ArmA at Max settings

[predator887 0]

Im looking to buy a new PC partly because the time is right and partly because i wanna play Armed Assault at close to the maximum settings.

the PC im looking at has the following specs and will cost me a lot of money

Intel Core2duo extreme X6800 2x2.93GHz

2GB Corsair DDR 2 Ram

8800 GTX with 768MB RAM

surely i will be able to run this game at maxed out settings on a PC as good as this (cant buy much better at the moment)but i read reports that this isnt true , and also how does it run on Vista?

thx

[spetznaz14 0]

I would get a cheaper cpu such as E6600 as you can overclock them (mine runs 3.2ghz fine) then save the money so you can get another 8800 in sli or a r600 gfx card in the future.

[SeppSchrot 0]

Of course you will be able to set all settings to maximum.

But is this really your question?

The newest and most expensive stuff it not always the best as you can see in any of the many postings here regarding ArmA, Vista and 8800.

[wex-q 0]

Get an E6600, and overclock it. It can go approx 40% overclock with standard cooling.

Keep the 8800GTX, good for the future, even if people have problems now, I think that performance patches will fix it.

Get XP instead of Vista. Takes less on the memory.

My point of view

wex

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Get an E6600, and overclock it. It can go approx 40% overclock with standard cooling.

Keep the 8800GTX, good for the future, even if people have problems now, I think that performance patches will fix it.

Get XP instead of Vista. Takes less on the memory.

My point of view

wex

Yep, i totally agree go for an e6600 and OC it, money saved buys either another 8800 GTX or 32" LCD ;} Even un-oced the E6600 is faster than the AMD 62 FX or 5000+ X2 in almost all benchmarks and runs cool and quiet.

YOu can run everything max at 1600x1024, Im right now using an AMD 4000 64 single core, so I have to turn terrain down to low, and have PP off if I always want to have better than 30-60 FPS.

The odd one is texture detail, an 768 GTX can handle it VERY HIGH, this allows arma to add specular maps and bump maps tot he terrain and objects that are amazing. But can cuase crashes. It's safer to run at low- meduim for multiplayer right now.

But the sort of machine your about to buy will run arma pretty much full detail looking sexy. Even alow you turn on HDR 32 etc.

Will also run C and C 3 with the 30 fps frame cap and almost never drop below 30. I recommend the EVGA 8800 GTX KO ACS3, EVGA cooling is an improvment on the Nvidia stock and it makes less noise than my older XFX 7800! They cost a bit more than stock cards but have a 10 year warrenty in europe/lifetime in US.

Dont forget you need about a 700w PSU with dual 12v rails for that sort of machine, if you dont worry about SLI now you can get a much cheaper PSU and save another 100 quid ;}

Stick Xp on now, vista when crysis hits :}

[twoodster 0]

There are people with quad core CPUs that can't run it on max settings! I've got an E6600, 4gig DDR2 and an 8800GTS and I have to have most settings on medium.

[predator887 0]

thx for all your input

thats what i mean, one guy says of course i can run it on max and the last poster says that i cant so what is the reality.

i get a bad feeling that it might be a compromise that it runs well in certain areas on maxed out settings but not always which would be dissapointing

as for the CPU i am going with that setup regardless anyway, got a price and im happy with the cost for what im getting besides thats not really what im interested in discussing. i plan to put in a second graphics card later on so im concenttrating on getting as good a processor as i can cause its typically harder to upgrade, may not be value for money but i can live with it

oh and the idea of quad cores that cant run it is deciecving, what are the values of each individual core cause remember ArmA doesnt support multi threading so a single more powerful processor is probably more effective than having 2 less powerful processors another reason to get as powerful individual processors as possible

[Jabbah 0]

Ive got a E6300 @ 3.2Ghz :P

[max power 21]

From what I've been reading, you will NOT be able to run everything maxed out with any currently available hardware and get an adequate frame rate.

[NeMeSiS 11]

adequate frame rate.

Depends on your view on 'adequate'. +-20 is still possible, but alot of people seem to be aiming for 40-60 but this is quite unrealistic IMO, the game seems to scale itself LOD-wise (or thanks to all kinds of looping scripts?) to 20-30 like OFP, so only if you let alot of power go unused then you will get significantly higher then that.

[wex-q 0]

Ive got a E6300 @ 3.2Ghz :P

Liquid gas and you can probably get it to 5+

I think that dirtylarrygb covered the most you need to know.

Seeing as you might play other games then ArmA, and that patches are being worked on for performance and alike, the 8800GTX is a good investement if you have the money.

And the most important that he also said:

The PSU! Very important. If you're going to have SLI, be sure to have an SLI-certified PSU, with atleast 500W power, but the 650-700W are usually at a great price.

