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

[forteh 11]

I am still not sure if I buy this game. Can I run the game playable? With 30 fps at standard settings?

I don't know how to overclock my processor. I heared that overclocking is risky and dangerous.

You may get 30fps in single player with medium settings, there are so many variables that can affect things, best thing to do is grab arma3 whilst it costs 50% and if you don't like it then it's not the end of the world to have wasted the money, if you do like it then you can assess you current performance and look to see which upgrade paths will give you best bang for your buck.

Overclocking is not dangerous as long as you are in control of the dangerous variables (heat and voltage), heat can be mitigated by ensuring you cpu cooling is as best you can make it (definitely worth spending money on a decent air cooler assuming your case has good enough airflow to feed it), voltage is a bit of a lottery as some processors like more voltage to overclock more than others.

Overclocked AMD chips still perform horrible in ArmA 3...even at 4.5-5GHz.

I can't comment on this, but as a free tweak/upgrade it can't hurt to test and see if it improves performance noticeably.

Hi, i want to buy a new dedicated grafich card to play arma3, it has to be compatibile with an AMD CPU, so what grafich card do you suggest me to play arma 3? What is the best for it?

Adding a faster gpu to your underpowered cpu will not give you higher framerates. You are trying to play arma3 on a laptop that is below minimum recommended specification. The hard truth is that you need to upgrade to better machine in order to play the game.

The recommended grafics card for arma 3 is the nvidia geforce gtx 660.

A gtx660 will run arma3 just fine, I can run on very high settings with mine with good fps; however I am running it with an i5 2500k@4.7ghz unlike Trapmacker who is trying to run arma3 on a neutered 2ghz amd processor laptop :(

[g.earlywine 10]

Hey guys, I've been playing arma since it came out on low settings pretty much. Im looking to push into ultra. Would these Specs do it?

My first one:

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.00 GHz Eight-Core AM3+ CPU 8MB L2 Cache & Turbo Core Technology

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990 ATX w/ UEFI Bios, TUF Thermal Components, GbLAN, 4 PCIe x16, 1 PCIe x1, 1 PCI

RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 (Maxwell) (Single Card)

My second one the cheaper one:

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.00 GHz Eight-Core AM3+ CPU 8MB L2 Cache & Turbo Core Technology

Motherboard: * GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990 ATX w/ Ultra Durable 3, On/Off Charge, GbLAN, 4 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 1 PCI

RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (G.SKILL Ripjaws X)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 (Maxwell) (Single Card)

Edited April 3, 2015 by G.Earlywine

[lendova 10]

I can't comment on this, but as a free tweak/upgrade it can't hurt to test and see if it improves performance noticeably.

Its not free, since he dident bought the game yet and i would not recommend to do it.

An OC-ed FX 6-8xxx cant hold even 30 fps all the time in the campaign, guess what his/her much lower clocked phenom will do?

[forteh 11]

Swap either processor for an unlocked i5, overclock it to 4+ghz and you will get as good performance as most unless you're running super high resolution.

Not saying the amd won't work but better performance can be had from intel. If money is tight look to pick up an i5 2500k and suitable board for around £150, it will outperform the amd.

[TrapMacker 10]

You may get 30fps in single player with medium settings, there are so many variables that can affect things, best thing to do is grab arma3 whilst it costs 50% and if you don't like it then it's not the end of the world to have wasted the money, if you do like it then you can assess you current performance and look to see which upgrade paths will give you best bang for your buck.

Overclocking is not dangerous as long as you are in control of the dangerous variables (heat and voltage), heat can be mitigated by ensuring you cpu cooling is as best you can make it (definitely worth spending money on a decent air cooler assuming your case has good enough airflow to feed it), voltage is a bit of a lottery as some processors like more voltage to overclock more than others.

I can't comment on this, but as a free tweak/upgrade it can't hurt to test and see if it improves performance noticeably.

Adding a faster gpu to your underpowered cpu will not give you higher framerates. You are trying to play arma3 on a laptop that is below minimum recommended specification. The hard truth is that you need to upgrade to better machine in order to play the game.

A gtx660 will run arma3 just fine, I can run on very high settings with mine with good fps; however I am running it with an i5 2500k@4.7ghz unlike Trapmacker who is trying to run arma3 on a neutered 2ghz amd processor laptop :(

if i overclock my CPU to 4.00 GHz without change it Will be better?

