Terrible Performance

[opendome 91]

Hello everyone and thanks for reading my post! My rig is

AMD FX 6100

Gigabyte Geforece GTX 660 TI

8 gb of RAM

Windows 7 64 bit

I am getting terrible performance! I've benchmarked my rig and nothing seems to be physically wrong and Ive used multiple virus scanners and malware scanners with no avail. I also made sure all of my drivers are up to date and stable. Other games run fine but Arma 3 runs like absolute crap for some reason, and it doesn't seem to mater what settings I use the FPS stays about the same. I was wondering whats going on, how to improve my performance, and what are the recommended settings for my rig?

[nuxil 2]

Remove your stock cooling. and replace it with a nitrogen one. then overclock your cpu to about 7.5 Ghz. it will the problem solved.

why didnt you use one of the 50 existing threads about bad performance. there are some tips about some tweeks in them.

[opendome 91]

Well It'd be cheaper to just buy a better CPU but it doesnt even utilize the full CPU anyway.... I've tried everything from all the threads Ive read with no effect, and they don't have the same hardware as I do....

[KingScuba 1]

Try researching next time.

Start off by disabling all your Post Processing Effects (PP)

Lower your view distance to 1500 to 2000

Flip your Gfx to low, then start bumping them up towards normal or so.

As for physical improvments, try clocking your cpu up towards 4.2 if you can manage it, don't try unless you have an aftermarket cooler and feel comfortable doing it. Overclock.net can provide you more information on that.

DO NOT expect arma to run like all your other games. It's much better optimized than it used to be, however I'd guess your FPS should be floating around 30 to 40 after you tweak it as i told you.

[pr0ph3tswe 1]

OC your cpu or swap to intel for fps boost, that's about what you can do other than lowering view distance and terrain/object distance to low

[opendome 91]

Try researching next time.

Start off by disabling all your Post Processing Effects (PP)

Lower your view distance to 1500 to 2000

Flip your Gfx to low, then start bumping them up towards normal or so.

As for physical improvments, try clocking your cpu up towards 4.2 if you can manage it, don't try unless you have an aftermarket cooler and feel comfortable doing it. Overclock.net can provide you more information on that.

DO NOT expect arma to run like all your other games. It's much better optimized than it used to be, however I'd guess your FPS should be floating around 30 to 40 after you tweak it as i told you.

Thanks for the advice but as stated before I have tried researching and tried every tweak/trick Ive come across, they have not helped. I've tried

turning everything down to the lowest settings, disabled my post processing, altering the max frames ahead, unparking CPU cores, using start init commands for better hardware use, used process lasso, altered the affinity in task manger to real time, minimized my view distance, disabling/enabling turbocore, gamebooster, followed various tweak guides such as http://day0.com.au/forum/arma/638-arma-3-performance-tweaks-and-settings-guide, etc

My computer only uses about 13% of my CPU

---------- Post added at 23:04 ---------- Previous post was at 23:03 ----------

OC your cpu or swap to intel for fps boost, that's about what you can do other than lowering view distance and terrain/object distance to low

thanks for your advice, its starting to look like intel is the only way to go, my comp is only using 13% of my CPU for arma

---------- Post added at 23:05 ---------- Previous post was at 23:04 ----------

it also seems to be using only 30% of my memory and as for doing something about it, I dont find possible solutions but people arguing over it

Edited December 30, 2013 by Opendome

[Furret 0]

There are no solutions, sorry.

[xXxatrush1987 10]

its really sad that amd cpus with their interisting way of modules are so hardcaped by themself.

but thats the price you have to pay if you are trying to reduce die size by using a slightly enhanced k8 frontend...

i´ve used amd cpus for a long time but every game that requires processing power cpu wise is just no fun anymore with amd cpus(exept crysis3 gras but thats menthal)

im glad i switched to intel with the release of sandy bridge 3 years ago, arma 2 and arma were running more as double as fast as on my phenom2 x4 b50(unlocked x2 550) and even today my sandy bridge cpu just works like a charm with arma 3.and don´t forget the amd phenom2 series of 2008 has a higher ipc rate than the new fx procs under heavy load due to their k10 frontend...

so enough past, future:

there is in arma 3 performance server.exe thread a new memory allocator which uses instead of 4kb pages 2048kb pages, try it it boost performance under heavy load quite much :) but 8gb ram is recommended ;)

[kklownboy 43]

There are no solutions, sorry.

