Terrible Frame Rate on Windows 10

[lawman_actual 24]

Recently (since upgrading to Windows 10) I've been seeing horrendous FPS when playing Arma 3 (around 5FPS much of the time), while playing both offline and online.

Oddly it comes in 'bursts'. Frame rate will drop to 5fps for say 20 seconds, then I'll have a couple of seconds of smooth play before it drops again.

 

I am using a Dell Inspiron 15 with intel i7 and have recently upgraded to Windows 10.

 

I have noticed that "System and Compressed memory" is running very high memory consumption (in the region of 1,000mB/s and wondered if this was related. 

 

 

I have tried various approaches to fixing this, including;

 

- Complete shut down of system

- Updating drivers for Intel Rapid Storage, nVidia Graphics and BIOS

- Running System File Checker (returned no errors)

- Running DISM (returned no errors)

- Running a full Virus/Malware scan with both windows defender and malware bytes (separately of course)

- Re-Installing Arma 3

 

 

I've been in contact with Microsoft support who so far have only suggested that I perform a clean boot, which i did but it did not help.

 

 

Since they are being very slow (perhaps taking a break over Easter?) I decided it was time to see if anybody here might have some wisdom they can share.

 

 

Many thanks,

Law

[jumpinghubert 49]

I changed from win7 to win10 (upgrade, not clean install) and no performance impact. Do you have tried lowering ingame texture quality or raise swap file  and fix it to a constant value? My value is 200% (16GB) of system ram (8GB) on ssd.

[lawman_actual 24]

Hi Hubert

 

I have tried changing in-game graphics settings (draw distances and shadow etc) with no consequence.

I am not sure what you mean about "raise file swap", this is not a term I am familiar with

[Horus 83]

He talks about the page file and after upgrade to Win10 is good to do a clean install Win10.

[jumpinghubert 49]

Yes I meant pagefile. Do you have tried lowering texture quality? Is your arma3 installed on HDD or SDD?

[lawman_actual 24]

I tried increasing the pagefile size to 8GB with no success.

The game is (I believe) installed on HDD

I have also tried playing about with advanced parameters such as maxMem without any improvement.

 

I think I had a go at lowering texture quality, but I will try again tomorrow in case.

I would be annoyed if I had to lower it from what was working on Windows 8, but we will see...

 

 

Thanks again for the tips.

I gather i'm not the only one to have seen this, though I'm aware that there are people who are happily running Arma on windows 10 :/

[OMAC 254]

On Win 10 x64, I suddenly had terrible FPS rates with my NVIDIA GTX 680 and 364.51 drivers.  Others report lots of problems with that driver. 

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/921332/geforce-drivers/official-364-51-game-ready-whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-released-3-10-16-updated/58/

 

I reverted to 361.91 and frame rates were back to normal.  362.00 drivers may also be ok, but I'm not sure about that.

[lawman_actual 24]

On Win 10 x64, I suddenly had terrible FPS rates with my NVIDIA GTX 680 and 364.51 drivers.  Others report lots of problems with that driver. 

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/921332/geforce-drivers/official-364-51-game-ready-whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-released-3-10-16-updated/58/

 

I reverted to 361.91 and frame rates were back to normal.  362.00 drivers may also be ok, but I'm not sure about that.

 

 

That's interesting.

 

One of the first things I did after doing some Googling was to update various drivers. 

I went through the Dell support website (they have a pretty neat little section with drivers for BIOS, audio, graphics etc all in one place) and I'm pretty sure I updated my nVidia one.

 

I have geforce GT 750M version 353.62 according to the nvidia control panel.

 

I've just checked on the nVidia website itself and there's more recent versions that were specifically under the windows 10 section (up to 364.72) for the 750M.

I'll try these first, then if there's still problems maybe I'll try some older versions.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion,

I'll report back with my findings

[lawman_actual 24]

Me again.

 

 

I tried installing the 364.72 version and the problem persisted. 

I tried going back to the 361.91 and the problem persisted.

 

Even with textures on low and shadows disabled I'm only able to reach 16 FPS playing offline.

