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

[oldbear 390]

For Arma 3, there is no miracle to be expected from Renoir APUs regardless of the hype surrounding some architectural improvements.

It is still Zen2 in 7 nm, the operating frequency and the boost frequency are identical to what we have with the desktop 3000 serie.

 

What to really expect are changes made with the 4000 series desktop CPUs in Zen3.

[Groove_C 267]

5 minutes ago, oldbear said:

the operating frequency and the boost frequency are identical to what we have with the desktop 3000 serie.

Need to see if they can be OC 'ed higher than stock and how high.

 

With less cache and same frequency as 3xxx they're less powerful.

So need frequency to compensate.

 

Otherwise i7-10700K.

[oldbear 390]

@RAGP13 My in-game video settings, based on The Bear Method ™, short version :

 

1°GENERAL

• Quality: Ultra except Particles sets to High and PiP in Standard*
• Visibility > Overall set at 3200 m (identical to our dedicated clan server parameter)**
• Lighting : HDR = Standard, Dynamic Light & Water Reflections = Very High.

2°DISPLAY

• SynchroV: Disabled

3° AA&PT:
- Postprocesses

• Bloom, Radial Blur, Rotation Blur, Depth of Field down to zero***
•  Sharpen the filter = 100 ***

- Antialiasing

•  FSAA = 4
• PPAA = CMAA

* Never set Shadow, Particles in Low.
** This value for Overall parameter used for i7-7700K and R5 3600X based rigs as well.
*** I've been myopic since ... and I can't stand blur!

[Valken 623]

@RAGP13 I did a new test on my system to see if I can get a ton more FPS without sacrificing details:

 

1920x1080p resolution:

 

All Ultra except for:

 

Draw Distance - 3800

Objects Distance - 500 <---- Huge impact

 

Shadows - high

Water Reflections - high

Clouds - high

PIP - high

 

AA = 2xAA 

PP = CMAA <--- using Nvidia GPU. You can test this or with FXAA Ultra

 

Using the above I can "BARELY" tell from 8xAA until I zoom in.

 

Vsync OFF

Blur = 0, I hate it.

Bloom = 10

DoF = 30 --- just a little bit 

 

I was getting up to 80 FPS in game with low AI, less than 50 at once...

 

Also, I know AMD defaults to RGSS AA.

 

Check to make sure you have AA set to Multi Sampling AA or application control from the driver control panel.

 

Nvidia defaults to MSAA.

 

SSAA or RGSSAA quality is way better but can take a huge impact if you need FPS.

 

 

 

[Valken 623]

@Groove_C Have you seen these CPUs:

 

 

 

Both are laptop that has the same EDRAM as the 5775c but it seems they added an adapter for desktops!

 

Maybe a better buy and wait for Zen 3?

[drebin052 324]

Recently switched to a 27" 1440p monitor but my current build doesn't quite cut it for Arma at this resolution. Would this upgrade fare well?

 

CPU

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz 8 Core

 

Mobo

Gigabyte B550 GAMING X ATX AM4

 

RAM

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL18

 

GPU

XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB Triple Dissipation

[oldbear 390]

From my point of view it's OK.

Can you tell us what exactly are the problems you are getting playing Arma3 ?

Could you tell us if all is right when you are playing other games ?

 

I personally had a lot of problems with an RX 5700 and I ended up making it work since March with the last drivers without touching any of the "settings" offered by AMD.

 

[Groove_C 267]

@Valken don't buy anything. Just wait a few months for Zen 3.

[drebin052 324]

58 minutes ago, oldbear said:

Can you tell us what exactly are the problems you are getting playing Arma3 ?

Could you tell us if all is right when you are playing other games ?

 

FPS tanks to less than half (60 average to 16/20) even with viewing/object distances reduced to 2000/1000 for 1440p resolutions. For the most part, I've stuck to 1080p resolutions for now but...1080p on a 27" monitor isn't great to say the least. It's pretty much the same case with the other games I play.

 

For reference, this is my current budget build so an upgrade is long overdue anyway:

 

CPU

i3-8300

GPU

MSI RX 580 ARMOR 8G OC

Mobo

Gigabyte B360M H

RAM

Corsair Vengeance LPX (2x4GB)

 

58 minutes ago, oldbear said:

I personally had a lot of problems with an RX 5700 and I ended up making it work since March with the last drivers without touching any of the "settings" offered by AMD.

 

Would it be better if I got an alternative? Or is it just a driver issue and not really something to worry about (much)?

[oldbear 390]

If you want higher PFs level, you need a CPU running over 5 GHz, meaning an Intel last generation one.

Playing an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X  and using an average Visibility > Overall set at 3200 m with Visibility > Objects set automatically at 1826 m  you wil play in the 45/50 FPS range  with up and down from 20 FPS to over 120FPS [on Malden!]

If you want higher PFP level, you need a CPU running over 5 GHz, meaning an Intel last generation one.

The gain In Arma* in switching from the Intel i3-8300to AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is around 10%

 

In Arma3, you will never get better FPS with a GPU upgrade because due to RealVirtuality Engine limitations the game is still CPU dependent.

Of course, you can play Arma3 on a 27" 1440p with a working RX 5700XT

 

In fact, if I understand the situation correctly,  you are not experiencing game issues but a big disappointment after an expensive upgrade.

 

[drebin052 324]

Just now, oldbear said:

In fact, if I understand the situation correctly,  you are not experiencing game issues but a big disappointment after an expensive upgrade.

 

I haven't upgraded yet. That's the build I plan to get but now that you've mentioned those issues I'm not so sure any more. Welp...back to the drawing board.

[oldbear 390]

OK, I will suggest waiting a bit before spending your money !

