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

[pauliesss 2]

I will probably go for Core i7-2600K, not sure yet.

[Leon86 13]

If I upgrade it'll be to the i5-2500K. HT isn't worth $100 in my case, gaming (where HT is useless) and typing/surfing is all I do on my home comp.

[kirieeniets 10]

*edit

[Flubadoo 10]

My friend just bought Combined Operations. What I am really stumped on is, he is able to run ArmA 2 on all high with low anti-aliasing and still maintain 40FPS when fighting in 40 AI town battles.

The thing is, he only has an Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.5GHz, an nVIDIA GTX 460 768MB, and lots of crapware. How does he run ArmA 2 so well? The GTX 460 768MB is a really budget GPU and the Quad core isn't really that great compared to an i5 or something.

[kirieeniets 10]

Hello!

Pardon my english, but it is my second language :/

I am a poor student that want to upgrade my system. The only game i'm playing is Arma 2OA. Otherwise i only use computer for text documenst and web surfing.

My current setup is:

E6600 2.4ghz dualcore and gefore gtx260, 4gb ram.

I find this setup a bit to slow for Arma2. To get a descent fps i have to play with 3k view settings and medium/low graphic. Then i have alot of problems with objects popping up from nowhere.

So i would like to buy some new hardware, but it have to be value for money.

As a CPU i was looking at either a Core i5-760 (2.8 ghz quad) or the i7-950 (3.06 ghz quad). The i7 is alot more expensive then the i5, but almost got the same clockrate. Is the performance of the i7 alot better then the i5 in Arma2?

Memory: How much memory do i need for this game? Is 4 gb enough?

Mainboard: I need a ok motherboard. I dont overclock so it does not have to be high end. performance/$ is important :)

GPU:

Radeon HD 6870 1GB or GTX470 1280mb. Almost same price for both. The GTX570 will be released soon, but will probably be more expensive 480+580 are way over my bugdet.

So i'm looking for a descent bugdet pc with the only purpose of playing ARMA2OA. I would like to have a +/-7k view and mostly high settings.

As i have heard earlier versions of ARMA1/2+OH was not very well programmed for the GPU and CPU like Crysis and other blockbuster games. So you would not get any better performance even if you got a high end computer. How is this situation now?

I would be very happy to get some answers and tips.

Thank you very much.

KiE

[Touch Off 10]

Yous OS is 32 bit or 64 bit? 4GB is fine but better on 64 bit. I run windows 7 64 bit with a quad core 9550 (2.9GHz) 4GB RAM at 800MHz (meaning to OC the CPu but just got it and happy with how it is atm). I also just got a GTX460 and I used to have an 8800GT with an E6600 like you. Great upgrade, doesn't bust the bank too much and you should, depending on your motherboard and whether it'll support 45nm quad core cpus (I know my old ASUS board didn't) see a good increase in performance. You can pick up 460 for very little money and a quad core too. I got my 9550 for £100 and the 460 for £120.

Considering an upgrade to i7/i5 would set you back nearly twice this just for RAM motherboard and CPU, maybe more, I think you'd be better off spending your money like I have. In te future, when i7 is a little more dated, I'll then upgrade.

Up to you, really. I wouldn't compare crysis to arma, entirely different engine. And you will see a difference in performance with the upgrade I mentioned. I did and it was well worth it. ARMA gets better and better with each update (for the most part).!

;)

[Leon86 13]

Hello!

Pardon my english, but it is my second language :/

I am a poor student that want to upgrade my system. The only game i'm playing is Arma 2OA. Otherwise i only use computer for text documenst and web surfing.

My current setup is:

E6600 2.4ghz dualcore and gefore gtx260, 4gb ram.

I find this setup a bit to slow for Arma2. To get a descent fps i have to play with 3k view settings and medium/low graphic. Then i have alot of problems with objects popping up from nowhere.

So i would like to buy some new hardware, but it have to be value for money.

As a CPU i was looking at either a Core i5-760 (2.8 ghz quad) or the i7-950 (3.06 ghz quad). The i7 is alot more expensive then the i5, but almost got the same clockrate. Is the performance of the i7 alot better then the i5 in Arma2?

Memory: How much memory do i need for this game? Is 4 gb enough?

