HDR issues and performance 1.08

[Haf 0]

Just a heads up for those with Nvidia 79XX cards (Mine is a 7950GX2 SLI 1GiG). Arma was unplayable in Vista with latest 160.04 drivers with the HDR lighting effect strobing and performance down to 10-15fps.

I have since taken vista off and put XP back on (complete format and re-install) with XP 160.03 drivers. All settings are on normal and the game runs beautifully! Intel C2D 6700 2 gig ram.

I can only conclude that Vista was the reason for all my woes. Good luck with your setups guys

haf

[vilas 477]

1.08 helped with HDR it is true, i use XP only, FPS increased, but game still is crushing, before 1.08 it was unplayble, now i can "play" 1-2 hours and than CTD (before strange afrefacts)

in 1.07 there was still 8700000 error cannot create surface

now i don't have any message, just white artefacts and CTD

[tekpc007 1]

vilis this is typical over overheating video card or other internals overheating ... get more fans in case or open case and blow large fan in side and see if it works better ... might be time for a new card though with big fan and heatsync

[vilas 477]

maybe you haven't ead what i wrote in other topics so:

[qoute]

on PCU i have expensive austrian cooler for 50 Euro Noctua

and Tagan 480 W main power for almost 100 euro

o my CPU is EE - energy efficien, so 65 W AMD, so temperature of my CPU is almost always under 42 degrees celsuis ! most of time near 35-37 degrees

my VGA never had reach treshold level

my MSI 7900 GS has 95 degrees celsuis treshold, but PCProbe, VGA monitors or aother MSI software never noticed more than 65 degrees celsius

so it is 30 below treshhold

no overheatng in my PC

on Call of Duty 2 i spent 3 nights, so PC was in game for 6-8 hours every nights !

never evr single problem

ARMA sometimes couldn't take more than 20 minutes

[NeMeSiS 11]

Well IIRC it was you a few days ago who posted a screen with all the colors/triangles messed up. That is very typical for overheating. Maybe your ram, or something on your motherboard gets heated up by hot air coming from your CPU?

EDIT: If you have one, try to put one of these next to your PC just to test for overheating, helped on my old PC, especially in hot summers.

[vilas 477]

but software must show if temperature level is crossed ?

never any report about temperature problem

RAM is Corsair Extreme 1 GB for 100 euro/per memory

CPU is EE - energy efficient series, less than 65 W guaranted, my Noctua is very expensive so it must be good (50 euro for CPU cooler is big)

http://www.cooling.pl/product_info.php?products_id=1862

[NeMeSiS 11]

but software must show if temperature level is crossed ?

never any report about temperature problem

There is nothing to check the temperature on your ram

That and that temperature is only measured at 1 point, not the whole card.

Your CPU cooler may cool your CPU so well that the temperature of your CPU stays the same, however the air that flows trough your PC has to go somewhere, if its all blown to your ram your ram heats up. (Or whatever part).

Just open the case, put a fan in front of it and go and play ArmA. If it works, then you have found the problem, if it doesnt work, then at least you tried.

[awins1 0]

Those artifacts you are getting in one of your sceenshots are likely related to your grafix card memory overheating. The software monitoring the temps only show temps for your chip on the grafix card, not for memory. Make sure your card gets enough ariflow. After playing for over 30mins, your card and case may be getting too hot, resulting in those artifacts. You may want to underclock your card just to test it out to satisfy yourself, at least the memory.

Don't go by results while playing another game, each game is different - I'm speaking from personal experience.

Edit: ofpforum, you typed faster

[tekpc007 1]

yes video card chipset is cooled but non ram on card usually so try simple test ...get can of air and clean all fans and such ... then get a basic window fan or box and and open case and blow it on pc and see if it runs better for a day ... i bet it will ... this will show u need more air circulation. i run 4 fans in my pc ... try to get 120 CFM or more running thur the case for good air movment.

[vilas 477]

i get another software for VGA monitoring, now i will play some time and see what will happen, maybe my previous software was lying, i must check it

edit: in manual and on Nvidia control panel there is treshold  l level 130 celsius, now after some play even on high details i have 75-76 on VGA monitor, so 60% of treshold

[awins1 0]

there is no software for monitoring for grafix card ram. At least open the case door while you play to see if it is the airflow, or get a fan to blow on the card.

[NeMeSiS 11]

i get another software for VGA monitoring, now i will play some time and see what will happen, maybe my previous software was lying, i must check it

The programs are probably reporting fine, its the parts that arent measured that heat up too much (if there is overheating). Temperature is only measured at 1 or 2 points on your GFX, not across the whole card, the part that overheats may just not be measured. (My x1600XT also reports temperatures that it should be able to handle while i cant even touch the card on certain places and when its giving serious artifacts, card keeps running though ).

(And if its your ram heating up, then there is no temperature sensor anywhere near it)

You cant really test it with software.

