Low CPU utilization & Low FPS

[Arma3goodCPUlowFPS 12]

To be honest I've not compared fps on sp, as long as it's above 30 I'm really not that bothered. The altis benchmark is minimal to no increase in average performance, but I have far from a powerful system compared to most on here.

KOTH on a UK 50 man server gives 40-80fps until in a city when it drops to 25-30, I think there might have been a 5fps or so increase since the update but that might be placebo.

For me that is really quite playable, even occasional dips down to 20fps don't bother me.

edit: I'll have a play in the editor later and see what happens to fps with 100 or so ai fighting.

thanks

[forteh 11]

Just set up a firefight in the editor.

8x 8 man blufor rifle squad

8x 8 man opfor rifle squad

6x 8 man ind rifle squad

me as a civilian spectator in a littlebird

All in the centre of pyrgos with seek and destroy waypoints meeting at a crossroads. Fps started at 50, almost instantly dropped to 20 and dipped to 17 in places, as ai started to die it went back up to 30, that's with 176 infantry ai with a radius of 2-300m and video settings on very high default as a benchmark :)

Without the 48 indepdant riflemen the fps didn't drop below 20 fps. Stupidly enough I never noted what cpu usage was :(

[St. Jimmy 272]

96 AI just moving in town 60-70fps, AI sees each other 30-40fps, shooting and combat starts, 20-30fps.

This is me in Athira town as a civilian with i7 2600K @ 4,4GHz (without hyper threading) and 8GB 2133MHz CL9.

View distances 3000m/1700m

Fps rises drastically when things just happen on the other side of the map and more further way. When I'm flying a heli far away my fps is 40-60 when the fighting starts. But moving closer when I need to start to draw all the bullets, AI models simulate audio etc. it drops down to 30fps.

I think it's those models or something related to them and audio that really likes to kill the fps. Being like 700m away already helps a lot.

Core 1-3 usage 30-70%, pretty constantly all of the other cores above 40%.

Edited January 24, 2015 by St. Jimmy

[Arma3goodCPUlowFPS 12]

thank you guys, will install arma 3 again when the expansion has been released, hope we get (more) improvements.

[bigsyke 10]

thank you guys, will install arma 3 again when the expansion has been released, hope we get (more) improvements.

I can report significant FPS improvements on the latest patch. 120 player KOTH server which usually runs at 17fps has been running at around 30fps consistently.

Anyone else?

[flex 1]

just out of curiosity. did anyone else see a significant DEcrease in FPS since the latest patch?!

i recently upgraded my gpu (gtx 970) and got pretty decent results. 50-70 FPS on ultra + blastcore and other stuff (i always benchmark my settings with the combined arms showcase). but since the patch i get like 30-40 fps max. (on high settings though) even without any mod being active (with mods ~30 FPS).

[R3vo 2654]

just out of curiosity. did anyone else see a significant DEcrease in FPS since the latest patch?!

i recently upgraded my gpu (gtx 970) and got pretty decent results. 50-70 FPS on ultra + blastcore and other stuff (i always benchmark my settings with the combined arms showcase). but since the patch i get like 30-40 fps max. (on high settings though) even without any mod being active (with mods ~30 FPS).

Nothing here, and to be honest, if FPS would have dropped THAT much for multiple people you would have already seen tons of rage posts here :P

[ambushlead 10]

I am curious as to what kind of CPU could actually run Arma at decent frames. Arma's demand for the power of only one CPU core is outrageous! I think the engine needs to spread the load evenly on all cores, if only they did it at the start!

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Its not the CPU´s fault, it´s the unoptimized Engine. You can have an Octacore with 10Ghz, it wont solve the problem with low fps

[mobile_medic 43]

Haven't noticed a massive drop. If anything, (for me) I'd say it is a *little* bit better on the whole. Still bottlenecks in all of the same places in some of Bohemia's own campaign and showcase missions (no, I'm not talking about user made stuff as is a common knee-jerk defense).

