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

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Prime set the CPU into 100% Loadstate, Arma will never do this. So 82°C are "okay", far away from burning down the CPU.

[forteh 11]

That was my thinking, well within tolerance for gaming use :)

I'm going to sort out the airflow through the case and then push it faster to see how well it goes, in theroy if I can keep it cool enough and the chip is up to it I should be able to hit 4.9Ghz.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Do you use a good cooling paste for the cpu? That helps a lot. Its important too that the cooler is so plain as possible on your cpu to get best results

[forteh 11]

To be honest I'm only using the gloop that came with the cooler (thermalright truespirit bw140), I think have got a small tube of AS ceramique somewhere but I do know I have some coolermaster stuff that is more recent. I will pull the heatsink, reapply fresh paste and see what difference it makes.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

You should check some videos how to do it right, many people simply dont know how to spread the paste on the cpu.

[forteh 11]

I've always spread it as per I used to do arctic silver 10+ years ago, as thin and even layer as possible. I don't know if different formulations need different methods though. The coolermaster stuff is much thinner than the old arctic silver if I remember it correctly.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Not too much of this paste, needs to be thin

[forteh 11]

I have cleaned the cpu and heatsink, reapplied a thinner layer of the coolermaster paste and also flipped the fan direction so it is now pulling air up through the heatsink. Full load temps immediately dropped to 76°C :)

edit: I have now tweaked the vcore settings manually (was set to auto before) which has brought full load temp down to 70-72°C and has been prime95 stable for 10 mins and counting. I will do a proper burn test on it later!

Edited October 23, 2014 by forteh

[killerwhale 1]

ok i upgraded to gtx 970 from gtx 580 this morning and i must say I am not really seeing much differnce, i still drop to the 20s in heavy firefight, i can hit over 50 but what really matters is mininmum fps and it is bad. even my 580 could hit 50 and above so this upgrade hasnt improved anything. what a vvv

[nikiforos 450]

ok i upgraded to gtx 970 from gtx 580 this morning and i must say I am not really seeing much differnce, i still drop to the 20s in heavy firefight, i can hit over 50 but what really matters is mininmum fps and it is bad. even my 580 could hit 50 and above so this upgrade hasnt improved anything. what a vvv

This what I personally have been telling to all of you guys about GPUs . But some people insist to buy expensive cards with no obvious reason, at least for Arma.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Updating GPU only for Arma is senseless. In other games he will feel a great improvement. So if he is playing other games its not wasted money

[benderbruno 10]

Hi,

So, I've bought an Asus ROG G750JX, 16gb RAM, GTX 770M 3gb, i7 4700HQ 2.4ghz... Should I get a SSD for ARMA?

The FPS on ultra stays around 29-40, not all settings on max, only the ultra preset.

I'm also using the memory allocator from Fred41 and GMF, from Fred too.

[shx 11]

Updating GPU only for Arma is senseless.

Yep, ARMA3 is one of the few games where NUMA spanning has a visible effect on frames - for me it's around 20%.

Should I get a SSD for ARMA?

SSDs generally help you with loading times - not frames. That said, you'll never want to use HDDs again, once you got your first SSD - they'll just save you so much time (especially since they're quite cheap).

[chadwicknight 10]

Hi there,

i am buying a new rig to play arma3 with the best possible settings and fps.

the guy of my pc store wants to assemble this pc:

- Asrock Z97Extreme6

- CoolerMaster Nepton 280L

- Corsair RM 750W Modular RM 750 Gold

- Corsair Obsidian 750D Black Widow

- Intel Core i5-4690K(3.5GHz/3.9GHz) 6MB Skt1150 Box

- Kingston 16GB DDR3 2400MHz- HyperX 2x8GB

- LG 24x dual layer SATA Black bulk

- Nvidia GTX980 4GB Zotac AMP edition

- Samsung 256GB SATA3 2.5" 850 SSD PRO

- Western Digital 1TB SATA3 64MB Green Mind EZRX

- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64bit DSP OEM

What's to be changed in this setup?

thanks for listening

[nikiforos 450]

Your GPU is overkill , if you plan to play other demanding games buy it but not for Arma , it will not make any difference if you have 780 or 980.

Buy a better processor instead the Intel Core i7 4790K.

[shx 11]

- Kingston 16GB DDR3 2400MHz- HyperX 2x8GB

Go for a 4x4GB kit instead.

- LG 24x dual layer SATA Black bulk

Think about repurposing your old optical drive, or leaving it out entirely.

- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64bit DSP OEM

Unless you've got specific reasons to go for Windows 8, go for Windows 7 instead, licenses are way cheaper and performance comparable.

--

As Nikoforos said, ARMA3 is extremely CPU heavy - swap your mid-range for a top-range CPU and do the other way round for your GPU.

Case, PSU and Cooling is largely a matter of personal taste, as long as it works.

[chadwicknight 10]

Thanks for the quick answers.

So these will be the changes:

- Asrock Z97Extreme6

- CoolerMaster Nepton 280L

- Corsair RM 750W Modular RM 750 Gold

- Corsair Obsidian 750D Black Widow

- Intel Core i5-4690K(3.5GHz/3.9GHz) 6MB Skt1150 Box >>>>>>>> Intel Core i7 4790K

- Kingston 16GB DDR3 2400MHz- HyperX 2x8GB >>>>>>>>>>>>> 4x4 GB kit

- LG 24x dual layer SATA Black bulk >>>>>>>>>>>>>> optional

- Nvidia GTX980 4GB Zotac AMP edition >>>>>>>>>>> wasted only for arma (780 is fine)

- Samsung 256GB SATA3 2.5" 850 SSD PRO

- Western Digital 1TB SATA3 64MB Green Mind EZRX

- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64bit DSP OEM >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Microsoft Windows 7

Any other suggestions? (specific models perhaps?)

[shx 11]

Any other suggestions? (specific models perhaps?)

For the graphics card, try to stay away from models advertising their silent cooling - while I've seen some working ones, the vast majority just leads to heat problems on high loads (along with other downsides like being larger than a full size card).

For the RAM, stay away from heatspreaders - FBDIMMs were the only ones needing them. For DDR3, heatspreaders are just a cheap way to hide bad designs - or to sell your normal RAM as a premium product for gamers. As of now, there are only a couple of DRAM manufacturers around, and the differences are microscopically small to non-existent - performance isn't anymore determined by manufacturer, but mostly by clock and PCB design. ((A top performance module has to use all 32 (not a hard limit btw) possible chip positions - for a 4GB module that 32 1Gbit chips. 2Gbit chips are currently the cheapest, so modules with 4GB or less tend to have them to raise the manufacturers profit and lower your performance.))

[cjph 0]

Might be a dumb question but I have an old Intel 6600 quad core at stock running Vista sitting on the shelf - would it make a suitable server machine for SP, ie use my current rig as a client and get any benefit of AI being run on the 6600 ? Am thinking of upgrading my graphics and so retiring the 7950 to the 6600 (overkill graphics for a server).

cj

[Valken 622]

I "upgraded" to an Intel 4790k after my old PSU burnt out my MB and itself out. CPU was an I5-760 (no HT) @ 4.2 GHZ. This new cpu at stock (up to 4.4 GHZ) runs FASTER than my old cpu with the same amount of ram.

I would try to OC the heck out of this cpu to run ARMA3 as smooth as possible.

Get more ram if you can afford it or a bigger SSD. Run ARMA 3 off the RAM drive or SSD as it streams the map as you fly over it. Super smooth on a RAMDISK.

Get 3 GB or more video ram so you can increase the draw distance. I would NOT get a 980 GTX but 970 SLI ~ 660 USD instead. Best bang for the buck right now. 4 GB video ram to increase draw distance.

I am running AMD 6950 CFX and it runs ARMA3 smooth so long as I do not turn on AA (use FXAA Ultra with sharpen effect). I would choose more view distance over AA to keep ARMA running smooth.

That is the best you can do. If you can clock your CPU up to 4.8 GHZ, you are GOLDEN.

[chadwicknight 10]

For the graphics card, try to stay away from models advertising their silent cooling - while I've seen some working ones, the vast majority just leads to heat problems on high loads (along with other downsides like being larger than a full size card).

For the RAM, stay away from heatspreaders - FBDIMMs were the only ones needing them. For DDR3, heatspreaders are just a cheap way to hide bad designs - or to sell your normal RAM as a premium product for gamers. As of now, there are only a couple of DRAM manufacturers around, and the differences are microscopically small to non-existent - performance isn't anymore determined by manufacturer, but mostly by clock and PCB design. ((A top performance module has to use all 32 (not a hard limit btw) possible chip positions - for a 4GB module that 32 1Gbit chips. 2Gbit chips are currently the cheapest, so modules with 4GB or less tend to have them to raise the manufacturers profit and lower your performance.))

Thank you very much for the additional info. One last question:

I have a ONKYO surround 5.1 and it works like a charm with all my devices (imac, ipod, mp3 reader ecc) except for my pc. No matter how much i try or tweak the options or system, the sound is sort of "metallic". Do I need to add a audio card to enjoy this surround system properly?

