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

[oldbear 390]

From my point of view, even if your acer nitro 5 laptop featuring i5-8300H, GTX 1050 and 8GB is not the best candidate, you can play Arma3, meaning run it over 30FPS in the vanilla version ...

But I will suggest you to test the game as it is from the store before trying to add too many Mods.

After experiencing the game in vanilla version you can judge by yourself if adding all those bells and whistles is it worth.

 

[Smart Games 76]

 @oldbear, i had a very old laptop some time ago:

Old intel i5, no gpu, 8gb ram.

 

This laptop was able to run altis life server with a lot of players and mostly 30+fps. (low settings)

 

[M'henni Amara 0]

10 hours ago, oldbear said:

From my point of view, even if your acer nitro 5 laptop featuring i5-8300H, GTX 1050 and 8GB is not the best candidate, you can play Arma3, meaning run it over 30FPS in the vanilla version ...

But I will suggest you to test the game as it is from the store before trying to add too many Mods.

After experiencing the game in vanilla version you can judge by yourself if adding all those bells and whistles is it worth.

 

I just tried the arma 2 op demo and it seem I only get around 20-30 I thing with all setting on ultra ,I saw people saying it becauze the demo is laggy and all , and I had this idea ,to see if I can play arma 3 correctly I'll try project argo ,I know arma 3 is much bigger in mp and all but I can try it and see how my pc work with it, or it not even worth the test?

 

1 hour ago, Smart Games said:

 @oldbear, i had a very old laptop some time ago:

Old intel i5, no gpu, 8gb ram.

 

This laptop was able to run altis life server with a lot of players and mostly 30+fps. (low settings)

 

I wanna have the best setting I can, but if it all I can play with ,I can do so , for me games aren't about graphics (a little tho) it about gameplay.

[oldbear 390]

Playing Arma3 in full "Ultra" overall settings implies 2 preconditions.

-  get a CPU able to play the game with a demanding 3800 m view distance.

You must always remember that the "Visibility" in the Video parameters is a 100% CPU parameter, not a GPU one.

As the Quality>Terrain parameter is a mixed CPU/GPU one.

- get a CPU capable of ensuring an Ultra display without any bottleneck.

Since Visual Upgrade the impact of GPU on overall rig performances in Arma3 game has increased significantly.

Now, you need a RX 570 or a GTX 1060 to consider playing in Ultra quality settings.

 

Of course, you can run the game on low settings with a very poor quality on some entry level PC, I know I had done a lot of testing trying to find the "playable" requirements level.

You can have a look on my tests from Athlon II x2 250 / GTS 450 DDR3  to APU A8-9600 *, but that's not the point, from my point of view this game is great when played at a really "playable" level.

 

@ M'henni Amara : in order to test your rig on an Arma2 demo, you must limit your view distance to 2500 m and play it in "High" or "Very High"

 

* Beware : most of my tests, publish on my own ADO Clan site or on CanardPC are using French language !

 

[M'henni Amara 0]

4 hours ago, oldbear said:

Playing Arma3 in full "Ultra" overall settings implies 2 preconditions.

-  get a CPU able to play the game with a demanding 3800 m view distance.

You must always remember that the "Visibility" in the Video parameters is a 100% CPU parameter, not a GPU one.

As the Quality>Terrain parameter is a mixed CPU/GPU one.

- get a CPU capable of ensuring an Ultra display without any bottleneck.

Since Visual Upgrade the impact of GPU on overall rig performances in Arma3 game has increased significantly.

Now, you need a RX 570 or a GTX 1060 to consider playing in Ultra quality settings.

 

Of course, you can run the game on low settings with a very poor quality on some entry level PC, I know I had done a lot of testing trying to find the "playable" requirements level.

You can have a look on my tests from Athlon II x2 250 / GTS 450 DDR3  to APU A8-9600 *, but that's not the point, from my point of view this game is great when played at a really "playable" level.

 

@ M'henni Amara : in order to test your rig on an Arma2 demo, you must limit your view distance to 2500 m and play it in "High" or "Very High"

 

* Beware : most of my tests, publish on my own ADO Clan site or on CanardPC are using French language !

