# How to benchmark Battlefield 3 ?



## bmwmaster (Oct 31, 2011)

I want to do some Benchmarks with BF3, because its my favourite game i want to tweak some settings.

Has someone an Idea how i could do it ?

In BFBC2 i used Fraps and ran it while looking the intro of "ice cold".

What could i do in BF3 ?


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## human_error (Oct 31, 2011)

bmwmaster said:


> I want to do some Benchmarks with BF3, because its my favourite game i want to tweak some settings.
> 
> Has someone an Idea how i could do it ?
> 
> ...



There's built in console commands which will put a big overlay on your screen while playing - it shows your FPS, GPU usage and CPU usage as well as some history graphs so you can see if either the GPU or CPU are being too stressed. It doesn't run as a banchmark per say (you don't let it run unattended and have it give you a score) but it looks to be pretty good.

Am looking up the console commands now...

**edit**

here we go:

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlefield-3-technical-support-faqs/180706-how-view-performance-game-other-console-commands.html has the information.

For the link averse you open the command console with either ~ or ` (they say the key above tab but I know UK/US keyboards swap those over). 

Then in the console type:
*Render.drawFPS 1*
to see the FPS

and type:
*Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1*
to see a performance graph - Green is CPU, Yellow is GPU (graphics)

If yellow is below green on the graph, then your CPU is holding back your GFX card.
Spikey graphs mean your performance is unstable.


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## AnomalouS (Oct 31, 2011)

After browsing this thread I decided to check mine out.  I think that this means my GPU is holding me back... Set on High.


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## xBruce88x (Oct 31, 2011)

@OP, you might want to read the Toms hardwdare review/benchmark they did and see how they setup their tests... 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-2.html


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## bmwmaster (Nov 3, 2011)

So, now i managed to make some benches with Fraps and BF3 in Singleplayer mode.

Here the (for me interesting) results:







CPU is I7 950 @ 4400 Mhz, GPUs are 2 x 6970 @ 950 Mhz.
Curve 1 (blue) shows performance with HT on with 8 Threads CF is also on.
Curve 2 (red) schows performance without HT, only 4 Threads and CF on.

Its interessting, that the performance without HT is better !!!
Don't know why, could it be that the CPU is throttling somehow with HT on ?

I also get lower GFlop results @ Linx with HT on (8 threads) its about 51 GFlops.
With HT off (4 threads) its about 59 GFlops. 
With HT on the CPU utilization displayed in realtemp is also only about 50 %.
Strange behavior i think.

Ok,
the next curve 3 (dotted red) is showing performance without CF, so with only one 6970 in comperison to curve 2 there is a big performance impact.

Curve 4 schows a big impact when AA is set from OFF to 4x with CF on, also a big impact. (as big as using only one 6970 without AA)

P.S.:
Today i ordered a third 6970, i will post results with 3x6970 CF next days.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Nov 3, 2011)

AA is pretty much broken on AMD gpus currently with BF3 going to have to wait on driver updates to fix that, lolz


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## bmwmaster (Nov 4, 2011)

Here it is, my third 6970 was delivered today. 
So here is curve 5 (yellow) 4 Threads with 3xCF 6970 @ 950 Mhz.
Nice, the third card pushes performance another 30 % up ---> im happy with that setup.


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## maleficarus (Nov 4, 2011)

Why not use Fraps retail. I do and BM BF3 all the time. It will give you the min, avg and max FPS for whatever length you wish. You can also record videos with it too!


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## Atom_Anti (Jul 19, 2012)

xBruce88x said:


> @OP, you might want to read the Toms hardwdare review/benchmark they did and see how they setup their tests...
> 
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-2.html



Good scene to do tests, but how can I get here without playing to much. I just want run a benchmark.


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