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

[solidsnake2384 10]

how well will this run arma 2? Phenom II X2 550 Blk Ed, HD4830 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI / TVO PCI-Express Graphics Card, Kingston ValueRAM 2 GB 1333MHz DDR3 DIMM Desktop Memory KVR1333D3N9/2GB, ASRock AM3 processors AMD 770-140W 4DDR3/ATI CrossFireX motherboard M3A770DE, 650 Watt ATX12V V2.2 PSU.

[Leon86 13]

how well will this run arma 2? Phenom II X2 550 Blk Ed, HD4830 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI / TVO PCI-Express Graphics Card, Kingston ValueRAM 2 GB 1333MHz DDR3 DIMM Desktop Memory KVR1333D3N9/2GB, ASRock AM3 processors AMD 770-140W 4DDR3/ATI CrossFireX motherboard M3A770DE, 650 Watt ATX12V V2.2 PSU.

It'll run ok on normal-low settings. For only 5 euro's more you can get an HD4850 instead of the 4830, its probably worth it.

[Alex72 1]

What do you guys have the video memory setting to with 896MB cards? High or Default?

[Leon86 13]

What do you guys have the video memory setting to with 896MB cards? High or Default?

Try to look for you answer in the optimalisation topic

[Alex72 1]

Thanks bud. Missed this discussion totally due to lack of upgrading over long period of time. :)

[Azza FHI 50]

has anyone got any benchmarks or comments about the new 480 nvidia card and arma 2?

[bangtail 0]

has anyone got any benchmarks or comments about the new 480 nvidia card and arma 2?

A2 below :)

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,743498/Geforce-GTX-480-and-GTX-470-reviewed-Fermi-performance-benchmarks/Reviews/?page=6

I just ordered 2 more 5870s and another 980x.

We'll see what the 32nm refresh can do but cards that run over 100 celsius - no thanks.

Edited March 27, 2010 by BangTail

[twisted 127]

A2 below :)

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,743498/Geforce-GTX-480-and-GTX-470-reviewed-Fermi-performance-benchmarks/Reviews/?page=6

.

thanks for that link. been wanting to upgrade to ati 5870 or nvidia 480 but nvidia is just so expensive and not available anywhere in forseeable future.

[Leon86 13]

A2 below :)

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,743498/Geforce-GTX-480-and-GTX-470-reviewed-Fermi-performance-benchmarks/Reviews/?page=6

I just ordered 2 more 5870s and another 980x.

We'll see what the 32nm refresh can do but cards that run over 100 celsius - no thanks.

Where did you see over 100 celcius? If I look at the results from grid (for the 470) it says ~230 watt and 92 degrees, furmark says ~300W 93 degrees. They just keep the fan lower until you hit 90 degrees or so, you can always fix that yourself. rivatuner has a low-level fancontrol changer and you can always flash in a new bios (I did that with my 8800gtx, fan now goes to 100% if temperature goes over 75, seems to have kept my card alive, they're dropping like flies apparently)

from the article:

As we have seen in many benchmarks SMT, aka Hyper-Threading, isn't slowing games down under Windows 7 anymore. Therefore we had the feature activated during our tests.

Doh! :mad:

The minimum fps is 35% higher with the gf480, compared to the 5870, pretty impressive, 470 is on par. Also the OpenCL performance is pretty sweet, but then again, that was expected.

anandtech review

Edited March 27, 2010 by Leon86

[bangtail 0]

Where did you see over 100 celcius? If I look at the results from grid (for the 470) it says ~230 watt and 92 degrees, furmark says ~300W 93 degrees. They just keep the fan lower until you hit 90 degrees or so, you can always fix that yourself. rivatuner has a low-level fancontrol changer and you can always flash in a new bios (I did that with my 8800gtx, fan now goes to 100% if temperature goes over 75, seems to have kept my card alive, they're dropping like flies apparently)

from the article:

Doh! :mad:

The minimum fps is 35% higher with the gf480, compared to the 5870, pretty impressive, 470 is on par. Also the OpenCL performance is pretty sweet, but then again, that was expected.

anandtech review

Here is the 480 hitting over 100c (The image is too big to post here but I provided a link below).

http://www.abload.de/img/ocbv8b0.jpg

HardOCP has it hitting 95c within about 20 secs of starting a test and it's not even in a case and I wasn't talking about the 470. I was talking about the 480 which is the only one I would have been interested in buying.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/7

(Watch the 480 video)

94c in this portion of Anand's testing (Crysis). Notice the 5870 runs 17c cooler under load.

