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

[Zbyszko 10]

Well the X5670 does work.... but just at stock frequencies so I'm actually quite a bit worse off. :( Even playing with the voltages makes it fail POST. Not sure why this particular Mobo has an issue with OCing Xeons when OCing the i920 posed no issues. Seems to be the trend with this motherboard though. :(

[forteh 11]

Post a question in here: -

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18618052

They should be able to get it running properly :)

If you don't have any luck, the 1366 x58 boards are worth a fortune on ebay right now, I've seen broken ones sold for £60-70 so you should be able to resell without much issue.

[Zbyszko 10]

I've been trying to setup an account there since last week but apparently there's no one at the helm because it still has not been activated (I did confirm email account).

[forteh 11]

I'm surprised at that, it's a very active forum and attached to one of, if not the best hardware shops (overclockers.co.uk) in the UK. Might be worth seeing if you can ping an email to them :)

[General_Grant 10]

I am really interested in getting ARMA 3 and also playing it on high setting with good fps, i know that 60 is impossible and there are crazy dips too in the fps but what is the best pc build that can run ARMA 3, BF4 and MGS5??

[Zbyszko 10]

I'm surprised at that, it's a very active forum and attached to one of, if not the best hardware shops (overclockers.co.uk) in the UK. Might be worth seeing if you can ping an email to them :)

I eventually got a response and was able to ask for help... unfortunately my mobo just doesn't allow the Xeon to OC, so my performance was actually worse with it since Arma is so CPU clock dependent.

I am really interested in getting ARMA 3 and also playing it on high setting with good fps, i know that 60 is impossible and there are crazy dips too in the fps but what is the best pc build that can run ARMA 3, BF4 and MGS5??

Arma doesn't offload much processing to the graphics card unfortunately so you need a fast-clocked CPU. From my readings and observations it doesn't use more than 4 threads so something like a 4690k is probably your best bet unless you run a lot of stuff in the background while you play, in which case, you may want to step up the 4790k. The new six core X99 CPUs will likely perform worse since they are clocked slower. I don't claim to be an Arma expert though so get some other opinions.

[General_Grant 10]

I'm planning on buying a new gaming pc and i want to play ARMA 3. I have spent countless hours on pcpartpicker.com and i have made over 5 different build but in the end i cannot figure out what the best parts are for ARMA 3. My budget is $1,000 on just the tower alone because I also have to buy a monitor and a new keyboard and mouse which will only come to around $180. Some people say that pcpartpicker.com isn't the best place to get a pc and my problem with them is that I'm not entirely sure how they work, do they build it for me or do i have to build it on my own? I could really use some assistance here because i have alot of questions!

[forteh 11]

You want the fastest intel cpu you can afford, needs to be a quadcore really so any i5 quad should see you right. That said, just buying the cpu with the fastest stock clock speed isn't necessarily the best bet as you will be spending more money for exponetially less gains - far better to buy a k series intel chip and learn how to overclock it. That then involves making sure you buy parts that are well suited to each other; a lot of research will get you a long way forwards.

I have a 1st gen i5 750 at 4.2ghz, 8gb ram and a gtx660, on the altis benchmark I get 51fps average on @1080p with all settings on high/very high and a 2500 view distance 2000 object distance. Once you start factoring in a lot of AI the fps drops down to 25-30fps; essentially the cpu bottlenecks the gpu with that level of AI calculation. Arma3 thrives on very high cpu clock speeds so the faster it is the higher your minimum fps will be on average.

I would imagine that pcpartpicker will just bundle it all into a cardboard box and ship it to you. Places like www.overclockers.co.uk do pre-built, pre-overclocked gaming systems and something along the lines of this will run arma3 as well as 95% of systems if you factor in the addition of an ssd to run windows and arma from; you're well outside your budget now though. There is nothing stopping you picking up a second hand i5 2500k / i7 2600k with a suitable motherboard and ram, overclocking it to similar speeds and you will have the same result in arma3 for £300-400. It all depends on how confident you are with you hardware.

