What is taking my fps down?

[clawhammer 10]

I Play ArmA 3 with this settings:

I use this ArmA 3 Benchmark mission for testing:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByhZc2l2kSOaQ2VJRTZjbFBoN1k/edit?usp=sharing

That is my system:

Intel Core i7 4790K 4x 4.00GHz So.1150 BOX

MSI Z97-G45 Gaming Intel Z97 So.1150 Dual Channel DDR3 ATX Retail

16GB (2x 8192MB) G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 DIMM CL10-12-12-31 Dual Kit

MSI Geforce GTX 970 G4 Gaming

1x AMD R9 SSD 240GB OS 1x AMD R9 SSD 480GB Games

Windows 8.1 x64

On this Benchmark i have 39 FPS.

I asked a few clan members if they can recreate this benchmark and they get more or equal FPS with systems that are weaker.

It cannot be that i have the same fps like someone with a i5 cpu and a geforce gtx 770?!

On our clan mission on our server i have 10~20 FPS while other have about 40~60 FPS with weaker systems! Even my old system (AMD-FX 8350 and a Geforce GTX 670) was close to the this FPS. I can set everythink to low, iam stuck at this low FPS on multiplayer.

What starting parameter do i use? ALL OF THEM, i tested them all, best parameter is -enableHT he gives me a few fps more.

Additionally i started a few Benchmarks with 3dMark11 on my system and on the systems on my clan mates. Here are the results right. For example i got 5000 Points while my friend (mentioned above) with his i5 and gtx 770 got 3000 Points. Even on other games i have much higher FPS then any other person in my clan. So i think it has something to do with arma itself.

What the hell is my system sucking down so much? I know from someone here on the board that he got insane 60FPS on this Benchmark mission with my settings and the same hardware :butbut:

I tested a bit with afterburner and HWiNFO, my i7 runs with all 4 cores at 100% with a clock speed between 4199 and 4399 Mhz while the gpu keeps chilling at 50% workload.

And yes, VSYNC is disabled!

Thanks for help! :-(

Edited November 24, 2014 by Clawhammer

[St. Jimmy 272]

We have had some private discussion with Clawhammer. Here's my specs:

Intel Core i7 2600K @ 4,7GHz

Asus P8Z68-V LX

8GB (2x 4096MB) G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-2133 DIMM CL9-11-10-28

Asus Geforce GTX 680 2GB

Samsung 540 SSD 250GB for OS and Arma.

Windows 7 x64

And I get result of 60fps with the same graphics settings that are in those pictures.

So that's 21fps difference between us. I've bit more clocks on my CPU but that doesn't explain the difference.

I've tried to help as much as I could but I'm starting to be out of ideas. If anyone with the same motherboard and CPU can help him out to know if there are any tricks with those?

He should get much better performance with that rig.

[nikiforos 450]

First tip is to lower your settings some of them make minimal difference in visual details.

Your rig is very good but still we are talking about Arma 3. We have to be reasonable that the engine is not optimized enough and that's why many get shitty performance.

Second tip is to overclock a little , maybe to 4.3 and that should give you a nice boost. But don't expect miracles because miracles rarely happen.

[EDcase 87]

Clawhammer is on Win 8.1 and St.Jimmy using Win7

Perhaps different memory manager causing problems. Try different ones in startup parameters.

I'll try the benchmark later and give my results...

Wow St.Jimmy you got 4.7GHz stable from a 2600k!?! nice

Edited November 24, 2014 by EDcase

[clawhammer 10]

First tip is to lower your settings some of them make minimal difference in visual details.

Your rig is very good but still we are talking about Arma 3. We have to be reasonable that the engine is not optimized enough and that's why many get shitty performance.

Second tip is to overclock a little , maybe to 4.3 and that should give you a nice boost. But don't expect miracles because miracles rarely happen.

Changeing the arma 3 settings from low to high change not much, i gain 10fps if i setup EVERYTHINK to low. On our clan multiplayer map i get the same fps on low or high.

Clawhammer is on Win 8.1 and St.Jimmy using Win7

Perhaps different memory manager causing problems. Try different ones in startup parameters.

I'll try the benchmark later and give my results...

Wow St.Jimmy you got 4.7GHz stable from a 2600k!?! nice

How can i change the memory manager?

Do you mean this: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?163640-Arma3-and-the-LARGEADDRESSAWARE-flag-%28memory-allocation-gt-2GB%29 ?

