Will-my-pc-run-Arma3? What cpu/gpu to get? What settings? What system specifications?

[theevancat 277]

]So wish for a 660, 660 Ti, 760 or 770 and a Samsung 840 120GB or Samsung 840 Evo 120GB/250GB.

Best 770 cards are by ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI and for the other cards it’s probably something similar though EVGA are usually cheaper I think and pretty respectable.

I'm sure I can take a look and put it on a Christmas list for the future. Like I said, it wasn't all that optimized for gaming (advertised as a work computer, which is really what I need) which is why I had such terrible graphics card choices (it was either the GTX 645 or a Radeon 7570, and the GTX 645 is the lesser of the two evils.)

EDIT: I found this, which is a 760 made by ASUS and it's $260. Although since other 760s are more expensive, I'm not sure what the catch is. Reviews seem good, though.

@ric: I'll be sure to do that when it arrives (scheduled for tomorrow but it might be later today.)

Edited August 6, 2013 by TheEvanCat

[Sneakson 1]

I'm sure I can take a look and put it on a Christmas list for the future. Like I said, it wasn't all that optimized for gaming (advertised as a work computer, which is really what I need) which is why I had such terrible graphics card choices (it was either the GTX 645 or a Radeon 7570, and the GTX 645 is the lesser of the two evils.)

EDIT: I found this, which is a 760 made by ASUS and it's $260. Although since other 760s are more expensive, I'm not sure what the catch is. Reviews seem good, though.

@ric: I'll be sure to do that when it arrives (scheduled for tomorrow but it might be later today.)

Where I live the ASUS is one of the more expensive ones so it's probably just rebated or something such.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_760_Direct_Cu_II_OC/32.html

The Direct CU II system was just what I had in my noisy-as-hell 560 Ti so I'm not surprised to hear it could be quieter. 33 dbA doesn’t look noisy at all though... but it is 50% louder than the MSI counterpart (27).

ASUS and MSI are even in performance this generation it seems but MSI are quieter.

Gigabyte are also known to have silent cooling but I don’t think their performance is there.

However all differences between most third-party cards are mostly really small.

Oh and you haven't got it yet? Be sure to test it nicely when it arrives.

MSI Afterburner, GPU-Z and HWMonitor are good for monitoring temperatures and Fraps for FPS logging over time and then you just fire up some heavy game and go wild for some hour while they records performance. Note that Fraps should only be active in-game because menu fps is typically in the several hundreds and loading screens down to zero and that will mess with your average values as well as min/max values.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Sneakson

[theevancat 277]

Where I live the ASUS is one of the more expensive ones so it's probably just rebated or something such.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_760_Direct_Cu_II_OC/32.html

The Direct CU II system was just what I had in my noisy-as-hell 560 Ti so I'm not surprised to hear it could be quieter. 33 dbA doesn’t look noisy at all though... but it is 50% louder than the MSI counterpart (27).

ASUS and MSI are even in performance this generation it seems but MSI are quieter.

Gigabyte are also known to have silent cooling but I don’t think their performance is there.

However all differences between most third-party cards are mostly really small.

Meh, I'm not really concerned with things being quiet. I've learned to ignore the jumbo jet noises that an Xbox makes, for example. It's not a big deal for me personally.

[konjad 10]

HD 6850

amd fx 8120 x8

8gb ram

how far will this get me fps wise at medium settings?

anyone with similar setup know their fps?

You should be able to play on medium just fine, at worst low-med.

I have Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 4650M (laptop) and the game is playable on minimum settings (usually about 20-30 FPS)

[ric 1]

Fraps for FPS

this is free and records for a much longer time (than free fraps) http://www.bandicam.com/

[UbiquitousUK 11]

Don't laugh.... but A3 runs about as well well on my 15" MacBook Retina Pro as it does on my desktop (desktop specs: Win 7/i7 950/ 12GB/ GTX460).

Neither system maxes this game, but the Macbook is thin, light, stylish, and surprisingly capable as a gaming rig. you can see lots of videos on YouTube of the retina MacBook running Crysis 3/Battlefield 3 if you want an idea of what it can do.

