Hardware and settings for ArmA

[Dwarden 1125]

well if u want/can wait ... then i suggest You wait for 1GB version ideally with DisplayPort connector (Longer cables then)

[Zorbtek 0]

I'm thinking of upgrading my PC to run ArmA better but I'm unsure as to what I need. I'm thinking it's RAM, but I'm not sure.

My processor is - Pentium 4 1.6 GHz

My RAM is - 512 MB

My graphics card - Radeon X1300

As you can see, I have an old computer that is crying for upgrades.

I went to "Can You Run It" Sys req lab and it says:

Minimum, I only fail processor wise

Recommended, I fail on RAM, Processor and graphics card (but I'm not too concered about graphics, I'd just like the game to run smooth)

Any suggestions? Am I better off upgrading my RAM or processor?

I'm limited on $$$ so I need to choose one or the other, unfortunately

Any help would make me feel happy inside.

[lightzout 0]

Good points on the 3870 Dwarden. I have thought ATI actually makes Arma look better than an equivalent nvidia card but that was just an unscientific impression of early 1900xtx screenshots vs. 7900gt screenshots. I recently upgraded from the evga 320mb 8800gts to the 640 (yeah right before the GT and the 38xx dropped) and couldn't believe the improvement in performance. The memory really made a big difference even without any overclocking as I had on the 320 card. Have you posted any screenshots taken with your 3870? I tried searching for it but I cant figure out how to refine post type/member etc. I would just like to see them side by with some of mine and compare the 3870 to the 8800gts.

Regarding the GPU camps: Nvidia's strongarm "meant to be played" tactics may be unfair but its slightly less annoying than ATI's erratic driver reputation or I would jump ship. I hope AMD will be able to bolster ATI's ability to adapt to new games without being forced to play catch-up all the time. Anyone else feel like games look better on ATI cards when compared to a similar generation GPU? (better in relative terms like color, tone, texture, etc- may be personal preference)

[Dwarden 1125]

well i can barely say AMD.ATI drivers are worse than NVIDIA ...

IMHO both are shitty for the price you pay for the product

bugs should be fixed asap ...

open source leads the way (btw AMD is way more open now than NVIDIA) ...

yet i want see drivers on SVN and public daily builds

visual quality way ... hard to say but

8800 serie got really fantastic AF (nearly perfect)

while 2xxx was worse and i fear also 3xxx is bit worse (let say 10%) ..

at least AF in 'old' style meaning but today can be nearly everything done in shaders

on other hand AMD.ATI products were always better in AA offerings and that stays with 3xxx

[icehollow 0]

I would say the HD3870 can quite well at least match the large 8800GTS models when OC'ed, but it can't really begin to touch the 512mb 8800GT.

Honestly though you can buy a ridiculous card like the GTX or ultra or even 2 but at the end of the day if you don't have a good CPU/processor (single core for example) your computer is still going to be in a bottleneck when it comes to pumping out hardcore graphics on big ass games like Arma and Crysis (especially crysis).

[Zorbtek 0]

Okay, I did some tests and I think I need to upgrade my processor, RAM will come later.

Just want to check to make sure this will work before I buy it.

I have a Sony PCV-RX650, the processor socket type said mPGA 478, which I assume is socket type 478, but it has a B after it.

If I get this from Newegg, will it work?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116215

Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Northwood 2.8GHz 512KB L2 Cache Socket 478 68.4W Single-Core Processor - OEM

[SpaceReverend 0]

Does someone have experience about using two geForce 7600 gs top silent 512 as SLI? I have one and im considering to buy another one to get more on graphics. I've heard some issues about playing ArmA with sli but suppose they can be fixed..?

I have gained good performance by using Kegetys Lowplants addon, but i want to set all settings to full

If someone have experience about this, please share

My pc: Amd athlon 3500+ 64x WinXp

Msi K9N Platinum, 1gig 800 DDRII

Samsung 500gig HD, geForce 7600 top silent

[Jeff2121 0]

Okay, I did some tests and I think I need to upgrade my processor, RAM will come later.

Just want to check to make sure this will work before I buy it.

I have a Sony PCV-RX650, the processor socket type said mPGA 478, which I assume is socket type 478, but it has a B after it.

