GTX 560 Ti bottleneck - Extremely low FPS.

[liamlight 1]

Hello everyone.

WHen i play Arma 2 i get EXTREMELY low fps (usually under 10) my pc specs are as follows:

AMD phemon 6 core

GTX 560 Ti

12GB Ram

When i use MSI Afterburner to see my fps ingame i also set it to show gpu usage. I also noticed this never exceeds 15%.

This FPS in the video is higher than it usually is

What can i do to fix this problem? Any help appreciated.

Sorry if wrong section(im pretty sure its correct though)

Edited August 15, 2012 by liamlight

[chrisb 196]

What view distance do you have set ?

The lower the view distance the more your gpu will work, I use 2000vd on the ground, then 5000-6000 in the air in combat, and can only have full view distance (10000) when just sightseeing in the air (i.e. just me and a plane/heli etc).

[[frl]myke 14]

When i use MSI Afterburner to see my fps ingame i also set it to show gpu usage. I also noticed this never exceeds 15%.

A GPU usage of ~15% clearly shows that your GPU is not bottlenecking. Please post your ingame video settings.

[liamlight 1]

What view distance do you have set ?

The lower the view distance the more your gpu will work, I use 2000vd on the ground, then 5000-6000 in the air in combat, and can only have full view distance (10000) when just sightseeing in the air (i.e. just me and a plane/heli etc).

I had 1.6k draw distance set. I only bought Arma to play DayZ so i wont bother with air combat.

A GPU usage of ~15% clearly shows that your GPU is not bottlenecking. Please post your ingame video settings.

1.6k draw distance

Ingame settings:

Edited July 23, 2012 by liamlight

[domokun 515]

@liamlight: would like to help but I cannot see your in-game settings.

[FRL]Myke is right, it's not your GPU that's bottle-necking. On the contrary, it's twiddling its thumbs.

Give these tried and tested tweaks a go:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?85124-ArmA2-OA-%28low%29-performance-issues&p=2081466#post2081466

And let us know how you get on...

[liamlight 1]

@liamlight: would like to help but I cannot see your in-game settings.

[FRL]Myke is right, it's not your GPU that's bottle-necking. On the contrary, it's twiddling its thumbs.

Give these tried and tested tweaks a go:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?85124-ArmA2-OA-%28low%29-performance-issues&p=2081466#post2081466

And let us know how you get on...

Image reuploaded now on imgur, it works now. Why is it only using 15% cpu and not 90+? Is there a way to force this?

I've already tried the tweaks believe it or not.

Edited July 23, 2012 by liamlight

[domokun 515]

Believe it or not, you cannot simply force a game to change it's architecture. It is very dependent on a lot of factors. Generally you'll find that CPU and GPU load tend to be lower in a MP game than in an SP (game is waiting for data from other machines).

One of the tweaks that is mentioned is to change Shadows from Nomal to High or even Very High.

Didi you try that? Because according you your screenshot you didn't.

Plus one of the other tweaks suggests keeping terrain at Normal, again your screenshot does not concur.

Also why are you playing in a window?

Why not have your interface resolution set to 100% as well as your 3D resolution.

[liamlight 1]

Believe it or not, you cannot simply force a game to change it's architecture. It is very dependent on a lot of factors. Generally you'll find that CPU and GPU load tend to be lower in a MP game than in an SP (game is waiting for data from other machines).

One of the tweaks that is mentioned is to change Shadows from Nomal to High or even Very High.

Didi you try that? Because according you your screenshot you didn't.

Plus one of the other tweaks suggests keeping terrain at Normal, again your screenshot does not concur.

Also why are you playing in a window?

Why not have your interface resolution set to 100% as well as your 3D resolution.

I did try it and then i reset to default. Shadows now on high and terrain on normal.

I played in a window so i could check my TS pms (i plan to have a second monitor this week) also now changed to 1680x1024, i turned it down one on my 3D to see if it would lag less.

[liamlight 1]

Still need a "Fix" guys. From what ive heared it's the game not stressing your PC enough, it was made in 2009 right? Why is it not fixed?

[tonygrunt 10]

Still need a "Fix" guys. From what ive heared it's the game not stressing your PC enough, it was made in 2009 right? Why is it not fixed?

Arma is very CPU intensive with one core, the rest work too but not to full usage.

On my i7 3930k 4.7GHz 6 core, 1 core is usually above 90% with the rest below 50%, so the average will seem around 50%.

Also on MP it is sometimes restricted by the server's ability to keep up.

[domokun 515]

Still need a "Fix" guys. From what ive heared it's the game not stressing your PC enough, it was made in 2009 right? Why is it not fixed?

Don't be so juvenile.

If it were easy to "fix" it BIS would have fixed it years ago.

Try understanding where the game came from, what is is try to achieve and then tweaking it to suit your PC.

As Tony explained, OA is extremely CPU dependent.

So what speed is your AMD phemon 6 core running at?

