Hardware or Software/Settings Bottleneck Issue?

[stang725 10]

So for me, I barely have the "time" (w/ work, kids, and a non-gamer wife) to even play this awesome game, let alone spend the hours it would take to read through all the posts for further FPS optimization of this game....

My issue:

I can run almost any other game at / near constant 144 fps on my rig at 1080p.

With ARMA, I'm everywhere and anywhere from 30 - 100+ fps (single and MP) at 1080p. Changing graphics settings don't even seem to have any dramatic affect on FPS for some reason?

Does anyone have like a Top-5 for tweaks that may help me improve or at least stabilize things. I'm well aware that MP adds a ton of variability to a game that already has a ton of FPS variability... I play at max settings, but I have tried to reduce settings and draw distances with only minor improvements.

(I don't see my CPU being the bottleneck, but maybe it is? How do I tell other than finding a core that is at sustained 100% utilization)

My Build:

i4770k OC to 4.4ghz

8GB 2133

2x 770 SLI 4GB w/ current drivers (Gigabyte Factory OC Windforce)

Win 7 and Arma on a 256GB SSD

Asus 24" 144hz @ 1080p

Short of picking up two new 780ti, I'm not sure what else to do. Sure, I feel bad complaining that I'm "only" getting 70-80fps with all my graphic settings maxed out on some of the better MP servers... but I do get down to 30 depending on the server and time of day of the map. I'm just at a loss as to what I can even do to improve my experience playing this game.

What are some items I can monitor to determine where the bottleneck is? I'm not very experienced with PC gaming/troubleshooting (I thought I could spend my way out of this issue), so really looking for some insight to save some time. Trust me, its easier to bow my head and ask for advice than to go to the "wife" and tell her I need to drop $1.5k on a new SLI setup when I just spend $750 on the 770s... which in my opinion shouldn't be brought to their knees at 1080p... I have a feeling the 780ti solution wouldn't really help me much anyway....

Thanks guys, just looking for what I can use to determine what is the most limiting factor here...

[asuseroako 17]

This is from the Arma 3 Troubleshooting section

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

There is not much I can do with my machine. I'm stuck with my old laptop for Arma 3 SP gaming so specs like yours make me envious. :)

[stang725 10]

I did some more digging last night, CPU: one one core is hovering around 60% (using process lasso as well) and others are maybe 30% usage. GPUs are maxing out at 65% and 70% usage over an hour of playing at max settings.

I'm using the .cfg tweaks for frame rendering (GPU_MaxFramesAhead=4;GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=3;), but that's about it.

On non-MP I am getting around 80 fps now. MP Stratis I was getting 55-70fps.

I saw they are dropping the price for the 295x2 board to $1k... maybe I will sell my DK2 rift and my 770s.... and move up to a 1440p monitor... I was getting some strange rendering errors (loss of textures) at 1440p with my 770s and went back to a 1080p monitor. Mainly when in vehicles...

[denco 16]

You're gonna be disappointed if you're updating to 2x 780ti for Arma because its heavily cpu bound not gpu. I have 1x 780ti and I can max the game out with 8xAA and have very good fps but when there is a lot of stuff going on in the mission the fps will drop to 30 or bellow and that's because of the cpu bottleneck. There is no processor out there today that would fix that.

The fps in the multiplayer is also very much dependent on the server it self.

I was getting some strange rendering errors (loss of textures) at 1440p with my 770s and went back to a 1080p monitor. Mainly when in vehicles...

It means your gpu didn't had enough vram to run Arma on 1440p screen and by going to 1080p fixed it because 1440p requires more vram.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Denco

[stang725 10]

It means your gpu didn't had enough vram to run Arma on 1440p screen and by going to 1080p fixed it because 1440p requires more vram.

Hmmm, I have 4GB cards... find it hard to believe I hit 4GB at 1440p. I wish I would have checked, already returned the monitor to get a 144hz 1080p monitor. I actually like the 24" 144hz panel more than I liked the 32" 1440p panel because of the refresh rate and better/stable FPS.