[General_Grant 10]

great build but i would need an operating system, monitor and a keyboard/mouse. I'm not looking to run ARMA 3 at 95%, just enought to play it well like around 70% or 80%. I also noticed that the memory was only 8 GB and i was wandering how much it would make a difference if i had 16 GB instead, I'm am planning on playing some pretty extensive games like BF 4, MGS 5, and DAY Z. Since my last post i have gone to an electronics store (best buy) and i was talking with a guy that does his own custom builds and he turned me to a website called iBUYPOWER.com , It's pretty good and i would definitely recommend it over pcpartpicker. My overall request is to get a build that will be able to play ARMA 3 pretty well without lagging all the time my budget is now $950 just for the tower and it's components because i still need money for a monitor, keyboard, mouse. Thanks alot for your help so far forteh!

[R3vo 2654]

great build but i would need an operating system, monitor and a keyboard/mouse. I'm not looking to run ARMA 3 at 95%, just enought to play it well like around 70% or 80%. I also noticed that the memory was only 8 GB and i was wandering how much it would make a difference if i had 16 GB instead, I'm am planning on playing some pretty extensive games like BF 4, MGS 5, and DAY Z. Since my last post i have gone to an electronics store (best buy) and i was talking with a guy that does his own custom builds and he turned me to a website called iBUYPOWER.com , It's pretty good and i would definitely recommend it over pcpartpicker. My overall request is to get a build that will be able to play ARMA 3 pretty well without lagging all the time my budget is now $950 just for the tower and it's components because i still need money for a monitor, keyboard, mouse. Thanks alot for your help so far forteh!

8GB of RAM is more than enough if you only want to game. More is only necessary for a RAM Disk or content creation, aka video and music editing. Since your budget is tight, stay with 8GB 1866 -2400 Ghz.

[flender 10]

Hi all, I have just finished the official campaign of Arma 3. Playing on High/Ultra (kind of mixed).

In the first 2 parts my FPS were around 40-60, in the last one it was always around 30-40. In multiplayer it's sluggish, around 30-25, even 19-20.

I would like to increase the FPS but i am really in doubt, i have read many threads about it but i am still not sure and would not want to waste my money.

These are my specs:

• CPU: i5 3570k not overclocked (i am on stock cooler)
  
• GPU: Radeon 7970 (not GHZ edition, not overclocked)
  
• RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600 Mhz
  
• Motherboard: ASRock 77 Pro 3 (crossfire is not an option here)
  
• SSD Samsung 840
  

According to what I've read:

Upgrading GPU would be a my first choice. I.e.: going to a GTX780 , in an article (cannot post links yet) it states that FPS would go from 33 to 55 so a 75% increase (!)

I've also read that the game is very CPU intensive so overclocking my CPU would be another option, but i would need to buy another cooler (around 30€?) and iwould not want to mess around with overclock too much.

And i've read that also RAM speed can help, around 10-15% of FPS increase (so 5-6 FPS) from 1600Mhz to 2133Mhz, but that would cost me at least 100€ and i don't know if it's really worth the money.

What would you suggest please?

Many thanks.

[mamasan8 11]

New GPU is not worth it. I doubt you will notice any difference in framerate. That leaves CPU and RAM. It's really a question of is it worth the money just for Arma 3's sake and for minimal benefits? 10% benefit in your case would amount to 2 fps. Really...I would save the money and play other games instead. Which is what I do.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Hi all, I have just finished the official campaign of Arma 3. Playing on High/Ultra (kind of mixed).

In the first 2 parts my FPS were around 40-60, in the last one it was always around 30-40. In multiplayer it's sluggish, around 30-25, even 19-20.

I would like to increase the FPS but i am really in doubt, i have read many threads about it but i am still not sure and would not want to waste my money.

These are my specs:

• CPU: i5 3570k not overclocked (i am on stock cooler)
  
• GPU: Radeon 7970 (not GHZ edition, not overclocked)
  
• RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600 Mhz
  
• Motherboard: ASRock 77 Pro 3 (crossfire is not an option here)
  
• SSD Samsung 840
  

According to what I've read:

Upgrading GPU would be a my first choice. I.e.: going to a GTX780 , in an article (cannot post links yet) it states that FPS would go from 33 to 55 so a 75% increase (!)

I've also read that the game is very CPU intensive so overclocking my CPU would be another option, but i would need to buy another cooler (around 30€?) and iwould not want to mess around with overclock too much.