Happy computing!

wex

[predator887 0]

if im correct the e6600 has 2x 2.4GHz processors.  Dual core computers only can be used to there full potential f the cores are performing multiple processor intensive tasks at once or if the game is set up for multithreading.  so effectively the best you can do is dedicate one 2.4GHz processor to running the game and 1 to all the system processes but even that from what i have read isnt any guarantee of coming anywhere close to maximising the power of the dual cores.

me however, i will go for the X6800 which is 2x 2.93 GHz so while thats not a huge amount better im hoping it will be enough when combined with the 8800GTX and im betting a load of RAM should help so i will have 2GB basic with room to increase that

btw im well aware of the power supply requirements and have a suitable PSU lined up

[max power 21]

adequate frame rate.

Depends on your view on 'adequate'. +-20 is still possible, but alot of people seem to be aiming for 40-60 but this is quite unrealistic IMO, the game seems to scale itself LOD-wise (or thanks to all kinds of looping scripts?) to 20-30 like OFP, so only if you let alot of power go unused then you will get significantly higher then that.

20+/- with every option set to max? AA/AF/Viewdistance? I'm thinking no... maybe you know something I don't.

[wex-q 0]

me however, i will go for the X6800 which is 2x 2.93 GHz so while thats not a huge amount better im hoping it will be enough when combined with the 8800GTX and im betting a load of RAM should help so i will have 2GB basic with room to increase that

E6600 can easily be clocked to the performance of the X6800 and above, with some better cooling, way above with water or liquid gas.

For half the price!

So, basicly: Anything above the E6600 is a waiste of money (compared to the better Core 2 Duo CPUs, when comparing performance to price)

[DaSquade 0]

You might want to hold on the 8800GTX purchase for an extra 2 weeks. I ordered my EVGA 8800GTX KO ACS3 some days ago and had to find the hard way, NV is about to release the 8800 'ultra'. At this moment no official info is know about the 'ultra', some say it won't be much more then a overclocked GTX (but i dought it as EVGA and others already have an overclocked by factory card with is at it's highest clock afaik). So others say it might be a re-engineered design card with maybe DDR4 memory and maybe even 1GB...

Anyway, i guess an extra 2 weeks (17/04/2007 release day) is worth the extra wait. And even if the Ultra isn't that ultra is it sounds, i suppose prices will take at least a small dip. Little thing to know though, maybe go for the EVGA (what ever type) as they have a nice 'step-up' program, at least for US and European citizans, that allows you to trade in your old card but offcourse you will need to pay difference etc (see rules etc) in a periode of 90 days after purchase. That is at least what i hope, after i read about the Ultra after i purchased my GTX.

Since we are on the 'sales-release' issue, you also might want to keep an eye on the Intel price drop that was announced a few weeks-months ago. Afaik mid-april the CoreDuo's will also drop in price. Can't remember exact prices, but afaik it was between 100€ and 200€, could be wrong though...Feel free to google it.

Afaik the Quad cores won't really drop that much (if they will drop at all), but you can always purchase the E6600 now (or after price drop) and upgrade later on this year to a more pricefriendly Quad core. Just make sure your mobo is up for it (->680i chip only atm i think).

Last but not least, i also thought it was mentioned DDR2 will be lowered in price in the very near future if not already lowered. At least i noticed my ordered ram was just lowered the moment i purchased it (afaik something around 30€ on the Corsair XM2 Domintar C4D kit).

In the end, hardware will come and go, same for prices, but since a complete new system can cost quickly around 2.000+€ i think it is always good to check what is comming around the corner...

As for PSU and especially if you plan to go SLI one day, you better go for a recommanded PSU on the NV SLI list. Maybe it is marketing etc, but EVGA also suggested me to stick to the SLI list. So i decided to go for the Coolermaster Real Power Pro 850W. Not sure what the story will be once the R600 hits the street, as i read it uses somewhat different powerplugs but maybe they are compatible...

As for Vista, well i still suggest to stay on XP or go for XP64 (as it will allow you to add more then 3,XXXGB ram afaik).

Good luck.

PS: I don't want to be a d** but maybe this topic can be merged into the already existing OFFTOPIC hardware topic?

[dirtylarrygb 0]

You might want to hold on the 8800GTX purchase for an extra 2 weeks. I ordered my EVGA 8800GTX KO ACS3 some days ago and had to find the hard way, NV is about to release the 8800 'ultra'. At this moment no official info is know about the 'ultra', some say it won't be much more then a overclocked GTX (but i dought it as EVGA and others already have an overclocked by factory card with is at it's highest clock afaik). So others say it might be a re-engineered design card with maybe DDR4 memory and maybe even 1GB...