? Install AMD patches from MS for the CPU. Turn off Coreparking.

[jumpinghubert 49]

My computer only uses about 13% of my CPU

55-65% usage of all cores would be normal in arma3. There is something wrong with your system.

[bruhmis 10]

it's possible that you have the same problem that I do, where the game is basically just bi-polar and uses your hardware properly when it wants to, which is almost never. when the game is functioning properly I generally get a solid 60 FPS on near max settings, but most of the time the game is broken and I get 20-30 regardless of settings. it's impossible to tell if you have the same problem as me, but what I can tell you is that when you're trying to fix arma 3, do not attempt to use logic. the performance doesn't make sense, and if you expect it to you're going to impede your own progress. I've doubled my framerate in the past by deleting my config file and generating a new one 3 times in a row. only on the third time did the exact same procedure have any effect.

I know you said you've tried all the tweaks, but I'm just going to list everything I can think of that might help you:

disable vsync in the graphics options and disable triple buffering in the config file, then force vsync and triple buffering on for arma 3 in your nvidia control panel, also try forcing maximum pre-rendered frames to 1

download and use D3D Overrider https://hostr.co/download/5JA4NRt/D3DOverrider%20DX11.rar

make sure MSAA is OFF at all times

use the following launch parameters: -high -maxVRAM=1000 maxMem=4000 cpuCount=4 -noLogs

do not test the game on the lowest settings, this will stress your CPU out more. put shadows, dynamic lights and textures to high.

if you're using multiplayer to test your performance, this is your problem. the multiplayer is a gigantic mess at the moment.

install the windows hotfix for FX series cpus.

update your BIOS (do NOT use windows applications such as @BIOS, this practice has destroyed many motherboards)

turn off any anti-virus software you have while running the game

run the game as admin

[Furret 0]

-high doesn't do anything

maxMem has a hard limit of 2047, anything above will drop.

[NicotinKickballovich 1]

Am afraid that the only thing you can do to boost your experience is to move to an intel processor. Gotta have at least an i5 2500k or so, I previously had a Q6600 overclocked to 3.6Ghz and that still wouldn't do as I got terrible frames in multiplayer, even on a good server after it runs for a while. Just recently moved to an i5 3570k and I was shocked about the results, as it increased to a stable 45 frames, but when the server starts to go bad I ussually drop to 25-30, which is enough for me. Don't think they'll optimize the engine for AMD CPU's, as their engine is based on single core performance and that's where AMD chips fail at sadly.

[bruhmis 10]

-high doesn't do anything

maxMem has a hard limit of 2047, anything above will drop.

-high drastically reduced the stuttering I had when I first bought the game. doesn't really matter if it has a hard limit or not, putting a higher amount is at the very least going to yield identical results.

[Furret 0]

1. Placebo effect.
   
2. 4000 is the same as setting it to 2047.
   

[bruhmis 10]

1. Placebo effect.
   
2. 4000 is the same as setting it to 2047.
   

1: no, it still happens to this day. I know, I've spent enough time trying to get the game to work.

2: which is why it's pointless to advise someone against setting it higher.

[call_911 10]

Also try an check to unpark all 6 cpu's that seemed to help a lil bit for me during Alpha an beta stage. Havin said that I'm scrappin my AMD FX6100 for an Intel asap as this one just does'nt cut it for the way i'm used to playing the game at performance lvls I was used to in ArmA2 etc. 30-40 fps @5000 view distance on normal vs low @ 20ish fps @ 1000-1500 in ArmA3.