 

I tried a game online and saw FPS as low as 6.

 

 

 

This is so depressing -_-

[Beagle 684]

On Win 10 x64, I suddenly had terrible FPS rates with my NVIDIA GTX 680 and 364.51 drivers.  Others report lots of problems with that driver. 

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/921332/geforce-drivers/official-364-51-game-ready-whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-released-3-10-16-updated/58/

 

I reverted to 361.91 and frame rates were back to normal.  362.00 drivers may also be ok, but I'm not sure about that.

Spot on. it began with the cursed 364.xx series and not only for ArmA 3. It was fixed for me by reverting to 362.00

 

btw. 362 was specially recommended for ArmA 3 Apex update

[lawman_actual 24]

Spot on. it began with the cursed 364.xx series and not only for ArmA 3. It was fixed for me by reverting to 362.00

 

btw. 362 was specially recommended for ArmA 3 Apex update

 

Ok I guess I can give 362 a try over 361.91.

Will report back tomorrow most likely; this whole process is leaving me exhausted 

[OMAC 254]

I just installed the brand-new 364.72, and it seems to run fine so far.  NVIDIA corrected some problems in the last driver that were causing low FPS in some games.

 

Wrong.  That driver killed my FPS rate again.  I'll return to 362.00 this time.

[MarkCode82 21]

To be blunt. The missions you are playing are probably written like junk duct taped together.

[MrSanchez 243]

To be blunt. The missions you are playing are probably written like junk duct taped together.

Please refrain from commenting nonsense, you know that mission design is not what this thread is about.

[Steamstrike 0]

this might be related to windows 10. my FPS is good and all that, and ARMA 3 launcher has worked every time.but something odd happened. it was working last night fine. i went to bed but when i came back down, a notepad text was on the desktop. i opened it up and it was called Arma3Launcher_exception_20160328T191751 - Notepad. I would put all of the text inside down but I feel I should post a topic yet I cant right now - it wont let me. I think it is because I just made my account recently. I made it to solve this question. it said inside

 

Arma 3 Launcher Exception Log
=============================

 

Arma 3 Launcher has encountered an unexpected error described below.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Please report this on Arma 3 Feedback Tracker (http://feedback.arma3.com). Thanks to you we may fix the issue faster!

 

now, I haven't put it all down as I explained but the ArmA3 feedback page is currently down due to suspected breach in security. I will put all of it down when I can do a topic.

 

​

[lawman_actual 24]

a notepad text was on the desktop. i opened it up and it was called Arma3Launcher_exception_20160328T191751 - Notepad. ​

 

I feel like I might have seen a file like this on my desktop at some point but probably deleted it without thinking (if it did appear it would have been before I became fully aware of these problems)

 

No clue what to do about it though

[lawman_actual 24]

I have tried running the game without BattleEye and the problem still appeared.

I have also tried running a couple of other games and they ran without problem.

 

 

I truly am bemused.

 

 

 

Feel free to check out the very minimal support i have been offered so far on the windows 10 forum.

I'm hoping that they're going to get back to me with more support just as soon as they're done celebrating Easter or whatever

[OMAC 254]

Make sure you run Auto-detect in video settings after installing new driver, and see if that affects your low fps issue.

[lex__1 422]

My situation.
Often I noticed loss of a priority of process of Arma3.exe at Windows 10.
Often process of "Antimalware Service Executable" rose by the first place. Full check of Defender Okon system resolves an issue, process doesn't win first place. But can come any other to the first place. Arma3.exe is active process, but can look not so in a task manager.
It isn't predictable, in game there can be an error of reading the file of game.

http://stroybat.ucoz.ru/raznoe/Error/20160328230654_1.jpg

http://stroybat.ucoz.ru/raznoe/Error/20160312174857_1.jpg

http://stroybat.ucoz.ru/raznoe/Error/20160319180957_1.jpg

It leads to sharp falling of FPS, sometimes without opportunity it is correct to bowl off (the black screen).
Looks as - RAM is crowded, there is no free RAM, very few RAM is allocated. It isn't visible physically, in schedules everything is normal.
I start game from the folder on fast SSD.
If to start game from slow old HDD, the message of a mistake can not appear, falling of FPS is simply It isn't predictable.
All listed above occurs spontaneously, has no dependence on the scenario of game, network game or not.
The complete set of my personal computer can on start in game have high + \-100FPS.
I can sometimes spend in game 2-4 hours with FPS 30-60.
Sometimes game restart every 20-30 minutes with falling of FPS 3-8.

