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

[maddogx 13]

wow, didn't think my question would cause so much drama.

What I am faced with is not choosing to replace the gtx295 that I have, but i have to replace it as i think its dieing. I have had a number of lockups requiring a hard reboot and the pc is telling me that they are all vid card related.

frozen screens, the screen turning a different color and locking up, those kinda things.

So from what I can tell is that the AMD card wont loose me any performance, but at the same time wont give me much of a boost.

So long story short, there is really no need to be comparing the GTX295 with any other card. What you want is simply the best bang for your buck. :)

Hmm, I think that came out wrong...

[sv5000 127]

Spot on MadDog!

[Leon86 13]

You're sure it's the gpu? If a gpu dies you usually get artifacts onscreen first.

[sv5000 127]

its had the odd artifact on screen(only once or twice), also sometimes the windows will leave an imprint so if you move a window you can see a trail from where it was to where you put it.

That and also after a crash alot of the time the pc tells me that its a graphics card fault.

Edited November 15, 2011 by sv5000

[Placebo 29]

I regret this immensely but you give me little alternative.

I have written to BIS (emailed via a customer contact form, ‘hard to get hold of’, a detailed letter will follow tomorrow 16/11/2011, managed to find their address:cool:), regarding pm’s I have sent to moderators concerning matters of this forum that happened a number of weeks ago.

I received no contact whatsoever from the moderators, although this does not seem odd, as they don't seem to read:rolleyes:

The matters were of a legal subject with very serious consequences :(…

(much more serious than you removing yet another of my posts here I see:mad:)..

A reply to this post is not required.. I know BIS most definitely will reply to the contact I have made with them. I would reply to their email when they contact you, as I am sure they will ;)..

Don't suppose this post will be here that long:p

Due to the repeated allegations of which I'm yet to understand the nature, your account is suspended.

You emailed me Oct 31st, I replied Nov 1st, I have instructed all moderators to cease communication with you and any communication you wish to make should be to me directly.

Paul R. Statham

Community/Public Relations Manager

Bohemia Interactive Studio

Placebo@bistudio.com & Paul.Statham@bistudio.com

Skype: Placebo_BIS MSN: Placebo_BIS@hotmail.com

[GOLGO_13 10]

Hey guys!

After asking a few questions around here some time ago, I bought some components for my new PC:

CPU: I5 2500K

MOBO: Asus P8P67-m Rev B3

2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance / Ddr3 1600mhz

PSU: I'll probably get a Corsair GS800(is enough for a future GTX 570 SLI and some light OC on the 2500k).

Now, I'm basically focusing on HD and GPU.

About the HDs, which SDD would be enough to hold the game,all the expansions and a LOT of Adds/Mods(and Windows 7)?

With the recent raise on the prices of the standart HDs, a SSD could be a better choice right now(but I still considering buying a standart 7200RPM HD if I find a good deal somewhere)

GPU related, I'm thinking about a GTX 570 Twin Frozr Ii (or Iii), but it has only 1.28GB of RAM. Would it be a problem when playing in 1920 x 1080?

Any suggestions are appreciated. :)

[sw1 10]

GPU related, I'm thinking about a GTX 570 Twin Frozr Ii (or Iii), but it has only 1.28GB of RAM. Would it be a problem when playing in 1920 x 1080?

Any suggestions are appreciated. :)

1.28GB is absolutely plenty for 1920x1080, you only really need lots of graphics memory at higher resolutions such as 2560x1440.

About the HDs, which SDD would be enough to hold the game, all the expansions and a LOT of Adds/Mods(and Windows 7)?

With the recent raise on the prices of the standart HDs, a SSD could be a better choice right now(but I still considering buying a standart 7200RPM HD if I find a good deal somewhere)

To hold Windows 7, Arma 2 plus expansions and mods you probably need a 120GB SSD.

That said you could probably just about get away with 64GB. The BIS folder takes up about 30-40GB with mods and expansions, and Windows 7 Home Premium uses 10.5GB of memory. However I would still get a 120GB SSD, just to be on the safe side (plus that will leave you a nicely sized gap for Arma 3 next year ;))

As for a HDD, the 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 is fantastic, it's just a shame about the current price hike due to flooding in Thailand. Perhaps leave it a few months, or just accept the higher prices.