[opendome 91]

Thanks for all of the advice and info guys! Really appreciate it and the helpful atmosphere of this community! Unparking the cores helped but its still only using about 25% of my cpu. Does anyone know of anyways to at least get it up to 50%? Yea it looks like I might have to get an intel setup when I can finally afford it. Do you get 20ish fps consistently? Do you know how much your CPU is being utilized?

[nikiforos 450]

Best community, but unfortunately bad engine :( Don't have any hopes of finding the miracle solution for your problems.

[windies 11]

Even if you upgrade you're still looking at the same performance problems cause the root problem isn't your hardware necessarily but the engine itself and no amount of more powerful hardware will change that at this point. I know people with i7's overclocked way beyond my Phenom II that get roughly the same performance as me with comparable settings.

[TheBigOne_014 16]

Try this... http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?163640-Arma3-and-the-LARGEADDRESSAWARE-flag-(memory-allocation-gt-2GB),... it will help a little! ;)

[pr0ph3tswe 1]

Even if you upgrade you're still looking at the same performance problems cause the root problem isn't your hardware necessarily but the engine itself and no amount of more powerful hardware will change that at this point. I know people with i7's overclocked way beyond my Phenom II that get roughly the same performance as me with comparable settings.

not unless they have upped their settings a lot or run a worse gpu if we're speaking sandybridge or newer

[opendome 91]

I wonder if they are ever going to fix this, even on the ported Takistan with little objects to render I get 30 fps in towns. Right now my settings are

sampling: 100%

Texture:Standard

Objects:Standard

Terrain: Standard

Shadows: Disabled

Particles: high

Clouds: Low

PIP: Disabled

HDR: Low

Dynamic Lights: Low

VD: 2000 m

Obj: 1315 m

all post processing and everything else is turned off with no special effects.

My rig is:

AMD FX-6100

Gigabyte Nvidia GTX-660

8 gb RAM

Windows 7 64 bit

Corsair Force GT 120 SSD

I also tried installing the windows FX hotfix and it seems to not have made any difference (still have it installed)

[bigpickle 0]

Try researching next time.

Start off by disabling all your Post Processing Effects (PP)

Lower your view distance to 1500 to 2000

Flip your Gfx to low, then start bumping them up towards normal or so.

As for physical improvments, try clocking your cpu up towards 4.2 if you can manage it, don't try unless you have an aftermarket cooler and feel comfortable doing it. Overclock.net can provide you more information on that.

DO NOT expect arma to run like all your other games. It's much better optimized than it used to be, however I'd guess your FPS should be floating around 30 to 40 after you tweak it as i told you.

Horse s##t!

Make the game look crap is your solution?

His system is more than enough to run the game on normal easily.

Bis need to get their act together and fix the code, the game has been released for long enough now to expect it to run under duress easily on my system.

I run with:

i72700k

GTX760

16Gb Ram

SSD for arma install

I'm lucky if i get 15fps in a fire fight with smoke etc.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Bigpickle

[bruhmis 10]

I wonder if they are ever going to fix this, even on the ported Takistan with little objects to render I get 30 fps in towns. Right now my settings are

sampling: 100%

Texture:Standard

Objects:Standard

Terrain: Standard

Shadows: Disabled

Particles: high

Clouds: Low

PIP: Disabled

HDR: Low

Dynamic Lights: Low

VD: 2000 m

Obj: 1315 m

all post processing and everything else is turned off with no special effects.

My rig is:

AMD FX-6100

Gigabyte Nvidia GTX-660

8 gb RAM

Windows 7 64 bit

Corsair Force GT 120 SSD

I also tried installing the windows FX hotfix and it seems to not have made any difference (still have it installed)

there's no reason for your textures to be standard, put them on ultra. same with shadows and dynamic lights, put them on ultra. these are GPU centric settings and the 660 can pull them off with ease. particles should be on low, though that's not related to low fps in towns. HDR doesn't affect performance so you might as well turn that ll the way up too. there are things you can do to improve your performance, but honestly you'll never have fully satisfying performance on arma 3 until you upgrade that CPU. if you don't have the money to go with intel, then go with an FX 8350.