[Valken 623]

6 hours ago, drebin052 said:

 

I haven't upgraded yet. That's the build I plan to get but now that you've mentioned those issues I'm not so sure any more. Welp...back to the drawing board.

 

Wait for Zen 3 AMD CPUs to come out in a few months or earlier. 

 

The new CPU architecture now has 8 cores in one CCX, vs 4 cores per CCX and 2 CCX per die.

 

So up to 8 cores will communicate without the infinity fabric and be much faster.

 

At the very least, it would put pressure on the market and push Intel CPUs down in price so WIN WIN for everyone.

 

Also, on your RAM selection, buy the FASTEST RAM with LOWEST LATENCY (CL rating) you can afford.

 

Do not buy "cheap" RAM for ARMA as memory performance is just as important as IPC and speed from CPU.

 

Then buy whatever GPU you need.

 

Worst case, you can look at the AMD 3300X CPU (4 cores, 8 threads in 1 CCX) and get a 2080 GPU for ARMA.

 

Other games that needs more than 4 cores will suffer but it will be a FAST ARMA game machine.

[Groove_C 267]

Zen 3 will finally support at least 4000 MHz RAM in 1:1 mode and RAM latency finally will be <50 ns.

Frequency will be like 200 MHz higher.

There will be no CCXs, but still Infinity Fabric to connect CCD(s) to I/O DIE. So still not monolithic.

[opus132 3]

When will we know for sure what kind of performance we gonna get for the Ryzen 4000? 

 

I'm currently an owner of a Ryzen 2600, but i want to aim for a 60 FPS set up on Ultra on YAAB, no graphical compromises i want the game to look at its best while getting as close to the magical 60 FPS as i can get it (my GPU is an 5700 XT so that part is covered). 

 

For that aim, i was thinking of switching to a 10600k, given that the 10900k is just too expensive for me. I don't want to mess with water cooling since i'm too erratic to keep an eye on possible leakages and what not once the computer is up and running i'd like to forget about it, so for that reason i'm going for a Noctua NH-D15 with which i suppose i can get to at least the 5ghz mark, right? 

 

My current motherboard is an MSI B450 Carbon Gaming Pro and this is my memory: 

 

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B07TB3R9JB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1

 

The advantage of the Ryzen 4000 is that i may be able to get away with just upgrading the CPU, but i may have an opportunity to sell my Ryzen system to my dad at the same price with which i bought the parts which would allow me to just rebuild my PC from the ground up. The Ryzen seems like a better "value" for an all around system but honestly, all i do is gaming so i'm just looking for best gaming performance and nothing else. And if i do get the 10600k, what motherboard and memory would you guys recommend? 

[Groove_C 267]

@opus132 wait for Ryzen 4000. It will be more powerful than 10th gen Intel. Just few moths left.

And if 'im right, it will consume/heat less.

[oldbear 390]

Hi, opus132, welcome in our Armaverse 😎

 

We know nothing about future performance of upcoming Zen3 desktop CPU.

But what I can say is that Arma3 doesn't need a 60 FPS holy grail to be fully playable and enjoyable.

I experienced a performance jump between the R5 2600 and the R5 3600X which I both tested.

My current advice would be to upgrade to an R7 3700X here and now. It will always be time in 2021/2022 to upgrade to a possibly more efficient CPU.

We are the powerless spectators of a game of poker between Intel, AMD and Nvidia.

We must not be prisoners of their deadlines, especially since playing a game that is now old, we can accept to play it with its qualities and its issues.

[Groove_C 267]

@oldbear well, when it's like >6 months until release, ok. But It's only few month, so I would wait. + His current setup is not the end of the world, so that he needs to upgrade really right now.

[oldbear 390]

Yes, Lisa Su confirms that Zen 3 CPUs are on track to launch in 2020,  but she doesn't tell us anything abou the availability of the 4000 series CPUs in Zen3 with architectural improvements and in particular L3 management.

What we can be pretty sure is that the first processors to benefit from these improvements and the first to be announced and released will be the EPYC processors as indicated in the news on TechPowerUp.

A launch at the end of the year can be a paper launch with twists and turns during the last quarter of 2020, a release in small quantities at the very end of the year, availability in the first quarter of 2021 and accessibility at a correct price at the end. 1st half of the year.

 

[Groove_C 267]

@oldbear maybe you are right, concerning availability.

But concerning L3 and architectural stuff it's already known that there will be no CCXs, only CCDs and that it will not be monolithic.

One CCD up to 8/16 cores/threads and also 32 MB L3 per CCD. So it will be unified L3 cache, if not more than 8 cores.

 

But specifically for Arma, I would rather buy an i5-10600K than R7 3700X or R5 3600.

[opus132 3]

My incentive is that my father is buying my old PC now. If it's only two months i can maybe wait but if it's like 2021 i can't he needs the PC soon. 

 

So, if i opt for the 10600k, which motherboard and memory would you say it's best? And how much of an OC i can expect with the NH-D15? 

[Groove_C 267]

NH-D15 is fine for good OC of 12 threads.

 

[opus132 3]

Is memory speed as important in Intel as it is in Ryzen? 

[oldbear 390]

Memory speed not so important but it matters à lot !

With an i5-10600K/ASUS TUF Gaming Z490 Plus, you can use almost almost the same 16 GB (2x8 GB) 3600 MHz C16 you can plan to use on an AM4 MoBo, such as G.Skill TridentZ or Ballistix Black.

 

Likewise, the ventilation of the PC case will matter as much with this Intel CPU as with an AMD CPU for slightly different reasons.
This generation heats up a lot as shown by the Intel Core i5-10600K Review - All You Need for Gaming at TechPowerUp.

[Groove_C 267]

3600 MHz 16-16-16-36 RAM is really good. Anything with higher timings than 16-16-16-36 for 3600 MHz is not recommended.