Why do I say it is *slightly* better? For me, beta introduced persistent stutter/hitching issues (gave up on trying to fix it when Dwarden posted a thread asking for feedback on something they thought might fix it. I posted that it unfortunately did not resolve the issue for me, and he just responded that the problem is my fault). I've noticed since the last patch that this has (finally) improved. In non-bottlenecking areas, it happens far less frequently now (almost not at all, as long as I am in an area of the game that doesn't tank my fps too hard).

I've also noticed a little bit better CPU usage in non-bottlenecking areas of the game, which has made for a few fps increase, there. However, their own missions are still just as capable of over-loading the engine, and it still happens in all of the same places, and when it does, the gains in cpu usage are lost, stutter becomes like it has always been, and I end up with a framerate in the teens and 20's with no gains to be had by reducing graphics settings (as many of you already know).

So, baseline performance (for me) is slightly better, but it still doesn't take very much to tax it out, and once that happens, there is no helping it, and it still happens just as much. Haven't noticed any improvement there. For example, the last mission in the first chapter of the campaign... once you hit the city (agia marina, is it?) fps drops into the 20's and things start to stutter again.

I say baseline performance is a bit better, b/c in early release altis could yield 20's fps in cities on just an empty map. Now, (at least since the last couple of patches) cities stay at 30 or above (on an empty map only). And, I've always gotten around 60+ in rural areas of an empty map (and better hardware usage in general).

I don't play a ton of multiplayer, b/c well... performance. They've talked about how they have been addressing dsync issues, but (in my experience) it is still a very common occurrence. I still see people jumping, warping, and rubberbanding around, and I can still be in a vehicle, and crash and explode into my buddy who is in a vehicle 100 yards away (on both of our screens). (but, the big disclaimer there, is I've only played about 30 minutes of any MP since the most recent patch. It was enough to see foot soldiers warping around though).

In short, any perceivable gains that I have noticed have been in areas where performance wasn't much of an issue for me to begin with (an empty map, for example), and (in my experience) those gains have not (yet, if ever) translated into actually improving performance when the game is doing something more than rendering an empty (or near empty) game space. That is my experience anyway, ymmv.

[R3vo 2654]

Its not the CPU´s fault, it´s the unoptimized Engine. You can have an Octacore with 10Ghz, it wont solve the problem with low fps

Yes, and if the game were optimised to the maximum people would still complain about bad performance while playing missions with hundres of AIs. People should finally learn the limits and how to live with them.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

True. For me personal 40-50 AI´s are enough, when i have more AI active i cant even walk 10 meters without beeing a target for the Enemy.

[mobile_medic 43]

People should finally learn the limits and how to live with them.

Yes... Learn the limits. Which also happen to include vanilla arma, and bohemia made campaign and showcase missions that can bring you into the 20's or less. And, I'm certainly not the only one able to reproduce this. Or, we can just completely ignore that fact and (as is a common response from some) pretend like it is the fault of everything *but* the engine... i.e. unrealistic expectations, bad mission scripting, etc.

Those things are considerations that need to be made, certainly. They are also important steps in troubleshooting performance issues (at the very *beginning* of that process). But, they are *not* the root cause of performance issues that have been present for years. They may often be peddled as such, and those excuses seem to do a good job of providing cover, but they are not the root cause.

[Dwarden 1125]

FPS drop in 1.38 may can happen if you RPT is spammed with matrix phys or overflow errors (disable -nologs first to spot those in RPT),

the good news is that internally it's fixed and soon to be in DEV

[flex 1]

Nothing here, and to be honest, if FPS would have dropped THAT much for multiple people you would have already seen tons of rage posts here :P

yeah thats true^^

FPS drop in 1.38 may can happen if you RPT is spammed with matrix phys or overflow errors (disable -nologs first to spot those in RPT), the good news is that internally it's fixed and soon to be in DEV

already read about that issue. good to know that its going to be fixed soon. thanks

man i really hope its not my hardware giving up :pray:

Edited January 30, 2015 by flex

[Dwarden 1125]

it's already fixed ;) http://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/2u6wca/arma_3_stresstestmp_138_performance_v1/

[mobile_medic 43]

Well, tried a little MP. Logged into the TacBF server. Thought, maybe since it was TvT without ai that it might perform a bit better.. Nah... Same ole. hardware usage tanked. Never saw above mid 30's (at the base). Once you get anywhere near the action, my fps tanked into the teens and 20's, and I had massive stutter. And, (of course, my usage tanked). Nothing new, really. (and, yes... I already run with -nologs)

[kanugane 10]

I had problems with FPS on my old i3 PC. Recently I switched on i5, gtx650 2gb, 8gb ddr3. And I have only slight fps drop on public servers, while in unit server, I had stable 30-40+ fps.