Anyway, i guess an extra 2 weeks (17/04/2007 release day) is worth the extra wait. And even if the Ultra isn't that ultra is it sounds, i suppose prices will take at least a small dip. Little thing to know though, maybe go for the EVGA (what ever type) as they have a nice 'step-up' program, at least for US and European citizans, that allows you to trade in your old card but offcourse you will need to pay difference etc (see rules etc) in a periode of 90 days after purchase. That is at least what i hope, after i read about the Ultra after i purchased my GTX.

Since we are on the 'sales-release' issue, you also might want to keep an eye on the Intel price drop that was announced a few weeks-months ago. Afaik mid-april the CoreDuo's will also drop in price. Can't remember exact prices, but afaik it was between 100€ and 200€, could be wrong though...Feel free to google it.

Afaik the Quad cores won't really drop that much (if they will drop at all), but you can always purchase the E6600 now (or after price drop) and upgrade later on this year to a more pricefriendly Quad core. Just make sure your mobo is up for it (->680i chip only atm i think).

Last but not least, i also thought it was mentioned DDR2 will be lowered in price in the very near future if not already lowered. At least i noticed my ordered ram was just lowered the moment i purchased it (afaik something around 30€ on the Corsair XM2 Domintar C4D kit).

In the end, hardware will come and go, same for prices, but since a complete new system can cost quickly around 2.000+€ i think it is always good to check what is comming around the corner...

As for PSU and especially if you plan to go SLI one day, you better go for a recommanded PSU on the NV SLI list. Maybe it is marketing etc, but EVGA also suggested me to stick to the SLI list. So i decided to go for the Coolermaster Real Power Pro 850W. Not sure what the story will be once the R600 hits the street, as i read it uses somewhat different powerplugs but maybe they are compatible...

As for Vista, well i still suggest to stay on XP or go for XP64 (as it will allow you to add more then 3,XXXGB ram afaik).

Good luck.

PS: I don't want to be a d** but maybe this topic can be merged into the already existing OFFTOPIC hardware topic?

Some 650i's can also run quads as well.

I agree worth a 2 week wait in case prices do drop. The EVGA ACS3 is very overpriced but the evga trade in is kinda included in the rpice after 12 months -24 months (depends on card) you can get the next sexy card for a very good discount.

An 8800 GTS 320 to GTX 768 are all good and run just about anything at silly res with all eye candy (so far ARMA is the only thing that can slow them down, supreme commander can slow down but thats more CPY related than GPU).

My 8800 SLI PSU was 40 pounds, been fine (note wont run 8800 in sli, fine for single card)

[dirtylarrygb 0]

if im correct the e6600 has 2x 2.4GHz processors. Dual core computers only can be used to there full potential f the cores are performing multiple processor intensive tasks at once or if the game is set up for multithreading. so effectively the best you can do is dedicate one 2.4GHz processor to running the game and 1 to all the system processes but even that from what i have read isnt any guarantee of coming anywhere close to maximising the power of the dual cores.

me however, i will go for the X6800 which is 2x 2.93 GHz so while thats not a huge amount better im hoping it will be enough when combined with the 8800GTX and im betting a load of RAM should help so i will have 2GB basic with room to increase that

btw im well aware of the power supply requirements and have a suitable PSU lined up

In general you can over clock a E6300 to E6600 just with stock cooling and a decent Asus mobo.

Your right if you buy a 6700/6800 you dont have to mess with OC'ing anything.

Thing is in about 12-16 months a duo core will be a crap as a single core is now, everything will be x4/x8, and many games WILL start to use multicore threading. DX10 is going to be a big help there!

So if you save some dosh on a CPU now you can get a fast x4 core in december! Or with money saved buy a huge monitor

[dirtylarrygb 0]

I found today making arma movies I can run max everything at 1280x1024. 60fps steady as anything almost no slow down ever, yes even crawinling in galss looking down a sight.

Which makes me suspect that the widescreen nvidia drivers are not optomised or widescreen at 100% GPU/CPU overload.

I prefer widescreen for playing, but 1280x1024 i fine for movie making ;}

[Key Dutch 0]

nice peeps, actualy i run arma on max with 1600 x 1200 resolution

P.S. man cant wait for my new cooler:

Zalman Aero Flower AM2 CNPS9500-AM2

look here:

http://www.cclonline.com/product....er_id=0

due delivery mon.