Next Things i will try:

1. This: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?163640-Arma3-and-the-LARGEADDRESSAWARE-flag-%28memory-allocation-gt-2GB%29

2. This: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-1939190/increase-fps-cpu-intensive-games-windows.html

3. Disable Hypterthreading and use -cpucount=4

4. Use a different hard drive with a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 and ArmA 3

Edited November 24, 2014 by Clawhammer

[EDcase 87]

Have a look here for BIS info:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_2:_Custom_Memory_Allocator

Note that MP is very different from SP so do not compare fps.

I hope BIS can fix MP in the near future.

Edited November 24, 2014 by EDcase

[clawhammer 10]

Have a look here for BIS info:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_2:_Custom_Memory_Allocator

Note that MP is very different from SP so do not compare fps.

I hope BIS can fix MP in the near future.

Wich one should i use?

[Greenfist 1863]

Wich one should i use?

They say Fred41's tbbmalloc is the best (the one you linked earlier). You should experiment with -malloc=system too.

[forteh 11]

@Clawhammer

I get similar performance to you with similar settings, I have AO and various blurs turned off, FSAA 2x and ATOC off.

I have a first gen i5 750 @ 4ghz, gtx660 and 12Gb ram, installed on a hybrid drive with map/building/plants .pbo files on a 4Gb ramdisk to mitigate the lack of SSD. I get 43fps on the benchmark, I guess your gpu has more than enough capacity to run the extra settings and isn't the bottleneck.

I think it is your cpu clock speed limiting the gpu, get it faster and I think you should see some more benefits.

What speed is your ram actually running at? It's capable of 2400Mhz but by default the 4790k uses DDR3 1333/1600, it has been shown that arma3 runs much better with faster ram with significant gains going from 1600 to 2100. Check it with cpuz and see if you can change the ram speed in bios. With my old i3 processor I gained about 30% boost (10fps) by pushing my ram from 1333 up to 1760Mhz.

@St Jimmy

What speed is your ram running at?

[EDcase 87]

Wich one should i use?

That's the problem. You have to test each one to see which works best with your system.

Fred41 said that tbbmalloc is good for him but I don't know if he is using Windows 8.1

[St. Jimmy 272]

Wow St.Jimmy you got 4.7GHz stable from a 2600k!?! nice

I could likely go higher bit higher. I haven't even tested what's the limit :D

@St Jimmy

What speed is your ram running at?

2133MHz CL9-11-10-28

@Clawhammer

You should check your motherboard and BIOS if it allows stable clocks so it doesn't change between 4199 and 4399 etc. but it remains at 4399 or 4199 or whatever you like it to be constant when it's doing something. My clocks changes only between 4700 and 1600 and 1600 means basically I'm on a desktop and not gaming.

And forteh asked a good question. Have you checked that your RAM is actually running at 2400MHz and not lower? You need to set manually on that 2400MHz or otherwise it's running much lower. Going from 1600MHz -> 2400MHz should give at least 5fps or even more.

[clawhammer 10]

This "unstable" clocking comes from the Turbo mode. Normally he runs with 4Ghz. If he see's he need more power on core 1 he overlock it to 4399Mhz.

If i make this fixed, i have 4Ghz on all cores, dont know if that helps me to disable the Turbo. Or is Turbo mode in arma bugged that it cause lower fps? I mean turbo mean more performance or not?

On the ram side, i read INTEL only supports 1600Mhz, is this really a good idea to make the clock higher?

http://de.msi.com/support/mb/Z97G45_GAMING.html#support-mem MSI says just something about 1600Mhz ram.

EDIT: The Manual (http://de.msi.com/support/mb/Z97G45_GAMING.html#down-manual) says:

4x DDR3 memory slots supporting up to 32GB

Supports DDR3 3000(OC)/ 2800(OC)/ 2666(OC)/ 2600(OC)/

2400(OC)/ 2200(OC)/ 2133(OC)/ 2000(OC)/ 1866(OC)/ 1600/ 1333/

1066 MHz

So i should be fine with 2400Mhz? What means OC?

I checked the clock speed in my system he is between 1333Mhz and 1600Mhz.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Clawhammer

[forteh 11]

The motherboard will support DDR ram up to 3000Mhz by OverClocking (the OC) but at default clock speeds your cpu only uses 1600mhz ram. This is the speed your ram is currently running at unless you have set it to run faster - your ram is designed to be run at speeds of up to 2400Mhz.

I'm not up to speed on newer bios but on mine there is a ram mulitplier which allows me to set the memory frequency (speed) by multiples of 2. I have options of 4x, 6x, 8x & 10x, with my default bclk of 133Mhz and a ram multiplier of 10x I get 1333Mhz ram frequency (the default speed for my cpu), because I have overclocked my processor by increasing the bclk from 133 to 200 I set the ram multiplier to 8x to run the ram at 1600Mhz. I am using 1600Mhz capable ram (in the same way yours is 2400Mhz capable) so I am using the ram at its designed speed. I can further overclock the ram by increasing the bclk.

