Battlefield 3 graphics card drivers promise up to 38% performance boost

If you're field-stripping your PC in preparation for the Battlefield 3 multiplayer open beta launch this week, you'll want to download new graphics card drivers.

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If you're field-stripping your PC in preparation for the Battlefield 3 multiplayer open beta launch later this week, you'll want to break out new beta graphics card drivers... as well as the keyboard oil and mouse lube. Both AMD and Nvidia have special offerings for those looking to get their war on.

According to Nvidia, its new GeForce 285.38 beta drivers increase Battlefield 3 beta performance "by up to 38% compared to the 285.27 drivers." This is measured on a GeForce GTX 570 running at 2650x1600 in DirectX 11 mode, so most will see more modest boosts, but every little helps.

Nvidia's beta drivers are up for download now.

"Use these for BF3 beta this week," DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson advised plainly on his personal Twitter account.

AMD also plans to release a "special" driver for the Battlefield 3 beta this week, so Radeon users should stay frosty too. If you've got 99 problems, don't let video card drivers be one.

The Battlefield 3 open beta will launch for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 29, packing the map Operation Metro. If you pre-order BF3 from EA's digital store Origin, you get early access to the beta from September 27, as do those who pre-ordered Medal of Honor from anywhere.

The full game launches for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 25. After that, downloadable add-ons will be released for PlayStation 3 first as part of a timed exclusivity deal.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 26, 2011 12:30 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Battlefield 3 graphics card drivers promise up to 38% performance boost.

    If you're field-stripping your PC in preparation for the Battlefield 3 multiplayer open beta launch this week, you'll want to download new graphics card drivers.

    • reply
      September 26, 2011 12:32 PM

      "keybaord oil and mouse lube." yup alice wrote this.

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      September 26, 2011 12:39 PM

      AMD is probably waiting until they can get performance 39% better before releasing them.

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      September 26, 2011 12:41 PM

      I don't understand why anytime a new game comes out, nvidia has to ship out new drivers for it. I've never done graphics programming so its really a question but shouldn't games be built in a way such that the game works with the current drivers and dont need a special tweak?

      I mean you don't see every time a new cd comes out I need to update my ipod music adapter drivers. (I don't even have an ipod)

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        September 26, 2011 12:46 PM

        The game doesn't NEED the tweak. Promo's like this are usually geared towards computers heads who want the fullest experience possible. what AMD/nVidia does is more fanservice than anything. But it doesn't hurt to line your pockets as well.

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          September 26, 2011 12:54 PM

          38% performance increase is a need in my books.

          I'm not just saying this game, other games have had this happen too.

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            September 26, 2011 1:15 PM

            Well if it's a 570 and running 2560x1600...it could well be 38% increase from 10 fps, which would make it 14...big woop.

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              September 26, 2011 1:17 PM

              But you can run it at 640x480 at 392408320 fps instead of 392408211!!!!oneone

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              September 26, 2011 1:18 PM

              I do have a 570 actually :)

              If it was 40fps to 55.2 i'd like that quite alot.

              Beta drivers usually scare me but boasting a 38% performance increase tempts me into it. I'd assume it was the beta drivers if my game crashed but would other people? They'd likely be BF3 beta crashes like a bitch, pre-order cancelled.

              I mean its beta drivers, doing wild west deployment like this just screams problems to me.

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              September 26, 2011 1:20 PM

              A 37% increase in performance is huge, thats more than the difference between a gtx 570 / 580. Or the difference between AMD 6950/6970.

              I'll gladly take the 37% :D

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        September 26, 2011 12:51 PM

        Because it means that during the optimization of BF3, DICE / nvidia, learned that if they optimized the drivers in such a way, the game wouldn't run like ass on your SUPER DUPER EXPENSIVE VIDEO CARD!

        I wouldn't be surprised if davinci or one of his compatriots had a hand in this considering this is what they do.

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          September 26, 2011 12:52 PM

          additionally, there was a default error message in the BF3 alpha that said you needed to update to drivers that nvidia hadn't even released as of the release of the alpha. So this could have been a planned release all along --- ie DICE was developing to these drivers from the get go.

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            September 26, 2011 12:56 PM

            This would make more sense to me. How closely does Nvidia/ATI work with the developer?

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              September 26, 2011 1:28 PM

              You should pay more attention to DaVinci1980's posts

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            September 26, 2011 12:58 PM

            It's a TWIMTBP game after all...

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        September 26, 2011 12:52 PM

        You don't keep your video drivers up to date?

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          September 26, 2011 12:55 PM

          Not the point at all, of course I do, I just don't see why I need to update my drivers anytime a new game comes out.

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            September 26, 2011 1:02 PM

            Why? Not everyone is using the same engine to power the DX11 API. If a driver can help get to the metal with an optimized driver specifically for a developers engine then I'm all for it!

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            September 26, 2011 1:03 PM

            Rarely do you, first time in a long time I remember having to on release day for a game. Quitcherbitchin.

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        September 26, 2011 12:57 PM

        It's obvious by your post you should just stick to your console as you have no clue about games and video cards.

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          September 26, 2011 1:00 PM

          This post really wasn't necessary nor does it add anything to the discussion.

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          September 26, 2011 1:00 PM

          Yeah SlingBlaze stick to your console looser

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            September 26, 2011 1:01 PM

            Console. I just bought this new PC, aw man better quit trying. Sorry.

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          September 26, 2011 1:07 PM

          Yeah! GTFO console nub!!@1!

