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

[Jordyr 10]

Everything high - no. But a mix between Standard, High, Very High and Ultra yes. Especially Visibility will have to be lower than high.

Check my signature for my specs and settings.

If you can candle my settings well then increase Visibility to 1600/1300/100, Objects & Terrain Quality to High, SSAO Standard then either increase your Visibility even more or try FSAA x2 which drains a lot of juice though so increasing your Visibility is probably more worth it.

Don’t go any lower than average 30 fps in big battles and average 40 or 50 fps when there’s little or no action such as in Showcase: Infantry which is pretty relaxed.

Now about your potential overheating… the 560 Ti is very warm and more importantly sounds like a fucking jet plane. Download MSI Afterburner, GPU-Z or any other program that lets you monitor internal temperatures and see how hot it gets while playing.

Ideally it shouldn’t be more than 50-70 degrees Celsius when playing and absolutely not more than 100 degrees.

Make sure your computer has plenty or breathing room and don’t keep it in a locker unless the locker is ventilated.

I had to buy three different 560 cards before I got one that worked properly. If your card seems unreasonably hot you may have a bad card and should try getting another one on warranty and seeing if it is also hot. You may have to downclock your card slightly and adjust the voltage though that is not something you should do unless you know about overclocking.

Now if you want your 560 to both drop temperature by like 20-50 degrees and be so quiet you will never hear it again even when it is spinning at maximum capacity buy this magic machine:

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vga/554/accelero-xtreme-iii.html?c=2182

For only about $100 it works wonders. I remember the 560 sounding like a hair dryer at 50% fan speed and now I can’t hear it at all over the other fans in my computer.

It takes some knowing to apply it – you have to paste some metal parts onto this thing and then screw it to your card or something such but you can probably find a guide somewhere and it’s no more difficult than LEGO.

By the way screen resolution and OS is always pretty relevant when you're posting specs.

Wow thanks for the big answer, I might give the Accelero Xtreme III ago then. I'll see what temp I get when playing.

Thanks!

[danteelhakim 10]

hello , i wanted to buy this game but i am not sure if my pc can run it so i am posting my specs here

GTX 550 Ti

Amd Phenom II x4 925 (2.8 Ghz)

4 GB ram

[old_painless 182]

7. I could be wrong but looking at my readings from a lot of play yesterday I didn't see full memory usage at any time though maybe that's not possible because of some other factors. I saw someone write that less still than 3.25 is actually available in practice.

But I also get 0% performance difference when running several background programs which also would support that ARMA doesnt use a lot of RAM.

I'm on 7 64 bit, at idle my system consumes 2 Gb of RAM. So with a total of 4, that would leave around 2 Gb for games. But you're probably right that A3 is not very RAM hungry, to be honest I never watched for that key figure (I have 16 Gb).

I figured that if guaponess were to open his box for a new graphics card, he may as well put in some additional RAM, as that is not that expensive. But for a bare minimum system to run A3 on lowest settings, he could do without the extra RAM, as long as he replaces the video card.

[Sneakson 1]

hello , i wanted to buy this game but i am not sure if my pc can run it so i am posting my specs here

GTX 550 Ti

Amd Phenom II x4 925 (2.8 Ghz)

4 GB ram

Yes, you should be able to run it.

We have similar specs so check my signature for my game settings.

[PhantomShuriken 10]

1920x1080

AMD A6-3620 APU @2.2 Quad-Core (I have overclocked with AMD app to 4.0ghz)

nVidia GTX660 Ti Overclocked by EVGA

8GB RAM

I get around 15-20fps in any resolution and even in any setting. Game is only stablish in other games outside of Wasteland.

I need to know if the AMD A8-3xxx series for the FM1 socket (either the 2.9ghz or the 3ghz black edition) will give me better performance or if something is wrong.

I just really want to play the game because it is amazing!

[Leon86 13]

hello , i wanted to buy this game but i am not sure if my pc can run it so i am posting my specs here

GTX 550 Ti

Amd Phenom II x4 925 (2.8 Ghz)

4 GB ram

it'll run, dont expect high fps though.

[DocSnug 10]

hi everybody,

i got an old crappy computer and wanted to upgrade the hardware step by step, because i m stuying and dont have the money to upgrade all of it at the same time. soooo where to start...

my computers hardware:

mainboard: ASROCK N68C-S UCC

cpu: AMD Athlon II X4 635 Processor 2.90ghz

graphic card: ATI Radeon 4600 Series (damn cant see the correct description at the moment... need to shut down the computer and open it to check exactly the name of the card)

ram: 4gb DDR3 1600 pretty new RAM

hdd: shitty hdd i guess..

so at the moment i actually CAN play arma3 with this crappy computer (in solo mission or empty servers i can play pretty well, but when playing wasteland mod for example and there are 40-60 players on the server and the server running for a while, i got about 5-10 fps and it s not really playable... )

so what do you think, is the best way to improve my computer step by step? what hardware needs to be upgraded first? (every month i can buy one hardware for 100-250 eur, depends on the month) so where to start? whats most important for arma3? whats my computers weakest spot?

