SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

While no official announcement of minimum requirements for Battlefield 3 have been made, we do know what engine the game will be running. Frostbite 2.0. Because of this we can estimate what requirements will be expected when Battlefield 3 hits shelves.

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System: Windows Vista 32-bit
Processor: Dual Core 2.0ghz
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 15 GB for Digital Version, 10 GB for Disc Version
Video Memory: 512 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 10
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements

Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Quadcore/Hexacore Processor
Memory: 4-8 GB
Hard Drive: 15 GB for Digital Version, 10 GB for Disc Version
Video Memory: 2GB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible (Nvidia GTX 580, 6990)
DirectX: 11
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Operating system & RAM

Firstly, BF3 will NOT support DirectX 9 at all, so forget the ancient, aging terribly XP and that dusty old DX9 card. DICE says Windows 7 64-bit and a DirectX 11 card are ideal, though you can also use Vista and/or a DX10 card. With a 64-bit OS, you'll need 4GB DDR3 RAM or more to take full advantage of it; lesser is acceptable but not exactly advisable on 64-bit. Thankfully, RAM prices finally dropped drastically recently -- you can pick up a 4GB or 8GB set for $40-100.

Before you start groaning, know there are numerous benefits to these new architectures including improved GPU and CPU performance, improved stability and security, more realistically rendered textures, and tons more, so you get your money's worth and then some.

GPU

It's been confirmed the excellent debut game play trailer was shown to the press recently (part of which you see above) was running on a GTX 580 video card. This of course is the really high end stuff which should allow you to max out the game fully.
For those who don't have deep pockets or the desire to empty them on a single piece of hardware, note you should be able to max it out excepting some minor tweaking on cards a tier or two down; essentially you can save a bundle and only have to turn off or down a few more or less insignificant settings like AA and shadows. Not to worry -- your card, if you purchase wisely, will still stand the test of time, it's simply that certain settings are almost always very taxing. The good news for budget gamers is a 1GB card won't be required, but if you do have the juice, BF3 should take full advantage of it thanks to the Frostbite 2 engine's superb scaling abilities.
At this stage we'd recommend AMD's 6970 or 6950, or NVIDIA's 560, all of which are good value for money in the short and long term; note price on the 6950 is expected to drop around June. As always, it's down to you to research what's coming up and what's best for your needs, of course. AMD's new lineup is expected to hit late this year or early next, and if rumors are to be believed, everything excepting the high-end will be a reworking of the 6xxx series, so with any luck, there will be no good reason to hesitate come summer if you're an AMD fan.

CPU

It can be assumed the requirement in this department will be at least what we saw with Bad Company 2 -- a Pentium D 3.0GHz, Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, or Athlon 64 X2. DICE have been doing performance testing on a more than two years-old quadcore Intel Core i7 2.66ghz (likely a 920), but given over half of all ~30 million Steam users currently host dual core processors, this will be the minimum, with a quadcore or possibly even higher serving as the recommended.