[forteh 11]

You won't be able to overclock your laptop. Even if the bios was capable of overclocking it would certainly not go to 4ghz, that's a 100% increase in clock speed which as far as I'm aware is not possible anyway.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Thats tragic that some peoplle still dont understand the engine based architecture problem from arma.

Also wierd that humans still exists which starting to motivate other Gamers to upgrade Pc-parts to gain more frames in Arma3. Ridiculous.

[shx 11]

[...] engine based architecture problem from arma.

Just to expand on this:

We're talking about effectively single threaded engine operating a extremely large, more or less realistic, sandbox simulation - while using all graphical gimmicks on the market and ignoring most performance boosting tricks. 'Normal' games would be reviewed into oblivion for trying this.

[...] super high resolution.

After a certain point (somewhere around WQXGA), resolution has more or less zero impact on frames (assuming you brought enough power on the GPU side).

I heared that overclocking is risky and dangerous.

Frying your CPU (and possibly nearby components as well) was a serious risk ten years ago.

These days, frying PC components needs a serious amount of dedication and knowledge.

A setup which would let you play Arma smoothly doesnt exist on earth.

Depends on which framerate you consider smoothly.

[TrapMacker 10]

......

Edited April 3, 2015 by TrapMacker

[TrapMacker 10]

My dad has this computer http://www.amazon.it/Asus-N550JV-CM160P-Notebook-Display-Processore/dp/B00F35T8O6 i installed arma on it and it runs on 30/35 fps on ultra settings but in some moment there is a decrease of fps that takes me from 30/35 fps to 5/10, even if i set the lowest or medium settings i have this lag moment..How can i fix this continuos lag moment?

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

.....but in some moment there is a decrease of fps that takes me from 30/35 fps to 5/10, even if i set the lowest or medium settings i have this lag moment..How can i fix this continuos lag moment?

Thats a great Arma mystery. Solution for this is still missing ^^

[forteh 11]

My dad has this computer http://www.amazon.it/Asus-N550JV-CM160P-Notebook-Display-Processore/dp/B00F35T8O6 i installed arma on it and it runs on 30/35 fps on ultra settings but in some moment there is a decrease of fps that takes me from 30/35 fps to 5/10, even if i set the lowest or medium settings i have this lag moment..How can i fix this continuos lag moment?

That is the sort if spec laptop than can play arma3, it will still be a lot slower than proper desktop machine.

The slow downs could be due to hard disk activity, the laptop only has a conventional hard disk not an ssd. Because arma3 is continually streaming large amounts of data off the hard disk it can sometimes take a second or two to catch up with a slower hard disk which results in a momentary fps drop. Because the ssd is faster it doesn't suffer slow downs when streaming.

I never get random slow downs and it's consistently smooth, fps does drop in mp when during fire fights in cities like kavala but that is generally down to the server.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

I have this drops too on the mission i play (WholeLottaAltis) and i have a SSD. So no chance that the drops are related to hard drive

[forteh 11]

I have this drops too on the mission i play (WholeLottaAltis) and i have a SSD. So no chance that the drops are related to hard drive

No chance? None what so ever? Just because they occur to you on a certain mission doesn't mean that they will apply to everyone elses installation of arma3. By your logic, because I can play arma3 without stuttering then you must be able to.

I would imagine that TrapMacker is not running a heavily modded version of the game, more than likely vanilla as it was a test install on his dads laptop. Instead of posting unhelpful responses as to what could be causing the issue, why don't you offer advice or not bother posting at all?

Disregarding timewarps (non)advice above I would still suspect the hard disk to be the primary cause of the slowdowns.

Run resmon.exe (type it into the run command box) to open the windows resource monitor, click on the disk tab and look at the disk queue length chart. Run arma in window mode so you can see the resource monitor, if the chart spikes when arma suffers a slowdown then it is the disk streaming data, if the chart isn't spinking during the slow downs then you need to look at other sources of the problem.

It could also be to do with the cpu power saving mode, as it is a laptop it may be set to throttle the cpu as much as possible in order to save power. Check the power options in control panel and see if it is throttling cpu.

[ratszo 17]

...{snip]....

It could also be to do with the cpu power saving mode, as it is a laptop it may be set to throttle the cpu as much as possible in order to save power. Check the power options in control panel and see if it is throttling cpu.