Could you overclock it by 10, 20 or even 30%?

Another avenue mvoing your OS and OA onto SSD as OA streams an incredible amount of data from HDD.

[liamlight 1]

Arma is very CPU intensive with one core, the rest work too but not to full usage.

On my i7 3930k 4.7GHz 6 core, 1 core is usually above 90% with the rest below 50%, so the average will seem around 50%.

Also on MP it is sometimes restricted by the server's ability to keep up.

In my DayZ commander i have this: -cpucount=6 -exThreads=7

---------- Post added at 13:13 ---------- Previous post was at 13:08 ----------

Don't be so juvenile.

If it were easy to "fix" it BIS would have fixed it years ago.

Try understanding where the game came from, what is is try to achieve and then tweaking it to suit your PC.

As Tony explained, OA is extremely CPU dependent.

So what speed is your AMD phemon 6 core running at?

Could you overclock it by 10, 20 or even 30%?

Another avenue mvoing your OS and OA onto SSD as OA streams an incredible amount of data from HDD.

It's running at 2.8. When i bought it it was overclocked which i had to remove due to BSODing. It runs at a really high temperature(usually 55~ ) idle but for cooling it has a fan aswell as 5 side fans.

The game also runs from my SSD.

[[frl]myke 14]

55 degree @ idle? Could you read out temps when playing?

[liamlight 1]

When i said i get 15~% GPU usage i meant that was the max i get, not i get that.

It's a hot day today. Idle 60, ingame, after being in game it amxed at 66

[[frl]myke 14]

Ok, 66 is acceptable although there might be room for optimisation.

[runforrest 10]

what grafics driver do u use? if its a new one switch back to 296.10, in IronFront forums many had very low fps with newer driver, switched back and problem solved

[liamlight 1]

Myke;2193891']Ok' date=' 66 is acceptable although there might be room for optimisation.[/quote']

There probabaly will be. I just never tried overclocking it again since it was BSoDing as i've never done it before.

what grafics driver do u use? if its a new one switch back to 296.10, in IronFront forums many had very low fps with newer driver, switched back and problem solved

301.42 I'll try downgrading to 296.10 now.

[celery 8]

Just a comment - I have the same CPU and GPU as the OP and my Arma 2 runs well with the latest drivers, so talk about the CPU not cutting it is nonsense. Sorry I didn't come here with an answer, though. It could be something that you can influence in Nvidia control panel's 3d settings, so you might want to try different things there, such as power management and various AA and filtering settings.

[liamlight 1]

Just a comment - I have the same CPU and GPU as the OP and my Arma 2 runs well with the latest drivers, so talk about the CPU not cutting it is nonsense. Sorry I didn't come here with an answer, though. It could be something that you can influence in Nvidia control panel's 3d settings, so you might want to try different things there, such as power management and various AA and filtering settings.

No problem, just more proof to say nothing works right for me.

[vasmkd 12]

Try defragging ur ARMA2 directory, this has fixed any problems i have had with slowdowns. Ur ARMA 2 directory may be heavily fragmented, especially if u install alot of patches, mods etc

[liamlight 1]

Try defragging ur ARMA2 directory, this has fixed any problems i have had with slowdowns. Ur ARMA 2 directory may be heavily fragmented, especially if u install alot of patches, mods etc

I used the steam defragger we'll see how it goes. I cant find a server none us that is day.

[scruffy 22]

Does the card not use its full clock speed? Check it with Afterburner. I'm using an AMD card so it may not apply, but I can sometimes get it to not leave the lower "video clocks" when running some other things besides the game.

[liamlight 1]

Does the card not use its full clock speed? Check it with Afterburner. I'm using an AMD card so it may not apply, but I can sometimes get it to not leave the lower "video clocks" when running some other things besides the game.

I'd have to check tomorrow ill edit this post

E: Got round to it now. 900 clock speed.

Edited July 24, 2012 by liamlight

[chrisb 196]

CPU @ 55~ …...

Do you live somewhere really hot ?

If yes then that could probably account for some of it, but it still seems high to me.

How are the cores fairing, do you get good activity across all ? Have you monitored them in task manager?

How hot does your gpu get?

Have you put msi-afterburner in, or was it already in when you got the pc ?

If it was already in have you run a Kombuster check recently ? (don’t do it), just asking..

[liamlight 1]

CPU @ 55~ …...

Do you live somewhere really hot ?

If yes then that could probably account for some of it, but it still seems high to me.

How are the cores fairing, do you get good activity across all ? Have you monitored them in task manager?

How hot does your gpu get?

Have you put msi-afterburner in, or was it already in when you got the pc ?

If it was already in have you run a Kombuster check recently ? (don’t do it), just asking..

England ~ Next joke hahaha.

Gpu goes to about 51.

May have left it a little late but i just came from arma 2.

I installed Msiafterburner myself. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti

And no, i dont use that

Edited July 25, 2012 by liamlight