The 'minimum' is NOT 35%. Most of the reviews I have read have them fairly close although the 480 usually wins (as it should with it's ridiculous TDP and heat output). The only game I've seen it take a huge lead in was FC2.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-470-480-review/21

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-470-480-review/24

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_gtx_480_470_performance/page13.asp

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24000&page=9

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3783&p=13

Nowhere in any of these tests from several reputable sites (and I could post alot more) am I seeing a 'minimum' 35% gain over the 5870.

*EDIT* - I misread your post, I realise now you are talking about minimum FPS (just woke up) but that statement is still wrong.

As I said, that 35% claim may be true in specific cases, but it certainly isn't universal as illustrated below.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/03/27/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-1-5gb-review/6

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/03/27/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-1-5gb-review/8

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/03/27/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-1-5gb-review/9

Edited March 27, 2010 by BangTail

[Leon86 13]

Here is the 480 hitting over 100c (The image is too big to post here but I provided a link below).

http://www.abload.de/img/ocbv8b0.jpg

Nowhere in any of these tests from several reputable sites (and I could post alot more) am I seeing a 'minimum' 35% gain over the 5870.

*EDIT* - I misread your post, I realise now you are talking about minimum FPS (just woke up) but that statement is still wrong.

Furmark is evil, and not a measure of real temps/power use. I read somewhere ati has some sort of built-in protection if furmark-like things are run, probably also a good idea for nvidia.

But why is the statement wrong? I was looking at the 1920x1200 considering that anyone with such a card would have (at least one) highres monitor. We have 14 fps vs 19 fps. difference is 5 fps.

5/14=.357 so about 36% faster. Or you could say the 5870 is 5/19= 26% slower.

I wont be buying one anytime soon, my 8800gtx already causes my +12V line to drop from 11.93V to 11.65V, (atx spec minimum is 11.60, so no worries:D) but even the 470 would kill my psu.

edit: ati overcurrent hardware protection thingy

Edited March 27, 2010 by Leon86

[bangtail 0]

Furmark is evil, and not a measure of real temps/power use. I read somewhere ati has some sort of built-in protection if furmark-like things are run, probably also a good idea for nvidia.

But why is the statement wrong? I was looking at the 1920x1200 considering that anyone with such a card would have (at least one) highres monitor. We have 14 fps vs 19 fps. difference is 5 fps.

5/14=.357 so about 36% faster. Or you could say the 5870 is 5/19= 26% slower.

I wont be buying one anytime soon, my 8800gtx already causes my +12V line to drop from 11.93V to 11.65V, (atx spec minimum is 11.60, so no worries:D) but even the 470 would kill my psu.

Look at the last few links I added. In STALKER, the 5870 beats the 480 across the board, so the 480 is not 35% faster (minimum FPS) except in specific cases. The problem is that in other cases, the 5870 is faster and considering the heat, price etc, the 5870 is a way better choice.

95c, 101c who really cares. Any of those temps are too high for my liking and although, as you stated, Furmark is known to push the limits, the 480 is STILL running 94c while running Crysis.

When the 5870 runs almost 20c cooler using way less power and providing comparable FPS, it really is a 'no brainer'

Edited March 27, 2010 by BangTail

[Leon86 13]

When the 5870 runs almost 20c cooler using way less power and providing comparable FPS, it really is a 'no brainer'

Pretty much, unless you're a folding@home stathugger or use al lot of cuda/opencl enhanced programs. The 5870 uses way less power in idle and load.