[extracrispi 64]

Hey everyone, I'm hoping to make some improve. What I specifically want is to be able to play ArmA III on high/Ultra settings while still retaining a good framerate (30-50 FPS).

I'm gonna list my specs below. Just comment or message me suggestions on improvements I should make like a new video card (I'm trying to keep it under $600, so don't give me anything over that).

CAS: CyberPowerPC X-Titan 100 MID-Tower Gaming Case w/ Side-Window Panel [-27] (Black Color)

CASUPGRADE: 12in Cold Cathode Neon Light [+10] (Red Color)

CD: LG 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive & DVDRW, 3D Playback Combo Drive (RED COLOR [+9])

CD2: None

COOLANT: Standard Coolant

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4790 3.60 GHz 8MB LGA1150 [-40]

CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]

ENGRAVING: None

FA_HDD: None

FAN: Enermax ETS-T40-TB CPU Cooler w/ T.B.SILENCE PWM 120mm Twister Bearing fan

FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

GAMES1: Titanfall PC Game [+60]

HDD: FREE! 256GB ADATA SP600 SSD + 3TB (3TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD w/ Extra FREE 256GB ADATA SP600 SSD (Single Drive Only!) [-15] (Single Drive)

HDD2: None

HEADSET: None

IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

KEYBOARD: (Keyboard & Mouse Combo) Cooler Master Storm Devastator Gaming Keyboard & Mouse Combo

MB_SRT: None

MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1866MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

MONITOR: * 24" Widescreen 1920x1080 ASUS VS247H-P 1080P (23.6" Viewable) 2ms LED Backlight, DVI, HDMI Input [+179]

MONITOR2: None

MONITOR3: None

MOPAD: None

MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE Z97-D3H ATX w/ Realtek GbLAN, 2 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 3 PCI, 6x SATA 6Gb/s (Pro OC Certified)

MOUSE: None

NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)

OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking

POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

RUSH: Standard processing time: ship within 2 to 3 weeks

SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR [3 Year Labor, 1 Year Parts] LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

SOFT1: McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2014 [+0]

SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

SPEAKERS: Logitech S120 2.0 Stereo Speaker Set [+19] (Black Color)

TEMP: None

TUNING: None

TVRC: None

USBFLASH: None

USBHD: None

USBX: None

VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card [-47] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)

VIDEO2: None

VIDEO3: None

WNC: None

_PRICE: (+1326)

_view_: {188B4990-0314-48E4-8605-EEB3D8252747}

_load_: 5/26/2014 7:51:26 PM

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Thanks for the quick answers.

So these will be the changes:

- Asrock Z97Extreme6

- CoolerMaster Nepton 280L

- Corsair RM 750W Modular RM 750 Gold

- Corsair Obsidian 750D Black Widow

- Intel Core i5-4690K(3.5GHz/3.9GHz) 6MB Skt1150 Box >>>>>>>> Intel Core i7 4790K

- Kingston 16GB DDR3 2400MHz- HyperX 2x8GB >>>>>>>>>>>>> 4x4 GB kit

- LG 24x dual layer SATA Black bulk >>>>>>>>>>>>>> optional

- Nvidia GTX980 4GB Zotac AMP edition >>>>>>>>>>> wasted only for arma (780 is fine)

- Samsung 256GB SATA3 2.5" 850 SSD PRO

- Western Digital 1TB SATA3 64MB Green Mind EZRX

- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64bit DSP OEM >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Microsoft Windows 7

Any other suggestions? (specific models perhaps?)

I dont get it why u switched to buy a "last gen GFX"... The 980GTX isnt much more expensive than the 780, i would definitley stick to the 980GTX, it is the better solution when u want to play other games than Arma in future, but it´s your decision :)

[St. Jimmy 272]

Can you overclock your CPU? If yes then GPU is the only thing that's left behind.

[killerwhale 1]

im conflicted, as i wasted money on the gtx 970 and having seen not much improvement, I'm thinking about new cpu, ideally the 4790k but then new cpus with socket 2011-v3 are out and motherboards which support DDR4 memory type. they say in the future this type of RAM will be the dominant. The new motherboard will eventually replace the LGA 1150 one as well. what is your suggestion. getting the new motherboard means getting rid of my RAM as well, and the motherboard alone costs $400, while the cpu costs pretty much the same as 4790k. when you total it, we're talking about $1000 upgade, where as if i were to go with LGA 1150 motherboard, about $ 530 total.