Low CPU utilization & Low FPS

[[frl]myke 14]

@nsix

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[Minoza 11]

I have a i7 920 @ 3.8Ghz

16GB DDR3

GTX 670 @ 1300 Core, 1800 Memory

I have played at Ultra settings and Low. I get the same frame rate more or less with either setup. I have started my own dedicated server as well as joining other users servers. At first my video card is going at 1300/1880 but then it suddenly drops to 1/3 the speed. Yet I get the same frames at full speed as I do at 1/3 speed. No idea WTF is up.

...

Don't you find it a bit weird that there are already 3 people just in this thread that have same/very similar setup and same issues? Same thing happened in that Arma 2 thread I linked earlier, many guys with i7/GTX 670 combo having this issue... I'm not saying this doesn't happen on other systems as well, case it is happening on various systems, but so many reports come from i7/GTX 670 combo users, even on DayZ. Is there a ticket for this issue? If not, maybe it's time to create one.

I would like to point out one thing for all participants in this thread, this thread isn't about having low frames on cranked up settings, ok? So please do not report if that is your issue, because you're not really contributing that way to solve the issue, this thread is about Arma 3 working bad no matter what settings you use even when you exceed recommended specs by far. Thank you!

Edited March 6, 2013 by Minoza

[smiley_ie 7]

Very surprised it has the same problems as Arma series i thought it was meant to be optimized ? Same problems low fps no matter what settings i use completely random from 60fps to 30

i7 950@4.1

8gig 1600

gtx680

[chrisb 196]

I never have v-sync enabled, always have it disabled, so was not aware until I read in another thread on here somewhere that A3 performance was better with it disabled. So I went back into the game and enabled v-sync just to have a look, it does make a big difference in fps rates, this will have to be looked at by BIS. Until then I would certainly say disable v-sync, even if you don’t like to do that, it will help make the game run smoother for you in the short term, until perhaps the issues are looked at.

Tweaking in the in-game game settings helps a great deal in achieving better performance, I have had a look at the game in all the settings, to be fair to BIS, the game looks o.k. at all settings, yes higher is better, but its still a good looking game at lower settings.

I use only a low AA mixed with FXAA, no PP (don't like blur), I may change this, not the PP but the AA set-up, when changing the pc I play on, but it is well worth spending some time tweaking all settings and having a good look at the game in the Editor for set-up reasons. On the ground in town I would be setting the VD at 1000, no real need for anything higher than that for now. Maybe out in open areas upto 2-3000, 3000 on the ground is a good higher mark to use out in the less cluttered areas.

Looks to me to be better optimised than A2 is now, we all know how bad A2 was at release, its improved immensely over the past 12mths, but A3 does seem to be starting on the right footing. It can only get better, I think/hope, that’s at least where BIS have really made headway for A2, so the experience is there for them to use and be able to do this.

I have found cpu and gpu use reasonable, using 'PlayClaw4' for cpu and core monitoring in-game and msi for frame rates temps etc. It is not pushing my A2 pc hard by any means, there is space there for more. I am expecting great things from my A3 i7, but can see me having problems for some reason, will keep fingers crossed and hope that isn't the case..

[Minoza 11]

There is ticket for this issue here:

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=716

Please vote if you're experiencing it.

[k3lt 3]

Here is another screenie, from multiplayer with 10 players and some AI.

[img ]http://i.imgur.com/FzeMq1o.jpg[/img]<100kb

Edited March 6, 2013 by [FRL]Myke

[[frl]myke 14]

@k3lt

i said it to nsix and i'm telling it to you aswell:

§15) Do not hotlink images over 100kb (102400 bytes) in size

Do not link images over 100kb using the IMG tags to display an image in your post. If you wish to post an image larger then 100 kb feel free to post the URL instead of hotlinking.

Source: Forum rules

Thank you

[Tvrdi 11]

I never have v-sync enabled, always have it disabled, so was not aware until I read in another thread on here somewhere that A3 performance was better with it disabled. So I went back into the game and enabled v-sync just to have a look, it does make a big difference in fps rates, this will have to be looked at by BIS. Until then I would certainly say disable v-sync, even if you don’t like to do that, it will help make the game run smoother for you in the short term, until perhaps the issues are looked at.

