Improve 1.08 FPS by 25-50%

[LtCmdrBoon 0]

I read 3 pages in and didn't find this, so here goes:- I did this today and improved my FPS by about 12 on average!!

Went into control panel / system / advanced settings and then turned OFF the virutal memory.

Reset the PC as required, and windows boots up without using the Hard drive as a place for "pretend memory" if you don't have enough for whichever program (eg ArmA)

Did a defrag on both Hard Drives (one has windows/virtual mem, and the other has mp3s and games likeArmA)

once defrag completes, enable virtual memory again by the same procedure. I have virtual memory set static at 4096MB - that way windows isn't constantly increasing and decreasing file size and trying to play arma (resulting in performace loss / fragmentation easily).

PC shouldn't need a restart to enable it.

Fire up ArmA, and it improved vastly.

Remember when we first bought arma, we were told in a post to defrag after install? I have a suspicion that now with a couple of patches out, textures and whatever else are scattered all over the drive.

A fragmented virtual mem file will cause lag system wide, but as this is read only (defrag side) when it exists, we need to disable before we defrag, so when it comes back, it has a nice empty space to fill as 1 big file.

[-Puma- 2]

what i did today, was finally reformat my computer. I made a 10 gig

partition for pagefile only and another partition for arma only. i use to use no pagefile, when I still had 2 gig of ram, and it made all the differences in the world..

[Dark_vityaz 0]

Well?who got more fps after the latest patch? that guys who have the latest video cards. My choice from that vote is "Don`t know"

[Money 0]

Check this out

I before patching I did a few frame rate tests

I made a two missions with the editor, one with a load of AI and the other is a shot in a large Saharini town

Settings

ViewDistance = 1200

Rez = 1280x1024

Norm high

Norm Norm

Norm Disabled

Norm High

High

AI 1.05 (24fps)

AI 1.08 (28fps)

Large Town 1.05 (15fps)

Large Town 1.08 (26fps)

I made 100% sure the pictures where taken in the same conditions

1.07beta was tested too

the results where pretty much the same as 1.08's

AMD 3800+

X1900XT

2.5GB @400 DDR

[Spokesperson 0]

I didn't get any noticeable improvements with the new patch.

A defrag did help a lot though.

I play on most things very high or high without problems.

[stryker555 0]

The 1.08 patch made very noticeable improvements in my frame rates and im running the game on an older system.

[maddogx 13]

I was actually pretty worried about 1.08 at first because the 1.07 beta actually caused lower FPS in some circumstances (forests, large towns etc.).

But 1.08 has actually improved my FPS by about 25-30%, which is really cool.

[Mr_Tea 0]

Agreed, patch 1.08 improved the frame rate noticeable.

And the best thing is, i have an higher frame rate with better looking graphics.

[-Puma- 2]

what i did today, was finally reformat my computer. I made a 10 gig

partition for pagefile only and another partition for arma only. i use to use no pagefile, when I still had 2 gig of ram, and it made all the differences in the world..

ok did some testing mainly with evolution MP. Before format I got amazing 11 fps in citys with both AA and AF turned off, and everything else on low. After the format I started arma and launched evolution. To my suprise I got 30 FPS at the base, immidiatly turned AA and AF on + upped everything to normal execpt shadows low and post processing low. Walked in paraiso, and got 20-30 fps in the city with fighting going on. All the stuttering is gone, and Arma plays like a dream right now + looks awesome

[Adamicz 3]

Well?who got more fps after the latest patch? that guys who have the latest video cards.

Disagree.. I have 6600GT and got some improve in FPS.

[Blanco 0]

No noticeable fps improvements here with the new patch.

But what the hell, I play smooth since the 1.07beta's.

[wika_woo 182]

Mine has smothened up rapidly..

I'm really enjoying large town fights now...

[Totala 0]

FPS dropped to 0 since I upgraded to 1.08. Can't even start the game anymore

[Jack-UK 0]

Thanks for the headsup on this idea LT, when i get sometime i'll disable the virtual mem, defrag, then try ArmA again

[binkster 0]

FPS improvement by defraging was done back when arma first came out. There was a whole thread about ultimateDefrag. Its a program that you can move JUST ARMA to outer rim of hard drive and improves FPS. Not sure what happen to this thread but ive used it many times.

[-Puma- 2]

FPS improvement by defraging was done back when arma first came out. There was a whole thread about ultimateDefrag. Its a program that you can move JUST ARMA to outer rim of hard drive and improves FPS. Not sure what happen to this thread but ive used it many times.

I've seen that thread too, did it help u out???

Im thinking of actually making a 10 gig pagefile partition on my secondary HD, as it seems to improve the gameplay. I dont know I u guys have this, but for me nightfights in city's are allmost unplayable, with FPS going from 10-20. At daylight FPs is 20-30

btw does any1 know how to disable post processing???

