ArmA 3's system requirements are higher relative to the technology available at the time than ArmA 2's. ArmA 3 also does much more graphically than ArmA 2. That aside, one should wait to upgrade just to avoid being ripped off by the release of something newer and better a couple of weeks later.
Well, I don't want to spend $2k on a cpu. My plan was to build an i7 when the ivy bridge comes out since the prices will drop considerably. That way, I will be good for a few years at least with the overclocking capability of the open processors. Also, I don't want to buy the first gen ivy bridge. At the end of the day, you can never be ahead in the CPU world man. So, I may just go with my initial plan and build a cheap i7 that will be good for a long time. If I have to upgrade my gfx card, I will wait for the EVGA Nvidia 590s to go on sale, or something. My 560 Ti will be plenty for now, and with an i7 and z68 mobo, I will be able to run BF3 on Ultra Settings i believe. Also, with the z68 mobo I'm looking at, it has PCI-E 3.0 slots, leaving me open to upgrade to the new Nvidia cards you mentioned a few posts ago.
Your economics here are wrong. Ivy Bridge's release has been delayed once already because there were still significant amounts of Sandy Bridge CPUs in the supply channel. What was supposed to be a December release was pushed back to April. Sandy Bridge is still stuck in the channel because PC sales are down (due to iDevices and Windows 8 not coming out until 2H 2012), so we're now looking at a limited April release with greater supply in June. Prices on Sandy Bridge CPUs won't "drop considerably", they'll be "unavailable due to being discontinued." There is no such thing as a "first gen Ivy Bridge." Like all other CPUs, it'll be replaced by a new CPU line next year, this one named Haswell. The best way to look at this is that Ivy Bridge is the second generation Sandy Bridge, which will be succeeded by the first generation Haswell. Sure you can. Just buy at launch. You're ahead. If you MUST buy now, buy the i5-2500k. The performance difference between the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k you want is not worth the $100 price difference. You can run with the 560 Ti in the interim, but when the 7000 line is fleshed out and Kepler is launched you'll want to look into a mid-range purchase for ArmA 3. Something in the $200-250 range is all you need, especially if you don't play games above 1920x1080.
I meant I will wait for Ivy Bridge to come out dropping the prices of the I7, not the Ivy. Considering the oversupply you mentioned, it surprises me the i7s are still in the $350 range. As of being ahead, buy at launch, but then something else is announced, etc. If you buy at launch you are "current" until a few months pass. It is a vicious circle. I am in the middle of it. Wait for the i7 to drop or get Ivy? LOL. I don't have to buy now, I am willing to wait for my best value. I am managing (barely) with med settings on BF3 and choppy gameplay here and there. My monitor also doesn't support anything greater the 1050x1680. I may upgrade it, but no need, I have a great Samsung monitor anyway.
I'm sure it will be better than ArmA 2. But will it require as much as say, Crysis? I doubt it. I should be fine with my rig. Since I'm cheap, I only upgrade when I absolutely have to.
Sandy Bridge will no longer be sold when Ivy Bridge is released. Intel is going to allow the supply to dwindle to the point where there won't be any left. That's what I'm trying to tell you: your plan doesn't jibe with the economics. Like I said, the next architecture is Haswell. That won't come out until Q2 2013. You will be current for one year. That's my point. The best value is waiting for Ivy, not buying Sandy now. I'd bet 1680x1050 is what allowed you to hold off this long on upgrading. You can wait a bit longer for the CPU and longer after that for the GPU. I don't know why you're holding Crysis up on a pedestal. Crysis 1 was mastered years ago and Crysis 2 is a console port.
Thanks for all the information Des. My plan is to get the i7 when the Ivy Bridge comes out hoping retailers have the extra stock. If not, I get the Ivy. Im going to look into the Haswell and next gen vid cards out of curiosity.
Like I said, the i7-2600k is not worth the premium over the i5-2500k. There isn't even any future-proofing benefit there. Your money, but that's my advice. Haswell isn't worth looking in to. It's over a year away. The Radeon HD 7990 and 7950 just launched, and those are the super high end. Mid-range cards are coming later, and Nvidia's Kepler line hasn't been given a firm release date yet. You can comfortably keep your 560 Ti and wait until summer or later for a GPU upgrade, especially if you get Ivy in April.
