Horrible performance on Battlefield 3 - not sure why.

[CaesarIRE]

So, as the thread title says, Battlefield 3 runs pretty awful on my PC. So bad that it seriously effects my gameplay, and puts me off playing altogether many times.
As a little background info, these are my computer specs:

Nvidia GTX560SE
4GB DDR2 RAM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2 dual core
Windows 8 32 bit (I know it's not Win 7 but I've just upgraded from Vista so I know my OS isn't the problem.)
ASUSTek M3A32-MVP Deluxe (Mobo)

So, with this setup, I get around 15-low 20s fps on Battlefield 3. It very rarely reaches 30 at all, and most of the time hovers around 20. Every graphical setting is the lowest it can go. I run at 1920x1080.
I know that my CPU is my weak point but upgrading is not a viable option right now unfortunately. That said, I really don't think the game should run that terribly, surely I should be able to run it on at least the lowest settings smoothly? My graphics drivers are up to date. My Mobo hasn't been updated since I got it (2008 I think), as I'm not confident enough to do it comfortably, but I'm open to it if anyone thinks it'd make a big difference.

Does anyone have any ideas how I could boost performance? I just don't get it, I love playing Total War games and I can play Shogun 2 (the newest Total War) with everything on Ultra and it runs perfectly. All of my other games work great too, although BF3 and Shogun 2 are probably the most demanding ones I play. I'm not kidding myself, I know my setup is not top of the range, but I just want to ideally play BF3 on medium settings or around there with smooth gameplay.



If you need any more information please ask, and thank you for reading.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm not a gamer but these will help the gamers help you.


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

 

[CaesarIRE]

Thanks for the tip, I've updated my specs info.

 

[Apprentrice5]

Just out of curiosity have you tried running at a lower resolution?

 

[CaesarIRE]

I have tried a lower resolution but unfortunately it didn't make much of a difference. If I recall correctly, it ran at maybe 1 or 2 fps higher.

 

[M1GU31]

What about running in dx10 instead of 11? That might boost some fps.

 

[oreo27]

From my recollection on some of my friend's desktops, Battlefield 3 uses some pretty heavy processor resources. I believe you need a better processor to play that game with a decent FPS.

[Solved] CPU Bottleneck In Battlefield 3? - CPUs - CPU-Components

 

[CaesarIRE]

Thanks for the comments guys. I've tried in DX10 and unfortunately still the same.

After reading up on it a bit more, I've decided to upgrade to the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor as from what I can see this will dramatically increase gameplay and futureproof my system for a bit further.

Thanks once again for the help!

 

[oreo27]

Thanks for the comments guys. I've tried in DX10 and unfortunately still the same.

After reading up on it a bit more, I've decided to upgrade to the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor as from what I can see this will dramatically increase gameplay and futureproof my system for a bit further.

Thanks once again for the help!

That's a good processor, taking into account that you don't need to change your motherboard. Let us know how it goes.

 

[stormy13]

After reading up on it a bit more, I've decided to upgrade to the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor as from what I can see this will dramatically increase gameplay and futureproof my system for a bit further.

It should. When I played BF3 (so glad I wasted $60 on it) I had no problems with it on my x4 955 (see specs below). To give a rough idea as to the difference between what you have and the 965,

AnandTech - Bench - CPU

Quite a bit faster in everything. You will also see an increase because the 965 will be able to feed the video card faster as well. Not too mention that BF3 is one of the few games that is truly multithreaded and runs better the more cores that are available.

 

[Contrabardus]

Yeah. An upgrade is the only cure. Dice is kind of like Crytech, they expect to punish your system no matter how good it is with their newest releases. As I understand it, BF3 is one of the few games out at the moment that is designed to take advantage of quad core processors. [Believe it or not, most games still only make use of 2 even at their highest settings.] The processor is the weakest link in your setup there. Add to that the fact that more and more games will be coming out that will make use of 4core systems, and an upgrade is the best option.

You won't be running on ultra, but you should be able to get a decent framerate out of medium to high settings with a better processor on BF3.