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

[cb65 85]

10 minutes ago, Groove_C said:

@cb65 if you could specify your case model...

 

Its an Antec Prime Dark Avenger DA601.

 

Cheers.

[Groove_C 267]

@cb65 there is no problem using rear fan as intake, since you simply can mounted the fans of your CPU cooler the opposite way, so they both blow air to the front.

You don't need 3 top fans, since the 3rd (top front) would blow onto nothing.

1x rear in

2x top in

2x front out

[cb65 85]

1 minute ago, Groove_C said:

@cb65 there is no problem using rear fan as intake, since you simply can mounted the fans of your CPU cooler the opposite way, so they both blow air to the front.

You don't need 3 top fans, since the 3rd (top front) would blow onto nothing.

1x rear in

2x top in

2x front out

 

Ok thanks mate.

 

Just looking at the fan setup I'm now pretty sure the fans on the cooler are setup to blow air through the cooler fins in the direction of back of case to the front of case so the direction suits the rear fan blowing in.

 

Thanks heaps,

 

Cheers.

[Chimere 10]

On 4/12/2020 at 7:48 AM, cb65 said:

 

Ok thanks mate.

 

Just looking at the fan setup I'm now pretty sure the fans on the cooler are setup to blow air through the cooler fins in the direction of back of case to the front of case so the direction suits the rear fan blowing in.

 

Thanks heaps,

 

Cheers.

 

I would recommend different fans setup - your case have double dust filters in front, no filter in rear and single filter on top. So as intakes i would choose front fans, exhaust would be top and rear. Never set rear fan as intake, it will suck hot air from GPU exhaust (+PSU while you have it on bottom) on your CPU cooler, cause hot air goes up.

 

Front: 3x high airflow -> in

Top: 2x normal airflow -> out

Rear: 1x normal airflow -> out

 

This setup will deliver air for CPU, RAM, GPU and it will also cool air between CPU and GPU. Putting fans with higher airflow in front and lower airflow at top + rear will create air overpressure, as Groove mentioned it helps keeping dust out of the case. Here is image for demonstration:

 

What Groove suggested you would look like this:

 

[cb65 85]

@Chimere Yeah after further research on the net I found this article on How to Manage Your PC’s Fans for Optimal Airflow and Cooling and it helped me alot., my cpu cooler fans are designed to flow from front to back straight out the rear vent and I didn't like the idea of drawing air in through an unfiltered vent.

 

There's 3 types of air pressure :

 

Positive air pressure: More fans are drawing air into the case than blowing air out of the case.

Negative air pressure: More fans are blowing air out of the case than drawing air in, causing a slight vacuum effect.

Equal air pressure: The same amount of fans are blowing air in and out, creating approximately the same air pressure as the surrounding room.

 

What you have described creates negative air pressure.

Negative air pressure should create a slightly cooler environment (at least in theory), as the fans are working harder to expel hot air. But the drawback is that the slight vacuum it creates inside the case tends to draw in air from all the unsealed areas: the vents, unused PCIe slots on the rear panel, even the seams of metal in the case itself.

Positive air pressure won’t cool quite as well, but combine with dust filters will take in less dust since those vents and seams will expel air rather than suck it in.

 

I'm thinking of opting for positive air pressure (for less dust buildup).

Front: 3x high airflow -> in

Top: 2x normal airflow -> in

Rear: 1x normal airflow -> out

It wont cool as well but I'm not a big fan of dust in the case.

 

Cheers. 

[Chimere 10]

@cb65 What i described will create overpressure = possitive air pressure, 3 fans in with higher airflow, then 3 fans out with lower airflow = more air inside case.

[cb65 85]

41 minutes ago, Chimere said:

@cb65 What i described will create overpressure = possitive air pressure, 3 fans in with higher airflow, then 3 fans out with lower airflow = more air inside case.

 

Yeah your right.

 

I'll try that first and see how the dust is after a couple of weeks.

I haven't actually got my fans yet I'm still researching what brand to get and also saving for them, I'll let you know how your fan setup suggestion goes though.

 

Thanks mate,

Cheers.

[oldbear 390]

The idea of Groove_C deserves an in-depth examination, based on tests rather than on somewhat simplistic preconceptions.
Having a fresh air intake as close as possible to the CPU seems to me a very good idea, it was the concept that had led Intel to create the BTX motherboard format. 

The slightly too idyllic images of the classic solution neglects the large flow of hot air ejected from all sides by the graphics card, of which only the negligible part is ejected from the rear.

Reality is closer to that ...

 

... with this solution, the air which must cool CPU, VRM and RAM is always, more or less, hot air.

