New CPU and Dedicated Server Problem - Need advice

[perineum 0]

I just setup an i5 dedicated server and I think it's working great. I play Benny Edtion Warfare coop with a buddy on LAN. The server fps is steady about 40 but gets as low as 20fps when a lot of stuff is going on, which is normally still really good, at least playable. The problem is my computer I play on drops down to single digit fps where it's normally in the 30-50 range. What the hell? I just got an Athlon II 640 for my game computer and kicked down my old athlon 64 x2 6400+ to my buddy. His fps drops a little but usually never below 20. In benchmarks my new 640 way out performs the old dual core 6400+ so why does my computer die when the server is under load and his stays totally playable? Anyone know what's going on? Here are my specs. Any ideas appreciated.

Athlon II 640

Radeon 5850

MSI 880GM-P51 AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

8 gigs of DDR3 1600 RAM (absolutely no improvement over 4 if anyone was wondering)

Window7 ultimate 64 bit

The server is an i5 2500k overclocked to 4.6 ghz

8 gigs of 1600 ddr3 ram (same as above)

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 Motherboard

windows 7 ultimate 64 bit

Edited August 5, 2011 by Perineum

[.kju 3244]

So you are running the DS on the same machine as your play, right?

[[frl]myke 14]

So you are running the DS on the same machine as your play, right?

No, he isn't:

I just setup an i5 dedicated server...

I just got an Athlon II 640 for my game computer...

@Perineum

What are your ingame video settings?

[perineum 0]

I run everything set to normal except I turn resolution up to 1680x1050 and anisotropic/antialiasing up to high. I disable post processing. I'm pretty sure it's a processing problem, and not a gpu problem. Thanks for asking though. Anyone else using a quad core? The ghz are the same between the processor I kicked down and the new 640 at 3ghz.

[[frl]myke 14]

There are a few settings in the video options that are CPU dependable, not everything there is calculated by GPU. IIRC these are viewdistance, object detail and terrain detail. A special case are the shadow details. If set to normal or lower, shadows are calculated by the CPU but when set to high or very high they are calculated by the GPU.

In your case, it is possible to get better performance when raising shadow details (no guarantee though).

Can you please write down what settings you run on those above mentioned CPU related options?

[MavericK96 0]

To be perfectly honest, I would swap your video card into that new rig and use the Athlon as a server. The i5 at 4.6 Ghz would be a beast for running ArmA.

[perineum 0]

All 3 of those setting were set to normal. I can try to turn the shadow quality up, but I'm not thinking that would account for a 90% drop in frame rate. I have read that Arma 2 doesn't use all 4 cores, but only 2. Maybe that is why the old processor I passed on doesn't get such a big hit when there is a lot of AI activity.

I thought about that Maverick96, but I was thinking that the stronger CPU should be used for the dedicated server to take the load off the client computers.

[[frl]myke 14]

I do have peaks of 75% CPU usage on my quadcore so even if ArmA 2 isn't fully using 4 cores, having more than 2 definately helps. But i agree with you, it shouldn't drop the FPS that much.

You didn't said what viewdistance you have set, would you mind to tell us.

And i do agree with Maverick96, the Athlon would work fine as Server although the FPS might drop below 20FPS but on the server it isn't as critical as on a client. Definately worth a try.

[perineum 0]

I usually run 4000 view distance (which is actually only 2000 in game) with no noticeable drop in fps for most of the game. When the fps falls into the single digits the first thing I do is turn the view distance down to about 800 and that doesn't help at all. If you guys are familiar with the warfare game play then you'll understand what I'm talking about when the enemy AI starts making planes and fly's over the towns turning them all on, then decides to attack one of our large occupied towns resulting in a huge battle. That's when my computer falls apart. The old dual core doesn't at all. The last game we played when the performance went to hell, I just played on the other side of the map and that seemed to help a bunch. As if being closer to where the AI activity is worse. I appreciate your ideas about swapping machines for the server. That will be worth a try. I don't know what it will tell me as one is an intel and the other amd, but maybe just having a lot more mhz will fix the problem. It would be funny if you had to get over 4ghz on a quad core just to match 3ghz on a 4 year old dual core. I originally bought the 640 athlon II for the server but the server fps dropped as low as 8 when a lot of towns were activated and AI were engaged in large town battles with planes flying around. At that fps it's hard to fight because stuff starts warping around and disappearing. With the i5 overclocked to 4.6ghz the server has gotten down to 24fps but usually stays well above 40. I should mention we play with 2 human players vs. 16 AI that can make 10 man squads each. We couldn't do that with the 640 as the server. I don't know, maybe the 640 runs really good at a medium load but falls apart at high loads. Anyone else have a newer processor and play warfare with the number of AI turned way up? As in the resistance difficulty set to impossible, occupation set to impossible or hard and town size set to large or full? Im referring to Benny Edition warfare.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Perineum