic settings with my Sapphire 6950HD dirt3 edition

    • Dakan45

      What the other guy said, future proof card right there, just get a powerfull cpu to avoid bottlenecks.

      • Mike Sombi

        Agreed.

  • http://steamcommunity.com/id/BrainFlush BrainFlush

    I will buy it in a few months. For as many games as I have in my Origin library I see no need to give them full price anymore. NOt when in a few months it will be discounted, I know that BF4 will not be 50% for a year but it will hit 30% soon. Just watch.

    • Kyle Jackson

      Same here, that and a few patches later it will be a bit smoother.

      • http://steamcommunity.com/id/BrainFlush BrainFlush

        Always. Funny thing about BF games, they seem to be the one game that always gets updated. Where as 80% of my EA library only got a patch the first month of 2 which still didn’t fix everything or add/remove bs. I like my EA games but have stopped caring about day one. And that sucks as I like to be first in the game. Oh well.

        • Kyle Jackson

          That came with growing up a bit for me. I had to have everything day one, now I have more patience, like in most of areas of my life, It’s an art to be enjoyed.

          • http://steamcommunity.com/id/BrainFlush BrainFlush

            2012 I bought everything day one. 2013 I bought 10 titles day one and stopped. 2014 I will not buy anything day one anymore. I can wait. It is hard but doable. :D

          • Kyle Jackson

            We can do it :D

    • http://half-left.deviantart.com/ Sean

      Yep, the only game I’m buying on launch is GTA 5 because me and my wife want it. It’s coming I know it is.

      • http://steamcommunity.com/id/BrainFlush BrainFlush

        We had plans to buy BF4 but after the beat test we decided to hold off, we both have BF3 and all DLC so it will do until later. I would want GTA5 but I am sick of Rockstar treating us like second class citizens. Sadly as I spend good money each month.

        • Dakan45

          Their porting is second class anyway, from what i heard nor gta iv or max payne 3 were ported to pc by rockstar north, but by other smaller rockstar studios, they just suck when it comes to pc. They need someone else to do it.

          • http://steamcommunity.com/id/BrainFlush BrainFlush

            The irony being that both GTA and Max both got their start on the PC. And that is just sad.

          • Dakan45

            The irony is that all the game who started on pc were dumbed down for consoletards at some point and they failed. Take your pick, there are plenty of examples.

          • Mike Sombi

            One version of the game (whether XBOX 360 or PS3) sold more in it’s first weekend than any pc game sold in a full year. Including your beloved Crysis 3.

          • Dakan45

            Right brah, crysis on pc has more sales than crysis 2 and 3 on consoles PWNED now gtfo.

  • Amir

    where are my comments john ? :))
    thanks for the P.A

    • John Papadopoulos

      they were pending for approval (due to the links). Should be visible now ;)

  • ihatedisqus3

    Is possible to destroy lights? How much dynamic is lighting in this game?

    • Amir

      yes. many

      • Mike Sombi

        YES!!!! :)

    • Erebos

      Only 1-2 in some maps.

  • Amir

    so after the first patch no more cloth physics ? is it a bug or it’s just me ? before that clothes are moving (the girl’s hate and Irish guy’s collar) but now they’re not

  • Mustard Rice

    Core I5 2500K @ 4.2 Ghz
    GTX 680 with Boost set to the 1200 range
    8 Gig of Ram
    Win7 64
    Vsync ON

    1080P Ultra , scale at 100% with 4x MSAA runs at a stable 60 FPS , dips into 50-40’s sometimes. 2x MSAA doesn’t really make too much of a difference

    Scale at 150% & 2x MSAA it runs at high 40’s dips into the 30’s still very playable and fluid without stutters but you do kinda feel like your weighted down instead of flying through the air when at a constant 60fps, this can be good or bad.

    Can’t discern too much difference at 150% does look a tiny bit better but you can’t really tell much difference vs 100%. It’s a mind game I guess do you want to strive for the coveted 1080p @ 60FPS or do you want the best image quality possible or you compromise where both are adequate and still superior to any console version.

    The GTX 680 is still a great card and I think the CPU in the review is bottle necking it from it’s true potential.

    • Mike Sombi

      Nice! I dig those specs. I want to get the Alienware X-51 soon after my PS4 :P
      Put them right underneath my 80lb tri-tube 1080p tv (literally)!

  • Dakan45

    I wouldnt say it looks as good as crysis 3.

    Lol battlelog appears in the hud on the singleplayer? I mean really? For a modern fps game that hides all hud to be more “immersive” shoving battlelog in your face is kinda weird.