Like I said, the i7-2600k is not worth the premium over the i5-2500k. There isn't even any future-proofing benefit there. Your money, but that's my advice.[/QUOTE] Well, we'll see. I know I can hold off til April, which is why I haven't bought a new rig yet. Wonder what Ivy will retail at. I know, that why I said out of curiosity I will look into it, and I do plan on waiting for next gen NVidia. They are my manufacturer of choice. Especially EVGA Nvidia cards.
Ivy's prices will probably be comparable to Sandy's, with perhaps a bit of price premium on the high-end mobile parts. Then you're set. Kepler won't be unveiled for at least a few more weeks, though, and won't see release until summer. It's a shame, since Fermi (their previous line) took forever to come out too.
Thanks again. I'm in no rush. Got other priorities right now, but I do plan on upgrading eventually, and within the next few months or so. My 560 Ti will serve me well on my new rig, but I won't get a mobo that isn't PCI-3 because I know it will have to be upgraded eventually. Question, if I get a new rig, and a new vid card, can I use my 560 Ti as a dedicated phys-x card?
Well, we'll see. I know I can hold off til April, which is why I haven't bought a new rig yet. Wonder what Ivy will retail at. I know, that why I said out of curiosity I will look into it, and I do plan on waiting for next gen NVidia. They are my manufacturer of choice. Especially EVGA Nvidia cards.[/QUOTE] Get a i7-980X...mine screams....
Bad advice. The i7 980x is generally inferior to the i5 2500k and costs more than double the i5, assuming you can still find the i7 980x; after all, it's been discontinued.
So now that I've beaten Skyrim I've decided to play the hell out of this game. Why in the holy hell does the FAMAS rape so hard? Kept getting killed by it, so finally unlocked it and started using it. Has the worst iron sights I've ever seen on a gun in any game, combined with muzzle flash making it impossible to see. Thought this thing is overrated. Unlocked the foregrip, silencer, RDS, and now using Holo, this gun is ridiculous. Was playing TDM for faster FAMAS unlocks just running around like a bat out of hell dropping everything in sight from any range with the 3 shot burst.
I can't get beyond the ACOG with the thing, so the gun sucks for me now. I may have to take another look at it. But, right now I am only playing recon. That is the only class I don't have the unlocks for yet, so I am doing conquest with the M39 EMR (haven't unlocked the M98 yet) and TDM with the Ump-45 as recon to get the quick recon points. That gun is beast too. Recon on conquest is fun but it doesn't feel right being that guy that I always hate...camping choke points and shhh. LOL. Oh well. PS. I've decided to wait for Ivy Bridge.
Try Team Deathmatch. Not a game mode I really like, but you rack up the kills for gun unlocks. I'm usually getting 15-20 kills a round. More now that I have the unlocks I need. That gun just rapes. Fastest fire rate of any AR with similar damage and little recoil with foregrip and silencer. All 3 fire modes, but I stick to 3 round burst. I'm taking dudes out at sniper ranges with this thing...
You won't regret it. As for the FAMAS, they're going to nerf it somewhat, at least according to the upcoming patch notes.
DICE play testing next DLC. http://bf3blog.com/2012/02/new-battlefield-3-dlc-being-play-tested-at-dice/ What can we expect? More than just maps, of course. I see more maps, and a few new weapons, one or two new vehicles, and added assignments. MAYBE but I highly doubt a new faction. There is also a lot of speculation about a dinosaur mode, evidenced by the dog tags and easter eggs - I even found one on Wake, a mini dino toy on a rock face. I personally think the dino mode will be the last release to revive sales when they are on their last leg, ala what COD did with zombies. I would like to see some BF2:Special Forces maps, namely Ghost Town, Warlord, and Jalalabad, with the addition of zip lines. This is likely a stretch though since Dice probably want to distinguish BF3 from BF2 instead of having it considered BF2:2011.