Not a great news for us TrackIR owners as vsync is a must when using TiR...at least was in ARMA2 because of screen tearing...

Edited March 6, 2013 by Tvrdi

[chrisb 196]

Not a great news for us TrackIR owners as vsync is a must when using TiR...at least was in ARAM2 becasueo of screan tearing...

Won't be for long though, I should think BIS are already 'on it' for many problems, just takes time :)..

[lordprimate 159]

There is ticket for this issue here:

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=716

Please vote if you're experiencing it.

if i knew how to vote it up i would... i have been having that exact issue.. I have a really good rig.. built specifically for A3 .. and I noticed that my GPU's where only 43*C and only seeing 25-30% usage... I was seeing the same issue with my 6 core ..

I tested my game on LOW settings .. i get 17-20 FPS...

I tested on normal settings... i get 17-20 FPS...

I tested on very High.. 17-20 FPS.

on Ultra 17-20 fps...

6core AMD @ 4..Ghz

2 X 7950 ATI with 3Gb ddr5 Videoram in Xfire

16 Gb Balistix (Crucial) ddr3 1866Mhz RAM

ARMA 3 Alfa on my SSD 360Gb

[Leon86 13]

It's kind of like arma2, very dependant on per-core performance. if there's nothing going on I have 1 core near max, 3 cores at 30% or so.

[Droikka 1]

If V-sync is on at 60Hz, any FPS under 60FPS is 30, any FPS under 30 is 15, any FPS under 15 is 10 and so on.

The V-sync we currently use is based on dual-buffering, if you cannot maintain a steady FPS over 60 at -ALL TIMES-, do not enable it.

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

Deja vu. :(

Same here in SP.

[AdenFlorian 1]

I had similar issues with low framerates (with a GTX 680 and i7 950), but finally found that the view distance for objects is the real FPS killer, like someone else said earlier.

If you still can't hit 60+ FPS no matter what you do, turn the overall view distance all the way down, the shadow view distance barely affects my FPS. That's just to show you how high your FPS can really get should be almost over 100. Now, to fine tune it, you have to set overall to max, then move the object view distance down until you are at your favored FPS. Let me know if this helps anyone!

A problem that I'm about to post in it's own thread (unless I find someone with a similar problem) is that weird visual artifacts/glitches get much more common the lower the object view distance gets. Just an FYI.

[Tvrdi 11]

Nvidia owners...did you try Adaptive Vsync with ARMA3?

[jumpinghubert 49]

we need a benchmark to get a reference. I reduced overall-visibility to 3500m and object-visibility to 2000m with good results. Find the settings in empty editor, because the AI eats all cpu-power so it reduces gpu-usage.

[Minoza 11]

if i knew how to vote it up i would... i have been having that exact issue.. I have a really good rig.. built specifically for A3 .. and I noticed that my GPU's where only 43*C and only seeing 25-30% usage... I was seeing the same issue with my 6 core ..

...

Look at the top of the page at the link I gave you. It's hard to notice but there are actually "Login" and "Sign up", once you have an account and logged in you can vote. :)

Nvidia owners...did you try Adaptive Vsync with ARMA3?

Yes, it works good for me.

[ForthRight 10]

Sorry if this has already been said, but if you are only getting 50% GPU usage (or around that) you should try lowering settings which are CPU dependant as your CPU is probably limiting your GPU usage (even if you have a modern Sandy or Ivy Bridge processor). Lowering settings such as Object Detail, Terrain Detail and View Distance should stop this bottleneck and allow your GPU to run at 90-100%.

Doing this should also increase your framerates, and if you have a strong GPU you can probably then increase GPU dependant settings (such as AA, Texture Detail, Shadows, post-processing) without too much of a framerate hit.