 

 

I understand French very well so don't worry, so according to your tests ,the recommended configuration for arma 3 has become the minimum configuration to be able to play multi, on sites like game-debate ,I am shown that I exceed the recommended configuration, so in conclusion I can play multi by lowering the distance of view and even the textures..ect, the problem is that I don't think I can improve my PC, and I wouldn't want to buy the game so that I find it unplayable.that's why I plan to test argo

 

Spoiler

je comprends le français très bien ne vous inquieté pas , donc d'après vos test ,les configuration recommandé pour arma 3 sont devenu les configuration minimal pour pouvoir joué au multi , sur les sites comme game-debate ,on me montre que je depasse les configuration recommandé , donc en conclusion je pourrai joué en multi en baissant la distance de vue et mème les textures..ect , le probele c'est que je ne crois pas pouvoir amelioré mon pc , et je ne voudrai pas acheté le jeu pour que je le trouve injouable .c'est pour ça que je compte testé argo

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by Dedmen
English only.

[oldbear 390]

Argo game is NOT an Arma3 demo !

It's hardware requirements are very low in comparison to what's is need for Arma3.

As an example, testing the AMD A8-9600, I have been able to play and enjoy Argo, but unable to play Arma3.
 

Still  "... from my point of view, even if your acer nitro 5 laptop featuring i5-8300H, GTX 1050 and 8GB is not the best candidate, you can play Arma3, meaning run it over 30FPS in the vanilla version ...".

[M'henni Amara 0]

then the only way to find is to play the game ,thank you so much for your help ,I search more if I could find someone with the same specs as me who plays arma 3, thanks again and I may ask more in the near future

[Gunter Severloh 4054]

7 hours ago, M'henni Amara said:

then the only way to find is to play the game ,thank you so much for your help ,I search more if I could find someone with the same specs as me who plays arma 3, thanks again and I may ask more in the near future

A suggestion and just my humble opinion, idk if you prefer laptops over a desktop or dont have room or what not, but if your serious about playing arma3 why dont you just

save some money and either build a good rig or buy one that can play Arma3.

 

You can still buy the game if you havent already and try it out and see what happens but in the long run if you plan to spend

any good quality time in arma3, the game seriously needs a decent rig to appreciate what it has to offer.

 

Trust me dont settle for a low end computer and hope you can play or just be happy you can play at all, put some money away and make it a goal its your time at stake, you can either

spend your time trying to make something work or you can spend the same amount of time enjoying the game as it was meant to be, time is precious especially when you have a full time job, or career.

                 Arma3 isn't your typical FPS shooter which its not, what you get in arma3 compared to other games "similar" far exceeds the content, function and replay value that other

games fail to deliver in the same amount of time, a good computer that can handle and run arma3 is not a waste of money if you have time to spend, time spent with a crap computer on a game that

offers you a ton of replay value is a waste of time. 

 

        Prior to October 2017 i was running a duel core desktop with 8gb of ram, my specs at the time were enough to run the game at 25-30fps, but thanks to old

bear's knowledge and a close friend of mine who builds, upgrades computers for a living, i ended up with my current specs which allows me to play Arma3 on ultra without any hiccups,

all because i saved for 2 months, and built the computer myself.

       Best investment i made for myself since i spend alot of time in and around the game, the sheer enjoyment and value of the game

increases when you can play without interruptions, delays, or issues because your computer can handle the demand of a game, this allows you to focus on playing or creating.

    Fun is not a word i would use to describe arma3, more like diverse enjoyable freedom and imagination.

[Groove_C 267]

Guys, next week I can finally reorder the i7-5775C @ AliExpress for ArmA only to replace my i7-4790K 4.8/4.4 GHz.

I hope this time I won't destroy it with plastic toothpick while cleaning the leftovers of silicone )))

[Tankbuster 1746]

34 minutes ago, Groove_C said:

Guys, net week I can finally reorder the i7-5775C @ AliExpress for ArmA only to replace my i7-4790K 4.8/4.4 GHz.

I hope this time I won't destroy it with plastic toothpick while cleaning the leftovers of silicone )))

LOL. Good luck, mate. Let us know how you get on.