[Fresh- 6]

Hi.

I'm curious to know if there could be any performance advantages in ARMA while using cacheman XP and O&O defrag.

As a flight sim enthusiast, I had purchased a scenery addon called "megascenery San Francisco'.

In the documentation of that product, they recommended using O&O defrag and setting it to defrag using the 'complete name' method.

This method re-orders the entire drive in folder and filename order, which the standard XP defrag doesn't allow.

Cacheman XP is a small utility which is supposed to enhance performance by optimizing XP settings.

Here is what the Megascenery folks have to say:

"O&O Defrag performs 5 types of defragmentations and the one most pertinent to

MegaScenery is that the COMPLETE NAME Method. It will re-order your entire drive in

folder and filename order. The others do not do this. The implication of this is that it

helps prevent thrashing (jumping around all over the place) of your hard drive during file

access and further assists the purpose of defragging. Why? More often than not, when

you are loading a program, any existing DLL’s and other subfiles are located within the

folder or down a level or two of the program being loaded. Instead of the hard disk

jumping all over the drive to access files they are all within the same vicinity on the drive

and the head has to move far, far less to locate and access the files.

The implications of this in MegaScenery are even more important. When a

MegaScenery area is created the file naming is for the most part sequential. That is,

area file name sequence correlates with the area sequence. So adjacent tiles by name

are also adjacent by location. If the files are sorted by name in a folder, when FS2004

loads an area when you go to an airport, it just picks up the files in sequence without

having to jump all around the volume to find the next file in the area. This can translate

to a significant performance boost – around 15%.

The only true defrag in my opinion is a filename reorder defrag – that is, the disk is

defragged and the files are re-ordered by folder and then by name within that folder. This

is the only way to minimize hard disk head movement while loading files.

O&O Defrag is the only defragger that does this. The other two defraggers mentioned

above will defrag but will not sort according to file name. In my opinion they are only half

doing the job. Jumping all over the hard drive to load DLLs and other elements of a

program when loading it is not too different to loading fragmented files. The aim is to

load the program and its subfiles with minimum head movement. This, and only this, will

give you fastest loading of programs and files."

I have no idea how ARMA textures are organized and if this 'method' could boost performance.

You guys have any thoughts about it?

Cheers,

Fresh!

[Fresh- 6]

As a follow up to my previous post, here is the complete PDF explaining the best optimization methods to work with 'megascenery'. Perhaps these would apply to Arma?

Computer Performance Optimization

[Poseidon88 0]

Running with a static swap file is one of the oldest tricks in the book to improve overall system performance, though I don't see how it could possibly help with your frame rate (unless you have low memory and the system is swapping a lot of texture data). If you want to learn some more in-depth system tweaks, try this site:

http://www.tweakguides.com/System.html

They also have guides for tweaking performance in particular games, but I don't see a guide for ArmA.

[Maddmatt 1]

@ June 18 2007' date='23:19)']As a follow up to my previous post, here is the complete PDF explaining the best optimization methods to work with 'megascenery'. Perhaps these would apply to Arma?

Computer Performance Optimization

I had a look at that, only a couple of those tweaks seem usefull though.

Quote[/b] ]Tweak #3 – Increase Your File System Cache

That one seems weired to me. I don't see how that will help performance in ArmA. It might actually slow it down. Anyone here who can explain this one properly?

And then:

Quote[/b] ]Tweak #1 – Disable Last File Access Stamping

Will that really help at all?

[NeMeSiS 11]

@ June 18 2007' date='22:19)']As a follow up to my previous post, here is the complete PDF explaining the best optimization methods to work with 'megascenery'. Perhaps these would apply to Arma?

Computer Performance Optimization

Why would Tweak #3 – Increase Your File System Cache make my system unbootable because i have an Ati card?

[troop 0]

I was using O&O Clevercache Pro and O&O Defrag for a long time.

-

The combination of Systembooster and Ultimatedefrag *clearly*

beats the above wrt to performance gains. (ArmA streaming)

I did position my ArmA folder to the outer rims and it shows.

Here, this was the original thread about it:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....edefrag

[m1013828 0]

ive never needed to use a 3rd party for defrag... but this game needs every boost it can get.. im gonna give this ago.... 1.08 for me on an X1800Xt was a huge boost in the city and night environments.. Now i wish they would make a 64bit exe to use all my memory.....

[4 IN 1 0]

ok, i have a arma/ofp only partition and i have never defrag it after the first time i install ArmA, and i also keep putting new things into it without defrag, what 1.08 gives me is a slight FPS improve and more noticablily less shuttering gameplay