Will my PC Run this? What CPU/GPU to get? What settings? System Specifications.

[shadowze 1]

HI Folks,

Thanks for the replies , Iam hoping someone who has went from Single GTX280/285

will reply with their actual experience in going from single to SLI , so I can better gauge

if its worth doing or not.

Saying that IF the new ATI 5X series GPU's released next week are awesome , I might

consider giving one of them a go.

IF going SLI My upgrade costs would be:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R : £143

BFG EX Series 1200W: £165

ATI 4670 "Passive" : £60

Total 368 :-(

Depending on the cost of the ATI Vs the whole uprade cost , single Vs dual GPU solutions , duno what to do .... just yet.

[doakwolf 10]

For the record - I'm not convinced you'll NEED to get a new PSU. The friend I referred to earlier is using 2x OC'd 4890s and an i7 @ 3.6GHz with an 850w PSU and has no dramas. I reckon 800w is enough the proposed system, isn't it?

[trickster1982 10]

If your not having any major difficulties running ArmA 2 on your current rig I wouldnt bother to be honest, unless you just have to run it with everything on very high with 10000m draw distance?

[shadowze 1]

I dont have any major problems with arma2 right now

BUT the framerate is about 30FPS on average and I would like more FPS

if possible

I honestly dont know if I need a bigger PSU BUT the SLIzone site recommends

1KW or more for most GTX280 SLI systems ( I would prefer to err on the side of caution)

[telejunky 0]

Then go to a computer shop. They often will build a system with the components you wish for a fair price. :) I think there are many configurations as an example. If you are not clear which components in detail, just ask again :)

[shadowze 1]

Its great when some spastic takes a very specific post with a question

and then buries it in a thread 324 pages long , what are the odds of getting an answer now ?

[Rhammstein 10]

I dont have any major problems with arma2 right now

BUT the framerate is about 30FPS on average and I would like more FPS

if possible

I honestly dont know if I need a bigger PSU BUT the SLIzone site recommends

1KW or more for most GTX280 SLI systems ( I would prefer to err on the side of caution)

I'm running a PC Power & Cooling 750 watt, and look at my specs. 1kw IMO is overkill, but many people don't realize it's not always wattage that matters, it's the amps on the 12 volt rail(s). I don't think you need 1kw, but a little overhead never hurts. Just be sure of the amps and buy a high quality one.

Also, referring to many posts in this thread. Some are saying this games depends more on Cpu, other Gpu, well, why not ask a developer or someone that actually knows rather than post nonsense. Any game depends heavily on both, powerful Gpu's need a powerful Cpu to keep them up to speed, period. In my experience so far, having played this game on both of my systems, the game depends heavily on "both", simple as that. There is a lot for a Gpu to do, and a lot for the Cpu, this is obvious with all the AI, and intense graphics.

[ICE-Raver 10]

HI Folks,

Thanks for the replies , Iam hoping someone who has went from Single GTX280/285

will reply with their actual experience in going from single to SLI , so I can better gauge

if its worth doing or not.

Saying that IF the new ATI 5X series GPU's released next week are awesome , I might

consider giving one of them a go.

IF going SLI My upgrade costs would be:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R : £143

BFG EX Series 1200W: £165

ATI 4670 "Passive" : £60

Total 368 :-(

Depending on the cost of the ATI Vs the whole uprade cost , single Vs dual GPU solutions , duno what to do .... just yet.

I went from a single 280 to 280x2 sli. It didn't double performance by any means but I can run ARMA 2 with all settings on VERY HIGH 1680x1050 and rarely ever drop below 30 fps. Typically about 30-70 with full grass and viewdistance 3000. If I kill the grass or drop the AA my FPS goes really high. Over 100 in some cases. It made a worthwhile improvement for me. However, we are talking arma. Everyone seems to have different results even when using the same hardware.

[Rhammstein 10]

HI Folks,

Currently Iam running one gtx280 OC2 (650Mhz) on my i7 system. I have

another GTX280 OC (615Mhz) in my media PC (overkill I know) , Iam thinking

of getting an el cheapo card for the media PC , then new SLI mobo + 1.2KW PSU and sticking both GTX280 in my PC.

Has anyone went from a single GTX280/285 to SLI configuration , and if so

what was the speed increase like and was it worth it ?

Costwise it will cost me at least £350 , so Iam a bit hesitant , any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Beware, some people SLI/Crossfire systems are not getting any boost in performance, their second card isn't being utilized by the game. But the guy that posted above me had no trouble, and both of my card are working.