* thanks to leon86 i used msi afterburner and checked my % of gpu used while playing. frames dropped to 10 but only 25-30% of gpu was used. so is my cpu the problem? or can my hdd slow the game as well? i usually get low fps in towns, or when many players acting or many items or corpses lieing around in wasteland.

Thanks for your help,

DocSnug

[Leon86 13]

^^^

probably the cpu, try to reduce cpu intensive settings, try this:

visibility

overall 1000

object viewdistance 700

objects, terrain, particles to low

shadows should be high or off, lower settings might be cpu instead of gpu, it was that way in arma2, might not be the case in 3, dunno.

also make sure vsync is off, mouse smoothing and acceleration are off (in the controls section) and you could go to arma3.cfg (somewhere in documents) and make sure this is in it (open with notepad)

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1;

[maatz 1]

Ops, a bit late now. I would register at any overclocking forum and ask in the laptop section. Overclockers usually know what they’re talking about and you should be able to get a lot of expert advice from people who do nothing but buy new laptops all the time there. I really can’t say exactly how laptop components perform and really don’t know anything about if there are other better, cheaper, better and cheaper or more price effective laptops on the market.

I would recommend buying the cheaper one, trying it out and returning it if it doesn’t suit you. Most stores give you 14 days, right?

Howdy, long time no speaky.

Ordered the more expensive one now. Got a very nice deal and let's see how it will run on that machine :)

Thanks for your help dude!

[Sneakson 1]

hi everybody,

i got an old crappy computer and wanted to upgrade the hardware step by step, because i m stuying and dont have the money to upgrade all of it at the same time. soooo where to start...

my computers hardware:

mainboard: ASROCK N68C-S UCC

cpu: AMD Athlon II X4 635 Processor 2.90ghz

graphic card: ATI Radeon 4600 Series (damn cant see the correct description at the moment... need to shut down the computer and open it to check exactly the name of the card)

ram: 4gb DDR3 1600 pretty new RAM

hdd: shitty hdd i guess..

so at the moment i actually CAN play arma3 with this crappy computer (in solo mission or empty servers i can play pretty well, but when playing wasteland mod for example and there are 40-60 players on the server and the server running for a while, i got about 5-10 fps and it s not really playable... )

so what do you think, is the best way to improve my computer step by step? what hardware needs to be upgraded first? (every month i can buy one hardware for 100-250 eur, depends on the month) so where to start? whats most important for arma3? whats my computers weakest spot?

* thanks to leon86 i used msi afterburner and checked my % of gpu used while playing. frames dropped to 10 but only 25-30% of gpu was used. so is my cpu the problem? or can my hdd slow the game as well? i usually get low fps in towns, or when many players acting or many items or corpses lieing around in wasteland.

Thanks for your help,

DocSnug

First of all Wastelands always lag probably because the scenario is poorly designed and because multiplayer in general is a bit choppy.

I don’t know anything about that graphics card but ARMA seems to mainly chew on CPU.

So upgrade your processor, then your graphics card if needed and naturally also new mainboard if a newer CPU won’t fit your current sockets. I don’t think ARMA seems to use a lot of memory which is mainly for multitasking but SSD discs are really worth the price because they make your computer boot a lot quicker and if you install ARMA on it I bet loading times cut down somewhat.

Also remember that a nice screen, mouse, keyboard and sound is pretty important for gameplay too. And that you may have to change power unit if you get more power intensive components.

[DocSnug 10]

^^^

probably the cpu, try to reduce cpu intensive settings, try this:

visibility

overall 1000

object viewdistance 700

objects, terrain, particles to low

shadows should be high or off, lower settings might be cpu instead of gpu, it was that way in arma2, might not be the case in 3, dunno.

also make sure vsync is off, mouse smoothing and acceleration are off (in the controls section) and you could go to arma3.cfg (somewhere in documents) and make sure this is in it (open with notepad)

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1;

thanks so far. tried this

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1

and disabled everything you said (view distance, objects terrain and particles were low before)

imo it's a little bit faster now. so do you think i should get a new cpu and mainboard first? then next month a graphic card and in 2 months a new hdd and i should be fine?:) any advices what to buy in the cheaper sortiment?

thanks!

[Leon86 13]

I'd do the test with afterburner agian, see if you're still cpu limited.

