aa super slow

[Maddmatt 1]

Ok, i have found a way to patch it up to 1.02.

I can't find the 1.03 or 1.04 patches.. anyone have them?

1.05 doesn't work at all.

and even with 1.02, it is just as slow

... if it matters, i have the czech version

There are no patches for version 1.03 or 1.04, you just need the 1.05 patch. You will need to get the large international version of the 1.05 patch.

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Ok, i have found a way to patch it up to 1.02.

I can't find the 1.03 or 1.04 patches.. anyone have them?

1.05 doesn't work at all.

and even with 1.02, it is just as slow

... if it matters, i have the czech version

There are no patches for version 1.03 or 1.04, you just need the 1.05 patch. You will need to get the large international version of the 1.05 patch.

The biggest performance boosts are:

A/ Set windows virtual mem to be min/max double your current system RAM reboot your PC.

B/ Then Defrag your hard drive.

C/ Run fully spyware and virus check.

D/ Set maxmem=1024; if you have 2 GIG RAM, leave at 512 if you have 1 GIG in your PC in the arma.cfg file in the "my documents/arma" on your PC.

E/ Try HDR 8 or 16 in same .cfg as above some people find that improves performace on different cards.

F/ In Nivida control panel, TURN off VSYNC and Tripple Buffer. make sure Supersample or multisample AA is off on any card bar an 8800 GTS/GTX. ARMA has it's own buffer and it can fight with the Nvidia Tripple buffer.

G/ Make sure that AA and AF are set to "application controlled". In Nvidia control panel*

*other performance tips for Nvidia control panel for ARMA

Conformant texture clamp: 8800 (hardware) 7 series or below ON.

Texture extension limit: OFF

Force Mip Maps: NONE

gamma Correct AA: 8800 On anything else OFF

neagtive LOD: 8800 clamp, any other card ALLOW

texture filtering, on 6 series cards to 7600 try PERFORMANCE, on 7800 or better try Qaulity or high Qaulity.

Transpaerncy Anti Alias: ANYCARD BAR AN 8800 GTX, make sure that is set OFF, 8800 try multisample, load ARMA make sure you hit 60 FPS. Then try SUPERSAMPLE. If you hit 60 FPS and have eye candy maxed gratz! This setting can humble EVEN a 8800 it abouts the biggest setting with AA ramped up in game that can stress your GPU. To test lay in the grass, use an optical sight and see if your FPS bites the dust.

Triple buffer and vsync OFF and or FORCE off depending on your options.

I don't know how you do this on ATI cards can some one say how?

In game:

1/ Post Process: LOW

2/ Terrain: VERY LOW

3/ Shadows: DISABLED

ANY GPU upto a 7600 GT

TEXTURE: LOW/VERY LOW

FILTERING: LOW TO NORMAL

ANY GPU from 7600 GT upto 7900GS/GTX

Texture: LOW-MEDUIM

Filtering: Meduim to High*

* Much testing has shown filtering can also have a huge impact on older GPU's

8800 GTS 320

Texture: LOW-MEDUIM*

* going above meduim seems to cuase issues for some.

Filtering: high to very high

8800 GTS 640

Texture: meduim-high

Filtering: high to very high

*GTS seems to stutter at VERY HIGH texture on some machines.

8800 GTX 768

Texture: high-very high£

£ Very high appears to add bump maps on terrain textures a 8800 can just about handle this at high res 1280+

Filtering: very high

* Someone from BIH could explain this but I believe texture really hurts FPS, a combo of your drive speed, GPU speed, GPU pipes and PC BUS speeds all play a part here. Unlike many games having a 512 VRAM card does not mean you can just whack texture to high and get decent FPS. ARMA seems to work differently to most current games. A 8800 GTX appears the only card that can handle VERY HIGH at 1600+ res and not stumble. i suspect the PIPE's and Bandwidth on the 8800 is the reason it can and a 7900 or ATI 1950 512 can't. CPU speeds and Bus speeds and RAM speed may also play part in this.

My 7800 GTX 512 hates ARMA textures above NORMAL, the machine is almost same spec at machine my 8800 768 GTX sits in.

Object detail: start low, then test by jumping up a setting and playing for a bit. At high to very high the LOD bugs that effect some seem to disappear.

Anti Alias, OFF, 7800 or better, try normal, 8800 high to very high. If you have supersample or multisample transparencies ON there is where your FPS can bite the dust on any machine.

I suspect shadows may be handled by the GPU, on a 8800 very high shadows has almost no effect on the FPS nor does high AA settings.

Terrain Detail, Post Process, Texture are the ones I have to trimm down even on a 8800 GTX.

I set Vis range to 3km. Any card below a 7800 set to 1km.

Shaders, seems very GPU orientated, there is almost no difference on a 8800 in FPs from low to very high. For anything but an 8800, try low and try to get to normal and try and keep 30+ fps.

It helps to restart arma when messing around with the GFX settings alot.

So if you find a sweet spot for your PC with good FX and stable FPS, restart ARMA to check.

I have tested ARMA on 3 Pc's and got stable FPS by following the above.