Mainboard: I need a ok motherboard. I dont overclock so it does not have to be high end. performance/$ is important :)

GPU:

Radeon HD 6870 1GB or GTX470 1280mb. Almost same price for both. The GTX570 will be released soon, but will probably be more expensive 480+580 are way over my bugdet.

So i'm looking for a descent bugdet pc with the only purpose of playing ARMA2OA. I would like to have a +/-7k view and mostly high settings.

As i have heard earlier versions of ARMA1/2+OH was not very well programmed for the GPU and CPU like Crysis and other blockbuster games. So you would not get any better performance even if you got a high end computer. How is this situation now?

I would be very happy to get some answers and tips.

Thank you very much.

KiE

Cpu-wise you'll have near-identical performance with the i5-760 compared to the 950. If you can wait untill Jan 9th you'll be able to buy i5-2xxx cpu's that cost the same as the 760 but are about 20-30% faster. If you cant wait I'd get the 760.

As for motherboards I'd get someting like a gigabyte p55(A) ud3 or P55 usb3 or if you wait untill january get something with the new socket/chipset.

I dont think you'll have to upgrade your gpu, I run a 260 now and have no problems on 1080p.

[aaman 0]

Why is it so mutch noise about GPU´s and not a single word about a motherboard with 2 or 4 CPU´s.......?

GPU´s are very expencive but do little or none to improve preformance.

And it could be cheeper to buy 2 old 2000 mhz CPU´s than one new i7 4000 mhz with the same results.

Edited December 6, 2010 by aaman

[NeMeSiS 11]

Why is it so mutch noise about GPU´s and not a single word about a motherboard with 2 or 4 CPU´s.......?

GPU´s are very expencive but do little or none to improve preformance.

And it could be cheeper to buy 2 old 2000 mhz CPU´s than one new i7 4000 mhz with the same results.

Because the game doesnt scale very well with >4 cores. I have a Phenom II 955 @3.2ghz which has 4 cores, some guy i know has a Phenom II something @3.2ghz with 6 cores. The difference in Benchmark2? 1FPS. That is including his faster (and 4 times the amount) of RAM, and him having a better GPU.

[kirieeniets 10]

Thank you very much for the information!

I guess i'll will buy new motherboard (p55) + 4gb ram and the i5-720. Based on its performance vs i7.

Then i will wait with upgrading of the gtx260 after i have tried it with the new setup. If i understand correct, Arma2OA is very CPU demanding.

This will be reasonable compared to buy i7+gtx 470. After all i don't need max video settings :)

Again, thank you for answers!

KiE

[Leon86 13]

Thank you very much for the information!

I guess i'll will buy new motherboard (p55) + 4gb ram and the i5-720. Based on its performance vs i7.

Then i will wait with upgrading of the gtx260 after i have tried it with the new setup. If i understand correct, Arma2OA is very CPU demanding.

This will be reasonable compared to buy i7+gtx 470. After all i don't need max video settings :)

Again, thank you for answers!

KiE

i5-760

Have fun upgrading:) hope it works out for you

[avibird 1 154]

AVIBIRD 1 is giving up all hope that ARMA2/OA will get a port to a console so I need help lol. I am making a PC to run the game. My last PC was in 2000 to play OFP1.

CPU - intel i5-760 2.8ghz quad core

VID CARD - gtx 460 or ATI HD 6870

SSD small 64g just for ARMA2/OA files and win 7 64

HDD 500g for all my other files/programs

How much ram 6 or 8 gigs are needed to run the game good

How much PSU needed some say 500 watts are fine others say 750watts I am not going to link two vid cards or ect just what is above.

Question if I have two drives SSD and HDD where do I put all the mod downloads like ACE, units and other things will I run out of room on the SSD drive if I only have 64 and ARMA2/OA + OS (win 7) thanks

[Leon86 13]

If you're going for that cpu you'll want just 2 sticks of ram (4 works too but why get 4 if you can get the same performance/size on 2?) because those cpu's only support dualchannel (and single channel but that's slower). That basically means you'll have to choose between 4 and 8 GB. 4 is enough but ram is pretty cheap now, 8 gb is only 100eu.

You can spread the arma 2 data files and mods over any number of harddisks/ssd's if you start the game with the right -mod= added to the shortcut.

