Found a Fix for low FPS!!

[shamb 10]

I have found what might be a bug in the video settings. It certainly prevented me getting good FPS, so I thought I'd post my workaround...

If you use the global setting to set Ultra (or Very high or high, or if auto detect sets them for you), the FPS is usually very low (30-40FPS). If you then drop a few settings to attempt to raise FPS it has very little effect. *However*, if you flick the global setting to a lower level, and then *individually* set all the settings up towards ultra, you get a very good fps *even if you end up with the same settings as ultra*.

Here's what happened to me:

I used auto detect settings (it chose Ultra) and my CPU (i7-980X) was @17-25% loading and my GPU (GTX770) @40-50% loading, giving me 30-40FPS. That was odd, because neither my CPU or GPU numbers looked as if they were the bottleneck limiting my FPS :confused:

So I manually set Standard Global settings, giving me +100FPS (more like it!) and then went in and set the sliders up individually. Now here's the funny thing. If I set them to exactly the same as the settings that were giving me 30-40FPS, I was now easily getting 60FPS! I triple checked by taking screenshots of the two sets of settings.... everything the same!

I then double checked against what my hardware was actually doing and I saw a CPU loading @35-40% and a GPU loading of @99%! That looks like what I would expect in an intensive game: the GPU is the bottleneck. More to the point, I now see a good 60FPS in game

So if you see low FPS, and especially if it is far below what your hardware can handle, and your hardware doesn't look like it is being used much by the game, I suggest you select the lowest global graphics setting and then increase each individual setting manually. I bet you will get a much better FPS than using a global setting or auto-detecting.

Edited September 22, 2013 by shamb
typo

[windies 11]

I'll give it a try and see because generally I never use the global setting but it always defaults to Ultra for me. I'll try setting like normal and then tweaking settings from there.

[Rolling 1]

Didn't work for me, after I set everything back, same FPS in Showcase Helicopters as before.

[windies 11]

I had roughly a 1-3 fps difference give or take, not enough to clearly say this actually did anything. I did notice though that setting for instance the high preset and then setting everything individually, including texture's to Ultra which is where I always have it set, resulted in texture's looking a lot sharper.

[shamb 10]

Hmm. Looking at it further, it looks like some settings negate others and you don't notice this effect if you start high, but its obvious if you start low, because then the 'expensive' settings will start at zero, whereas the cheap settings will start high, and give you almost the same visuals.

For example, If you have default DOF and Bloom, setting AA from off to x2 or x4 does very little on my 1080p 24" screen except for power lines and masts. Increasing the view distance beyond 3000 doesn't have that much effect either if the far distance is blurry (you just see a few more blurry hills in the distance, which is not much of a cost benefit when taking into account how much FPS drop you are introducing for the increased detail, especially when you are then immediately blurring that detail!).

By starting low, I have deduced than view distance is quite expensive on my rig because it can quickly create a CPU bottleneck (even though I am running on an oc i7-980X, as ARMA3 doesn't touch most of the extra cores), but DOF, bloom, object detail and ultra textures are not expensive at all for my CPU, and my GTX770 doesn't lose FPS because of them.

So let me change my advice: Don't use auto detect or start at anything above 'standard'. Set vertical synch off and start low/standard quality and tweak up based on in-game appearance (making sure the GPU loading stays high, so you know you are not CPU bottlenecking), and don't fall for vanity settings such as 'I have to have AA because its better than none, and I have a fast rig!'.

Watch your FPS in realtime as you change settings, and keep it above 60, and re-enable sync when you are done (all assuming you have a 60Hz screen refresh).

You might be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get a good looking game running at a solid 60fps by making changes that are not even noticeable in-game. I am currently running at 60FPS and just compared screencaptures of my screen vs what I see on auto-detect (where I got 30-40fps), and I can honestly not see any difference: the individual 'slider' settings are at most 10% different, and all the dropdown settings that can be set to Ultra are all set on that!

Edited September 22, 2013 by shamb

[J0K3R 5 93]

Sampling: Use 100% unless you have a very specific reason.

Texture Quality (HDD/GPU): High to Ultra, High stops a lot of the building pop-in Ultra basically eliminates it.

Objects Quality (CPU/GPU): Standard to High, having this on a higher setting will reduce pop-in from terrain features but comes at the cost of frames.

Terrain Quality (CPU/GPU): Standard to High, higher means more frame lag for not much gain visually or otherwise.

Shadow Quality (GPU): DISABLED or High+, lower settings seem to be worse, Ultra seems to give best performance.

Particles Quality (GPU): Standard or High, Ultra seems to have no effect on frames but is probably not good on older graphics cards or in multiplayer.

Cloud Quality (GPU): DISABLED, you are on the ground not in the clouds, plus it stops them from rotating.

PIP (GPU): Low or DISABLED, while better than it was previously keep in mind that it still consumes a lot of frames while driving for a cosmetic effect.

HDR (GPU): Low has better performance.

Dynamic Lights (GPU): Low or High, Ultra seems to have no effect on frames but is probably not good on older graphics cards or in multiplayer.

Display Mode: Use Fullscreen window if you are streaming, else Fullscreen is fine.

Resolution: Max this, it is almost always better to run at native resolution.

Aspect Ratio: Change this to match your monitor.

VSYNC: Set to DISABLED unless you are experiencing screen-tearing or somehow have a high spec 60+ FPS computer.

Interface Size: Up to your personal preference.

Brightness: Up to your personal preference.

Gamma: Up to your personal preference.

Bloom (GPU): Purely cosmetic, set to whatever you'd like recommended 100.

Radial Blur (GPU): motion blur on objects, recommend off or 25.

Rotation Blur (GPU): motion blur, recommend off or 25.