I'd still say temperature is pretty much irrelevant, by the time your card dies of too many heavy heatcycles it's probably worthless anyway. Marketprice of my 8800gtx is probably 60 euros or something. And you can always try this: preheat oven to 220C, 20 mins?

edit: I just thought of another thing? wont driverupdates improve the scores a bit? If you couldn't care less about power use it might still be an interesting card, well, I'm not buying any card anytime soon anyway. Dont really have the money for that, unlike some of us who have money for 2 gulftowns...:eek: btw, why don't you get 12GB 3-dimm kit, 12+6 or 12+12 could get you a huge ramdisk to run arma from.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Leon86

[bangtail 0]

Pretty much, unless you're a folding@home stathugger or use al lot of cuda/opencl enhanced programs. The 5870 uses way less power in idle and load.

I'd still say temperature is pretty much irrelevant, by the time your card dies of too many heavy heatcycles it's probably worthless anyway. Marketprice of my 8800gtx is probably 60 euros or something. And you can always try this: preheat oven to 220C, 20 mins?

The temperature is very relevant. Alot of these tests are done without a case and the HardOCP test is showing an exposed 480 hitting 95c in ~20 seconds.

Put two of these in a closed case and you could have serious problems without the proper cooling. Guru3D described the heatpipes as 'dangerous' to touch after gaming.

Obviously if you want CUDA etc, Nvidia is the only choice.

I'm no ATI fanboy, in fact, I prefer Nvidia for the most part but the 4xx series are unimpressive considering their late release, heat, power demands and performance.

Hopefully, the 32nm refresh will be a lot better.

Sure driver updates will improve the Nvidia cards but ATI is constantly eeking more performance out of their drivers as well.

Edited March 27, 2010 by BangTail

[Whoatherefatty 10]

The temperature is very relevant. Alot of these tests are done without a case and the HardOCP test is showing an exposed 480 hitting 95c in ~20 seconds.

Put two of these in a closed case and you could have serious problems without the proper cooling. Guru3D described the heatpipes as 'dangerous' to touch after gaming.

Obviously if you want CUDA etc, Nvidia is the only choice.

I'm no ATI fanboy, in fact, I prefer Nvidia for the most part but the 4xx series are unimpressive considering their late release, heat, power demands and performance.

Hopefully, the 32nm refresh will be a lot better.

Sure driver updates will improve the Nvidia cards but ATI is constantly eeking more performance out of their drivers as well.

ATI still hasn't said shite about the 57xx crashing during gaming... Web browsing... And most of all I found out I can't edit a video for more than 2 minutes without a lock up. The only answer I can find is to add after market heat sinks to the ram on my cards. Something I don't want to do. I want a driver fix dammit!

[bangtail 0]

ATI still hasn't said shite about the 57xx crashing during gaming... Web browsing... And most of all I found out I can't edit a video for more than 2 minutes without a lock up. The only answer I can find is to add after market heat sinks to the ram on my cards. Something I don't want to do. I want a driver fix dammit!

Never had any problems with crashing during gaming but the 2D problems will be fixed in 10.4 IIRC.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17966/65/

@ Leon86 : I will be switching RAM soon, not so much for A2 as for Photoshop etc.

Edited March 27, 2010 by BangTail

[Whoatherefatty 10]

Never had any problems with crashing during gaming but the 2D problems will be fixed in 10.4 IIRC.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17966/65/

Gaming is the least likely lock up. I can play arma for 4 hours no probs then the next day insta crash. Same with the web, it's random and rare. Microsoft movie maker? Always locks up verticle bars within 5. Would this new driver fix help with the video editing or just 2d web apps? You know I'm a noob and need some splainin.

[mosh 0]

Good stuff you guys are talking about past few days. I need a new video card.

I finally upgraded (first of 2 steps)... money is tight, so nothing too fancy.

Old - Athlon 64x2 6400, 4 GB DDR 800, Asus M3A Mobo

New - Phenom II x4 965, 4 GB DDR 1600, Asus M4A79XTD EVO Mobo

Step 2 (going to be a few weeks)

Old - 8800 GT 512 MB, 2 SATA 32 MB cache 7200 RPM HDs (1 for OS, 1 for Arma), Rosewill 600w PSU

New - leaning towards GTX 275, 2 SSDs (have a few in mind), bigger PSU?