[Groove_C 267]

Have received my i7-5775C with 128 MB eDRAM (L4 cache) and overclocked it to 4.3/3.8 GHz core/cache.

Not delidded, yet )))

In YAAB 1080p standard it's 2-3 FPS avg. faster than my 5.0/4.4 GHz core/cache i7-4790K.

But all the magic starts, when you're on a mountain, from where you can see everything around you or when you're flying and setting terrain and objects to 4-8 km.

When you turn your head, even if very quickly, there is 0 microstutter because of loading kms of objects and terrain. It's already there, instantly.

Buttery smooth in all sircumstances (vs. i7-4790K).

I don't know how to describe it better. The feeling is almost like changing from a HDD to SSD.

CPU's IMC (integrated memory controller) accepted without any problems all my 4 dual rank 2400 MHz DDR3 sticks with tightest timings possible.

I don't regret even 1 second having paid ~400 € for a 2015 CPU.

Just because of this smoothness it was already worth it.

 

@ 4.3 GHz and 14 nm (vs. 22 nm) it's not hot and fans can spin slower -> less noise.

 

Next step is to buy an Intel Optane 900P for ultimate smoothness in Windows.

[Smart Games 76]

I got my new cpu, the i3 9350kf.

Overclocked it to 4,8ghz, max temperature 70°C (air cooled). 

Arma is running absolutly smooth, view/object distance always at 3km.

Aa x4.

[Groove_C 267]

@Smart Games congrats, mate!

Which air cooler do you use? 70 degrees is 100% load? Load in which program/game? Have you overclocked CPU cache as well, as it's very important?!

[Smart Games 76]

I made some tests, yes it was at 100%.

The cpu cache is overclocked too, its running at 4,3ghz.

[Groove_C 267]

@Smart Games 100% in which program/game? What is the model of CPU cooler you have? What is the voltage you have set for it to run @ 4.8/4.3 GHz? You can and you should overclock the cache higher than that.

[Smart Games 76]

My Pc

 

Mainboard: AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S

Cpu: Intel I3 9350KF @4800mhz\4300mhz\100mhz\1,2798 v

Ram: HyperX Predator @2800mhz cl13\15\15\35

Cpu-Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper H412R (+4 Pc Cooler)

 

I tested it with Intels Stress Test for 1h

Max temperature with CPU-Z's stress test: 65 °C

[dhyde79 0]

ok, I was sent over here from the Steam ARMA3 forums....Hopefully I can get some help solving this oddity...
I've had over 15 crashes in the last hour (program just closes and poof back to desktop), I've been playing Contact (just bought it), but, was suffering similar issues on a WWII mod Exile Server over the last couple of days.

 

I've checked VRAM usage (with absolutely everything turned all of the way up, at 4K, it was only using a hair over 4gb of the available 8gb)

gpu temps (staying in the low 60's, not even spinning up the fans)
cpu temps (staying in the mid 60s)
cpu load (never getting above 50% that I've noticed)
gpu load (mid 40% range?)

GPU drivers are current, all other drivers are current as well, no device manager conflicts, nothing of the sort.  

 

nothing makes sense, according to everything I can see, even with everything cranked all the way it's not taxing the system, yet it's crashing constantly.

hardware spec:
---------------------
CPU: Ryzen 7 2700X (w/stock cooler and stock clock)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600
Motherboard: ASRock x470 Taichi
OS Drive: Corsair P1 500GB M.2 NVMe
Storage Drive: Toshiba X300 6TB 7200RPM
GPU: EVGA RTX2070 XC Ultra Black
Monitor: (4K TV or 1080P TV, issue exists on both, though, turning the resolution down from 4K to 1080 reduced frequency of crashes from the point where I couldn't get through the intro on the first mission (would crash every time I picked up and tried to use the signal jammer) to crashing every 20 or so minutes)
Win10 64 Bit Pro, completely updated
Mouse and Headset are Corsair, so, iCUE is running in the background, keyboard is an original (red back lit)
 logitech G15 keyboard (so Logitech Gaming Software is running in the background)

Edited September 25, 2019 by dhyde79

[oldbear 390]

@dhyde79

Welcome home 😎

 

My 1st concern looking at the hardware is about the RAM.