[guerilla -MCY- 0]

i've got a 6700 - 8800GTX - 2gb corsair and i'm not happy with in arma. i haven't overclocked my 6700 yet as the cooler sucks, but i played around with the gfx. whatever, i'm just not happy with it, i wanted 100fps + like i have in all other games, but in arma it can go down to 20fps if you're in the wrong place without 1 ai or vehicle. therefore i suggest to wait for Quad chips and GFX cards like Nvidia 5600. even if you buy the best, you wan't be happy enought...

[dirtylarrygb 0]

guerilla @ Mar. 31 2007,03:05)]i've got a 6700 - 8800GTX - 2gb corsair and i'm not happy with in arma. i haven't overclocked my 6700 yet as the cooler sucks, but i played around with the gfx. whatever, i'm just not happy with it, i wanted 100fps + like i have in all other games, but in arma it can go down to 20fps if you're in the wrong place without 1 ai or vehicle. therefore i suggest to wait for Quad chips and GFX cards like Nvidia 5600. even if you buy the best, you wan't be happy enought...

Drop resolution.

you can hit a stable 60 FPs everythign maxed at 1280x1024, or drop a few bits at 1600x1024.

Supersample AA can still slow it down in the grass, turn that off and you can't fall under 60 fps. My CPu is way slower than yours, my 8800 is at 1000/626 so that adds like 2% increase. Just move res to 1280 and you should be fine (your not runnign vista?)

[Easy_tiger 0]

Hi,

i have:

P4 3ghz 800Mhz FSB

2x 512Mb PC3200 Dimms (Misc Branded)

Intel Desktop Motherboard

Sapphire Radeon x1950pro 512Mb

I can run ArmA at 1280X1024 with everything on V. high (Except shadows which is set to normal and AA which is set to Low. Framesrates are very good with the exception of the occasional brief stutter when rendering a very complex scene quickly (example: turning your player 180 degrees in a wood as gfast as you can) However these brief stutters do not affect gameplay as they only seem to occur in situations where you wouldnt be able to fire or defend yourself anyways!

[Easy_tiger 0]

guerilla @ Mar. 31 2007,02:05)]i've got a 6700 - 8800GTX - 2gb corsair and i'm not happy with in arma. i haven't overclocked my 6700 yet as the cooler sucks, but i played around with the gfx. whatever, i'm just not happy with it, i wanted 100fps + like i have in all other games, but in arma it can go down to 20fps if you're in the wrong place without 1 ai or vehicle. therefore i suggest to wait for Quad chips and GFX cards like Nvidia 5600. even if you buy the best, you wan't be happy enought...

100fps with arma, you have to be joking!

Whats the point anyway, the human eye can only register around 30fps.

I have p4 3gig 1Gig RAM system with a x1950pro 512mb and i am seriously impressed with its ArmA performance.

I concede that i have to drop AA to low when playing in N.Sahrani but when you have everything else on V.high at 1280x1024 AA isnt really an issue.

So i think the Hardware IS out there to play ArmA and it does impress

[NeMeSiS 11]

Whats the point anyway, the human eye can only register around 30fps.

You can register much more, but there is absolutely no point and after playing for a few minutes you wont even notice that its only 30.

[dirtylarrygb 0]

guerilla @ Mar. 31 2007,02:05)]i've got a 6700 - 8800GTX - 2gb corsair and i'm not happy with in arma. i haven't overclocked my 6700 yet as the cooler sucks, but i played around with the gfx. whatever, i'm just not happy with it, i wanted 100fps + like i have in all other games, but in arma it can go down to 20fps if you're in the wrong place without 1 ai or vehicle. therefore i suggest to wait for Quad chips and GFX cards like Nvidia 5600. even if you buy the best, you wan't be happy enought...

100fps with arma, you have to be joking!

Whats the point anyway, the human eye can only register around 30fps.

I have p4 3gig 1Gig RAM system with a x1950pro 512mb and i am seriously impressed with its ArmA performance.

I concede that i have to drop AA to low when playing in N.Sahrani but when you have everything else on V.high at 1280x1024 AA isnt really an issue.

So i think the Hardware IS out there to play ArmA and it does impress

I only have an AMD 4000 SC installed (have a e6600 sitting in a box looking at me). I'm running an 8800 GTX. but considering I'm hamstringing it like made with a slow CPU and DDR2 400 memory and a cheap 80 gig 7500 rpm HD. I can Max everything even AA at 1280 and amost never go below 30 fps. I have to drop terrain down and aa to high at 1600x1024. So ARMA works great even with old kit on XP SP2. Right now dropping Vis range to 1 Km REALLY helps, if I stick in my new mobo ram and e6600 I mgiht be able to jump to 2-3km all maxed but I think my CPU bottle necks.

You aim for a stable FPS that matches the refresh of your monitor. I'm LCD so Im 60, thus I try and aim for 60 FPS stable to eliminate screen tear.