A 500 watt PSU of a good brand is certainly powerfull enough for such a system. A rough guesstimate is 100W for cpu, 170W gpu, 15W harddisk, 50W "other stuff". That's about 350W at full load, those wattages will never be needed during arma2. A good thing to realise when buying a psu is that cpu and gpu use only 12V. So ideally you'll want a psu with more then 350/12= 30 amps on the 12V line.

You can also buy an overkill psu like I did. The Corsair AX750 is expensive but it's very efficient and silent (under 150W the fan even shuts off completely). It can deliver the full 750W on the 12V line so no worries there. You could run a 480 sli system with that:)

Also realise intel will release their new processor line on Jan 9th. It'll be about 25% faster at the same pricepoint (this is of course a guesstimate).

[Sarp 0]

Would someone be kind enough to explain the main contributor towards texture pop ups.

When fine tunning my settings I always have issues with bushs etc poping up as i move nearer. There also seems to be a line of sorts in front of me where detail improves as the line passes over the ground. It's constant and moves forward as I do. It's quite obvious at times.

Any help would be great. thanks

[Sarp 0]

If I may I'd like to make an addition to the above post.

After reading the GTX 460 thread and hearing of peoples performance I'm concerned that maybe my system is bottlenecking or that my HDD isn't fast enough.

FPS wise on BAF Showcase I'm getting 15-20 with V high quality, low terrain texture, normal AA, AF, 1600X1050. With High settings it's 20-25 FPS. At 1900x1200, my native res it's a little worse on both quality settings

I get awful texture pop ups with all settings, i.e bushes appearing just infront, vehicles rendering as you get near etc.

My specs are:

Optical - LG (GGW-H20L) Blu-Ray/DVD Disc Re-Writer & HD DVD-ROM.

HDD - 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB

Graphics - MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 OC'd @ 825MHz

CPU - Intel Core i7 940, 8 MB 4.8GT/s 1600FSB OC'd @ 3.5GHz

MB - ASUS P6T DELUXE SKT-1366 S/L 6.4GT/S (Intel X58)

Mem - Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) XMS3 1600MHz CAS 9 (DDR3)

Monitor - Dell Ultrasharp 2408WF

OS - Vista 64 ultimate

I'm looking for a nice compromise of quality and performance. 95% of the time I play multiplayer.

I hope someone can help.

Many thanks.

Sarp

Edited December 9, 2010 by Sarp

[bangtail 0]

An SSD might help a little but mileage varies. Some people will claim it's a 'night and day' difference but I've yet to experience that.

I think it's possible if you are coming from old HDDs, but your's isn't.

A RAMdrive will make a noticeable difference but you need a fair amount of RAM. There is a whole post about it somewhere.

[Leon86 13]

@sarp

Did you try defagmenting your arma directory yet? You can do this with tools like defraggler.

And what's the rest of the settings at? Viewdistance, object and model detail have quite an impact on framerate. Lowering texture quality and video memory (maybe leave that on default?) may also help with the "popping".

[Sarp 0]

@sarp

Did you try defagmenting your arma directory yet? You can do this with tools like defraggler.

And what's the rest of the settings at? Viewdistance, object and model detail have quite an impact on framerate. Lowering texture quality and video memory (maybe leave that on default?) may also help with the "popping".

View distance is 2100, Object detail, high or V high. Depending on overall quality preference.

I also have the Nvidia 3DPhysx tool enhancing a few things like AA etc, I wonder if thats a contributing factor?

i'll try lowering the texture and I'm sure it will help the FPS, but I'm confused why i'm having to do this when others on similar systems can run everything fine...

[Leon86 13]

I also have the Nvidia 3DPhysx tool enhancing a few things like AA etc, I wonder if thats a contributing factor?

???? I'd turn things like this off and play with the settings untill you have the performance you're looking for.

If you do Ctrl-shift-esc. and choose the performance tab you can see the cpu load. Play a bit and then minimise to see if one of the cores is maxxed out.

Using the program GPU-Z you can do something similar for the gpu (check the continue refreshing while in background box). This way you can easily see if your gpu or cpu is your bottleneck.