And i've read that also RAM speed can help, around 10-15% of FPS increase (so 5-6 FPS) from 1600Mhz to 2133Mhz, but that would cost me at least 100€ and i don't know if it's really worth the money.

What would you suggest please?

Many thanks.

First GTX 970 outperforms GTX 780 EASILY and 970 is even cheaper so if you want to upgrade go for 970 instead.

Second CPU coolers are pretty cheap around 30€ like you said (my CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO was ~30€) and you'll get a nice performance boost with overclocking. Average 1fps/0.1GHz increase on average fps. Though I'm not sure the difference between motherboards. You could test very mild overclock to see if it's as easy as just upping multiplier and voltage is automatic. I can run Arma 3 at 4.9GHz with auto voltage with nice temps so I didn't even need to think voltages. Only thing I did was that I increased the multiplier and check if the temps are OK when I'm playing a game and doing some stuff and naturally check if the computer crashes/OC fails.

Third yeah RAM upgrade might not be the best at first. But if you'll do that some day don't forget to look at the timings CLX-X-X-XX also because the lower the better. Going from CL7 1600MHz to CL11 2133MHz could be even a decrease in performance.

Edited December 27, 2014 by St. Jimmy

[flender 10]

Thanks for the comments. Playing Dragon Age in the meantime while i think about it :)

[LetsGo 10]

Hello,

i can run arma 3 on low/medium settings at like 30 frames?

I have :

Xeon3360 @3.2ghz

8 Go DDR2 F2-8500CL5-2GBPK

GTX 650 ti boost 2 Go

Monitor: 16:10 (1680/1050)

Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Can i run it?

[Ingrimmsch 1]

Hi LetsGo,

your Xeon 3360 is kind of a problem. Arma is a very cpu intensive game.

But, according to the things i have read on my usual forums, 30fps at Medium/low should be possible without big problems.

If you want to research yourself -> you should know that the Xeon 3360 and the Q9550 use the same chip (there are more Q9550 users left)

[LetsGo 10]

Hi LetsGo,

your Xeon 3360 is kind of a problem. Arma is a very cpu intensive game.

But, according to the things i have read on my usual forums, 30fps at Medium/low should be possible without big problems.

If you want to research yourself -> you should know that the Xeon 3360 and the Q9550 use the same chip (there are more Q9550 users left)

yes I know, at my purchase xeon, other CPUs were relatively expensive...

so I can buy the game and play without problems? 30 fps is good or is very low for ArmaIII?

In the near future, my PC will be updated (i3 or i5)

[R3vo 2654]

yes I know, at my purchase xeon, other CPUs were relatively expensive...

so I can buy the game and play without problems? 30 fps is good or is very low for ArmaIII?

In the near future, my PC will be updated (i3 or i5)

You should be able to run Arma 3 at Mid-High settings easily.

[LetsGo 10]

hight with xeon ??? true??

[R3vo 2654]

hight with xeon ??? true??

Well, in theorie the CPU shouldn't limit you when it comes to the graphical level(except some things like view distances etc. ). However, I've just noticed that the Xeon 3360 is a single core CPU, actually thought no one is still using single cores these days. But you said yourself your're going to upgrade soon to an i3 or i5, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[LetsGo 10]

yes I will update my PC but it's not for now, it will take 6 months ...

Finally, xeon is good? i can buy? :P

[Ingrimmsch 1]

Hi R3vo,

i only found the processor at intels ark: http://ark.intel.com/de/products/33933/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X3360-12M-Cache-2_83-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

it seems to be a quad core, not a single core

EDIT:

Letsgo,

what doyu you mean with you xeon is good question?

I would not buy a xeon if i would play only arma because arma "loves" a high cpu clock -> buy a cpu that can be overclocked

[LetsGo 10]

I just wonder if I can play Arma III in good condition with my current computer....

[Horus 83]

Hello,

i can run arma 3 on low/medium settings at like 30 frames?

I have :

Xeon3360 @3.2ghz

8 Go DDR2 F2-8500CL5-2GBPK

GTX 650 ti boost 2 Go

Monitor: 16:10 (1680/1050)

Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Can i run it?

Yes you can. Which motherboard you have?

[LetsGo 10]

Asus P5Q deluxe (socket 775) ^^