[Minoza 11]

Did you even bother reading this thread before posting? It's about both low CPU and low GPU utilization. Plus, even if it was different, I mean, if your CPU was at 80-90% but low GPU, tell me, should an i7 3770K at 4.4GHz have that much trouble? I doubt it...

[k3lt 3]

Maybe any word from dev? Like our CPU's are too low for this game (which would be strange since we meet recommended system specs) or is it optimization issue?

I'm not sure if upgrading cpu makes any sense right now, as with my budget i could go for i5 3450 at best and there are people reporting same issues even with i7 3770k...

Also i think there is the same issue as with Arma 2, where Multiplayer servers with poor performance also cripple players fps which is rather strange and i never seen such issue in other game. (and it was well known issue in Arma 2)

Any information / communication is welcome. :p

Edited March 6, 2013 by k3lt

[Tvrdi 11]

Look at the top of the page at the link I gave you. It's hard to notice but there are actually "Login" and "Sign up", once you have an account and logged in you can vote. :)

Yes, it works good for me.

Thanks for the answer. I will try that when I get home (In some other games I still have tearing when using adaptive Vsync...with regular vsync is ok)....

[ForthRight 10]

Did you even bother reading this thread before posting? It's about both low CPU and low GPU utilization. Plus, even if it was different, I mean, if your CPU was at 80-90% but low GPU, tell me, should an i7 3770K at 4.4GHz have that much trouble? I doubt it...

I don't understand what you are saying. I'm not arguing that the game should use CPU power/cores better - it clearly should, and my post was aimed at people with low GPU usage as well as low CPU use. Even if you have low CPU usage it seems that lowering CPU dependant settings can help a lot with framerates, and then you can increase GPU dependant settings. It's not perfect of course.

I was simply posting my findings so far since we're all trying to get this thing to run better, and figure out how to get the best combination of image quality and performance.

[k3lt 3]

I don't understand what you are saying. I'm not arguing that the game should use CPU power/cores better - it clearly should, and my post was aimed at people with low GPU usage as well as low CPU use. Even if you have low CPU usage it seems that lowering CPU dependant settings can help a lot with framerates, and then you can increase GPU dependant settings. It's not perfect of course.

I was simply posting my findings so far since we're all trying to get this thing to run better, and figure out how to get the best combination of image quality and performance.

Actually if you read the thread (first page) i made screenshot with every possible setting at low/off @ 1680x1050 resolution and still fps in low 20's range. (in MP it's even worse)

Edited March 6, 2013 by k3lt

[shadylurker 0]

Hmm, It's really interesting. Overall the game seems more optimized then any ARMA game previously. But it seems to be the same issue of low CPU/GPU utilization which isnt dependent on hardware at all. I have a mid range PC and I get the same issues. The crazy part is, it autodetects to high and runs the infantry showcase great until I get to the village..........just like how arma2 shit it's pants. Multiplayer is not playable at all.

So, my question is how can a game be called CPU dependent, when it never really utilizes even the full potential of my CPU?

Can we start blaming BI yet? If you want to have a laugh, go play Cold war Assault if you have it. A game from 2001(?) STILL has garbage FPS with the bigger missions....So can we blame the engine yet?

I probably should be voting with my dollars, but Arma is the only thing going at the moment.

Specs:

Q6700 3.33GHZ

8gbddr2

6850 Oc'd

win7 x64

[Monkie 1]

So, my question is how can a game be called CPU dependent, when it never really utilizes even the full potential of my CPU?

Can we start blaming BI yet? If you want to have a laugh, go play Cold war Assault if you have it. A game from 2001(?) STILL has garbage FPS with the bigger missions....So can we blame the engine yet?

I probably should be voting with my dollars, but Arma is the only thing going at the moment.

i think now is the point we can yes.

how is arma 3 a new engine if this same issue is there?

the issue BI said was too hard to fix or would cost too much time to fix on the bugtracker, it was reported years ago for arma 2.

i was really looking forward to buying arma 3 and dayz standalone but this issue is gamebreaking, people like arma so much they play it online with terrible FPS but it really holds everything back, and if one is going to charge the full price for a game one can expect full performance from it.