You should get a similar experience out of a Razer Blade gaming laptop, but I find the aesthetics of the apple device less conspicuous when I want to run Arma in the middle of a work committee meeting!

[dale0404 5]

Dude,

He is on about what equipment do you use in the game, ie what weapon, loadout etc :lol:

[sproyd 2]

Dude,

He is on about what equipment do you use in the game, ie what weapon, loadout etc :lol:

I read it both ways... only the OP knows for sure... OP?

[rakowozz 14]

I read it both ways... only the OP knows for sure... OP?

Well, he did mention "no backpack". :p

[dale0404 5]

I read it both ways... only the OP knows for sure... OP?

Really, what doe he say in brackets:

(prefer no backpack if possible)

No backpack on a computer? :confused:

[becario 1]

Really, what doe he say in brackets:

No backpack on a computer? :confused:

maybe he wants a laptop but one light enough not to need a backpack to transport it...

vest, chest rig, beanie, main weapon from the other team+optics+IR(+silencer), 3-4 magazines (then scavenge when you need more), 2 frag, 2 FAK.

-no handgun, no handgun mags, no bombs or mines.

[theevancat 277]

Alright, so my computer rolled in and I had all of five minutes to screw around in the editor before I went to bed (I had bought Arma 3 a few days ago.) I must say that Arma 3 runs as smooth as a kitten on standard or high graphics settings.

So apparently the GTX 645 isn't as weak as we thought.

[nikiforos 450]

Could you be more specific? How many frames? Did you test to place 20 AIs in Agia Marina fighting eachother?

As I told before the main problem is the calculation of AI engagement and that brings the game FPS down hill.

[JohnnieConcrete 1]

I play the single player, yes I know people will.....whaaaaaaaaaatt

Anyway I have it running smooth as silk on my PC and its mid-range, maybe worse these dayz.

I know I need a new MoBo to get an I5 or I7 maybe that's the problem with MP online, I don't know but its unplayable for me no matter what the graphics settings.

I play all the showcases, some UMC and multiplayer offline, I can play against/with my mate who lives in England if we set up our own game (altho not for a while) but if there are more 10 players on any domination server, no chance, 10 FPS

and Wasteland is just a no-go.

I've put a link in for the Helicopter showcase, the quality is a bit off but it takes ages to upload files to Youtube, but its smooth with out losing the eyecandy (in game not YT).

Anyway here are some images of what settings I have Arma3 on and my specs, Hope it helps someone out there having difficulty, Oh I'm on the Dev build at the mo, but I switch back and forth between them.

Operating System: Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1

Processor: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz

Memory: 8192MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 8192MB RAM

Page File: 2256MB used, 14624MB available

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor Name: Packard Bell Viseo 230W

Keyboard: Sharkoon Skiller

Mouse: Microsoft Sidewinder X8

30MB ont thinternet

http://imageshack.us/f/41/rzxk.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/f/69/0tpq.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/f/836/jwrd.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/f/703/1whw.jpg/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hrqz5hdSb8

[theevancat 277]

Could you be more specific? How many frames? Did you test to place 20 AIs in Agia Marina fighting eachother?

As I told before the main problem is the calculation of AI engagement and that brings the game FPS down hill.

A played a couple of showcases and spent a good hour or so online (all on high settings.) Never dropped much below 25 FPS. It was generally anywhere from 25-35.

[Sneakson 1]

Currently trying out the Denmark SteelSeries Sensei and 7G mouse and keyboard combo which I caught quite cheaply around $150.

Definitely recommend to casual players!

Here are some thoughts about them which should be informative however I’m not going to repeat what their sites say so google your way over there for more generic information about them.

SteelSeries Sensei:

• Standard size. Great, exact scroll-wheel which is comfortable to hold. All buttons are very clicky.

• Claw grip works. Swipe grip is difficult because the right-side buttons are very easy to click.

• Not steel. Some sort of metal though. It’s like an amazing blurry mirror material and slightly sticky however it hasn’t gotten “dirty†like some glossy plastic mice like the RAT 7 Contagion.