They'll probably add one new game mode, three new maps, and one new assignment-based weapon for each class. Hopefully that new game mode encourages squad cooperation. Squad DM is awful.
Conquest and Rush are team-based modes with squads, not squad-based modes. Conquest doesn't even auto-join you to a squad as it did at launch. I'd say importing BF2's voice communication (squads can voice chat with squad members, squad leaders can voice chat with other squad leaders) would go a long way, but an objective-based mode where you have to function with your squad to succeed (say, all living squad members must be present at an objective to count) would be good. Perhaps something vehicle-based, too.
Totally forgot about voip. It would help I guess. There is no confirmation that they are doing anything to increase squad cooperation though, it just on everyone's wish list. We'll see. I'm anxious to find out more.
They've at least confirmed they're making the commo rose useful, or at minimum, less useless. But I don't think squad-based gameplay will ever be fully implemented as it could/should have been.
Honestly, if they had just improved on what was there in BF2, it'd be fine. But consoles take priority--the PS3 is the lead platform, after all--so we're stuck with a port.
Hopefully some more co-op maps and rewards. Other than that, new maps, weapons, vehicles, and a new game mode, perhaps Capture the Flag, but I wouldn't mind a King of the Hill mode.
Are you guys upset at the assignments? Why do i have to kill a guy with the damned blow torch. And then a vehicle for the next assignment. Damn! Screw the assignments, they are ridiculous. To get the last sniper gun (L96) I had to play with the MAV for like three rounds 500 tickets to get my 50 motion spots. Now I need the knife kills. Those aren't too bad, but killing vehicles with a blow torch...c'mon man.
I've finished most of the assignments. I don't have the MAV so I can't do that one, but the blow torch and knife kills were easy.
Blow torch on an enemy is easy, basically a knife kill, and I get those. But I've never ran up to a vehicle with a blow torch. C4 if anything.
The best thing to do there is wait until a vehicle gets hit by a couple of RPGs, kill the inevitable engineer who pops out to repair, then blowtorch like mad. Or sneak around until you find an abandoned enemy buggy and blowtorch that.
Well, here it is. First of three DLC packs announced. First one CLOSE QUARTERS: Two others announced. ARMORED KILL, and END GAME. http://bf3blog.com/2012/03/battlefield-3-close-quarters-dlc-announced/#more-8785 Not thrilled about CQ"Battlefield", metro was Ok i guess, but I'm a fan of the bigger maps. More looking forward to the Armored Kill, which will be like BF2's Armored Fury DLC I guess, and maybe the Tampa Highway map which was pretty fun. As long as Harvest from BF:BC2 isn't included. I hate that map.
Here is a video i found on youtube. [video=youtube;yfHjdjQiPko]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfHjdjQiPko[/video]
First real trailer for the Close Quarters DLC by Dice. [video=youtube;BszcNwTrX8A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BszcNwTrX8A[/video] I can see all the shotgun-frag rounds already, followed by enough M320s to make the Sydney firework display on New Years envious. Oh the joys of close quarters. My cpu went on strike and told me to fly a kite when it saw all the micro destruction and large volume of players and explosions in such a confined area. On that front, waiting for Ivy Bridge, which is out, but also gonna wait for mid/end of summer for the motherboards to catch up.
Battlefield Premium...EA's DLC pack for BF3 that will inlcude; http://bf3blog.com/ Here is the official trailer. [video=youtube;q7y6gOU5SKM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7y6gOU5SKM[/video]
Starting tomorrow you can get BF3 (for PC) from Amazon for $7.50 using code OCTOFUN1 http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Ar...ld/dp/B005WWZUQ0/?t=slicinc-20&tag=slicinc-20 Still not sure if I want to get it yet, since there's tons of additions to it and there may be a cheap all-in-one later.
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/08/14/70-battlefield-3-premium-edition-releasing-in-september I bought both separate and payed the $110. I'm a sucker for BF. Anyways, I'd get the premium release with all the DLC if you are to get BF. You can wait for this to go down in price if you want as well.