 

[MEMEMA6 0]

Can someone give me a recommended setting for my Pc i have a Ryzen 5 1500x, 16gb ram and an RX570  in SP i run at 80-100 fps with clear map, but in MP any server goes down to 20FPS and its suffering

 

[Chimere 10]

@oldbear

Well that "somewhat simplistic preconceptions" runs my system over 1.5 year 3-7C cooler than rear intake setup - i made a lot of tests and measurements when i put together my rig, also borrowed thermal cam for that 😄 But yeah it depends on case, components, etc. For example mine GPU doesnt have exhaust inside, and also most GPUs have cooler limbs oriented to sides, not to rear / front - also air from frontal fans is faster / stronger than those side exhausts. Also i put into consideration his dust filter setup and lack of bottom fans slots, so he can only use frontal intake to get air under GPU. In the end, he should try both or even more fans setups and which one will bring best temps gonna be winner for him.

[Chimere 10]

14 hours ago, MEMEMA6 said:

Can someone give me a recommended setting for my Pc i have a Ryzen 5 1500x, 16gb ram and an RX570  in SP i run at 80-100 fps with clear map, but in MP any server goes down to 20FPS and its suffering

 

 

Most of the time is MP FPS based on your view distance / objects view distance - lower number = more FPS, for example in 100 players KoTH i set on foot view distance to 1000m and on Kavala city to 500m to get at least 40 average FPS.

Also worth mention, dont expect high FPS in MP for example in high populated Exilemod servers, most of the time is FPS limited by server performance, cause there is a lot of objects spawned by players (vehicles, buildings, etc).

[oldbear 390]

Well, ... have a look at The Old Bear method ™  😎

 

As I have previously said :

Arma3 is 100% CPU dependant, from Arma3 point of view, your R5 1500 X is at the same level as a R3 1300X, with such a CPU you can play in the 30 FPS range in SP.

If you are getting less than 20 FPS in MP, it's all related to the server performances your are to play on.

 

Quickly, in accordance with the APEX standard, I will suggest you to use "Very High" presets and to disable all the bloom and blurs in order to get a sharper image on screen.

 

 

 

[Groove_C 267]

@Chimere as said before, I have 2x bottom fans blowing fresh air onto my GPU and I have removed all the dust filters, since I have overpressure in my case with 5 fans in and 3 out. All same model and speed. Have 0 problems with dust.

VRMs, CPU, RAM and GPU are all happy.

[Chimere 10]

9 hours ago, Groove_C said:

@Chimere as said before, I have 2x bottom fans blowing fresh air onto my GPU and I have removed all the dust filters, since I have overpressure in my case with 5 fans in and 3 out. All same model and speed. Have 0 problems with dust.

VRMs, CPU, RAM and GPU are all happy.

 

Yes, i know. Thats why i recommended cb65 different fans setup, cause his case doesnt have bottom fans slots.

[Chris Ogden 0]

Hi all, I have an i7 4790k o/c to 4.5, Asus Maximus Hero VII motherboard, 32 Gb 2400 ram, an ssd for Arma 3 and an Evga 2080 super ftw3.

 

Question is I will be upgrading to a better cpu, what would you recommend, I was thinking 9700k  with a mobo and ram upgrade, any ideas?

 

Will this give a worthy benefit in game?

 

Thanks for any feedback.

Chris

 

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong thread earlier and was at work rushing to get it posted.

[Groove_C 267]

@Chris Ogden I have same CPU and also 32 GB 2400 RAM.

 

For ArmA, your upgrade will bring you maybe 10 FPS, average, not minimal and it's not even multiplayer, but only singleplayer.

So no need for upgrade, yet, considering what you have now.

Especially considering the cost vs. performance gains.

 

Also Intel will release 10th gen CPUs this or next month.

But even then, it won't help you much in A3.

 

With your setup, you can easily wait until something noticeably better, like AMD Ryzen 4xxx at the end of this year or Intel 11th gen CPUs, also end of this year or beginning of next year.

So at least, money you will spend, will be better justified, considering higher performance gains for same cost vs. now.

 

Your RAM, if it's DDR3 2400 MHz 10-12-12, then it's on same level as DDR4, somewhere between 3200 MHz CL14 and 3600 MHz CL15.

 So you're PC is still very good, for A3. It's just Arma itself that's not so well optimized.

[Groove_C 267]

By the way, 11th gen Intel CPUs will finally have new architecture, even if they will still be in 14 nanometers. They still have problems with 10 nm process.

 

10th and 11th gen Intel CPUs might be released same year, since it was also the case in 2017, when i-7700K and later i7-8700K were released.

[Groove_C 267]

3 hours ago, Chimere said:

 

Yes, i know. Thats why i recommended cb65 different fans setup, cause his case doesnt have bottom fans slots.

Then the only good setup for @cb65 would be all front in and top + rear out.