Or buy a bigger SSD (256GB) if you can afford it...

If you go with 64GB I would recommend the Crucial M4 64GB

If you go with 120GB, I would recommend the Crucial M4 128GB.

256GB capacity? Either the (little known about, yet very good) Samsung SSD 830 256GB or the Crucial M4 256GB.

The GS800 is a good PSU for the money (I used it in an SLI build for a friend and he's never had any problems with it), but you may also want to consider the slightly more expensive, superior Corsair TX 850 V2 or the semi-modular XFX 850W Black Edition, which I have used (in the 750w guise) for some time now and absolutely love.

Edited November 15, 2011 by SW1

[bangtail 0]

1.28GB is absolutely plenty for 1920x1080, you only really need lots of graphics memory at higher resolutions such as 2560x1440.

1.2 GB is not necessarily enough for 1080p where ArmA 2 is concerned.

I have seen it go into 1.9GB with high/vhigh AA and post may well push it further than that.

I wouldn't buy anything with less than 1.5GB (and preferably 2GB to be safe) if you are gaming at 1080p or higher.

[Leon86 13]

I'd also recommend a card with lots of vram if you're buying a high end card. Windows aero and windows in the background and browsers want vram as well, even though you're gaming and not seeing them.

If you buy a gtx560 (so the non ti version) or a hd6870 I guess 1GB is "enough". You wouldnt be able to run with lots of aa fluently if you had the vram.

It also seems if a card has more vram it uses more vram (I guess all the textures stay there if there's enough space or something) so you cant exactly measure how much is enough or overkill.

[Groove_C 267]

I'd also recommend a card with lots of vram if you're buying a high end card. Windows aero and windows in the background and browsers want vram as well, even though you're gaming and not seeing them.

If you buy a gtx560 (so the non ti version) or a hd6870 I guess 1GB is "enough". You wouldnt be able to run with lots of aa fluently if you had the vram.

It also seems if a card has more vram it uses more vram (I guess all the textures stay there if there's enough space or something) so you cant exactly measure how much is enough or overkill.

Hi! I'm new here.

I will try to help you guys in this thread choosing the right hardware for ArmA II and the best you can get for your money.

I'm admin on a russian ArmA2 server "ArmA2.ru" (3rd in Game Tracker chart)

I spend the most of time playing on our PvE server with 30 slots alomst always full. It's an EVO mission we always play. The amount of AI ground vehicles, soldiers and airstrykes (helis + jets) directly depends on howmuch players are connected to the server.

You have to blow up the radio tower in the city/village and clean it out of enemy AI (ground + air) befor you get a new city/village to attack.

We always choose 10 cities and bad weather conditions and the setting for the cities is that the next city to attack is far away from the current instead of default setting "closest".

And I can tell you that my GTX 580 with 3 GB VRAM is always @ 2.7 GB VRAM usage and @ 99% load.

1680x1050

3D 100%

View 5 km

Textures very high

VRAM default

AF very high (16x)

AA high (4xMSAA)

Terain very high

Objects very high

Shadows off

HDR normal (8x)

Postprocessing off

AToC 7

CPU @ constant 50-55 %. Sometimes it jumps to 60 % (20-30 AI soliders, 8 helis and jets and 10-15 armor vehicles inside village)

As you can see i have my VRAM set @ default.

Because if I set it @ very high it doesn't fully load my GPU and it doesn't use more than 1.2-1.3 GB of my VRAM. (mesured with Afterburner!)

low/normal = MSAA 2x

high/very high = MSAA 4x

5 = MSAA 4x + CSAA 8x (nVidia 8x)

6 = MSAA 8x (nVidia 8xQ)

7 = MSAA 4x + CSAA 16x (nVidia 16x)

8 = MSAA 8x + CSAA 16x (nVidia 16xQ)

My Antialiasing level is also set @ high (MSAA 4x), because everything higher won't give you visible difference (tested!) but you will have more VRAM used and less FPS!

I turned off the shadows, because they look very edgy even @ very high and flicker on sand bags if you get closer to them or if get back.

I would have left them switched on if they were polished well enough even with less FPS in forests!

So I get a little bit more FPS but not a very good in-game atmosphere.

