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eddo36

What part of my PC should I upgrade for Arma 3?

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I think it meets the minimum specs, but if I want it to run Arma 3 smoothly with graphics quality cranked up, what part of it should I upgrade? Historically upgrading the RAM for me works wonders, but in this case I think 12gb of RAM is already a lot. I'm thinking the graphics card, what is a good recommendation to run Arma 3 at high quality (PCI Express x16 port)? Should I add more RAM too? Thanks in advance.

Type: Lenovo IdeaCentre K430

Processor: Intel Core i7-3770

Processor Speed: 3.4 GHz

RAM: 12 GB

Storage Capacity: 2000 GB

Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GT 545M

Operating System: Windows 8.1

Edited by Eddo36

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Well CPU would be a hard one wouldn't it? I would have to replace my whole motherboard with it?

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I think your graphics card is much less powerfull than the rest of the rig. For gaming, always nVidia GTX.

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The only thing you can do to increase performance in arma is upgrade the gpu, currently it will be bottlenecking the cpu. A gtx 660 is plenty fast enough to play at 1080p on high / very high but going newer/faster will give more scope on other games.

Increasing cpu speed always helps, however you can't overclock yours (as it's a non K model) and I would guess that your motherboard won't support overclocking even if you did get a K chip.

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In this case, the GPU is limiting you game performance.

The GT545 is a old low-end Graphics card.

according to your budget you should replace it.

If there is still budget left you could add a SSD to your system. In my case this added lots of performance to both, my system and Arma.

but the good news:

its not about your RAM :P

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Thanks for the advices, I appreciate it.

Would an AMD Radeon HD7700 card be any good these days, or not anymore?

Edited by Eddo36

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I believe arma generally performs a little better with nvidia, I can't comment on the Radeon but my gtx660 will run high / very high settings @ 1080p no issues :)

I bought it a couple of months ago for 60 quid so not an expensive upgrade.

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if you dont want to spend more many, then you should chose the R7 260x

the 260x is a view percent faster than the 7790 at the same price like the 7700 (acc. to my local price lists)

@forteh

theoratically is NV slightly bether because of PhysX, but in the price range it will not be a big deal. (His processor is fast enough to calculate Physx btw)

Edited by Ingrimmsch

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Thanks for the help you guys, I'll look into the new card. I used to be good with computers back in the day (built my own PC's a decade ago) but slacked on the knowledge when I moved my gaming to Xbox consoles.

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Also, are you sure that your graphics card is a 545M? if so, that means that you're most likely running on a laptop (like myself, who is running on a 560M). If that's the case you may not be able to replace it.

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The R7 260x or R7 265 should run Arma fine. Your cpu is perhaps slightly older but still better than any AMD chip for this game. Intel CPU is the way to go, either way. Also I second the SSD recommendation. Worth the money.

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@forteh

theoratically is NV slightly bether because of PhysX, but in the price range it will not be a big deal. (His processor is fast enough to calculate Physx btw)

There is no hardware accelerated PhysX in ArmA3, so that doesnt really matter.

Anyway: I have a similar system and run the game fine on an HD4870, which is getting a bit old by now. So anything that is faster than that will do fine.

There isn't that much to gain by updating your CPU since it is pretty good already, and if you actually want to get one that is significantly faster you will have to throw a lot of money at it so it is probably not worth it at this point.

Depending on the missions you play you will get roughly the same performance (because CPU speed isnt going up, and this is usually the limiting factor in most missions that actually have things going on), but you can greatly increase graphical detail by upgrading your GFX.

12GB RAM is already overkill, ArmA is 32bit so cannot use that much anyway, and you would not see a difference between 8 and 12GB unless you run tons on shit in the background. (Think: 500 Chrome tabs :p )

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I have a question, similar to the OP. But I can't create a new thread. Can I post my specs here, do I have to wait until I make a new thread?

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Buy the best Graphics card you can barley afford. I built two systems that were different just to try it out and for the hobby of PCs. One is AMD/AMD and one is Intel/nVidia. The Intel is only i5 (yet to overclock) and both work great.

Skip the SSD unless you want to do alot of Dev work for the quick re-boots. They're expensive and space is limited. Definitely the Graphics Card. A great one will run around $300. No need to go better. Uber maxed graphics are not noticed. I run both of mine on 1080p on High. Looks and runs fantastic. What's your budget? I would invest in the Card and a TrackIR. Biggest bang.

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