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            September 26, 2011 1:09 PM

            argument involving: 3dchipset, PCsupremacist...i love it

            I'm waiting for shackuser PS3 to join the fray

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              September 26, 2011 1:13 PM

              Hehe... It's not hard to know the facts about BF3. It's a NVIDIA TWIMTBP game. So why wouldn't NVIDIA and developer DICE (pimp) the NVIDIA driver? Second of all, NVIDIA has a marketing tool to test if your PC is ready for BF3. So yeah... NVIDIA is trying to sell cards for this game. Any company dealing with a developer like this will market to all get out for this title.

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                September 26, 2011 1:15 PM

                Its also an AMD gaming evolved title! So does bf3 use physx and all that jazz? This is perhaps the first game that was both Nvidia TWIMTBP *and* AMD gaming evolved.....*head assplodes*

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                  September 26, 2011 1:17 PM

                  No shit? It's also a gaming evolved game? lol... Crazy... I'm wondering too if the game uses PhysX... It's holding me back to purchasing cards for this game.

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                    September 26, 2011 1:20 PM

                    "It's not hard to know the facts about BF3."
                    "No shit? It's also a gaming evolved game? lol... Crazy... I'm wondering too if the game uses PhysX"

                    So it is hard to know facts about the game?

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                      September 26, 2011 1:23 PM

                      For the record now i'm just trying to troll you because you are rude, I don't actually want an answer.

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                      September 26, 2011 1:28 PM

                      It doesn't have physx.

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                        September 26, 2011 4:23 PM

                        grl u got dem physx up in dat uh yea

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                  September 26, 2011 1:31 PM

                  Where did you see that it's an AMD advertised game? I can't find any information that AMD is involved like NVIDIA is?

        • reply
          September 26, 2011 4:23 PM

          This is the kind of shit we have to deal with since Firefall.

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            September 28, 2011 2:53 AM

            You what now? Congrats on looking like an idiot and if the Firefall thing is some kind of meme then... well then congratulations on promoting a meme that makes you look like idiots. This is a Battlefield 3 thread! As such you should keep it OT by whining about the commo rose or saying things like "Oh my god, the assault is a medic. This is revolutionary and has never been seen before in any Battlefield game!"

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        September 26, 2011 1:10 PM

        Mostly for SLI or crossfire. Enabling sli/crossfire in a game usually requires a specific driver or profile to work properly.

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          September 26, 2011 1:13 PM

          This is the response I was looking for, everyone seems to think i'm trolling when I just don't understand why.

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            September 26, 2011 1:17 PM

            Also, they like to make changes to texture/model formats (once they know what formats the game uses) to speed up processing with their particular hardware.

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        September 26, 2011 1:39 PM

        Its so they can add profiles to the drivers that look for the BF3 filename/executable and then fudge the FPS a bit higher so they look better in benchmarks.

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          September 26, 2011 1:46 PM

          lol, judging nvidias history this would NOT surprise me. They have no ethics at all.

          That said, I have a gtx 580 and i'm ready for bf3. What bitch.

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            September 26, 2011 2:19 PM

            I just got a 570 :p

            And NVIDIA were caught doing that sort of thing with 3dmark in the past. They simply didnt render parts of a scene to get extra points on the benchmark.

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        September 26, 2011 1:41 PM

        could be anything. maybe they found an image quality hack they think gives the game a shitload more performance at minimal visual cost, or just routine optimizations... who can say since even the hardcore video card sites don't even seem to delve into these claims anymore.

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        September 26, 2011 1:49 PM

        I don't either. But I just download the driver, doubleclick setup, wait a couple minutes and then go about my business. Win7 doesn't even need reboots anymore!

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        September 26, 2011 1:55 PM

        I always assumed this was because the drivers have to take into consideration new technical aspects of what the game does to optimize things like shader routines, which are basically mini-programs. So, if a new shader does something never seen before, then the driver can be optimized to handle the new ideas better than the stock processing. Along the same lines as adding hints to a SQL query. It'll work if the tables are indexed right, but will go a lot faster if you add hints for the times the tables aren't indexed the way you need them.

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        September 26, 2011 2:36 PM

        Developers work with graphic card devs throughout the game dev process. I'm sure they have been using these beta drivers for a while.

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      September 26, 2011 1:47 PM

      Are there any active deals for BF3?

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      September 26, 2011 2:45 PM

      From Twitter
      CatalystCreator Andrew D
      Plan is to release Cat 11.10 preview driver (BF3 driver) sometime in next 24 hours. Official Catalyst 11.9 will post Wednesday

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        September 26, 2011 6:49 PM

        What a blow to the stomach. I guess if you have anything below a nV GTX560 it'll just say you should upgrade.

        My 285 did alright in the alpha, though I can't even imagine the abuse it's going to take with way more people and way more shit going on. I hope it'll survive. :(

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          September 26, 2011 6:53 PM

          I think you'll be ok but you can't play at high quality settings or 1080p

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        September 26, 2011 7:07 PM

        Your PC's ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series does not meet the game's recommended requirements.
        The recommended GPU for Battlefield 3 is a GeForce GTX 560 or higher. Check below to see some upgrade options. To see other system requirements for Battlefield 3, please click here.

        oh no!!!!!!!!

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          September 28, 2011 2:46 AM

          Still meets the minimum specs though right?

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      September 26, 2011 5:37 PM

      I guess my 8600M GT isn't going to cut it, is it?

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