Battlefield 3 - & graphics card.

[shaunwil]

Are you running the most up to date Catalyst drivers ?? They have released ones specifically for this game (and Rage, Arkham City etc) that where updates.

Im running a Geforce GT570 graphics card (not very cheap) and it seems to be more than manly for the job. Runs Crysis 2 at 1080p with Directx11 and High detail mode at about 30-35fps. Runs Arkham Asylum at 60fps at 1080p with everything at max, with normal PhysX.

What you should find the Gaming PC is more than man to do all your work stuff.

Shaun

[Grant Monkhouse]

Can you guys please refrain from speaking Latin, more commonly known as geek speak.

[Casey]

I don\'t want to run on low settings, I asked for a competent graphics card.

The HD 6450 is a "budget" gaming card which can be purchased for about £30-£35. Bearing in mind graphics cards range in price from ~£25 to ~£600, I wouldn\'t expect much from it.

If you LOOK AT THESE BENCHMARKS you\'ll note your card is almost at the bottom of the list on this gaming benchmark test.

Don\'t get me wrong, the card does very well for the money, but it doesn\'t cost a lot

I think you may have grounds to complain to Dell and get an upgrade, but they\'ll probably sting you on price as all Dell "after sales" parts are horrendously expensive in my experience.

BTW, I\'m with Lacey and Shaun, preferring nVidia graphics cards.

[Casey]

The graphics card, AMD Radeon HD 6450, is struggling, even on the games lowest settings.

That\'s a bit strange - I\'d expect that card to deliver OK with on game\'s low detail settings, just not to deliver at the high detail end.

As Lacey said, we really need to know a minimum of;

Processor type
RAM (type and amount)

to know if there is a performance "bottleneck" eslewhere in your PC. If you are runing less than 4Gb RAM, then you won\'t get the best form Windows 7.

[johnf]

Spec of the pc..

Vostro 460 : Standard Base 1 S
Processor : Intel Core I5-2500 (3.3GHz, 6MB) 1 S
Resource DVD : Vostro 460 MT Diagnostics and Drivers 1 S
Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 1333MHz 1 S
Hard Drive : 500GB (7200RPM) 1 S
Optical Drive : 16X DVD +/-RW Drive 1 S
Optical Drive : Roxio Creator 10.3 Software 1 S
Power Cord : UK 2M 1 S
Display : 23in E2311H UK/Irish Black Wide E-series LED (1920x1080) TCO5.0 DVI-D 1 S
Graphics : 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6450 1 S
Speakers : External Dell AX210CR Black USB 1 S
Mice : Dell Optical (Not Wireless), Scroll USB (3 buttons scroll) Black Mouse 1 S
Keyboard : UK/Irish (QWERTY) Dell KB212-B QuietKey USB Keyboard Black 1 S
Operating System : English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Professional (64 BIT) with Recovery DVD 1 S
Software : Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook 1 S
Dell Support Center 3.0 1 S
AntiVirus : Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security 3.5 (15 month) Software MUI 1 S
Software : Adobe Reader - Multi Language 1 S
Base Warranty 1 S
1 Year Collect and Return 1 S
3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day 1 S
Declined Pro Support 1 S
INFO 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day 1 S

[Casey]

^^ Processor and RAM should be fine for gaming, so it seems the major bottleneck is most likely the graphics card. Still surprised if Battlefield 3 won\'t run well on the low detail settings though, which might suggest you have other processes/services/programs running in the background, hogging resource? Dell PCs used to have a reputation for being delivered with pre-installed "crapware" - things like 30 day trials of loads of rubbish......not sure if that\'s still the case.

Your security software will also have an impact on performance. My personal preference is for AVG, and my pet hate is McAfee. All the others fall somewhere in between.

[shaunwil]

I have same processor and its been fine.

Here is a spec list for that game !

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/323859/build-a-pc-for-battlefield-3-nvidia-shows-you-how/

Shaun

[shaunwil]

Plus have a gander at :

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,review-32308.html

Shaun

[Lacey]

Looks like it is just your graphics card from thw write-up but to be perfectly honest the Vostro is NOT a \'gaming\' pc, its not from Dell\'s Gaming systems range, it\'s more of a Low-End consumer product that\'s not really built for modern gaming at high spec.