[Chimere 10]

30 minutes ago, Groove_C said:

Then the only good setup for @cb65 would be all front in and top + rear out.

 

Thats what i exactly draw to him with his case as an example in my above post 🙂

 

[oldbear 390]

I too have been using this cooling scheme for over 12 years with all the different cases I have used, in large cases such as Antec Twelve Hundred, CM HAF 932 with lots of ventilation possibilities, as the obvious solution .

Yes, indeed, it works, and that seems obvious and it is for this reason that I said that it was "somewhat simplistic preconceptions".

 

For 12 years the main source of heating in a PC has become the graphics card and while there are standard very efficient cooling systems for the CPU, the most common solution for graphics cards is a multiplication of fans and an excessive extension of GPU cooling solutions. These solutions are effective in themselves but in a closed case they lead to circulating more or less hot air which affects the cooling of the whole. The only solution that really blows the air out of the box is the blower system.

But using only one fan at high speed this system is noisy and less efficient than 2/3 fans current GPU coolers.

 

With the evolution towards more and more powerful graphics cards and keeping this design, it will become obvious that the graphics card watercooling  is the only solution.
My question is whether we should not reconsider everything including with less obvious options

 

[Groove_C 267]

@oldbear I have 0 problems with my GTX 1070 Ti Strix OC Advanced Binned working at 2088 MHz core and 9600 MHz memory.

Never more than 60°C in any graphics benchmark and it's not loud at all with tripple slot radiator and 3x 92 mm fans.

Asus ROG Strix GPUs have the best radiator and fans you can get.

It's like Noctua, but for GPUs.

EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte and Zotac should take lessons from Asus.

 

EVGA and MSI have not that bad radiators.

A lot of plastic on Zotac, Gigabyte and especially on MSI GPUs and not that good fans - not that much static pressure (vs. Asus ROG Strix) and also fans blades are just for looks, which results in not that pleasant sound signature.

 

Gigabyte GPUs have one of worst radiators among current gen nVidia GPUs.

Really cheap/poor design and function.

Same for GTX 10X0 (Ti) GPUs from them.

[Groove_C 267]

No need to pay for NZXT Kraken or Corsair AiOs that cost much more for higher CPU and VRM temps, billion cables and crap software.

 

- No RGB bling bling

- No software

- only 1 cable to connect to mainboard PWM fan connector to power the pump and 2x 140 mm fans

- 2x 140 mm fans don't need to be connected to 2x mainboard fan connectors

- 1x dedicated functional (no gimmick) small and quiet VRM cooling fan
- fat 38 mm radiator vs. competition 28-30 mm rads

- higher radiator fins density vs. competition

- very good and well known thermal paste (MX-4)

- very good stock fans (low noise and relatively high pressure)

- less than $100 (280 mm model)

 

[nicklomas 3]

I got a new laptop with the followingconfig and i can't create a basic missions with around 30 groups with out dropping from 90 to 40p fps however it seems alot worse than 40.

 

I have a I7 9750

Hex core 2.6 - 4.5ghz

12mb cache

32gb ddr

Rtx2060

512gb ssd.

 

Anyone know what the issue is?

[oldbear 390]

@ nicklomas   : Welcome in our Armaverse.

 

I don't know what is your knowledge of Arma3 game engine specific aspects.

Here, due to the ways the RVEngine works, the CPU is the boss even since APEX release, the graphics card does more than figuration.

So you must consider the real power of the Intel® Core™ i7-9750H Processor rather than its marketing designation.

With 6 cores / 12 threads @ 2.60 GHz and Max Turbo @ 4.50 GHz this CPU is at the level of an i5-9400 or an R5 2600

It's a good basic CPU to play Arma3, but it will be necessary to take into account the performance of the processor for the settings and the mission editing.

 

So first , you must works on your settings ... have a look at The Old Bear method ™ 

Then, run some YAAB test missions in Ultra, Standard and your custom settings so you will get what you can really expect in game.

Then learn the many ways, we, all the veteran missions makers works to make playable the unplayable.

Having 120 groups potentially on the map but only a few present and visible around the player, modify clutters and objects display to speak only of the simplest things.

But that an other story to be told elsewhere 😎

 

Note about YAAB : you can get a look at some interesting results and discussion on the Yet Another Arma Benchmark release thread on our BI Forums!

 

[Groove_C 267]

I think the i5-10600K (6/12 cores/threads) will be very interesting*, despite its somewhat higher price than R5 3600 (X), since 12 threads are not that difficult to cool + it's soldered (no rockhard thermalpaste) + you can OC it to >4.8 GHz for extra % in single core and also >3600 MHz RAM with very tight timings is a thing, despite all the security vulnerabilities.

*If you need to upgrade before Ryzen 4xxx.