EDIT: Awins, this time you were faster

[vilas 477]

but if treshold level is 130 celsius and monitor say 75 max

is it possible that memory has more than 130 nd is over hited ?

now after 30 minutes no single problem noticed

[troop 0]

but if treshold level is 130 celsius and monitor say 75 max

is it possible that memory has more than 130 nd is over hited ?

now after 30 minutes no single problem noticed

Yes and especially in summertime and if your PC case has

either bad airflow (creating 'heatspots' at critical components)

or only one fan (PSU) you are in serious trouble.

Just think about it;..if you would use watercooling (only as an example)

to have cool *main* components (such as CPU, GPU,

Northbridge, ect.) software monitoring will *only* show you

those components temperatures...but not the temperatures

of other critical parts, such as Video RAM.

To get an idea, how those temperature hotspots can make your

system fail, despite your *monitoring* tools report everything

'in the green', please check out these links.

http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/nf4thermals/index.php?file=1

-

http://www.flirthermography.com/media....ing.asp

http://www.2cpu.com/story.php?id=4078

http://www.custompc.co.uk/thermal

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/advertorial/aopen/pop1.html

[vilas 477]

case of PC is normal case, i don't know

my VGA

i have 2 coolers, one Noctua on CPU as i linked before, second , other in big Tagan My

what mmore, i am addonmker, modeller, not hardware specialist, i just want this *** game work !

but (you may not read my posts in "disappionting") :

- why i could play many many hours in COD2 ?

- why in version 1.02 of ARMA and 1.05 there was no artefacts (1.05 was unplayable because of loosing textures)

- why in 1.07 there was CTD 8700000 error after 20 minutes

- artefacts appeared now, in 1.08 !

overheating only in version 1.08 of game ARMA ? for me it is sensless

in 1.00, 1.02 there was no overheatings ?

why not in other games even after long long playing (soon i will get BF2)

[Törni 0]

Hello Vilas I have this kinda problems too. After a hour or so of playing texture strecthing and artefacts start to appear. My geforce 7900 is fan cooled and the tempearatures are around 69-78 degrees.

It usually helps to alt+tab away from the game and then come back again. Flushing won't help.

This started to happen after 1.07 pacth. No other game ever caused this. ArmA is clearly punishing 7900 cards hard.

[vilas 477]

helo

yes, exactly the same :/

[Törni 0]

I have tested the game with 8800-series card and it has no problems at all. Perhaps the compatbility issues which were fixed for 8800-series causes this?

[vilas 477]

if addonmaking was not my greeatest hobby i would throw this game after first day of 1.05

[troop 0]

Vilas, do I understand correctly, that you have 'only' 2 fans in

total inside your case, which are the one inside the PSU

and one onto your CPU? No additional PC case fans whatsoever?

(Do you also have an pic of the case you use? )

-

If this is correct, you really should add some 'blow' to your

components. And yes, just for ArmA...

At the very least, do as some mates already told you;..open the

side of your case..and if this is not enough for prolonged play sessions,

place some fan close to your GFX card. If your artifacts are then gone,

you know exactly, what caused the corruption of images while playing.

afaik, ArmA is pushing more, than any other game I know.

[vilas 477]

i like silence in PC, zalman on HD and things like that, i have 28 degrees celsius on CPU , 36 celsius on mainboard and this 76 degrees on VGA during gameplay

these are low temperatures, isn't it ?

thats why ARMA start from disc is annoying, time taking of noise for me and i want emulation

yes i only have 2 fans, fan on CPU has 870-1000 rpm usually

you said arma takes more, okay, but why ARMA 1.00 and 1.02 were only texture bugs and not overheating ?

[sickboy 13]

Vilas, apart from the heat stuff etc:

While I was testing my scripts at different FPS, I figured out that having my Textures set to low or very low, and my shading set to very low or low, I have also weird problems.

When I put those back up to normal or higher, the problems went away. You might wanna toy a little bit with those 2 if you still have problems, maybe try all settings on normal or high, except AntiAliasing on low/off and Shadows maybe around the low area.

[NeMeSiS 11]

you said arma takes more, okay, but why ARMA 1.00 and 1.02 were only texture bugs and not overheating ?

You have *always* had problems with ArmA, might as well been overheating. Come on, its not like its alot of work to just take the side of you case of and put a big fan in front of it if you have one, just to test if its overheating.

[vilas 477]

i must check it, maybe You are right, maybe game behave stupid on some settings, 1.00 or 1.02 i wwas running at all on highest, and it was okay

problems appeared with 1.05 time, i must check normal settings

and fan is near:

[maddogx 13]

@Vilas: I don't know if this will be any help but here goes:

I remeber experiencing a similar problem to yours, when I briefly owned an XFX 7950GX2. I have 4 case fans and an OCZ 700W GameXtream PSU, but the GX2 video card still caused graphical artefacts in some games (not all).

In the end I found out I had to downclock the GPU for the artifacts to go away.    This was unacceptable for me, so I decided to take it back to the shop. I got a 7950GT after that, becuase I needed some of the money. That card has been working fine ever since.

I'm not quite sure what caused the problem with the GX2, but it definitely wasn't overheating. Perhaps the card was slightly damaged, I don't know. You might want to try slightly downclocking you card and see if it helps.