The Xbox and PlayStation version Battlefield 3 is roughly equivalent to the PC's lowest graphics setting, developer DICE has said.

Johan Andersson, the game's rendering architect, detailed at the recent GeForce LAN 6 event how the game's PC visuals were put together and what its graphical settings actually mean. Here's a summary:

• Similar visuals to consoles, lots of stuff disabled
• Still contains the essential visuals not to be unfair in MP
• Minimum: GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB RAM

Medium = "good performance":

• Most important visual features enabled

High = "what the game is designed for":

• All major features on except MSAA (if you have DX11 card)
• Recommended: GeForce 560 TI or better

Ultra = "highest possible":

• Intended mainly for multiple GPU machines for 60+fps

When asked about Ultra Mode, Anderson said: "Ultra sort of cranks things up further."

"The shadows are a little bit sharper, the terrain is a little bit more tessellated. And also a big setting we have on Ultra is anti-aliasing. We use our multi-sampling there which is really memory-consuming and performance-consuming in general.

"It looks better but it's not a giant step in visual quality. So if you have a multi-GPU machine, like a dual 580 or a dual 560 for that matter, you can run Ultra at 60fps."