Does arma 3 use 4 cores?

[*LK1* 10]

simple question. i dont remember to have read anything about that (maybe is my fault).

do we have any confirm/link/news on that?

Edited August 3, 2013 by *LK1*

[mighteemouse 1]

Barely.

[-=Grunt=- 10]

DX10/11 and PhysX has built-in multi-core support so the rendering and physics should be using 4 cores. Not sure about the other stuff such as AI.

[Valken 622]

AI - no way or it does not feel like it... I just tested a defend the base scenario using AIA + Unsung Vietnam and A3 Dev branch and it dropped my i5-760 @ 4 GHZ with 6950 CFX to 15 FPS or so. Without so many AI, my system runs A3 near solid 60 FPS at ultra settings with FXAA at ultra.

If BIS can multithread the AI and scripting aspects of the A3 engine, it will be amazing...

[old_painless 182]

Use CPU Meter and run A3 in windowed mode - it will tell you right away. Mine places loads on all 4 cores (i7 3770K)

[Nikko 10]

Use CPU Meter and run A3 in windowed mode - it will tell you right away. Mine places loads on all 4 cores (i7 3770K)

Same here and equally although none get high than 40% in usage.

[NeuroFunker 11]

with todays dev branch, it looks like it does now. Before, i always had like first core loaded to 70%, seond to like 50% and other to to 40-30%, now all were loaded to 50%,

[kavoriken 1]

The problem is - and has always been the AI not being multithreaded. Arma can use all the cores it wants, as long as the performance-bottleneck (AI) is single-threaded, 4,8 or 16 cores won't help your performance even a little bit as soon as the core the AI got assigned to hits 100%. All that matters for Scenarios with massive amounts of AI is pure single-threaded performance of your CPU.

People have been complaining about this since very early in Arma 2, yet Arma 3 has not changed anything about it. All we can do right now is pray that BIS finally sees the light and "fixes" this. Don't get your hopes too high though, as a beta version usually means no more core engine rewrites. Unfortunately making the AI use multiple threads instead of just one requires much more than just flipping a "use multicore" switch.

[MavericK96 0]

with todays dev branch, it looks like it does now. Before, i always had like first core loaded to 70%, seond to like 50% and other to to 40-30%, now all were loaded to 50%,

Well...that shows that we get even usage now, but not full usage. :p

[old_painless 182]

The problem is - and has always been the AI not being multithreaded. Arma can use all the cores it wants, as long as the performance-bottleneck (AI) is single-threaded, 4,8 or 16 cores won't help your performance even a little bit as soon as the core the AI got assigned to hits 100%. All that matters for Scenarios with massive amounts of AI is pure single-threaded performance of your CPU.

You may be right on AI being on one core only, I honestly have no idea. However, IF that is the case, the fact that other cores now get more load than before, must mean that the AI core has more free capacity than before ?

[alx 20]

The problem is - and has always been the AI not being multithreaded. Arma can use all the cores it wants, as long as the performance-bottleneck (AI) is single-threaded, 4,8 or 16 cores won't help your performance even a little bit as soon as the core the AI got assigned to hits 100%. All that matters for Scenarios with massive amounts of AI is pure single-threaded performance of your CPU.

People have been complaining about this since very early in Arma 2, yet Arma 3 has not changed anything about it. All we can do right now is pray that BIS finally sees the light and "fixes" this. Don't get your hopes too high though, as a beta version usually means no more core engine rewrites. Unfortunately making the AI use multiple threads instead of just one requires much more than just flipping a "use multicore" switch.

I don't believe the issue with the AI is due to a lack of processing power. It's 'simply' the fact that the algorithm design and parameters used are not good.

[TGxAltair 10]

I noticed a massive difference when I changed from i3 to i7 but I'm not sure if I use all 4 cores though.

[no use for a name 0]

All 8 cores get used on my rig; but only core0 is ~50%; all the others are ~30-40%. I still get ~30FPS on most SP missions w/ average # AI

[Hammerballz 10]

I don't believe the issue with the AI is due to a lack of processing power. It's 'simply' the fact that the algorithm design and parameters used are not good.

Is there any Feedback Ticket or similar online for the AI issue? I´d like to follow and Vote up! The AI is currently lagging on our Server and the FPS goes down to 5 and less when having bigger Missions like Invade & Annex or similar. I find it kinda funny though that this Bottleneck has not been reviewed properly and sorted out, Alpha/Beta/Full or not.

[k3lt 3]

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/ARMA%20III%20Beta/test/a3%20amd.jpg

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/ARMA%20III%20Beta/test/a3%20intel.jpg

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/Crysis%203%20The%20Lost%20Island/test/crysis3%20amd.jpg

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/Crysis%203%20The%20Lost%20Island/test/crysis3%20intel.jpg

[kavoriken 1]

You may be right on AI being on one core only, I honestly have no idea. However, IF that is the case, the fact that other cores now get more load than before, must mean that the AI core has more free capacity than before ?

As i said, it has been like that since Arma 2, and as the core AI has not been rewritten (BIS has mentioned this before, a while ago, can't give you a source right now though) it is still the same thing in Arma 3.

And no about that second part. Operating systems are pretty great when it comes to load balancing. So if there is capacity availible on the core that runs the AI, it might run other threads of the game. As soon as the AI thread takes up 100% of a single core though, all other threads will be moved to whatever other cores you have availible if possible. That happens in the background without you even noticing. Now Arma 3 definately uses more CPU than Arma 2 by default, so that's why you'll see an increased usage over Arma 2. I'm pretty sure the AI uses more as well, i can't say that for sure though. BIS might still be able to tweak that for the final version, but the singlethread AI bottleneck remains.