If you get ~50% gpu load if fps is low then I'd probably upgrade the cpu first.

If you're going to upgrade the cpu the best performance can be had with the intel i5-4670K + a z87 motherboard, cpu overclocked a bit. The best price/performance is probably the amd FX6300.

if you go amd you could stagger the upgrades even further. like getting a GA-970A-UD3 and a good cooler, using that to overclock your current cpu (your current board probably wont survive a big overclock), then upgrade to something faster later, like a FX6300, FX8320.

is your current case big enough to support new hardware by the way? 64xx gpu's are all small and your motherboard is micro atx. also, what is your psu, you might need to upgrade it before you upgrade the gpu.

[Sneakson 1]

Well, okay.

Assuming you’re on a gaming budget I’d recommend this:

Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard

I5-4670k

As expensive graphics card as you can afford with all other components considered

2x4 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz RAM

Some SSD

A cool, solid chassis

600 W PSU

And on the desk:

1920x1080 screen

Comfortable 1600 dpi or higher 5/7-button mouse

Steelseries QcK mousepad

Some decent speakers or headset

Motherboard and I5 will have to be bought simultaneously. Then I’d say graphics card, then SSD, memory, screen, mouse and finally audio. Chassis whenever you run out of space in your current one and PSU whenever you run out of watts lol.

I'm buying a set-up similar to this but a bit more expensive and not a whole lot stronger because I want some specific components.

[Leon86 13]

not exactly a budget build that.

[Sneakson 1]

not exactly a budget build that.

No, I wasn't implying he should buy it all at once. And it’s still good value!

He probably already has some of this like the chassis, screen, mouse, audio and such and I was only recommending some things in case he didn’t already have them because they’re sweet.

And then I5-X670ks are great value for they do, Vengeance memories are cheap, small SSDs are absolutely worth it and finally he can spend as much as he wants on a graphics card and will have a computer that he won’t have to upgrade for years and when he finally does all he will have to think about is a new graphics card because the other components will stay strong even longer.

And naturally if all you need is the processor, memories, SSD and graphics card all of that costs $440 plus a graphics card so if you wanted you might end up at $900-ish.

Me personally I’m buying nearly exactly what I wrote except no screen, audio, SSD or PSU and everything except for the mouse will be only a couple of months old at most and even though I’m getting an i7 instead of i5 (+$150), a more expensive graphics card than I would recommend others (+$100-250, it’s a $600 card) and both a somewhat expensive chassis and mouse it still only lands at just short of $1600 which I think is reasonable because I’m still within the borders of where the cost starts skyrocketing without adding much strength.

Basically I consider what I’m buying a very strong gaming build. I set my budget at $1500 when I started planning it so it’s not a budget build but it’s also not a hardcore build.

My parents have a $3000 portable computer which they bought 10 years ago, that’s more along the cost of what I would consider hardcore. It’s naturally a work computer though, not gaming.

Anyways considering you’re probably not going to need all of the things I wrote I really wouldn’t say it isn’t budget considering what you get. But it is gamer oriented!

I saw a salary of about up to €250 a month so you can probably get the motherboard and processor in two months, the memories and SSD in one month and finally get a graphics card in one or two months more and then you’ll have a really stable build that you shouldn’t have to worry about for some time.

Additionally you (Doc) may be able to do well with both the HDD and DDR2 memories, so a motherboard, processor and graphics card may be all you have to think about so then you'd be down to like $550...

Anyways I'm consufing myself with all of these numbers. Point is I wasn't saying he should buy it all at once because that would be an expensive gaming build but only getting the parts he needs should be price efficient.

If you want to go cheaper than that I can’t really recommend anything because I typically only stay educated about the newer components.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Sneakson

[PhantomShuriken 10]

1920x1080

AMD A6-3620 APU @2.2 Quad-Core (I have overclocked with AMD app to 4.0ghz)

nVidia GTX660 Ti Overclocked by EVGA

8GB RAM

I get around 15-20fps in any resolution and even in any setting. Game is only stablish in other games outside of Wasteland.

I need to know if the AMD A8-3xxx series for the FM1 socket (either the 2.9ghz or the 3ghz black edition) will give me better performance or if something is wrong.

I just really want to play the game because it is amazing!

I posted this asking for help. Can someone please help me? This is the only place I can come to to get help with fellow Arma players.

[Valken 621]

I was wondering about the AMD cpu series and in ALL tests on a per clock basis, EG 3 GHZ AMD vs 3 GHZ INTEL, AMD loses due to inefficiency in processing IPC (instructions per clock cycle). Intel just has a much higher IPC than any AMD processor.

If you have money to upgrade and really love playing ARMA, I really suggest you sell your current MB and CPU, and buy an INTEL quad core cpu and mb. Then transfer your RAM (at least 8 GB DDR3), video card and hard drives over.