Power options, yeah. I went line by line re-setting everything to max power --think i found a guide online.

Can also d/l "GameBooster3" --it runs a gaming power profile, plus cpu temp & shuts down un-needed processes.

Laptops, in general, are gonna suffer from heat.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Some people are happy and they think 30fps is good, me not^^ Forteh, you know every human is register stutter and slowdown different as other humans? For you maybe is 30 frams fluid as hell, for me its a joke to have 30 frames. No offense at all.

Using such boosters will dont help at all. Such Programs are in my opinion same as Programs which has name like "Super PC Tweak Optimizer" or what ever. Completley useless

[forteh 11]

I was playing on a 60 man server at a constant 45-50 fps this afternoon, yes I prefer fps to be as high as possible but as we all know the server limits client fps, nothing you can do about that.

However the game does run fluid, occasional slow downs are not normal and a symptom of a temporary bottleneck in the machine, in this instance the most likely culprit is the hard disk not the software.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Have you recorded your constant 45-60 fps with a software which can deliver a precise graph or something like that or are those 45-60 frames based on your feeling?

[forteh 11]

MSI afterburner OSD, I set it to plot fps, gpu and cpu core usage/temperatures and ram usage. Obviously I'm not going to get 45+ in kavala or any of the major towns unless the server is sufficiently empty but I didn't see it dip much below the figures stated; this was on EUTW.NET PVP Warfare - EU#3 running blastcore, jsrs3 and cba.

[Stuh217 10]

Hello everyone. I'm new and I was wondering how well I would be able to run ArmA 3 with the following:

AMD FX-6300

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (if I overclock I assume this would matter more)

EVGA GeForce GTX 960

2 sticks of RAM, each 4 Gb

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

This will be a completed build within a week or two, and as of this writing the only thing I can alter is the motherboard. As for the CPU, do you suggest I overclock, or should it be good as is? The FX-6300 is 3.5 GHz, 6 core (for those who don't know). Thank you.

[ratszo 17]

Hello everyone. I'm new and I was wondering how well I would be able to run ArmA 3 with the following:

AMD FX-6300

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (if I overclock I assume this would matter more)

EVGA GeForce GTX 960

2 sticks of RAM, each 4 Gb

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

This will be a completed build within a week or two, and as of this writing the only thing I can alter is the motherboard. As for the CPU, do you suggest I overclock, or should it be good as is? The FX-6300 is 3.5 GHz, 6 core (for those who don't know). Thank you.

New 'puter, congratz.

Don't think about oc'ing til the new cpu burns in.

You will be ok at stock 3.5ghz clock.

Go slow with oc'ing. Know how to 're-post' before trying.

Good Luck.

[lendova 10]

Hello everyone. I'm new and I was wondering how well I would be able to run ArmA 3 with the following:

AMD FX-6300

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (if I overclock I assume this would matter more)

EVGA GeForce GTX 960

2 sticks of RAM, each 4 Gb

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

This will be a completed build within a week or two, and as of this writing the only thing I can alter is the motherboard. As for the CPU, do you suggest I overclock, or should it be good as is? The FX-6300 is 3.5 GHz, 6 core (for those who don't know). Thank you.

Be prepared for horrible performance.

[g.earlywine 10]

Hey guys, I've been playing arma since it came out on low settings pretty much. Im looking to push into ultra. Would these Specs do it?

My first one:

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.00 GHz Eight-Core AM3+ CPU 8MB L2 Cache & Turbo Core Technology

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990 ATX w/ UEFI Bios, TUF Thermal Components, GbLAN, 4 PCIe x16, 1 PCIe x1, 1 PCI

RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 (Maxwell) (Single Card)

My second one the cheaper one:

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.00 GHz Eight-Core AM3+ CPU 8MB L2 Cache & Turbo Core Technology

Motherboard: * GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990 ATX w/ Ultra Durable 3, On/Off Charge, GbLAN, 4 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 1 PCI

RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (G.SKILL Ripjaws X)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 (Maxwell) (Single Card)

[xrayquaza 10]

How is the performance in multi player or mods like altis life. Is the performance in the single player equal with the performance in the multi player, I guess not. How big is the difference?

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

So far i know has Altis Life the lowest framerate of all missions cause there are much scripts and stuff like that. I never played Altis Life, in my opinion its the dumbest shit i´ve seen (seen a couple of YT Vids,)