Battlefield 3 Performance - 1,680 x 1,050

While many will see 1,680 x 1,050 as a marginal resolution due to its 16:10 aspect ratio and sub-1080P credentials, according to the latest Steam Survey it's still used by over 18 per cent of all gamers.


Even at this lower resolution, the demands of the Ultra preset's 4x AA and Ultra detail settings mean that powerful cards such as the GTX 560 Ti 1GB and HD 6950 2GB are unable to offer minimum frame rates above 39fps; it's certainly playable, but it's certainly not as smooth as we'd like. Cheaper cards have no chance, with the HD 5770 1GB, GTX 550 Ti 1GB and even the HD 6850 1GB all failing to deliver a minimum frame rate above 25fps.

It's only the dual GPU cards that are able to crack the 60fps minimum frame rate, with the GTX 590 3GB's superior anti-aliasing performance putting it narrowly ahead.


Remove the anti-aliasing, though, and the performance improves greatly with the High preset. Minimum frame rates for the likes of the GTX 560 Ti 1GB and HD 6950 2GB are above 50fps and the HD 5870 1GB also impresses, surpassing even the GTX 560 Ti 1GB. Every one of the cards is able to surpass a minimum of 25fps and the GTX 580 1.5GB and HD 6970 2GB are both able to crack minimum frame rates of 60fps.


Medium detail at this resolution sees frame rates climb even further as anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and motion blur are now all disabled. Even budget cards such as the HD 5770 1GB are capable of playable minimum frame rates and more powerful cards easily surpass minimum frame rates of 60fps.


At Low detail, this is as close to console graphics as you'll see BF3 run on PC, and as you'd hope, every card, including the cheaper options, runs the game smoothly. However, as we've seen from the comparison shots, this means a significant drop in image quality.