If I get this from Newegg, will it work?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116215

Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Northwood 2.8GHz 512KB L2 Cache Socket 478 68.4W Single-Core Processor - OEM

P4s are massive waste of money these days, I would get an E6600; they're considerably better and you can basically run with pratically no lag.

BTW, I was thinking of upgrading my PC to something like this:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz Dual Core

GPU: eVGA 8600GT 256MB

RAM: 3GB DDR2

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

and I was hoping I could turn it all on max, except AA, AF and Res; does anyone know how this would run??

[Zorbtek 0]

I would more than likely need a new motherboard for that.

I wish I had money. I'd be making my own PCs like crazy.

[Ashfield212 0]

I'm looking to buy the game shortly, hopefully performance will be reasonable.

My specs:

Core 2 Quad Q6600

ASUS P5N-ESLI nForce 650

Geforce 8800GT

2MB RAM

[spetznaz14 0]

BTW, I was thinking of upgrading my PC to something like this:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz Dual Core

GPU: eVGA 8600GT 256MB

RAM: 3GB DDR2

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

and I was hoping I could turn it all on max, except AA, AF and Res; does anyone know how this would run??

I doubt it as the gfx card would be a big bottle neck there, you would do better if you went for something like 8800GT with 512mb.

[Jeff2121 0]

Okay. I was going to get a quad in the beginning too, it's only 25 pounds more!

[Zorbtek 0]

Just upgraded to a 2.8 Ghz processor. I can actually play ArmA decently now.

Waiting for my RAM upgrade to come in, that will really give it some mmf.

[charliereddog 9]

I'm looking at buying a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and coupling it with a Saphire HD 3870 512mb card along with 4 Gb Ram. Anyone any suggestions or comments that might disuade me? I'm aware that I won't be able to use all 4gb in ArmA but that Vista 64bit will allow me to disable 1gb to play.

cheers for your help in advance.

[MC_RIB 0]

Hi everyone just bought the game and ive been playing about with it for a few days now. Imo it has the potential the match ofp but for some reason ive been getting pretty bad fps problems. I recently bought a new computer and was hoping it would be able to play new games with high settings but its been almost unplayable especially in multiplayer matches. Here is my info....

Windows Vista ultimate

Intel core 2 quad 2.66GHz

2.00GB RAM

Geforce 8800ultra 768MB

hope someone can help me out, although im suspecting its got something to do with AA (i was having the same problem with crysis but turned AA off and it ran fine, surely the graphics card could handle it though?)

[icehollow 0]

Your system would be stomping the shit out of ArmA, it's your operating sytem that is holding you back. Piss Vista off, its a piece of crap, has no real benefits over XP and hates Armed Assault.

my clanmate has a monster system, but because of vista he's had CTDs, freezes and has had to turn his settings down to low just to run ArmA on vista.

Vista blows.

[Lepardi 0]

Hi everyone just bought the game and ive been playing about with it for a few days now. Imo it has the potential the match ofp but for some reason ive been getting pretty bad fps problems. I recently bought a new computer and was hoping it would be able to play new games with high settings but its been almost unplayable especially in multiplayer matches. Here is my info....

Windows Vista ultimate

Intel core 2 quad 2.66GHz

2.00GB RAM

Geforce 8800ultra 768MB

hope someone can help me out, although im suspecting its got something to do with AA (i was having the same problem with crysis but turned AA off and it ran fine, surely the graphics card could handle it though?)

If you change your OS to XP, you can expect doubled FPS. And remember to go to nvidia control panel and set Vsync to always off, it's necessary!

Setting vsync off might get rid of your fps problems in vista, too. And disable AA while playing Arma.

[MC_RIB 0]

ok thanks alot for the help, im really starting to wish i didnt get vista lol, pisses me right off.

[UGotSnuffed 0]

Hey guys, just joined up and i gotta question. Ive been reading alot in this topic and honestly some of it does/doesnt make sense as i dont know alot about computers, ive always been a console gamer. Ive seen some videos of ArmA and it looks great, but in doing some research it seems i cant play it. The demo doesnt work, and then i saw someone post srtest.com, so i went there and tried it. My computer passes everything except it says it wont work with the video card i have, even though it passes...heres what it says:

Video Card

Minimum: 128 MB video card with Pixel Shader 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce FX+ / ATI Radeon 9500+)

You Have: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Series () FAIL: Sorry, your video card does not meet this minimum requirement.

Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 132.0 MB

Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes

Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes

Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 2.0

Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 2.0

Now a buddy told me that it seems it just doesnt like my video card, but since it a laptop i cant change tht anyways....is that true?? also im running vista if that matters....i greatly appreciate any help, the computer isnt the greatest as i just bought it for business, but its brand new so i would think it could run the game....thx

[Misfit Leader 2]

Probably because the Radeon Xpress 200M is an integrated graphic card that is not designed to run game (and even ArmA @ very low res + details will not run i think).

The problem isn't the card's features, i think it is the card's capacity.

Where a radeon 9500+ & GeForce FX seems old, your integrated graphics can't do better because it is not designed for games, only for business thing (like running your windows vista profesionnal applications).

Also you can notice in another post that BIS don't guarantee that ArmA will work on Vista system.

[stingfish74 0]

well arma crew, i burned my 7950 today.

i have a evga 7950 512, slighty oc'ed w/ a zalman cooler on it and it finally died and 1 yr of playing arma. i dont think it was the oc that did it, i can see the burn mark on one of the chip heads....

anyways... im looking for a replacement. narrowed it down to the 8800, but not sure to get the 640 or 768. any suggestions? did they finally fix the fog bug i see in here w. the 8800's?

if you have the chance to pick up a new card just for arma and the new arma, what would you buy w/ a 4-500 budget?

[UGotSnuffed 0]

Probably because the Radeon Xpress 200M is an integrated graphic card that is not designed to run game (and even ArmA @ very low res + details will not run i think).

The problem isn't the card's features, i think it is the card's capacity.

Where a radeon 9500+ & GeForce FX seems old, your integrated graphics can't do better because it is not designed for games, only for business thing (like running your windows vista profesionnal applications).

Also you can notice in another post that BIS don't guarantee that ArmA will work on Vista system.

So basically im SOL right??  no way to get arma running on my current computer??  

would figure, thats my luck!!  CoD 4 killed GRAW2 on the 360 so we have no more matches to play and arma looks like a great replacement, just wish i knew that nefore i bought the damn comp....thx for the reply anyways bro....

[-Snafu- 78]

The thing with laptops is that they sacrifice a lot for mobility - especially with regards to graphics cards. I found out the hard way and wasted a huge amount of money (to me anyway) on a Sony Vaio VGN-FE41s (I think thats the name). I was expecting ArmA to look the dog's danglies with it (settings full up etc.). However I have to keep the settings on my laptop roughly the same as my desktop - circa 2003 AGP machine with 7600GS 512MB graphics and 2x512MB RAM sticks put on to extend its life. Don't get me wrong it still runs ArmA well with it's 2GB RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo and in some cases can seem to handle large battles a little better. The laptop screen also makes the game look better.

But for the amount I spent on the laptop I could have got a fcuking slick desktop where ArmA would have looked the business and performed greatly.

So before you buy, do your research! I can't stress that enough.

[UGotSnuffed 0]

I'd hate to go buy a desktop just to play a game, but if i keep watching the youtube videos that whats gonna happen!!  the game simply looks incredible, and i had played flashpoint way back when and loved it, just was never into computer games...well, im gonna break my old desktop out and see what that does, but if i have to buy another comp just to play ill def check with you guys before i do.....thx

ya know, i never got to this ? since the game wouldnt work on my laptop, but will a controller work with this game?? and if so, any one in particular you guys recomend?? ive had friends tell me the mouse and board is better but im a console gamer so not sure if my patience will hold up!!

[-Snafu- 78]

I'd hate to go buy a desktop just to play a game, but if i keep watching the youtube videos that whats gonna happen!!  the game simply looks incredible, and i had played flashpoint way back when and loved it, just was never into computer games...well, im gonna break my old desktop out and see what that does, but if i have to buy another comp just to play ill def check with you guys before i do.....thx

ya know, i never got to this ? since the game wouldnt work on my laptop, but will a controller work with this game?? and if so, any one in particular you guys recomend?? ive had friends tell me the mouse and board is better but im a console gamer so not sure if my patience will hold up!!

Bugger! All might not be lost mate. I just remembered that there is an external graphics card in development. Basically its a pc graphics card that can be plugged into a laptop. But there has not been any news on it for a while.