I guess in the end it's worth it if you "really really" want the performance boost, because even if you did have an issue with the second card working, it would certainly be fixed, if not in a patch then with a newer driver.

[telejunky 0]

Also, referring to many posts in this thread. Some are saying this games depends more on Cpu, other Gpu, well, why not ask a developer or someone that actually knows rather than post nonsense. Any game depends heavily on both, powerful Gpu's need a powerful Cpu to keep them up to speed, period. In my experience so far, having played this game on both of my systems, the game depends heavily on "both", simple as that. There is a lot for a Gpu to do, and a lot for the Cpu, this is obvious with all the AI, and intense graphics.

What i think about it: If you primary play singleplayer missions/ large coops on you own, then you need a very powerful (and maybe overclock it a bit) cpu and graphicscard.

But playing MP where pvp, coops are hosted by the server you don't really need an overclocked i7 to get about 50 fps. Considering these facts for mp games, then take a "slow" (compared to i7 in arma 2, but the phenom can easily be overclocked) phenom 955 or so and a high performance video card (if you got the time wait for new ati cards).

MP is not that cpu demanding.

[shadowze 1]

HI Folks,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with me.

I currently game @ 1920x1200 ( my crappy monitor wont support 1680x1050 sadly)

Going to wait until 10sep to see what the new Ati 5XX cards are like before making a decision , not the biggest ati fan mind you.

NOt a big fan of nvidia's taking the p1ss prices and there re-branding the same stuff with different names either

[mon_diesle 10]

What kind of a difference would a PCI Express x16 1.0 fare versus identical hardware the only difference being a 2.0 slot in the second setup. For example:

Setup 1:

A64 x2 5200+

4G DDR2 800

1G Radeon 4870 on a 2.0 slot

Setup 2:

A64 x2 5200+

4G DDR2 800

1G Radeon 4870 on a 1.0 slot

See, I'm trying to decide if I want to upgrade my motherboard. I saw an article on Tomshardware on this subject and it covered the performance differences between 4x, 8x, 16x, but not 1.0 vs. 2.0.

Also, would the 4870 do me any good since I have that processor. I think what I'm looking at here are two bottlenecks with the 1.0 pci-e slot, and the processor. If the CPU is a bottleneck, what cheaper GPU would not have me wasting money on unrealized performance gain.

[telejunky 0]

@mon_diesle

Take the pcie 2.0 modern cards will profit from it.

In fact older cards only drop some fps using pcie 1.0, but newer cards like upcoming 5000 series or gt300 by nv will gain more performance trough pcie 2.0 - or better said they won't be slowed down :)

[kklownboy 43]

What kind of a difference would a PCI Express x16 1.0 fare versus identical hardware the only difference being a 2.0 slot in the second setup

Voltages change with the different versions of PCI-E slots along with the increased bandwidth.

But for one card, in a 1.0 or 1.1 or 2.0 slot not much difference in FPS unless you use 1940/1440 and above resolutions with 32aa and all the uber eyecandy...which you really cant do now in A2 anyways.. But always go for the best/new you can afford.

[mon_diesle 10]

Voltages change with the different versions of PCI-E slots along with the increased bandwidth.

But for one card, in a 1.0 or 1.1 or 2.0 slot not much difference in FPS unless you use 1940/1440 and above resolutions with 32aa and all the uber eyecandy...which you really cant do now in A2 anyways.. But always go for the best/new you can afford.

So keep the motherboard, and upgrade to the 4870?

[WimpoD 10]

Hi all! Most of the chatter in this thread terrifies me as I'm not too hot with my computer parts lingo, but I was wondering if one of you may be so kind enough as to check this spec out for me and tell me if I'm on the right tracks to getting a PC that can run this bad-boy at a decent speed.

I currently own a 4-5 year old PC running an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+, with 2 GB of DDR ram and an ASUS A8N-E mainboard. I upgraded it about a year ago with a GeForce 8800 GT graphics card.