I also switched off possprocessing because white objects (pilots helmets/windows or doors frames and mirrors) were blinding me unnaturally and the whole image was washed off.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Groove_C

[bangtail 0]

You should not be getting 2.7 GB VRAM usage at 1680 x 1050.

I guess you have other things open that use VRAM (Browser etc) because that is not normal.

[Groove_C 267]

You should not be getting 2.7 GB VRAM usage at 1680 x 1050.

I guess you have other things open that use VRAM (Browser etc) because that is not normal.

Nope!

Just Windows Aero! No Firefox or Windows Mediaplayer @ movie!

It's just because to take all 10 cities we sometimes need 6-16 hours depending on how good players are organized or skilled.

And we play on the whole Chernarus island.

And the most of the time I play at least 4 hours. Sometimes 10 hours. Once I've even played 41 hours )))

So if you think well enough, you have 8.5 GB original ArmA II addons folder with textures. And if you fly all over the whole island at maybe 20-150 meters altitude with heli and all those trees, bushes, barriers, houses, hangars, walls and lakes will be seen/drawn/reproduced, they will be cached in VRAM. Everything you have seen is always cached in VRAM unless seen twise or more the same object.

And don't forget that your VRAM gets filled up in time and depending how many objects were drawn/seen!

So you have to paly more than a few hours and you have to visit several villages, cities and forests.

P.S. - nice rig! You will finally get enough GHz and cores to feed your GTX 580 duo and enough RAM to make a RAM disk )))

---------- Post added at 05:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:16 AM ----------

Oh... just one thing more! I have also used nVidia Inspector (utility for oveclock and advanced/hidden image quality settings) to activate a hidden option in nVidia drivers but possible to use via third party tools tow polish the whole image (not just polygons)

I use 2xSGSSAA which polishes the whole image!

http://postimage.org/image/9pso3gw3b/full/

More satisfying visual effect than MSAA an less hungry than SSAA!

Look for my nVidia Control Pannel Settings

http://postimage.org/image/g27tdaz5j/full/

http://postimage.org/image/4y73zrfbf/full/

i7-3960k vs. i7-2600k/i5-2500k

3DMark 2011

http://media.bestofmicro.com/Z/Z/314927/original/3d%20mark%207%20combined.png

Battlefield 3 SLI vs. Single

http://media.bestofmicro.com/0/A/314938/original/battlefield%203%201680.png

ArmA2 OA

GTX 580 1.5 GB ASUS 772 MHz @ stock

@640x480

1.56, 10 km view, everything maxed out! Average and minimum FPS.

With Turbo, with SMT (Hyper-Threading) and without.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/prozessoren/2011/test-intel-sandy-bridge-e/41/#abschnitt_arma_2_operation_arrowhead

@ 1680x1050

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/prozessoren/2011/test-intel-sandy-bridge-e/49/#abschnitt_arma_2_operation_arrowhead

Edited November 16, 2011 by Groove_C

[Leon86 13]

Well the crazy hidden aa modes might eat vram

Did you try running the game at 1920x1200 3d resolution? The game downscales that making things sharper than traditional aa.

[Groove_C 267]

Well the crazy hidden aa modes might eat vram

Did you try running the game at 1920x1200 3d resolution? The game downscales that making things sharper than traditional aa.

Yes, I did!

And I can tell you that I don't see visible improvement @ 125/150 %. Just @ 200%! But it's unplayble @ 200 %. Especially if you have a lot of smoke FPS drops under 10 @ 200 %!

P.S. - look in RAMDISK thread for my post.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Groove_C

[bangtail 0]

Sparse Gird eats memory in my experience and isn't usually worth the performance hit in newer games. It does look very nice mind you ;)

I only use it on older and/or less demanding games.

To be honest, there is very little difference between the 980x and the 39xx where gaming is concerned so I seriously doubt I am going to see any difference. The 980x is more than capable of powering 2 cards.

The real benefit of the 3930k will be with regards to Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects etc.

The 3930k is arriving this morning but the 'oh so helpful' e-tailer was late getting the MB so I won't be able to assemble it until tomorrow :cry:

Edited November 16, 2011 by BangTail

[Leon86 13]

well at least its not slower in games like bulldozer is to phenom II.

