Is Battlefield 4 CPU or GPU Bound?

[ZombifiedPyro]

The title has the question. I want to know how much the CPU will affect BF4, I know the game is not out yet, but any replies would be great. I am planning a new computer and I am not sure whether I should dump more money into GPU or get a better CPU.

[Godlygamer23]

Frostbite relies heavily on the CPU and GPU. What is your current CPU?

[Excon]

WE DON"T KNOW! Why does everyone keep asking this? The beta hasn't even come out yet.

[Wferr]

Im saying prob. GPU bound but i got no clue.

[Godlygamer23]

WE DON"T KNOW! Why does everyone keep asking this? The beta has even come out yet.

You can give an answer. Is BF4 really going to be any different in terms of the CPU and GPU requirements? You can give an answer like "It'll rely heavily on both the CPU and GPU."

[Excon]

You can give an answer. Is BF4 really going to be any different in terms of the CPU and GPU requirements? You can give an answer like "It'll rely heavily on both the CPU and GPU."

Yes you can safely assume what it will take but there is no way to be 100% accurate. I'm against making broad assumptions. Him knowing the game is not out makes me more angry that he would ask.

[Hazy125]

From what I have observed so far, it will be very similar to what battlefield 3 currently is. BF3 uses both CPU and GPU but tends to benefit from having are powerful CPU, so depending what your definition of 'bound' the is, one could say that it is CPU bound. That being said, a balanced system will run it better than a powerful CPU and weak GPU

[ZombifiedPyro]

I was debating not asking because I did not really think I would get an answer, but I did anyway. I have not looked into the game at all, so I did not know if there were information leaks or videos or something. There are some things that you can use to figure out the performance of the game before it comes out, such as recommended specs (although they have been pretty much useless lately), filters, the games engine, etc. I might look into it more myself, but if somebody already knew, then I do not want to research.

[SpamBrie]

If it is anything like 3 it is mainly GPU but still may have bottlenecking problems on CPUs

[LAwLz]

Like with most modern games, you will most likely be bottlenecked by your GPU. By the way, the higher the settings the more bottlenecked you will be by your GPU.

No idea why people seem to think Battlefield 3 is CPU demanding, even an i3 is enough and the same will most likely be true for Battlefield 4 as well.

 

Battlefield 3 Performance: CPU Scaling (Tom's Hardware)

Battlefield 3 GPU & CPU Performance (TechSpot)

Battlefield 3 VGA and CPU performance benchmark test (Guru3D)

[Crowcore]

Lovely topic. I'm also interested in the answer. I have a very week CPU (Q8300) but my GPU (GTX 660) can handle anything at my resolution (1440x900). Metro Last Light and Crysis 3 are example of games that are extremely CPU heavy as well as GPU obviously. While playing Crysis 3, my 4 cores were at 100%. However, my GPU couldn't get past the 60% utilization and I was getting 25-35 FPS... Massive bottleneck. Battelfield 3 doesn't seem to be CPU heavy at all. I hope BF4 will be the same, otherwise I won't be able to play it until a new system build, which won't be anytime soon.

[ZombifiedPyro]

I thought it was mostly GPU bound, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for all the replies, I do not think I will be able to get my computer for a while still (cars are $$$), so I will be able to see after the beta or full game launches. I play a lot of Skyrim, but it is really laggy, because the single core performance and the GPU suck. If I get a fx-6300, I do not want a huge bottleneck with the CPU.

[fryman]

Do not listen to people saying gpu. Its all CPU. If you want more than 60fps you need at least i5.

[ACatWithThumbs]

Just wait the Beta comes less then a week then there will be Benchmarks.

Battlefield 3 was heavy on both so I would assume that it will be the similar.
Just don't get anything with less then 4 Cores.

And if you are using Windows 8 you should get also a CPU boost from DX 11.1 in BF4.(thats what DICE said)

[LAwLz]

Do not listen to people saying gpu. Its all CPU. If you want more than 60fps you need at least i5.

Bullshit

Look at the sources I posted and feel free to post your own benchmarks from reliable sources if you feel like disagreeing.

[fryman]

Bullshit

Look at the sources I posted and feel free to post your own benchmarks from reliable sources if you feel like disagreeing.

you dont know what you are talking about

 

http://chipreviews.com/main-feature/main-news/frostbite-2s-limit-6-core-performance-in-battlefield-3/

[LAwLz]

you dont know what you are talking about

 

http://chipreviews.com/main-feature/main-news/frostbite-2s-limit-6-core-performance-in-battlefield-3/

OK that review is not as good as the 3 I posted (and you can't disprove 3 tests by posting a single other test, you need several sources to disprove several other sources) because:

1) He is actually playing multiplayer games over and over, which means that there are far too many variables changing during each tests to actually make a proper conclusion. When you do benchmark, you try to keep the number of variables as low as possible. That's why Slick shows videos of the exact runs he makes when benchmarking, even down to "shoot this number of bullets" as shown in the Blood Dragon video.

2) His setup is a dual GTX 580 setup, which is not what most people would use. The better your GPU is, the less of a GPU bottleneck you will have, and the more important your CPU becomes. However, most people will not have two GTX 580s and then an i3 for example.

3) He doesn't even use different CPUs. All he does is overclock an 3930K and went "well I see an increase in performance!". That does not mean the game is CPU bottlenecked at all.

4) Did you see his FPS?

4 cores at 3.8GHz = 118 FPS average

4 cores at 4.4GHz = 133 FPS average

 

So yes, I was correct in my previous posts. Battlefield 3 is mostly GPU bottlenecked and the same will most likely be true for Battlefield 4 as well. A low end CPU and a high end GPU is better than a high end CPU and a low end GPU for Battlefield.