Next upgrade to run Arma II better

[Bluterus 10]

Hi people so I'm a little annoyed at arma because it is so demanding!

I bought arma when I had a q9550, asus p5q deluxe, 8gb ddr2 1066 and a gtx 275 1792mb. It wasn't enough to run the game fair enough. So the day GTX 570's came out I upgraded.

Current Specs:

CPU: i7-950 @ 4.0Ghz

MB: EVGA X58 FTW3

RAM: 12GB Gskill Ripjaws 1600 8-8-8-24-2N

GPU: 2x EVGA GTX570 1280MB@GPU 797mhz/3900mhz Ram/1594mhz Shader

HDD: SSD OCZ Agility 3 60GB sata 3 6.0GB/S for O/S and Arma

Secondary HDD: 2TB WD Caviar Black for games page file and storage

PSU: 1020w Enermax Revolution 85+

Now with my cpu on stock clocks 3.08Ghz the game at 6300 view distance, AA 8, everything on very high, 1920x1080 and 100% 3D running benchmark 1 I got an average fps of 27.

Then when I overclocked the cpu to 4.0ghz I got 34 fps.

Then when I dropped the view distance down to 2500 I get 47 fps.

I was thinking of buying a 980x and overclocking it to see if I get more performance as it seems the CPU is the bottleneck but looking at arma 2 benchmarks the 980x doesn't fair much better than the 950 in arma 2. So I'm guessing since when I turn down the view distance I get more FPS that I need more video ram.

My build cost me a fortune and can run any game in max graphics, full AA at 1920x1080 even in stereoscopic 3D except arma. Funny thing is with arma if I turn the AA right down, Turn a video card on or off or enable 3d vision it makes about 1fps difference. This also leads me to believe I need more video ram as the extra GPU makes no difference and the extra GPU adds no ram so maybe thats the key to running it better.

Also my mates i5 2500k with a gtx285 pulls very similar FPS like within 1 or 2 frames yet in most other games my two 570's are easily 40+ fps higher than his 285.

So what should my next upgrade be a more video ram or cpu?

Also can anyone run this smoothly at max graphics as it seems impossible!

[[frl]myke 15]

As funny as it sounds: the CPU is bottlenecking. Best proof: changing viewdistance immediately gives lower/higher FPS and viewdistance is 100% CPU dependant.

Please, do no compare ArmA 2 with "any game", A lot of those "any games" are console port and therefor by far less demanding than ArmA 2.

To be honest, i don't see your problem. You can play ArmA 2 with pretty high settings with very good FPS. You have a decent rig there to do so. No offence, really, but i think the problem isn't ArmA 2 nor your rig but your expectations. The PC that can run ArmA 2 with everything maxed out can't be build yet since the required processing power isn't available yet.

My, really friendly, advice: enjoy your PC and the settings you can run ArmA 2 with, knowing that most of the other players are playing it with (partially far) lower settings than you.

[dmarkwick 261]

I agree with Myke. Get rid of your FPS counter, it's preventing you from enjoying the game.

The problem is that ArmA is doing stuff that "other" games are not, so comparisons are meaningless.

[jedra 11]

As Myke said - people get obsessed with trying to hit 60fps and higher. Arma is perfectly playable around the 20's - you are getting a very good framerate for Arma 2 and I don't think that you will get your money's worth if you upgrade any further now. It will probably be better to wait for Arma 3 and see how that changes things!

Anyway, if you are desperate to try and squeeze a few more FPS then you could try the following;

in Arma2OA.cfg (in your documents\ArmA 2 folder probably)

Change the AToC value to 0 (this removes some of the effects on trees and bushes when you have AA on). Personally I think the effects make it look a bit 'greasy' - but that is purely subjective!

Change GPU_MaxFramesAhead to 1

Change GPU_DetectedFramesAhead to 1 or 2

Try switching off Vsync (you can set it to 0 in this file).

In the control options (in-game), turn off mouse smoothing completely (slider all to the left). Although this will not increase FPS it does give a more responsive impression!

By the way, if you somehow screw up the .cfg file, just delete it and relaunch the game and it will create a new one with default settings.

Look for a mod called OKTNOBLUR - this allows you to run with some of the PP efects but without the blur. It also gives you a few more FPS.

I played with this stuff and eventually came up with a setup that let me play with everything on VERY HIGH (except the Post Processing Effects which I don't really like).

Hope this helps in some way

[Guest]

Will my PC Run this? What CPU/GPU to get? What settings? System Specifications.

And in the troubleshooting section where you posted there is a sticky for tips about performance improvements (settings etc)

Edited August 9, 2011 by Guest