As far as I know, ASRock x470 Taichi supports DDR4 up to 3466+.

From there, it seems that the G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 is out of specification.

Try to play with some Corsair Vengeance LPX 16Go (2x8Go) DDR4 3200MHz C16 XMP 2.0, the most stable kit I had tested on ASUS B350 & B450 and ASRock B350.

[dhyde79 0]

odd, I was 99% positive I pulled this ram off of the compatible list for the motherboard, but, again, the only oddity I'm having is with ARMA3, no other games (which tax the system much harder) have had any issues at all...  I'm sure I could turn XMP off or manually clock it down to 3200, but, I don't have extra ram laying around, and, this system's been running like a champ for several months (built it at tax time this year), and gaming regularly on it.  I haven't played A3 in quite some time because I'm not all that fond of running around in multiplayer by myself, and my friends/coworkers weren't playing A3 at the time (most of us were playing wildlands, 7 days to die, or one of the assassin's creed games).  I can try de-clocking the ram, but, I feel like that's counterproductive to overall performance of the system...

[oldbear 390]

OK, so this rigs works elsewhere but not in Arma3, sorry I am a mostly playing Arma3 ans Civ V ...

If it had work previously let assume it can work again!

 

ATM, I am a little annoyed to answer because this afternoon, my AMD/Arma 3 test rig tend also to crash frequently without reason 🤨

 

 

[dhyde79 0]

11 hours ago, oldbear said:

OK, so this rigs works elsewhere but not in Arma3, sorry I am a mostly playing Arma3 ans Civ V ...

If it had work previously let assume it can work again!

 

agreed, works like a champ in nearly everything except arma, and I can't seem to put a finger on why.  it's annoying as hell.

tried downclocking ram to 2933mhz, will see if it crashes as quickly again

[Gunter Severloh 4054]

What does your rpt say when it crashes? thats what you should be looking at first.

Mods, missions, to much AI, to many explosions, shitty un optimized map, mod issue which i and another just fixed our mod which made the game to max

out the ram and crash, now we fixed it and it dont do it.

    So check the rpt post it here in a spoiler and lets have a look, be sure to have the logs on in your test.

[oldbear 390]

I spent most of the day trying to understand why the game was crashing on my bench -AM4 rig.

After having made 2 clean install on 2 separate SSD and reload Arma 3 times [by chance living in the middle of nowhere, there is a broadband subscriber access node behind the garden wall] , my intimate conviction is that the problem comes from the latest version of the monitoring tools, I can not yet name the culprit with certainty.

 

Edit : I had tested a little bit of rational element in this mess, I tested, concretely with 2 Nvidia cards, a GTX 670 and a GTX 1060 3GB and nothing went wrong with AfterBurner and HWiNFO, rather stable in game and the performance where rather good!

So now and here, my hypothesis is a mismatch between the driver & hardware of the motherboard with the help of the latest Windows update.

Most of the crashes I got where more system crashes than game crashes, no .rpt, BSOD with "System_Thread_Exception_Not_Handled" error message.

Edit2: There is also an usual suspect hidden in plain sight : Steam  😲

[gorog81 0]

Hey guys!

I'm new on this forum, greetings for all!

Firts of all, sorry for my amateur english.

Even this year I planning to buy a new gaming PC, especially for ARMA 3.

I have alraedy gaming with this game with my very old CPU (Q8200) and with a GTX 1050 (i love this little spitfire)

Yes, this is a very weak config for this game nad i felt, it is time to upgrade.

I am looking for a very powerful and futureproof CPU (but not too much expensive).

I really like the new Ryzen 3700x, but i afraid this is still weak for ARMA, especially the single-core performance.

I am also thinking in the blue side, with the 9700K.

Can you give me some advices over this question please?

Thank you for helping me out!

🙂

[Tankbuster 1746]

I'm blue, so I can only really offer opinions on their stuff.. Both the 9700K and the 8700K are great CPUs for the game - they are good value for money. Do bear in mind that just buying a great CPU won't be quite enough for you. You'll need fast RAM with low latency and a fast SSD will help too. Basically, don't splash your entire budget on the CPU.