You will need to reinstall your OS again of course, but the upgrade will be much better for the game.

Which cpu and MB? The cheapest one that can OC at 4 GHZ or more with QUAD cores. No need for HT. If you can hit 5 GHZ, all the better since the ARMA 3 engine limitation is due to the single threading AI which relies on one cpu core that will hold up and lag the rest of the game.

In multiplayer, your next limitation, after cpu and ram, would probably be video ram and gpu power. You can add another card later for SLI or upgrade to a video card with 2GB or more VRAM for higher settings.

If you have extra money, I recommend you add a SSD just to load ARMA in the future, especially with big map mods. This is more true with ARMA2/CO due to all the big maps for that game so far.

[Getoutduhbowl 10]

Here are the system specs for two computers I'm considering, I'm wondering which is better?

NE 780i http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227462&IsVirtualParent=1

i7-37GT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883258013R

[HorbeySpector 164]

As I couldn't find any references about the gtx 760 and arma 3 before.. Game runs great on it. Everything maxed out, 1920x1080 and vd ~3500 performs around 40-45 fps. Obviously, goes down when theres a lot more units on the map.

Tested with an i5 3570k, gigabyte gtx 760 OC rev. 2, 8gb ram and no ssd.

[Leon86 13]

I posted this asking for help. Can someone please help me? This is the only place I can come to to get help with fellow Arma players.

wasteland never runs well, also, your cpu is pretty slow.

[nikiforos 450]

How much difference will I see if I upgrade my GPU from GTX 570 to GTX 670?

I can get it for a really good price.

[Leon86 13]

Here are the system specs for two computers I'm considering, I'm wondering which is better?

NE 780i http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227462&IsVirtualParent=1

i7-37GT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883258013R

the graphics cards aren't too good on those machines, you could buy directly from ibuypower, that way you can configure it.

[Valken 621]

How much difference will I see if I upgrade my GPU from GTX 570 to GTX 670?

I can get it for a really good price.

You can make a relative test.

Goto steam, download the ARMA 2 FREE edition, set everything to maximum and run the first benchmark.

If you can run the first benchmark maxed out at over 30-40 FPS, and your video card is DX11, you "should" be ok.

The 2nd benchmark is mostly AI so it will kill your cpu in anycase.

[Khabbi 10]

So my old laptop fried and I was thinking might aswell get a new one that can handle ArmA 3 , I cant really get a stationary so lap top is my only choise .. Money is abit tight so after alot of looking I kinda settled on this one , But I would like some advice , and the main question is would Arma 3 run on it ? and how well ?

HP Probook 4740s B0Y84EA:

Intel Core i5-2450M 2.5 GHz (3.1 GHz Turbo)

2 cores

3 MB L3-cache

8 GB

AMD Radeon HD7650M (1024 MB GDDR3 VRAM)

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

If I dont run on the super duper mega highest settings it would be pretty ok , but I would like it to run on high . Im really shit on comps so any help would be great

thanks a bunch in advance !

[Sneakson 1]

So my old laptop fried and I was thinking might aswell get a new one that can handle ArmA 3 , I cant really get a stationary so lap top is my only choise .. Money is abit tight so after alot of looking I kinda settled on this one , But I would like some advice , and the main question is would Arma 3 run on it ? and how well ?

HP Probook 4740s B0Y84EA:

Intel Core i5-2450M 2.5 GHz (3.1 GHz Turbo)

2 cores

3 MB L3-cache

8 GB

AMD Radeon HD7650M (1024 MB GDDR3 VRAM)

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

If I dont run on the super duper mega highest settings it would be pretty ok , but I would like it to run on high . Im really shit on comps so any help would be great

thanks a bunch in advance !

Dream on... I'd guess standard should run well though and that looks alright.

It seems to run Battlefield, Bioshock: Infinite and some other pretty new games decently at high settings so it shouldn't be too bad but you won't even get close to the default high settings.

---------- Post added at 22:53 ---------- Previous post was at 22:29 ----------

Sweclocker's $1500* computer recommendation:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8 GB

Graphics card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 760

CPU-cooler: Silverstone Argon AR01

SSD: Samsung 840 250 GB

HDD: WD Green WD20EZRX 2 TB

Chassis: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2

Power supply: Be Quiet Pure Power L8 630 W

* = according to Swedish availability and pricing.

CPU, GPU (whatever 700-series card you can afford as mentioned), mobo and memories are great choices though I haven’t researched cooling or HDD/SDD so I’m not personally sure about them.

Note that Be Quiet are German and don’t sell in the US at all as far as I know and Fractal Design are Swedish and may also not sell worldwide.