Below is a screen shot of ARMA running at a stable 30 FPS with post process ON at 1600x1024, supersample AA OFF (I can SSAA or post process if i want more than 3 FPS! with everything set VERY HIGH!

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w270/dirtylarrygb/armaaircav.jpg

[carld2002 1]

Thx for help, but none of that worked.

Did 1.05 make any big performance fixes that might help?

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Thx for help, but none of that worked.

Did 1.05 make any big performance fixes that might help?

It did carl, try 1.05, once installed set all FX to low.

Make sure AA and AF are app controlled as well in Nvidia control panel.

The geforce 5500 is a VERY VERY slow card, it wont run BF2 at 1024x768 with anything off low.

Try patch 1.05. But depending on your Motherboard, it would improve ARMA and new games coming this year to buy a much faster video card.

I doubt a GFXv 5500 can run ARMA at anything but 800x600 with everything low or disabled. The 5500 is a rebadged 5200 with more memory. Even a 6800GS (now 2 years old! would be 4x better.

Try and find out if your motherbaord is x4 agp or x8 (manual manufacturer or retailer), if it's times 8x you should be able to pick up either a new 6800,7600 or 7800 or second hand (ebay) card very cheaply.

in simple terms a 6800 would be 4x faster than your 5500

a 7600 6x faster

a 7800/900 10-14x faster.

If your lucky your mobo is x8 AGP and would run these cards.

If its only a x4 AGP board, your screwed as you might as well buy a new CPU/PSU and GPU and RAM. I had nothing but issues with AGP boards, gave up and moved to a PCIE mobo and have not had a problem since, plus I was even able to upgrade from a 7800 to an 8800 with no issue thanks to a decent motherboard.

The main issue you have is the GFX card is so old even if you get ARMA to run your missing so much your not really playing ARMA just seeing what the polygons look like.

[carld2002 1]

it wont let me patch to 1.05

i found a way to put aa controlled but I don't even know what af is. (probably obvious, i just don't know)

so looking at cards on ebay..

should I stay with 256 or go to 512?

how would I find out about the 4X or 8X?

[carld2002 1]

how about:

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.ca/nVidia-GeForce-7100-GS-video-graphic-card-PCI-E-256-MB_W0QQitemZ200092543122QQcategoryZ801

92QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem" target="_blank">http://cgi.ebay.ca/nVidia-....iewItem</a>

it says you need a 16X pci... how would I verify this?

also, I get the impression that you must hook that card into a power supply... What would this involve? and how do I know if I can do it?

[carld2002 1]

anyone?

[Peav 0]

Hi carl.

You can not use a GFX card that is PCI-e ( pci express ) as your mainboard is only AGP standard.

I wouldnt worry too much about 4x or 8x as many newer GFX cards are backward compatible meaing they would fit in a 4x slot.

However if you have a 2x Slot then this is a no go. You would kill the card. But I doubt that you have a 2x mobo with you running the 5500.

Most of the newer GFX cards are pretty cpu dependant so the faster your processor the better.

So it looks like your stuck with AGP, 7600GT is decent, I wouldnt bother with the 6800 card simply because the 7600GT is on par with it and will have a longer shelf life. Ideally a 7800gs card from nvidia or even a x1650 or x1950 pro based card would be fine.

But even with these cards you would be hard pushed to run Arma at a decent FPS. It would however run and look about 10x better than it does now.

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Hi carl.

You can not use a GFX card that is PCI-e ( pci express ) as your mainboard is only AGP standard.

I wouldnt worry too much about 4x or 8x as many newer GFX cards are backward compatible meaing they would fit in a 4x slot.

However if you have a 2x Slot then this is a no go. You would kill the card. But I doubt that you have a 2x mobo with you running the 5500.

Most of the newer GFX cards are pretty cpu dependant so the faster your processor the better.

So it looks like your stuck with AGP, 7600GT is decent, I wouldnt bother with the 6800 card simply because the 7600GT is on par with it and will have a longer shelf life. Ideally a 7800gs card from nvidia or even a x1650 or x1950 pro based card would be fine.

But even with these cards you would be hard pushed to run Arma at a decent FPS. It would however run and look about 10x better than it does now.

making the jump to PCI E is an investment as generally you need a new mobo, PSu, GPU and ram, your sound card can come along although i recommend getting the cheap XIFI card, it seems to avert many sound issues in games.

I've had problems with x4 agp boards with newer cards like the 7 series from nvidia.

If you can upgrade your self, I recommend a E6300 duo, with 1-2 gig branded DDR2 800, a non SLI mobo S775, go for a 650i NOT a 680i, the 680's have issues at the moment. A 7800/900 or ATI 1950 or for a little more a 8800 GTS and a 700w PSU dual 12v rails. In the Uk that costs about the same as a PS3. And would provide a PC that can run ARMA and all the new games for 12 months. If you need help ask a local PC store if they will build it for a price, if you supply the parts.

Try to stay away from a Branded machines as they often won't run anything that wasn't supplied with them. If you buy the bit's, if something fails most of it has a warrenty and you can return the part for replacement.