I didn't try it at former windows.

[lawman_actual 24]

My situation.

Often I noticed loss of a priority of process of Arma3.exe at Windows 10.

Often process of "Antimalware Service Executable" rose by the first place. Full check of Defender Okon system resolves an issue, process doesn't win first place. But can come any other to the first place. Arma3.exe is active process, but can look not so in a task manager.

It isn't predictable, in game there can be an error of reading the file of game.

http://stroybat.ucoz.ru/raznoe/Error/20160328230654_1.jpg

http://stroybat.ucoz.ru/raznoe/Error/20160312174857_1.jpg

http://stroybat.ucoz.ru/raznoe/Error/20160319180957_1.jpg

It leads to sharp falling of FPS, sometimes without opportunity it is correct to bowl off (the black screen).

Looks as - RAM is crowded, there is no free RAM, very few RAM is allocated. It isn't visible physically, in schedules everything is normal.

I start game from the folder on fast SSD.

If to start game from slow old HDD, the message of a mistake can not appear, falling of FPS is simply It isn't predictable.

All listed above occurs spontaneously, has no dependence on the scenario of game, network game or not.

The complete set of my personal computer can on start in game have high + \-100FPS.

I can sometimes spend in game 2-4 hours with FPS 30-60.

Sometimes game restart every 20-30 minutes with falling of FPS 3-8.

I didn't try it at former windows.

 

 

This is all very interesting.

 

I have noticed Anti-Malware service executable running relatively high on the list of processes (not usually on top if i remember correctly though) and I have seen messages similar to the images you posted.

I had wondered if it was a priority thing, but I'm not familiar enough with the topic to be able to investigate.

 

 

If anyone can suggest what actions to take based on the above i'd be very grateful!

 

I will also try the auto-detect thing later tonight

[jumpinghubert 49]

Its possible your cpu lowers clockspeed of all/some cores when playing arma3. I am logging cpu clockspeed of all 4 cores with hwinfo64+afterburner to make sure all cores are at full speed during gameplay. Maybe a powersave issue in windows and/or bios.

[Beagle 684]

I noticed that my SSD caching does not work anymore after Win10 update. Seems that it was OEM only and I can't get the ExpressCache software anywhere, at least not a version that will work wich my Acer Predator.

This in fact indroduced a performance reduction to me since the System under win10 cant use the 20GB SSD cache anymore.

 

THis is at least my problem with Win10, maybe anyone may check if the unconsitent fps problem with Win10 has similar reasons.

[lawman_actual 24]

Its possible your cpu lowers clockspeed of all/some cores when playing arma3. I am logging cpu clockspeed of all 4 cores with hwinfo64+afterburner to make sure all cores are at full speed during gameplay. Maybe a powersave issue in windows and/or bios.

 

I see (that's partially a lie. We're starting to venture outside the realm of things I know much about)

 

So the question remains, what should I try next?

Should I be investigating a "loss of priority" as suggested by Lex or checking clockspeed? (And how might I do these things)

Thanks again for the help everyone

[jumpinghubert 49]

Hi lawman_actual,

 

there are some tutorials in the internet, look here for example :)

[old_painless 183]

Just a crazy thing that I once was affected by - you do run on the power cable, right, not battery? I have a gaming laptop for the road, but it is only useable when plugged in. Also, do you by any chance have a SLI laptop with two GPUs combined - then the driver may disable SLI as part of driver upgrade, happened to me at least.

 

As for things to turn down, visual distance is no. 1 to slide downwards. Is it set at the distance that you used to have when getting ok fps ?

 

-OP