I probably upgraded backwards if I wanted immediate gains, but that's just the way I do stuff... ass backwards. I know a new video card and SSDs would be a bigger gain than the CPU and RAM but either way I would run into a bottleneck without doing it all at once. I am still very pleased with the gains, though I didn't expect much yet.

Reading all this video card stuff you all posted has me thinking. I really don't know what to get yet. I'm leaning towards the 275. I will stick with Nvidia as always. As far as the SSDs go, I have a few in mind. I would use a small one for OS (32), a bigger one for Arma 2 (need at least 64 GB) and I guess use one of my SATAs for page file (can't afford 3 SSDs). I also doubt I will ever max out my RAM (only 16 GB for this mobo anyways) so a RAM disk is not feasible. And I suppose with the 275 I would need a bigger PSU... although I would try with old one first.

[Leon86 13]

@ Leon86 : I will be switching RAM soon, not so much for A2 as for Photoshop etc.

nice....

[bangtail 0]

Gaming is the least likely lock up. I can play arma for 4 hours no probs then the next day insta crash. Same with the web, it's random and rare. Microsoft movie maker? Always locks up verticle bars within 5. Would this new driver fix help with the video editing or just 2d web apps? You know I'm a noob and need some splainin.

As far as I know, they are addressing many of the issues (including editing). Nvidia is still the stronger card for that tbh but ATI are fixing things at a rather alarming rate.

I'm guessing you've installed 10.3 and are still having problems?

[Leon86 13]

Reading all this video card stuff you all posted has me thinking. I really don't know what to get yet. I'm leaning towards the 275. I will stick with Nvidia as always.

As far as the SSDs go, I have a few in mind. I would use a small one for OS (32), a bigger one for Arma 2 (need at least 64 GB) and I guess use one of my SATAs for page file (can't afford 3 SSDs)

You dont need a bigger psu for that videocard.

Why dont you get just one big ssd for everything? Arma2 could theoretically use a maximum of 2GB of memoryspace when running (windows sets that limit for 32bit apps), if you have 4GB ram the pagefile wont be touched, at least not by arma or anything arma related. If you still want to buy many ramdisks you can probably get the best results by creating a pagefile on all of them and spreading the arma2 files over ramdisks as much as possible.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Leon86

[mosh 0]

You dont need a bigger psu for that videocard.

Why dont you get just one big ssd for everything? Arma2 could theoretically use a maximum of 2GB of memoryspace when running (windows sets that limit for 32bit apps), if you have 4GB ram the pagefile wont be touched, at least not by arma or anything arma related.

I was just under the impression that 2 SSDs would have the same advantage as using 2 normal drives (1 for OS, 1 of game). I was hoping 2 wouldn't be necessary.

[Whoatherefatty 10]

I'm guessing you've installed 10.3 and are still having problems?

Of course not, I was too busy putting my foot in my mouth. I couldn't find a way to update from the catalyst menues but I found 10.3 online and it said it's only 4 days old.... Which means Ive been way out of it since my version is in the 9s still....

Oh well, such is the price of noobism. Dl'ing now and will stress test in game later since catalyst always passes my custom clocks anyway.

[bangtail 0]

Of course not, I was too busy putting my foot in my mouth. I couldn't find a way to update from the catalyst menues but I found 10.3 online and it said it's only 4 days old.... Which means Ive been way out of it since my version is in the 9s still....

Oh well, such is the price of noobism. Dl'ing now and will stress test in game later since catalyst always passes my custom clocks anyway.

Cool, let me know if you see any improvement :)

[Whoatherefatty 10]

Cool, let me know if you see any improvement :)

Had some interesting things happen during the install. The display resolution changed a few times, the screen went vlack twice and windows 7 told me the device driver stopped responding then successfully recovered. lol. All seems well though. As my first test I trimmed this video down from 5 minutes to 1:14 and uploaded it(may still be processing).

Nothing really exciting happens in the video but I am totally stoked to have made it because previously I could make 0 progress edititng anything without a lock up. This works perfectly now. I'll test a game out later tonight and report. Thanks again BangTail. That's two times you've improved my computer experience now.