I've spent hours attempting to resolve the issue, but have been unable to find a solution. After performing a clean install of Windows 8 Pro 64 bit and all of the latest drivers I found that my FPS in Battlefield 3 DLC Map Packs (all of them) is just horrible, and for reasons I can't understand or resolve. My FPS when playing BF3 original release maps averages about 150fps, so there must be something wrong with the DLC content at least in Windows 8 Pro 64bit.

Battlefield 3 original release and DLC map packs on Windows 7 averaged about 150fps with all settings on Ultra @ 1080p
Battlefield 3 original release maps on Windows 8 average about 150fps with all settings on Ultra @ 1080p
Battlefield 3 All DLC map packs on Windows 8 average about 30fps using identical settings (nothing changes this frame rate)

I installed all of the latest WHQL Drivers (also tried nvidia's beta drivers). I'm an advanced user and have tried all means of conventional troubleshooting. Nothing seems to identify or resolve the issue. I've literally tried everything including:
• Clean deletion of the entire game and registry wipe
• Installed the entire game and all map packs again
• Tried 3 different versions of nvidia drivers WHQL and the latest two Beta releases (none resolved this issue)
• Game repair
• Game settings reset
• Game settings set to default
• Monitored all resources and everything checks out normal
• Checked all window error reporting logs (nothing abnormal)
• Checked windows performance logs (all checks out)
• Killed all non-essential background processes and ran game again (no luck)
• Reformat and reinstall of everything (no luck)


After searching Google for hours it seems apparent this is a rampant problem with a wide majority of gamers running Windows 8. This problem seems to affect users with ATI, Nvidia and Intel Graphics cards. I've come to the conclusion that it must be a problem with the Battlefield 3 DLC Content. The reason I believe this is because the original release maps do not exhibit any performance degradation issues, it's only on the DLC Map Packs. Furthermore, no other games or benchmark tests have performance issues.