I'd say, it's a combined issue of servers and hardware compability.

[bigsyke 10]

I had problems with FPS on my old i3 PC. Recently I switched on i5, gtx650 2gb, 8gb ddr3. And I have only slight fps drop on public servers, while in unit server, I had stable 30-40+ fps.

I'd say, it's a combined issue of servers and hardware compability.

You can render 40+ fps, but that doesn't mean your actually getting a usable 40+ fps, if the server is running at 10fps.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Well, tried a little MP. Logged into the TacBF server. Thought, maybe since it was TvT without ai that it might perform a bit better.. Nah... Same ole. hardware usage tanked. Never saw above mid 30's (at the base). Once you get anywhere near the action, my fps tanked into the teens and 20's, and I had massive stutter. And, (of course, my usage tanked). Nothing new, really. (and, yes... I already run with -nologs)

Hmm interesting. Everytime I've played TacBF my minimum fps has been 45fps mostly +50fps. But I haven't played over a month actively because I've been waiting for new PSU.

[teilx 4]

Main prob is the FPS dancing like hell in most situation(city's,fights,effects etc) this gives a negative experience in gameplay. Most mission have already a fair manageable number of AI's and this is not the prob. If the game would give reasonable stable FPS should be enough for the most.

Best example is Maps like Altis,Cherna etc. There are so much location and Objects with an big Impact on fps, it is horrible. And it is already a issue since OpF.

[dzrealkiller 11]

Hi today I have just had a random drop in fps across all my games... at first I thought it was only ArmA 3 Wastelands but I came off as it got unplayable and went on to a load of other games that was also unplayable... everything was fine last night and this morning but something has gave me a massive performance drop... I normally run around on ArmA 3 Wasteland on my normal server at 60-90fps it very VERY rarely goes under 60 and its smooth as hell but now I am stuck at 11-20fps :( no idea what has happened...

I have ran a load of maintenance programs that should help clear away the crap like: Ccleaner, AVG, Maleware bytes, optimize drives with windows, Defragged my non ssd drives... I have also been advised to install razor gamebooster to see if that helps and nope it does not help at all... This started like a few hours after I started live streaming with OBS... To start with for the first few hours it was perfect then all of a sudden it all goes to shit and I have to end the live stream... I then restart my pc and run all the maintenance mentioned above and then try my games and they all run like crap....

I made sure nothing was running In the background and there was nothing... Also made sure there was no spyware maleware or viruses and there was nothing.

PC Specs:

I7 4790K (With New Thermal Paste)

8Gb Ram

Asrock Z97 Pro4

Gtx gigabyte 780 Ghz edition (Windforce)

850 Gold+ PSU

Windows 8.1 (Brought copy)

While in ArmA 3 My cpu temps where @70-80 while also streaming the max temps are 100, My gpu temps where only at 53 while gaming and streaming the cpu usage was around 60-70 and the gpu usage was around 40-50 I just dont understand what is causing it... My games are also running from an SSD and windows 8.1 is also ran from an SSD (Its own ssd) I am not sure how much info was needed so posted all that I could remember...

Thanks in advance..

[dayglow 2]

Your temps seem to be high, you system maybe throttling because of temperature

[dale0404 5]

Not trying to be funny mate, really not but...

When was the last time you cleaned your comp including taking out GPU etc?

Check that your memory and all other stuff are sat properly in their respective slots.

You mention OBS, what is that?

Might have hit the nail on the head. You say that you have new thermal paste on your CPU. Check the CPU is seated properly including the heatsink, I had this issue a while back and that was the problem.

[St. Jimmy 272]

CPU temps are too high if you can hit 100C when gaming. What cooler you've?