Yes, you can play Battlefield 4.
Yes, you can play Battlefield 4.
Running at 60 frames per second on maximum settings, slightly pushing the processor limits.
I played BF4 for months after its release in 1080p on an old 1 GB GTX 460. It had some rough moments, but it worked fine at lower settings. The recommended operating system comes from the idea that Windows 8 offers a small performance boost for the game. I assure you most BF4 players are still running on Windows 7.
I switched to a 970 after giving the 550ti to my friend, and everything worked okay on low settings. The OP should be able to play bf4 now. Try reducing the settings and see if you hit 60 fps at 1080p with lower resolution. I’m pretty sure you could reach that with medium settings. The i3 is still a bit uncertain—I haven’t used less than a quad-core processor in bf4 before.