Playing Arma 3 with a Pentium ...

[oldbear 390]

Playing Arma 3 with a Pentium ... , not a Pentium 4 but a Pentium G-4560!

 

The context :
In my own quest to find a good CPU to really play Arma3, on a budget I had failed with the Pentium G4500 (1st episode on CanardPC Forums ... in French). I thought I had found a good candidate to be what I am calling the "Minimum Recommendable" to play Arma3. Ultimately, it has gone wrong due to the processor two cores limitations.
In game, the Pentium G4500 2 cores were constantly loaded up to 100% and the phenomenon of "bottleneck" deprives us of any hope of being able to play up to the minimum level -in my approach 20FPS- on Tanoa.

Here is an extract from the official “Minimum” specifications for Arma3:
- PROCESSOR Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz / AMD Dual-Core Athlon 2.5 GHz
- GRAPHICS NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT/ AMD Radeon HD 5670 / Intel HD Graphics 4000 with 512 MB VRAM
- DirectX® 10
- RAM 4 GB

You're going to point out to me, rightly, that no one is playing with such a weak set-up, but I've noticed several times in forums that players on a tight budget or absent-minded try to do it ... and they had problems.

From my point of view, it’s clear, it’s no longer possible to play Arma3 with a Core 2Duo E6600 and a GeForce 9800 GT. This "Minimum" config for Arma3 will allow you to display the game and to work on the editor and even to have a glimpse of what playing means on Stratis but it doesn't allow you to get a fair gaming experience on all Arma3 official terrains.

The upcoming release of Ryzen led Intel to consider a far-reaching counter-attack against its finally threatened Empire, the release at the beginning of this year of 3 Pentiums with HT: Pentium G4560, Pentium G4600, Pentium G4620.
 We will see in a near future what AMD will release in the upcoming R3 Ryzen lineup for players with a limited budget, but here and now, let see if we get an option to play at a lower cost with the cheapest of these Pentiums.

 

The test :

A- the hardware

1 ° Pentium G4560
With 2 cores and 4 threads, it looks like an i3-killer in terms of price / performance ratio and, considering reviews, benchs and other tests, it seems to be an interesting candidate.

2 ° Test set-up.
The CPU is set on a MSI 250I-Pro with 8GB DDR4 Crucial [DDR4 2 x 4 GB 2400 MHz CAS 17],  
the GPU is a GTX 750 Ti OC 2Go. Windows10 64-bit and Steam are installed on an Intel M.2 256 GB 600p SSD.
This is set-up on a Dimastech bench table on a 19 "rack drawer.

 

B- the testing protocol

On the program as intended today*:
- Settings,
- Bench tests with Arma3Mark-Stratis and YAAB
- Tests on SP missions "4 contre1" on Altis and "Anti-Syndicat" on Tanoa

 

* Settings:

The settings are those given by the game auto-detection:
In General, the Quality settings are on "High",
Note that the "water reflection" option provided by the Visual Update is activated and set to "-High-"
The 100% CPU and mixed CPU / GPU options are set:
- Overall visibility at 2200m.
- Terrain in "High" and Shadows in "Very High".
In Display, the VSYNC is deactivated.
All settings in the AA & PP section are active.

 

* Bench tests with Arma3Mark-Stratis and YAAB:

Arma3Mark-Stratis: the average score of 10 tests on the Arma3Mark - Stratis bench is 60 FPS

 YAAB or Yet Another Arma Benchmark: the result is 29/30 FPS.

 

 

* SP missions tests:

4 vs 1 - Altis: In this mission of the FIA groups are fighting motorized units from the AAF in Pyrgos.

In this mission, the game runs fairly regularly in the zone of 25/30 FPS which is quite playable.
In a more qualitative and subjective way, playing in "High" makes it possible to appreciate the environment and to better distinguish the threats, besides the feeling in play is good, fluid, without loss of FPS in movement or during shots.

 

 

Anti-Syndikat - Tanoa: the second mission played is a transposition on Tanoa of the previous mission.
In this mission, Gendarmerie, helped by groups  from the FAT32 (Front d’ Auto-défense de Tanoa) is fighting the Syndikat gangs in Gorgetown.
In this mission, the game runs regularly around the 20 FPS level and remains fluid and constantly playable in the engagement and /or during player fast moves. I must admit nevertheless that Tanoa seems difficult grounds for this entry level configuration.

 

 

Partial conclusion
The platform used Pentium G4560 / MSI 250I-Pro / 8GB DDR4 Crucial 2400MHz / SSD 256GB Intel 600p is solid and stable.
By combining it with a basic graphics card like the GTX 750Ti, performance with Arma3 is rather good in SP.
In the mission on Tanoa, my hypothesis is that we are near the limits of what the processor can do but from a subjective point of view, the game with this configuration always remains fluid, playable.

 

You can get the whole story with screens and in French in  Jouer à Arma3 avec un Pentium [2] - L'Empire contre-attaque on CanardPC forums.

 

Edited May 31, 2017 by oldbear
Trying to add pics

[clawhammer 10]

I must say that iam really a fan of this cheap cpu. If you are on a budget it is made for you. Just 50 bucks and you can play all actual titels with it. And since it is the newest socket, you can upgrade to an i7 7700k at any time (Maybe Cofee Lake too soon) and it can run with DDR4 RAM. The Pentium G4650 is very close to the i3 6100 (Even with 2 Cores + 2 HT Threads instead of 4 Cores like the i3 has) which cost 50 bucks more. So dont buy the i3, go for the Pentium!

[oldbear 390]

Your statements about the i3 are a bit inaccurate. yes of course "...  the Pentium G4650 is very close to the i3 6100 ..." but both own 2 Cores/4Threads  unlike an i5 still displaying 4 Cores/4Threads.

Nothing can be said about upcoming AMD R3 Ryzen, but at the moment Intel has released what is looking like an i3 killer.

Of course  Pentium G4560, Pentium G4600, Pentium G4620 lack support of AVX / AVX2 / F16C / FMA3 instructions, but otherwise, they are "i3 like" CPUs.

[oldbear 390]

*Tests in MP missions

 

I had played CTF with my Clan, KOTH on official servers or not.
As expected, I was getting no issue playing a CTF with 12 players on Stratis up to 60 FPS.
A "Zeus" mission on Altis on the official server runs well at 35/40 FPS.
In KOTH missions on Altis, always on an official servers, I can feel the limits in terms of FPS.
On a map located near the Airport I was getting regularly 25/45 FPS .
On the other hand on Kavala, with more than 80 players it turns between 18 and 40 FPS.

 

 

 

Note : as on many tests done with on other rigs, the memory usage is looking very high since 64bits client release.

 

Conclusion

In my opinion this Pentium G4560 is, finally, a good candidate for the "Minimum Recommendable" label
The smallest of these Pentium Kabylake [2cores / 4threads], seems to be a good base in order to build an Arma3 playable rig on a budget.
The results of these tests must be put into perspective because using 1440x900 x2 monitors to display game and tools is helping to enhance performances level.