Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

[Noni]

I would say this is probably the minimum spec for playing BF2 1280x1024 all high and 2xAA.

CPU- 3200+ VENICE or 3700+ SAN DEIGO, the 3700 can reach FX55 speeds most of the time. The venice can reach 3800+ speeds, both good chips. But as we know, CPU is not the most important.

MEMORY- Make sure you have 2GB!!!! Its essential for all high! I would reccomend 2x1GB sticks, as 4x 512mb cause problems on some boards. Minimum timings- 3-3-3-8.

HARDRIVE- Not the most important, but SATA with a 16mb cache is nice.

GRAPHIC CARD- This is the most important, the 6800GS is probably the minimum (6600GT just dont cut it in my opinion, but some people may disagree). You will need the 256mb GDDR3 for the textures! Try and get a 7800GT, great card.

SOUND CARD- AUDIGY 2 ZS, enough said.

I hope this has helped some people.

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

I agree with most of that, i dont think that the CPU needs to be that powerfull, anything over a Sempron 3000+ is enouugh to cut it,as the CPU's of today are very powerfull.

Also you do not need 2 Gigs, although i do recomend it, but you can get away with 1.5.

[Jofaba]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

I use my motherboard's sound. I want to get a soundcard one day but honestly, I really don't need it. It's loud, bright, clear, and I have high standards. It offers a great 3D atmosphere that's wonderful as a third eye in BF2, but since BF2 is such a resource hog and a little buggy, I wonder if that's one of the reasons that it bogs down sometimes, and that Special Forces can't quite keep up on my rig. I run sound on hardware medium.

[Jofaba]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

(I wish I could say that I'm only having problems with BF2 and Special forces but that'd be a lie. I keep thinking that I should be able to run all high with as much AA and AF as I want, but FEAR, COD2, Serious Sam 2 and even Halflife 2 sometimes, runs poorly. I don't have my SATA right now though. I'm getting it replaced and am running completely on my 300 7,200rpm with an 8gb partition for Windows. However, it's only a 8mb cache. )

[[=RDR=] RadoN]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

Do you guys think upgrading to a BFG 6800 Ultra 256mb AGP would be worth it over the X800 XT-PE I have now?

[Jofaba]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

probably not but it's really up to you. How old is the card, how much did you pay, have you tried overclocking it (although BF2 doesn't seem to like overclocking some other games might). In the end you just have to decide if you have the money to put towards it and you're willing to prepare for being slightly disappointed. Even people with 7800s are having problems. Not everyone, but you might fall into that catagory as well. I've been questioning every piece of equipment I own, I used my warrenties to replace my hard drive, videocard, and DVD drive. And I replaced my ram (and sold my old). The only thing I HAVEN'T replaced is the processor and motherboard and yes, i question those too. It's a vicious cycle, especially if it ends up not being the hardware. Good luck!

[NoSoup4You]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

Do you guys think upgrading to a BFG 6800 Ultra 256mb AGP would be worth it over the X800 XT-PE I have now?

No. These two cards are really not that much different.

[whofriggincares]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

I use an X800Pro that is barely OC and I run on all high. I forget what my fps is, I know it's not high, but it's not low enough to cause any lag.

[1dsandtrap]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

is a 6600GT better than a 6800?

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

A vanilla 6800, probably. But a 6800ultra,gs,gt would be much better.

[BOBSONATOR025]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

err i have 1gb of ram and i can play all high @ 1280 x1020 and get 75 fps,,,, or i can do the same settings and then but AA x2 and get a decent 52 fpsavg

[bob332]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

running a stock 3200 venice will be fine as with bf2 the game is more gpu limited than cpu limited.

what seems to take up the ram is the texture quality, if you drop it down to medium you really can't tell the difference and it drops the amount of used ram.

imo, running 1280x960 and having 4-6AA on with medium texture is an excellent setup and keeps the total ram down a bit, enough to even squeek by on 1GB (if your computer idles at ~240MB or less) even when running stock onboard sound at medium quality.

[Umi.Ryuuzaki]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

Well...BF2 is a GPU/Memory depandant game...

my recommendations:

CPU: AMD Athlon 3200-3500+ = You play other games than BF2 probably, chances are. Still need a decent CPU for some of the newer games...

Memory: 2GB for everything up. Still kinda dependant on what video card. 1.5 is a good number for some system configurations.

Video Card: 6800GT AGP/ 6800 256mb edition/6800GS on PCI-E, or ATI x8xx series with 256 mb of Vram, or better - allows you to play at high with 1.5/2gb of ram. For even higher FPS, a 7800/X1800 series card will definately do the trick.

Hard Drive - not a big variable, but a good, fast and defragmented hard drive will keep things running smooth in-game

Sound Card - Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS or X-FI - off load the sound componant off the CPU to the sound card - it does help significantly.

[ksmarty]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

Is the reason I'm having lag due to my video card or my settings? I'm upgrading to 2GB Memory this weekend.
Here is my video card. I have a dell dimesion 8400 Pent4/3.2Ghz
Card name: RADEON X300 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON X300 SE (0x5B60)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5B60&SUBSYS_03021002&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200

[bob332]

Re: Probably the minimum spec to play BF2 on high SMOOTHLY

Is the reason I'm having lag due to my video card or my settings? I'm upgrading to 2GB Memory this weekend.
Here is my video card. I have a dell dimesion 8400 Pent4/3.2Ghz
Card name: RADEON X300 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON X300 SE (0x5B60)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5B60&SUBSYS_03021002&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200

you problem is 100% your video card. upgrading to 2GB will not help you at all since the gpu is weak. put the $$ toward a video card, at least a 6800gt/ultra or x800xtpe or higher and you can even stick with 1GB, look at my rig in sig and also the link to the article i created for the settings to be able to keep just 1GB.