Performance is Ridiculous

[phronk 898]

[Hardware Specs @ Bottom of Post]

I have over 1000 hours in ArmA 3, and I think I've finally had enough of ArmA 3's absolute terrible framerate due to extremely poor hardware utilization.

I've tried messing with various settings, I've even tried lowering everything, and the game still runs worse than any other game I've ever played. Bumping my Objects and Terrain settings to "Low" seemed to improve performance, but would still drop frames tremendously when entering any areas densely populated with roads and/or buildings. There is no fix for it, no matter what settings I use, even if I reduce Object Draw Distance, it will still occur even when I get within range of a city/large town.

Additionally, COOP multiplayer starts out smooth, but once there is about 30 A.I. on the map or more, the server starts to choke and I start getting somewhere between 8 and 22 frames. It fluctuates a lot. On the very best servers, I'll get about 33 frames at best. If there are more than 12 players on a server with A.I. (such as Domination, Insurgency, or Breaking Point), the performance will noticeably be even worse and WILL NOT go above a 11 frames at times. If there are vehicles moving around on the map, whether it is player or A.I. driven, the performance also tends to decrease or cap your frames. This is just plain unacceptable...

ArmA 3 is supposed to be this big 'combined arms' MilSim game, yet it cannot function ideally when trying to experience it the way it was meant to be experienced. I have a pretty good PC that is able to run everything else on maximized settings at 30 frames or more. Yet this game simply cannot. Do I really need a $1000 CPU and the fastest RAM I can possibly buy, just to get decent framerate in multiplayer or in large-scale single-player missions? I love this game a lot, and it has a huge amount of potential, but it just doesn't feel worth playing this game anymore until the developers actually focus on fixing the game, rather than adding stuff on top of it.

I'm assuming we won't see big changes to ArmA 3 for at least another year, looking at how the game is now. It may have gotten way better than the Alpha, but generally the drops in frames due to A.I., urban environments, and multiplayer in general is pretty much just as bad as it always was. And I'm not trying to bash the game; I love the ArmA series! ArmA 3 is my top favorite game I've ever played! But I can't stand this terrible performance any longer. Maybe by the time Bohemia has finished making Take On Helicopters, Take On Mars, and Day Z, they'll focus on this game again. But I just don't see them making the necessary optimizations and improvements to the game so it can run smoothly consistently, even by the end of Q1 of 2014... :(

PC Hardware

GPU: GTX 770

CPU: AMD Eight-Core Processor (overclocked to 4.4GHz - also watercooled)

RAM: 12G

HDD: 220G Samsung SSD

PSU: 650W Corsair

Monitor/Resolution: 23.6" LED Monitor / 1920x1080 / 60Hz or 59Hz / 16:9

Mouse & Keyboard: Razer Naga Hex & Logitech G105

Headset: Logitech G230 (also TrackIR TrackClip Pro attached)

Rudder Pedals: Pro Flight Rudder Pedals by Saitek

In-Game Settings

VSync: Disabled

Sampling: 100%

Texture: Ultra

Cloud Quality: Ultra

Shadows: Standard

Dynamic Lights: Ultra

Particle Quality: Ultra or Very High

HDR Quality: Standard

PPAA: SMAA High

Post-Processing: Ultra

PIP: Ultra

Objects: Low (cannot get solid 30 frames or more with any higher settings)

Terrain: Low or Standard

Overall View Distance: 1800

Object Draw Distance: 1450 or 1200

ATOC: All or None

SSAO: Ultra

Antialiasing: Ultra

Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra

[ratszo 17]

First, i'd like to thank you for posting your specs up-front. Getting specs 'round here is like pulling teeth from a hen.

I see you're from NY. I'm from Queens, so as i pick at the specs, your gonna wanna answer the question,

"Do you want to play the game or do you want to f@&k around?"

Let's start:

GPU: GTX 770

CPU: AMD Eight-Core Processor (overclocked to 4.4GHz - also watercooled)

RAM: 12G

HDD: 220G Samsung SSD

PSU: 650W Corsair

*Monitor/Resolution: 23.6" LED Monitor / 1920x1080 / 60Hz or 59Hz / 16:9*

Drop the rez down to something starting at 12xx, 13xx, or 14xx.

If you want to play the game, this is where the only large boost in frames is coming from.

This is where you can limit textels and even see cpu/gpu work harder.

Raise refreshrate to 75hzs.

Mouse & Keyboard: Razer Naga Hex & Logitech G105

Headset: Logitech G230 (also TrackIR TrackClip Pro attached)

Rudder Pedals: Pro Flight Rudder Pedals by Saitek

In-Game Settings

*VSync: Disabled ..., if you like wild frame tearing, leave it. i use nvidia half-refresh, t-buff on.

Sampling: 100%

*Texture: Ultra..., no

*Cloud Quality: Ultra

Shadows: Standard

*Dynamic Lights: Ultra..., no

*Particle Quality: Ultra or Very High..., yeah if you got frames to spare under load.

HDR Quality: Standard

*PPAA: SMAA High..., off, use nvidia setting

*Post-Processing: Ultra..., off

*PIP: Ultra..., hell no

Objects: Low (cannot get solid 30 frames or more with any higher settings)

Terrain: Low or Standard

Overall View Distance: 1800..., maybe increase if you're a pilot..., for a grunt, 1000m.

Object Draw Distance: 1450 or 1200

ATOC: All or None

*SSAO: Ultra..., off

*Antialiasing: Ultra..., 8x, use nvidia 32xCSAA

Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra..., off, use nvidia 16x

Once you have decent frames, then try upping the eye-candy.

So, do you want to play the game or what?

[Game__On 10]

"performance" in this sense isn't even the problem.

There's something very weird going on, where the game will clog the pipes the longer you play or something. I can get in a server with 30 players, and a mission that has been going on for hours, and have 50 fps for the first 10 minutes.

Then it starts to drop, and drop.

Then, when i come back after a reboot, i have the 50 fps again on that same server , then, after 10 minutes it starts to drop again.

Something very strange this game is doing to my computer.

(SLI GTX 680's , 8 GB RAM, i7 3770k @ 4,5 ghz)

[kremator 1065]

Game__On, it could be the mission that is unoptimised, or something to do with the netcode?

I've not noticed that I'm afraid.

@Phronk - you have too many things on Ultra that are totally useless. Ratszo has given some good advice, although I would keep your rez at 1920x1080, just change the rest of the settings !

[phronk 898]

Having things like PIP and Dynamic Lights shouldn't even be affecting performance at all, when it is broad daylight and there are no PIP sources (such as vehicles) around. It is a flaw in the game, trying to render stuff that doesn't even exist or something.

[mythlawlbear 10]

You're running an AMD processor, they are currently horribly optimized from what I've heard from fellow AMD users.

[sailindawg 0]

Try running the game with everything at high. Don't go higher with view distance than 3000 m. Also, I'm assuming your running Win 7 64 bit? If so, unpark your cpu cores. Just Google "unpark cpu cores". It's well documented & will stop win 7 from under utilizing your cpu. Also, try to get closer to 4.8 on the cpu.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Sailindawg

[kremator 1065]

Having things like PIP and Dynamic Lights shouldn't even be affecting performance at all, when it is broad daylight and there are no PIP sources (such as vehicles) around. It is a flaw in the game, trying to render stuff that doesn't even exist or something.

Agree, but turn them down/off and see the difference.

[kridian 33]

Meh. I get the same "bogging down" effect too with an i7. Starting to think it's this.

[MavericK96 0]

Meh. I get the same "bogging down" effect too with an i7. Starting to think it's this.

That's probably part of the problem, but not the only one.