• Uninteresting underside… except for an LCD! It has brightness and contrast settings however unless contrast is between 30-40% it acts up. Completely unnecessary screen really and I would trade it for a weight system any day but interestingly you can use your own image there to watermark it in case you’re afraid someone will steal it at a party or whatever. Well, it’s there!

• Great software. Change buttons, dpi settings, positive acceleration, negative acceleration, smoothing and all sorts of shit.

Overall what’s inside and the software is great however it’s a bit light for my taste and doesn’t have a weight system and the side-buttons making swipe-gripping impossible isn’t welcome. No jittery movements however I still haven’t tested it in the ARMA challenges.

SteelSeries 7G:

• Solid. Weighs a shit ton. Stays in place. Great wrist-pad. Clean design too.

• Unusual button layout. The left Windows key is replaced by a SteelSeries key which doesn’t do anything until you hold it and press F1-F6 for media buttons which I’m still very unsure about. I strongly dislike when developers take such liberties and while in-game instant muting is great I don’t care about the rest such as volume up and down. Also it’s not programmable… doesn’t come with any such software which is a great surprise considering how solid the SteelSeries Engine software for the Sensei is. They really should try to add the 7G into the Engine. Also check out photos of what the backspace area is like because it’s quite different too.

• Num, caps and scroll lights are bright as the f**king sun so you better stick some darkening tape on there.

• I typed on it a bit and then did 25 typing tests with an average 96 words per minute so it’s not impossible to type on really. Right now I’m not noticing anything strange however in tests I guess it’s about 10 wpm slower than my maximum.

• Smooth as the Snoop Dogg in gaming. I tried it some in Crysis, going to try ARMA next.

Overall great. It took some hours of typing to get used to the black switch keys coming from a scissor keyboard however right now the only thing that bothers me are the redundant media buttons since I’m an obsessive minimalist and I definitely need to put some tape over the num light.

Not sure if I’m going to keep them yet. I really want to like them though and they’re quite likeable except for some really dumb design decisions I’d say. I’m considering ordering alternative keycaps, o-rings to make them bottom out quicker and some software that lets me reprogram the damn keyboard if that’s possible. The mouse I think I can get used to and use while I wait for them to make an upgraded 7G and smaller Sensei however many years that will take.

It’s a great basic set anyways. Clean and all so I don’t think there’s anything directly objectionable especially to beginners other than the 7G black switches which I hear some call tiring to write on which sounds possible.

Alright, so my computer rolled in and I had all of five minutes to screw around in the editor before I went to bed (I had bought Arma 3 a few days ago.) I must say that Arma 3 runs as smooth as a kitten on standard or high graphics settings.

So apparently the GTX 645 isn't as weak as we thought.

Or rather ARMA3 is more CPU-bound than we thought!

Edit: wait, you think 25-35 frames is smooth?

50-60 frames is smooth. Try it and you won't go back. At least 40... absolute minimum value 30 in heavy combat.

Edit: oh and my new computer parts should arrive next week.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Sneakson

[ric 1]

Edit: wait, you think 25-35 frames is smooth?

50-60 frames is smooth. Try it and you won't go back. At least 40... absolute minimum value 30 in heavy combat.

what he said^^^ I get 60+ and then i get 19 and then 40 and then 17..i look at the ground go back to 60 ..look at the marina back to 19 ...look at the sky up to 50...look back at the marina...

I am glad you have you new rig and hope you enjoy it :) try some other games and let us know how it performs

TheEvanCat

[Concrete 10]

Will there be a noticeable difference between the GTX 760 and 770 at 1080p? I have a i5-4670k as I know this game is cpu heavy.

[Sneakson 1]

Will there be a noticeable difference between the GTX 760 and 770 at 1080p? I have a i5-4670k as I know this game is cpu heavy.

Yes, probably about 20%.

[Concrete 10]

Ok, still time to change to 770, i'm gonna pull the trigger. Thanks.

[Sneakson 1]

Ok, still time to change to 770, i'm gonna pull the trigger. Thanks.

Yeah, the 770 is probably worth it.

