Patching and Performance

[StormbringerGT 0]

Im running the Direct2Drive version of ArmA which downloads at 1.06. I've shoehorned 1.08 unto it (im not supposed it says) and have a good time playing. I have everything maxed out and have no performance issues whatsoever (will post my specs further down).

However the one issue I am having is random crashes. I cant pinpoint when or how often as it just seems very random. I think once during an Alt-Tab, but I've Alt-Tabbed plenty of times. It just seems to randomly do it. Once every hour, every 5 minutes, not for a day. Its getting frustrating.

I've seen that people have had succes trying the Beta, but that won't work with my version at all, I tried. Does anyone have a work around for this? Any ideas or solutions? Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.40GHz

EVGA 780i Motherboard (just did upgrade promotion for it)

2 SLI 8800 GTX 768

4GBs DDR2 Ram (However this drops thanks to my video cards and Vista)

Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit

2 500GB Hard Drives in a Raid 0 Array

That is what I am runningthat affects performance

My system is hooked up to a Mitsubishi 65inch DLP Television, so my max resolution for any PC game is 1920x1080 but I dont see any performance loss from the old Sumsung LCD 22inch I was using the resolution was 1680 by 1050 on that. I also use the Nvidia Control Panel to make it fit the screen. Its the "Resize HDTV desktop" task. I also set it to 1080p using the "change the signal or HD format" task.

The only other performance change I could think of is I have my sound card disabled, Creative Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer. The reason for this, unless i get a converter for the wires, there is no way me for to get the sound from the card to my surround sound system (Samsung 5.1 1200W HT-WX70). However my onboard sound rocks a digital audio (firber optic) output and my receiver has a digital audio input. So I lose my EAX function but I gain true Dobly Digital DTS 5.1 surround. Performance wise I don't notice any loss due to the fact that I am using onboard sound. Someone said that onboard can slow your system down, but I've never seen it.

This wasnt alwasy the case months ago using almost teh same exact harware configuration I had multiple display issues and crashing with this game, but recent patching and Driver Updates (I am running teh newest Nvidia BETA) have fixed teh performance.

So if anyone has any ideas how I can get 1.09 up and running that would be great! The message I get when trying to install 1.09 is this: Gamer version 1.08 required. Your current version is 1.07. I installed 1.08 so Im not sure whats up. Again, Direct2drive version doesnt officially support above 1.06 yet.

[.kju 3244]

Do you have the 1.08 beta folder still in your \arma folder (like ArmA\beta)?

(just skimmed through your post)

[sickboy 13]

Tried -maxmem=512   in the game's shortcut?

Also you need to install the hotfixes listed here: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Troubleshooting_Vista

For the beta, you have to make sure you dont have old beta stuff around, so if you have that folder, remove it and try installing the beta again.

Btw, what does "But it just won't work at all" mean exactly?

Quote[/b] ]4GBs DDR2 Ram (However this drops thanks to my video cards and Vista)

No, it drops because you are using 32-bit Windows which can only address 3GB of RAM

You will need 64-bit version to address 4GB or more .

[baddo 0]

No, it drops because you are using 32-bit Windows which can only assign 3GB of RAM

4 GB, not 3 GB. The 'addressable' amount of RAM drops because hardware components which need memory addresses take their share of the whole virtual address space.

There's info available from Microsoft:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa366778.aspx

Hopefully clarifies it.

[StormbringerGT 0]

Thanks for the tips Ill check when I get home.

And yes I noticed if you add up the video ram of my two video cards and subtract from the 4gbs of ram, I get the same number that windows reports me as having. I read that microsoft paper months ago, but I still dont understand why it doesnt do that in the 64 bit version?

EDIT

Also when I said it wont work at all I meant that the Beta patch wouldnt work with my direct2drive version.

EDIT AGAIN

Off topic. But if I physically put in 6GB worth of ram in, will that allow me to have more available ram in windows? VIsta 32 Ultimate only supports up to 4 gbs but after my video cards take their 1.5gb share that puts me close to 4gb.

Right now I physically have 4gbs of ram but windows only reports 2.3 due to the 1.5 my video cards eat.

[baddo 0]

Using 32-bit addressing, you can not address more than the 4 GB of memory. It would be totally useless to add more physical RAM to your computer. You will need to change your operating system into a 64-bit system, it will allow you to use all of your 4GB of physical RAM. But even then it depends on the application (ArmA in this case) if it is actually useful or not.

Theoretical memory address space calculation:

A bit is either on or it is off, so it has two possible states. How many numbers can we represent with the bits we have and which each have two possible modes:

2^32 = 4,294,967,296 bits = 4 gigabytes

2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bits = 2,147,483,648 gigabytes

kilo = 1024

and so on. The full range of the 64-bits is not utilized in practice I have understood. It is so huge it is not needed, and I think with current hardware technology there are reasons making it impractical to try and use the full range.

[sickboy 13]

@Baddo, you're right. Though the essence remains the same; He will need a 64-bit operating system if he wants to address more

Also I have a 768mb videocard, and no other cards with memory etc. Still I only get 3072mb available (if I would run Vista 32-bit), not 3.2gb.

Isn't the low amount of available memory limited due to memory hole setting in bios?

@StormBringer:

Quote[/b] ]Also when I said it wont work at all I meant that the Beta patch wouldnt work with my direct2drive version.

You give the exact same answer as before. How about describing what "Wont work with my direct2drive version" means... Errors? Installs? Doesnt Install? What error? etc.

[StormbringerGT 0]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I now know how that works better! Im not sure if 64bit is worth it however.

Im sorry, I was very tried last night. To explain it further it just wont install. It claims I have 1.07 installed, which I dont. I have 1.08. It then say I have to have 1.08 to install 1.09.

Anyway thanks for your tips and thoughts. Its people like you who fuel communities.