    • totallymichael

      I definitely don’t agree that it’s as good as Crysis 3 graphically. One of the biggest reasons is Cryengine’s real-time local reflections. The only other game I’ve seen come close is the new Killzone. BF3 was completely lacking of any sort of real-time reflections and they did actually add it on a few surfaces in BF4, but they’re still very very sparse. I actually get surprised whenever I’m playing and I notice that something’s actually being reflected. I found a single puddle in the first mission, the wet concrete in the typhoon level, and a few puddles in the airport level. But, even when they do have real-time reflections, they pick and choose what’s being reflected in it. I even found a puddle that was only reflecting a soldier’s head, but not the rest of his body. Even Crysis 2 kills BF4 in this aspect. Crysis 2 made me realize just how big of a deal proper reflections are. At extreme angles, almost every material is reflective somewhat. Concrete, certain types of wood, plastic, metal, water, etc. So now whenever I play a game that doesn’t have it, it’s the biggest eyesore. Oh, also Cryengine’s real-time dynamic caustics are incredible. Frostbite doesn’t have any sort of caustics. Cryengine’s SSDO is definitely more accurate than BF4’s HBAO. I’m pretty sure that, aside from the ocean, there’s no tessellation in BF4. No displacement mapping or paralax occlusion, etc, etc. BF4 looks good, don’t get me wrong, but Cryengine is graphically superior in almost every way.

      • Dakan45

        So they added those reflections on crysis 2 dx11 patch but not on crysis 3?

        • totallymichael

          Crysis 2 patched it in, but in Crysis 3 all of those features were native.

          • Dakan45

            Offtopic, but i kinda dislike how guns and character faces look in bf3-4. I mean they are too bland artisticly, id say that in cod and crysis they look better. I dont know about bf4, but in bf3 the weapons and charcter faces were sooo bland and simplistic, they didnt feel believable.

          • http://zitrish.tumblr.com ZitrisH

            Agree.

          • Dakan45

            Yeah cod has more art and detail on weapons and objects and characters, bf3 has better graphics.

      • Erebos

        BF4 doesn’t even have parallax mapping that even the original Crysis had. It’s just a mess of flat textures, tons of smoke particles and glare.

    • Amir

      actually i guess crysis 3 is still better than BF4 too. no tessellation in BF4 (just water? ) is annoying, some enviorments dosen’t look very good. but physics in BF4 is cool, it has the same Dam as crysis 3 and they destroying it just like C3 and it’s beautifull.

      ps: they lied to us with the first gameplay they release for BF4 (fishing in baku), do you remember cloth simulation on their sleeves and their legs ? they are all gone, thanks to consoles or maybe they disabled it to re enabale them in BF5. in windy situations you can see hats moving on their heads but not sleeves ect…

      Battlelog: yeah is tracks your scores and comparing them with others, you can disable it in options i guess, if you don’t want to see it, i find it when i finished the game, lol.

      • Ammar Nayar

        I remember cloth animation and its nowhere to be seen which is annoying and to be honest the first gameplay trailer (fishing in Baku) looked a lot better than the final product we got, companies always do this which is really annoying!

  • Dakan45

    Nice job bro. ps that kid is still replying to me with 3 seperate acounts flooding my inbox wiht hundrends of messagse on every site, we talking about Grade A no life troll here.

    • Amir

      ha ha :)) let them be happy with their next (sub HD) gen

      • Dakan45

        I understand their next gen system hasnt arrived yet, so they got alot of free time to post bullcrap and they HOPE it will be super powerfull, but the reaillity is…they get what they pay for and this gen will be like pc, games will have to be cheaper for the development costs to be affordable.

        • Mike Sombi

          Your ignorance is entertaining. Troll on coward :)

          I find it strange that I’m suddenly the worst troll in the world but you can google people, stalk the threads they commented on in order to call them names and bash them. Now because I’ve managed to track your IP.. Now you’re too scared to troll lol Not even with one of your fake 9 accounts.

          If I am a grade A troll (as you say) what are you? I am only doing back what you did to me as well as others. Seems like you can’t take your own punishment ;)

          • Amir

            please don’t start this again bro

          • Mike Sombi

            I’m not starting anything.
            I don’t appreciate him stalking me on disqus and commenting on threads, telling people I am someone I’m not. Then when I return the favor, he goes and cries about it, suddenly I’m the crazy one? So he was right to google and troll every thread I was on but I am wrong? Lol Dont make me laugh.

            I find it funny that since I tracked his IP and figured out home address as well as his name, he hasn’t responded once. He probly never suspected it since he set his comments and profile to private.

            I think I’ve made my point. Like I said earlier. I only show the same respect that is done to me. Perhaps people should think twice before they run their mouth off and troll, speaking nonsense.

            So you tell me, what am I doing wrong?

          • Dakan45

            SHUT THE F’ UP You are stalking me and posting mesasges everyhwere.

            You track my ip? HAHAHAHA nice one.

            Okay then, come here, come to me, i am waiting for you, go ahead i am waiting you dumb f’. I got tired of your f’ing shit, i have a life, i dont have time to reply to your bullshit.

          • Dakan45

            he hasnt stopped, my inbox gets filled every day. He needs a ip ban from the entire internet.

          • Dakan45

            John can you just ban him? I got tired of getting inbox updates from his comments.

      • Mike Sombi

        Sure thing, I will :) Let’s not forget I have a good gaming rig and plan on getting a fully loaded Alienware X-51 too though.

  • Erebos

    I see a lot of wasted geometry in debris/trash flying around and yet no parallax mapping or tessellation anywhere to save those polygons.

    • Mike Sombi

      Very true.

  • Mike Sombi

    That’s why I love my gaming rig :D

  • Diwas Amatya

    How about 64 man conquest multiplayer analysis? Single player is no where near as stressful on cpus.