However two 760s are $100 cheaper and 25% better than a 780 and two 770s are $200 cheaper than a Titan and 40% stronger so I wouldn’t recommend those two cards really.

Additionally in 1920x1080 two Titans ($2000), two 780s ($1300) and two 770s ($800) all perform the exact same and two 760s ($520) are only 10% behind and then there’s the single 770 (40% behind, $400) and single 760 (50% behind, $260) with all Amazon costs.

Let’s chart:

760: $6.5 per framerate.

760 x2: $7.2 per framerate.

770: $8.2 per framerate.

770 x2: $10 per framerate.

780: $12 per framerate.

Titan: $16 per framerate.

780 x2: $17 per framerate.

Titan x2: $25 per framerate.

All based on Amazon.com pricing of MSI cards and counting $1000 for the Titan and gameplay benchmarks in Far Cry 3 in 1920x1080.

Clearly both a 760 and two are great value doing 50% worse but at 10% cost or 10% worse at 40% cost as shown.

The 770 isn’t much worse and the dual 770s will still mean an improvement and is 40% stronger than a 780 at only 20% higher cost and 25% stronger and 20% cheaper than a Titan impressively.

But both the 780 and Titan single I personally don’t see any value in at all. And in SLI they offer 0% improvement over 780 SLI or Titan SLI.

The bottom line: 760 ($260), 770 ($400), 760 SLI ($520), 770 SLI ($800) and beyond that there’s 0% improvement in 1920x1080 because apparently higher end cards are made to work on bigger screens.

By the way: 550W is enough to power most single-card systems without excessive extras.

A light 760 system with one SSD, two HDDs, one DVD/RW and overclocking should use 430W.

A light 770 system or a heavy 760 system with two SSDs, three HDDs, two DVD/RW, overclocking and extra air-cooling should do with 500W.

A heavy 770 system or light 760 SLI system should do with 550W.

A heavy 760 SLI or light 770 SLI system should do with something over 600W.

A heavy 770 SLI system should do with something over 700W.

All basic calculations.* Extreme enthusiast systems may drain more but generally they should draw less probably.

* I wouldn't purchase without making better calculations.

Some cheap recommendations: Corsair CX430 ($40), CX500M ($60).

However, in a non-economy build I would recommend spending at least $80 on a Gold-certified unit instead of the Bronze-units. It should be better.

Still not sure which are the best 550W, 600-660W or 700-750W supply units.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Sneakson

[ric 1]

Yeah, the 770 is probably worth it.

However two 760s are $100 cheaper and 25% better than a 780 and two 770s are $200 cheaper than a Titan and 40% stronger so I wouldn’t recommend those two cards really.

were did you get this info on SLI comparisons vs single cards?

[Sneakson 1]

All power supply values above may have to be multiplied by 1.11 because they were calculated using 90% system load however I'm still waiting to hear if a system ever hits 100% outside of artificial tests.

were did you get this info on SLI comparisons vs single cards?

http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/17151-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760/4#pagehead

http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/17151-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760/10#pagehead

[Dunets 10]

Im running about 25-50 fps (1900x1080) on Stratis with all settings on full except view distance which is set to "far".

i5 2500k @3.4ghz

NVIDIA Zotac 680AMP!

16GB 1600mhz

3rd gen SSD

Win8

Corsair AX850 silver

Looking to push my fps for another +10..

This game is all that matters, considering changing MB/CPU.

Do you think there`s fps to be had with an upgrade?

Edited August 11, 2013 by Dunets

[Sneakson 1]

Im running about 25-50 fps (1900x1080) on Stratis with all settings on full except view distance which is set to "far".

i5 2500k @3.4ghz

NVIDIA Zotac 680AMP!

16GB 1600mhz

3rd gen SSD

Win8

Corsair AX850 silver

Looking to push my fps for another +10..

This game is all that matters, considering changing MB/CPU.

Do you think there`s fps to be had with an upgrade?

I'd just tweak my settings. Or overclock. Absolutely not much you can upgrade right now.

The i5 2500k goes to 5 GHz though so invest in cooling if anything.