I know the later processor overclocking setup is different so the above might not be 100% true for your system, however there should be an option to set the speed that your ram is running at.

[clawhammer 10]

AWESOME! After setting the ram manual to 2400Mhz iam now on 50FPS on this Arma 3 Benchmark mission! About of 5~10 more fps, now i will try the other things...

[pr0ph3tswe 1]

pretty sure you'd gain a few fps by lowering FSAA to 4x as well

[mamasan8 11]

One way I like to test if I get the full performance out of my system is by running 3dmark06 or 11. Then when the webpage pops up, compare the score with other users who has same Gpu and Cpu. If it differs by more than 500 points, somethings wrong. Drivers, settings etc.

Theres some systems there which only got 3k points when they should be getting 8k. Serious user configuration errors.

[clawhammer 10]

One way I like to test if I get the full performance out of my system is by running 3dmark06 or 11. Then when the webpage pops up, compare the score with other users who has same Gpu and Cpu. If it differs by more than 500 points, somethings wrong. Drivers, settings etc.

Theres some systems there which only got 3k points when they should be getting 8k. Serious user configuration errors.

The range of people with a i7 4790k and a geforce gtx 970 on 3dmark11 at EXTREME Preset goes from 3000 Points up to 6000 Point. I have 5027 Points.

I tested now ALL alloc systems:

No -malloc: 50 FPS

Custom -tbbmalloc: 50 FPS

-malloc=tbb3malloc_bi: 44 FPS

-malloc=tbb4malloc_bi: 48 FPS

-malloc=jemalloc_bi: 47 FPS

-malloc=tcmalloc_bi: ARMA CRASHED

-malloc=nedmalloc_bi: 40 FPS

-malloc=mybestmalloc_bi: 48 FPS

-malloc=system: 45 FPS

Iam now testing without Hyperthreading

UPDATE: Disabling Hyperthreading gave me 2 FPS :D

Edited November 24, 2014 by Clawhammer

[St. Jimmy 272]

Good. 50fps sounds like what you really should get at least with your system :cool:

[forteh 11]

Whoop!

Glad to be of service :)

[clawhammer 10]

Yeah thanks you guys very much, multiplayer runs now with liquid 30~50 FPS. But is this really the right fps for this system? Iam quite unsure after all this drama :D

That the gpu looks like that she sleep while running arma (multiplayer) is good to see on these FSAA, PPAA and anis. Filtering settings. I can set them to low or hight, it does not change anything on the fps (So i keep them on the highest setting).

[pr0ph3tswe 1]

Yeah thanks you guys very much, multiplayer runs now with liquid 30~50 FPS. But is this really the right fps for this system? Iam quite unsure after all this drama :D

That the gpu looks like that she sleep while running arma (multiplayer) is good to see on these FSAA, PPAA and anis. Filtering settings. I can set them to low or hight, it does not change anything on the fps (So i keep them on the highest setting).

sounds about right, my mp fps is higher but i also run cpu at 4.6ghz

[clawhammer 10]

What did you changed to get 4.6Ghz? Just the multiplikator? Or did you changed something on the vcore?

[pr0ph3tswe 1]

What did you changed to get 4.6Ghz? Just the multiplikator? Or did you changed something on the vcore?

i had to up vcore to 1.36v, if you do play around with it make sure you have proper cooling :)

[gunhed 10]

It is quite surprising that with this rig (without applying improvements) , ArmA engine only provides these FPS.

In short, you've got 50 fps with these graphic settings doing:

-Adjust memory RAM clock in BIOS

-Use custom memory allocator for arma

-UnparckCPUs

-Disable Hypterthreading and use -cpucount=4

Anything else?

Thanks

[forteh 11]

Out of interest regarding ram speeds vs fps.

I have been tweaking the overclock on this i5 750 (£40 upgrade from my i3 530 :D) and got a decent overclock on the ram, it is now running at 1768 from 1600 (bog standard 2x4gb crucial ddr3 1600) an I saw an increase in fps from 43 to 51 on the benchmark. Loading into the editor in the centre of pyrgos I get a solid 60-70fps (the old i3 would get 35!) with vanilla arma3.

1920x1080

very high texture/objects/terrain

ultra shadows

high particles/clouds

standard pip/hdr

high dynamic lights

3000 view and object distance

100 shadows

all blurs and ao turned off

caustics enabled

8x fsaa

atoc all trees

ultra fxaa

ultra anisotropic