I'm looking into the following spec, which I may buy online (UK) from MESH computers, I don't know if you brits think they're a reliable site I'm not sure. But I'm looking at this:

# Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q8200 Quad Core Processor(2.33GHz,4MB Cache,1333MHz)

# Genuine Windows Vistaâ„¢ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 64-bit - English

# Midi-Tower ATX Chassis + 550W PSU + CardReader- Silver

# ASUS P5QL Mainboard - Intel Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo/ Quad/ Extreme - ATX

# 4GB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - (2x 2GB)

# 1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer

# Samsung 22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM

# 1GB ATi HD4850 Graphics accelerator - DVI, DirectX 10.1 PCI Express 2

It's a base unit that'll cost me around £499. I don't know if I'd be able to build my own PC, I mean, I do know a bit about computers and stuff but I don't know if I trust myself to buy the parts seperately and assemble it on my own.

What do you guys think? Am I on the right lines? Any advice you might have for me when purchasing a new computer? Thanks for your time!

Kind Regards,

WimpoD

*EDIT* I will also be using this computer for 3DS Max and several other animation packages for work.

Edited September 9, 2009 by WimpoD

[grayace 2]

Discard the Vista and capitalize on CPU with the spare budget Id say. Im going to buy Quad core soon, X2 5000+ just cant keep up with Arma

[WimpoD 10]

A response! Super! Ok so, bugger vista and spend some more money on the processor? What about the graphics?

[telejunky 0]

graphics card is okay :) i got a 4850, too. But consider that AMD /ATI is are releasing their brand new 5800 series in the upcoming two weeks. Even if you don't want to buy a 5850 card for maybe 250-300$, once they are released the old arma2-capable graphicscards will cost even less :)

[Flightster 10]

I'm thinking about building a new PC with the following specs:

- Intel® Core™2 Quad Core Processor Q9550 (2,83 GHz, 1.333 MHz FSB, 12 MB cache)

- 3.072 MB (2 x 1 GB, 2 x 512 MB) 800 MHz DDR2 Dual Channel-memory

- 1 GB NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTS 240 graphics card

- Windows Vista® Home Premium

- 500 GB NCQ SATA (7.200 rpm) non-RAID hard disc

- Thermal Cooling

Would that manage it?

Edited September 11, 2009 by Flightster

[Maddmatt 1]

I'm thinking about building a new PC with the following specs:

Would that manage it?

I would recommend a better graphics card. The GTS 240 sounds like a budget one, and probably wont run ArmA 2 that well. Maybe go for the GTS250.

Otherwise you could go for the ATI cards: HD 4850 or HD 4870.

I'd recommend something with 1GB of VRAM.

Also, I see that comes with Windows Vista. You might want to wait a bit so you can get Windows 7.

For RAM, maybe you can get 2 x 2GB for about the same price.

[kklownboy 43]

I'm thinking about building a new PC with the following specs:

Would that manage it?

Yeah Bail on the 240 its a 215 which is from notebooks.... got to love nvda and there renaming. go 260, or wait a couple of weeks and see the ATi cards drop in price.

[Flightster 10]

I would recommend a better graphics card. The GTS 240 sounds like a budget one, and probably wont run ArmA 2 that well. Maybe go for the GTS250.

Otherwise you could go for the ATI cards: HD 4850 or HD 4870.

I'd recommend something with 1GB of VRAM.

Also, I see that comes with Windows Vista. You might want to wait a bit so you can get Windows 7.

For RAM, maybe you can get 2 x 2GB for about the same price.

The thing is, if I buy it before this month ends: I get a windows 7 upgrade for free.

But you're probably right about everything else, just being carefull with my budget (lol) but I'll defenitly look into that.

PS: How about a GeForce GTX285 ?

Edited September 11, 2009 by Flightster

[oldbear 390]

The GeForce GTX285 will be OK if you play other games, if you are a compulsive and exclusive ArmA2 player switch to ATI 4890 2Go.

... other games? ArmA2 what else ? :)

[DrLame 10]

Core i7 920 @ 3.6gHz

ASUS P6T DELUXE V2 Mobo

6gb Patriot DDR3 @ 1600mHz

SLI EVGA GeForce GTX 275 1792MB, PCI Express 2.0 x16 (3584MB total memory)

Think I'm going to be able to run the game on high/max settings while hooked up to a 40" tv through HDMI? (I forget exactly which resolution the tv is...)

Also, I'm going to be picking up a laptop. This is what I had in mind...

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz

4GB DDR2 800mhz

640GB HDD in Raid 0 Stripe

GTX 260M 1GB

Or this...

Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz

4GB Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz

512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 (optional 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT for $350 more) =/

Am I going to be able to get a 10k view distance with either rig without killing performance?

Edited September 11, 2009 by DrLame