Cpu intensive settings are viewdistance, model detail, terrain detail (and shadows on medium or lower, therefore you should have them on high or off). Gpu intensive settings are anti-aliasing, postprocessing, anisotropic filtering, resolution, (shadows on high/very high)

Performance when running around on an empty island is not comparable to performance in evo/domi missions, play a mission with lots of stuff going on to gauge performance.

[Sarp 0]

???? I'd turn things like this off and play with the settings untill you have the performance you're looking for.

If you do Ctrl-shift-esc. and choose the performance tab you can see the cpu load. Play a bit and then minimise to see if one of the cores is maxxed out.

Using the program GPU-Z you can do something similar for the gpu (check the continue refreshing while in background box). This way you can easily see if your gpu or cpu is your bottleneck.

Cpu intensive settings are viewdistance, model detail, terrain detail (and shadows on medium or lower, therefore you should have them on high or off). Gpu intensive settings are anti-aliasing, postprocessing, anisotropic filtering, resolution, (shadows on high/very high)

Performance when running around on an empty island is not comparable to performance in evo/domi missions, play a mission with lots of stuff going on to gauge performance.

Thanks for your input, it's greatly appreciated.

Could you recommend a suitable mission that you think works as a good test bed?

Edited December 9, 2010 by Sarp

[Leon86 13]

I'd make my own with a couple of opfor and bluefor mechanised and normal infantry squads and maybe 2 tanks with search and destroy waypoints to the same place. Make a civ player character so you can spectate.

[cjph 0]

I did that in Chernagorsk - 5 M1A1s and 10 varied squads vs 5 T90s and 10 eastern squads starting from different ends of the seafront, starting out of sight of each other and rolling into town. I sit as a civvie on one of the cranes above the action and watch fraps count down the fps . . .

Cherno + many AI is quite taxing for a system.

[avibird 1 154]

To run ARMA2/OA what is the number 1 important thing to put into the system.

CPU - number of core's vs ghz (I know the intel is better then AMD for this game)

VID CARD - ATI5870, HD6870, GTX 460. How much ram 1GB or 2GB

HARDDRIVE type/speed (SSD vs HDD)

RAM - If I get 8 gigs what is the best way 2 x 4gigs or is 4 x 2 gigs ok. Someone told me it depends on the CPU and how many channels it use best to use the RAM.

PSU some say 500 some say 750+ should it be based on the motherboard and CPU and the game. If you are not going to use two vid cards or overclock should 500 watts be ok.

I know if I had a ton of cash to make this PC then yes, the best in all sections but I don't.

[andrekarssa 10]

Ok guys... I´m buying this system:

Phenom II x4 970 3,5GHz (very Oc'able)

Asus Crosshair IV

2*2Gb Ram 1600Mhz

Radeon HD6870

Western Digital 1Tb 7200 Rpm SataII HDD

______

With this specs I´ll be able to run Arma 2 mostly in Veryhigh and good view distance decently???:j:

[Leon86 13]

To run ARMA2/OA what is the number 1 important thing to put into the system.

CPU - number of core's vs ghz (I know the intel is better then AMD for this game)

VID CARD - ATI5870, HD6870, GTX 460. How much ram 1GB or 2GB

HARDDRIVE type/speed (SSD vs HDD)

RAM - If I get 8 gigs what is the best way 2 x 4gigs or is 4 x 2 gigs ok. Someone told me it depends on the CPU and how many channels it use best to use the RAM.

PSU some say 500 some say 750+ should it be based on the motherboard and CPU and the game. If you are not going to use two vid cards or overclock should 500 watts be ok.

I know if I had a ton of cash to make this PC then yes, the best in all sections but I don't.

I believe I already answered most of these questions when you asked them a page back.

but yeah, get a quadcore, 2x4GB, 6870 (newer than 5870, not faster) and a 500W+ psu of a good brand, like corsair, seasonic, maybe cooler master, enermax. or some other a-brand.

---------- Post added at 11:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 PM ----------

Ok guys... I´m buying this system:

Phenom II x4 970 3,5GHz (very Oc'able)

Asus Crosshair IV

2*2Gb Ram 1600Mhz

Radeon HD6870

Western Digital 1Tb 7200 Rpm SataII HDD

______

With this specs I´ll be able to run Arma 2 mostly in Veryhigh and good view distance decently???:j:

Dunno, how many fps do you think is decent?