Depth of Field (GPU): is the blur effect you get when trying to look beyond your rifle or other object, recommend off or 100.

SSAO (GPU): attempts to approximate the way light radiates in real life, recommend off for performance gain.

Caustics (GPU): light rays, recommend off for performance gain.

Antialiasing (GPU): Shouldn't lose any performance having on x8, if while scoped there is an FPS drop lower the setting.

AToC (GPU): Set to DISABLED or Trees only, Grass may make your scope lag.

PPAA (GPU): Use FXAA/SMAA High to Ultra, Ultra will likely not impact performance.

Anisotropic Filtering (GPU): High to Ultra, will most likely not impact or increase performance.

source: http://day0.com.au/forum/arma/638-arma-3-performance-tweaks-and-settings-guide

[NeuroFunker 11]

interresting thread. I guess, first figuring parameters, what are cpu/gpu dependend, could also help tweaking.

kaysio,

Terrain Quality (CPU/GPU): Standard to High, higher means more frame lag for not much gain visually or otherwise.

you are not correct here, just look at stones, and other objects at further distance, set it to standard, and compare to ultra, you will clearly notice the difference.

Shadow Quality (GPU)

almost correct there. But ther is a trick, all settings under high, the engine uses stencil whatever shadows, that are pretty much CPU dependend, anything after high, uses dynamic shadows, which are GPU dependend.

[antoineflemming 14]

Sampling: Use 100% unless you have a very specific reason.

Texture Quality (HDD/GPU): High to Ultra, High stops a lot of the building pop-in Ultra basically eliminates it.

Objects Quality (CPU/GPU): Standard to High, having this on a higher setting will reduce pop-in from terrain features but comes at the cost of frames.

Terrain Quality (CPU/GPU): Standard to High, higher means more frame lag for not much gain visually or otherwise.

Shadow Quality (GPU): DISABLED or High+, lower settings seem to be worse, Ultra seems to give best performance.

Particles Quality (GPU): Standard or High, Ultra seems to have no effect on frames but is probably not good on older graphics cards or in multiplayer.

Cloud Quality (GPU): DISABLED, you are on the ground not in the clouds, plus it stops them from rotating.

PIP (GPU): Low or DISABLED, while better than it was previously keep in mind that it still consumes a lot of frames while driving for a cosmetic effect.

HDR (GPU): Low has better performance.

Dynamic Lights (GPU): Low or High, Ultra seems to have no effect on frames but is probably not good on older graphics cards or in multiplayer.

Display Mode: Use Fullscreen window if you are streaming, else Fullscreen is fine.

Resolution: Max this, it is almost always better to run at native resolution.

Aspect Ratio: Change this to match your monitor.

VSYNC: Set to DISABLED unless you are experiencing screen-tearing or somehow have a high spec 60+ FPS computer.

Interface Size: Up to your personal preference.

Brightness: Up to your personal preference.

Gamma: Up to your personal preference.

Bloom (GPU): Purely cosmetic, set to whatever you'd like recommended 100.

Radial Blur (GPU): motion blur on objects, recommend off or 25.

Rotation Blur (GPU): motion blur, recommend off or 25.

Depth of Field (GPU): is the blur effect you get when trying to look beyond your rifle or other object, recommend off or 100.

SSAO (GPU): attempts to approximate the way light radiates in real life, recommend off for performance gain.

Caustics (GPU): light rays, recommend off for performance gain.

Antialiasing (GPU): Shouldn't lose any performance having on x8, if while scoped there is an FPS drop lower the setting.

AToC (GPU): Set to DISABLED or Trees only, Grass may make your scope lag.

PPAA (GPU): Use FXAA/SMAA High to Ultra, Ultra will likely not impact performance.

Anisotropic Filtering (GPU): High to Ultra, will most likely not impact or increase performance.

source: http://day0.com.au/forum/arma/638-arma-3-performance-tweaks-and-settings-guide

Any post processing effect affects performance... That includes anti-aliasing. PPAA definitely costs you some frame rates the higher it is.

[J0K3R 5 93]

Sorry for taking the thread off topic,

Its just that there seems to be more of these threads popping up.

With that guide, I was hoping it will help a few members out.

Maybe a sticky is needed to help members, to some basic settings + tools to use.

[griffz 1]

I have found what might be a bug in the video settings. It certainly prevented me getting good FPS, so I thought I'd post my workaround...

If you use the global setting to set Ultra (or Very high or high, or if auto detect sets them for you), the FPS is usually very low (30-40FPS). If you then drop a few settings to attempt to raise FPS it has very little effect. *However*, if you flick the global setting to a lower level, and then *individually* set all the settings up towards ultra, you get a very good fps *even if you end up with the same settings as ultra*.

Here's what happened to me:

I used auto detect settings (it chose Ultra) and my CPU (i7-980X) was @17-25% loading and my GPU (GTX770) @40-50% loading, giving me 30-40FPS. That was odd, because neither my CPU or GPU numbers looked as if they were the bottleneck limiting my FPS :confused:

So I manually set Standard Global settings, giving me +100FPS (more like it!) and then went in and set the sliders up individually. Now here's the funny thing. If I set them to exactly the same as the settings that were giving me 30-40FPS, I was now easily getting 60FPS! I triple checked by taking screenshots of the two sets of settings.... everything the same!

I then double checked against what my hardware was actually doing and I saw a CPU loading @35-40% and a GPU loading of @99%! That looks like what I would expect in an intensive game: the GPU is the bottleneck. More to the point, I now see a good 60FPS in game

So if you see low FPS, and especially if it is far below what your hardware can handle, and your hardware doesn't look like it is being used much by the game, I suggest you select the lowest global graphics setting and then increase each individual setting manually. I bet you will get a much better FPS than using a global setting or auto-detecting.

reduce your view distance to 700 meter .