To be perfectly honest when you\'re looking at pre-built computers (full bundles with tower, monitor and all peripherals) if it costs less than £1000 (pre built ready to go) then it\'s not a gaming machine in the slightest.

You can build a hell of a lot better yourself if you know how for a lot less, my pc is as follows,

AMD 3.2 Phenom-II Quad Core

8gb DDR3 Corsair ram

NVidia GTX460OC

Asus Motherboard

LG 3D Monitor

NVidia 3DVision

All of the above costs at most £650 to put together and is more than capable of playing ANY game currently on the market at MEDIUM spec at the very least, custom builds are far cheaper than buying pre-built machines, or if you\'re going to buy pre-built, buy from a specialist like Novatech, not a generic place like Dell, PC World, Dixons, Curry\'s etc

[johnf]

the Vostro is NOT a \'gaming\' pc

This machine was primarily bought as a \'work\' machine.

Large Photoshop. Illustrator, Corel files etc.

However back to my original post where I asked for a spec from Dell that would  handle the above and play the latest games with a decent graphics card.

I am coming to the conclusion that this may not be good enough.

Still waiting for feed back from Dell.

[iaint]

I\'d simply swap out the the GFX card for something with some guts John.

To put it in comparison, I game a lot and also use the computer for work. I\'m considering upgrading my GFX card (from HD5870 to HD6690 or GTX590) at them moment and my current card is rated ~ 10x more powerful than the one in your PC!

As others said, everything else looks ok.

[shaunwil]

What resolution are you running at on your PC ? I\'ve found the GT570 more than man enough for anything at 1080p.

The GT580 seemed like very little for 100quid more. The GT590 is a very noisy card too, a lot of people water cool them. Hate to think the size of the radiator needed. My GT570 runs on a Zalman Tower and (x2) 360mm Radiators !

Shaun

[Casey]

...... to be perfectly honest the Vostro is NOT a \'gaming\' pc.....

Having personally built more than a 1000 custom built PC\'s during the period 1998-2009, I always had long discussions with customers about their intended usage before deciding the spec. Budget v performance was always a trade-off and "gaming" to one customer was not the same as "gaming" to another. Some customers just wanted to play "simple", non-graphic intensive games, others wanted to play fully 3D immersive games. The price range from one "gaming" PC to another could easily be a ratio of 1 to 3 (eg £400 to £1200).  My point being, it\'s extemely hard to define a "gaming" PC, as it\'s a continium of products.

I agree with Lacey, the Vostro "chassis" is essentially aimed at a "home & business use" cutomer. Dell have added a better graphics card to compensate which, for the "light" gaming end of the market, could be deemed as acceptable. The XPS and "Alienware" chassis are the main Dell "serious" gaming machine platforms, but consequently cost more.

I\'d class Battlefield 3 at the "serious" end of the gaming spectrum as it generates an immersive 3D environment.

I reckon, as others have said, that if you buy a better graphics card then this should improve things considerably. One thing that hasn\'t been mentioned is that a better graphics card may have a much higher power consumption. Dell were never very generous with spare PSU capacity. I\'d always put a good quality 600W+ PSU into a serioud gaming PC, but I wouldn\'t be surprised if the Vostro had more than 400W, so it MAY (stress MAY) cause the PSU to run hotter and shorten it\'s life.

[iaint]

I wouldn\'t be surprised if the Vostro had more than 400W, so it MAY (stress MAY) cause the PSU to run hotter and shorten it\'s life.

That\'s a very very good point.  Having an over-specced power supply is one of the best ways to keep temps down and prolong PC life.

One old PC had a 450W PSU, I swapped it for a 1000W PSU and saw an immediate 20C drop in internal temps.  It solved the issues I was having with instability and overheating.

[iaint]

The GT590 is a very noisy card too, a lot of people water cool them.

That said the Nvidia cards are way quieter than the equivalent ATI ones!

The HD6990 is very very loud under full load.  I\'d definately consider adding extra cooling to any card but even when pressed my system runs at ~45C case temps, CPU runs a bit cooler due to a very large lump of aluminium.