Maybe the new chip will overclock a bit further than your current one. Friend of mine has a recent 2500K stepping, does 4.6 below 1.3V. Not a bad chip that.

[bangtail 0]

Judging by what Ive seen, SB-E does seem to have slight advantages over a slightly higher clocked 2600K using Frostbite 2 and this would indicate that Frostbite's use of all available cores is giving it an edge.

We have reached a respite where gaming is concerned. There isn't much that pushes the last generation of CPU/GPU let alone this one or things like Kepler or Tahiti that are supposedly going to almost double the current 580/6970 performance.

We need Metro 2034 or ArmA 3 to really strain the current tech where gaming is concerned ;)

Ugh, Bulldozer is a bit of a nightmare. I've been reading on the Steam forums that there are a few games that will BSOD when using that chip.

AMD just can't seem to get it right with CPUs and we could really do with some solid competition.

Edited November 16, 2011 by BangTail

[Groove_C 267]

ArmA II is at the moment the most CPU hungry game and server full with lots of AI I never have more than 55% load with my i5 @ 4 GHz which means that you won't see any (significant) benefits with 6 cores.

I also prefer a single powerfull chip to a dual chip PCB or SLI. The rison is... consumption, efficience and micro-stuttering due to sincronization between both chips and not very good load balance between both chips.

I don't think GTX 6xx will double the performance, but will certainly bring at least 30 % more compared to GTX 580.

So GTX 580 over GTX 560 Ti SLI! Even if with GTX 560 Ti SLI gives more than one GTX 580!

Edited November 16, 2011 by Groove_C

[bangtail 0]

From what I've heard, it will be alot more than 30%. AMD is already claiming that Tahiti will be almost twice as fast as the 6970 but time will tell.

I haven't experienced micro stutter in a very long time and energy is cheap here so that isn't a consideration either. They are extremely efficient, providing as much as a 100% increase over a single card.

I know that you are new here but I'm not going to rehash the old 'SLI/CF is no good' argument as those of us who use it are well aware of the benefits :)

[GOLGO_13 10]

Well, I've been looking at the GTX 580 with 3GB VRam(it's over my budget right now). All the GTX 570(ECS,MSI,etc..) have 1.28GB VRam, but I'll get it anyway, even if I can't find a 3GB VRam 570.

About the PSU, I'll check out the Corsair TX 850, if I find it for a good price,I'll get it right away.

Related to the HDD/SSD, I've seen a Corsair Force 3 SSD 120GB for a good price(and it's not from the recall Corsair made a few months ago, lol!).

Anyway, is the Corsair Force 3 a reliable SSD?

For now,I think 120GB will be enough for Windows 7 Home Edition, Arma 2 + Addons + Mods + Expansions, and a few other games.

[bangtail 0]

Corsair SSDs are not the fastest but they are good enough.

There is a 2.5GB 570:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=62115&vpn=025%2DP3%2D1579%2DAR&manufacture=eVGA

[GOLGO_13 10]

Thanks!!

I didn't know about a 2.5GB GTX 570.

I'm not in the U.S. or Canada, but I think I'll be able to find it somehow, lol!

I hope it's not super-overpriced because of the extra VRam.

[bangtail 0]

I paid almost exactly the same price for my 3GB 580s that I paid for my 1.5GB 580s so hopefully there won't be a huge difference where you are :)

Edited November 16, 2011 by BangTail

[Groove_C 267]

From what I've heard, ArmA III will have physics and sound calculated by the CPU like in Battlefield 3! And you will get more envirment... like snakes, dogs etc. also calculated by the CPU.

So 6 cores it must be!!! Or 4 cores @ 100 % load )))

[kernriver 4]

wow, didn't think my question would cause so much drama.

What I am faced with is not choosing to replace the gtx295 that I have, but i have to replace it as i think its dieing. I have had a number of lockups requiring a hard reboot and the pc is telling me that they are all vid card related.

frozen screens, the screen turning a different color and locking up, those kinda things.

So from what I can tell is that the AMD card wont loose me any performance, but at the same time wont give me much of a boost.

When I had those exact same simptoms, I thought my GPU was dieing aswell, but it turned out to be the CPU. I've replaced CPU, and have no problems since.

Check your CPU temps mate. :)