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

[Leon86 13]

Does anyone have any experience of the effect of 1Gb versus 2Gb VRAM GPUs at higher resolutions ? Here is a link to a (2009 ?) Russian review which measured the memory use of various games (inc Arma2 benchmark 1) at various resolutions.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.overclockers.ru%2Flab%2F36439%2FSkolko_videopamyati_nuzhno_dlya_sovremennyh_igr.html

The article shows a VRAM memory usage of 1.1Gb (at pretty high settings, to be fair) at the highest res of 2560x1600, equivalent to 4.1m pixels. My modest triplescreen setup has a similar screen real estate to process, ie three 1280x1024 screens, or 3.9m pixels. As I have a 1Gb card I wonder if there is any impact due to any VRAM memory having to be swapped ? I do occasionally see blank textures for a few seconds (not really stutter, just slow loading), but since I have most of the addons stored on a RAMDrive / RAMDisk and never see CPU utilisation above 80% for any CPU I wonder is this is having an effect ?

Posted here because the new ATI cards are due soon and I (like some others) might be tempted by these or older cheaper cards, possibly with a 2Gb limit. Or maybe this is where the 1.5Gb of the 480GTX wins.

They're running at 4x anti aliasing, that also takes up memory, I think your 1GB will be fine.

[wolfbite 8]

Hey guys I got my new pc

Motherboard: Asus M4A78T-E Motherboard

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

RAM: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 PC3 10666 1333MHz

HDD: 2 x 80 GB, 1 x 750 GB standard 7200RPM sata

PSU: OCZ 600W ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC

ATI Radeon 5770

Windows 7

I'm still experiencing some stuttering when I put the VD up past 2000 I have most settings on very high except terrain details medium and screens set at 1280x1024

Do I have to put something into the launch about maxmem or cpu's?

[Leon86 13]

Hey guys I got my new pc

Motherboard: Asus M4A78T-E Motherboard

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

RAM: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 PC3 10666 1333MHz

HDD: 2 x 80 GB, 1 x 750 GB standard 7200RPM sata

PSU: OCZ 600W ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC

ATI Radeon 5770

Windows 7

I'm still experiencing some stuttering when I put the VD up past 2000 I have most settings on very high except terrain details medium and screens set at 1280x1024

Do I have to put something into the launch about maxmem or cpu's?

Nope, those probems are fixed and your processor didn't have the problem in the first place. You can't run high viewdistance AND high model detail AND terrain detail and expect everything to run smoothly. The processor just isn't fast enough on the main thread.

If you want to run a slightly higher viewdistance you can always try overclocking, but that takes time to do safely and properly.

[polecat.uk 11]

I use a Q9400 and i have no problems running with a 6000 view, with high settings and 1680x1050, i have no stutter at all, the 965 is faster than the Q9400 is it not?

I can max my settings and and still run a 6000 view at 100% 3d res, if i move it up to over 7000 view, my terrain detail drops back to high but the game still runs fine, have i just been lucky?

Q9400

gtx285 oc2

4gig 800mhz

[Leon86 13]

I use a Q9400 and i have no problems running with a 6000 view, with high settings and 1680x1050, i have no stutter at all, the 965 is faster than the Q9400 is it not?

I can max my settings and and still run a 6000 view at 100% 3d res, if i move it up to over 7000 view, my terrain detail drops back to high but the game still runs fine, have i just been lucky?

Q9400

gtx285 oc2

4gig 800mhz

Well, what you percieve as fluent others may see as terribe stuttering.

[polecat.uk 11]

Well, what you percieve as fluent others may see as terribe stuttering.

Well using fraps i get 25 - 50 fps, avg is around 30-35 which is planty smooth in this game, just tested this in the grunts server with these settings, everything on high, pp off, aa v/high, af v/high, 5000 view (server wont let me go higher) never dropped below 25 fps . Forgot, i also had grass set to full on the server settings.

Edited October 12, 2010 by Polecat.uk
new info

[bangtail 0]

Well using fraps i get 25 - 50 fps, avg is around 30-35 which is planty smooth in this game, just tested this in the grunts server with these settings, everything on high, pp off, aa v/high, af v/high, 5000 view (server wont let me go higher) never dropped below 25 fps . Forgot, i also had grass set to full on the server settings.

Unless you are telling the server otherwise, your settings are being 'auto lowered' by the server.

And as Leon said, what you think is smooth might not be someone else's idea of smooth.

Edited October 12, 2010 by BangTail

[polecat.uk 11]

If thats the case, i just tried the oa bench mark 1 with the same settings i get an avg of 25 fps i did record it on my phone and as soon as i fig out how to post it i will.

[bangtail 0]

If thats the case, i just tried the oa bench mark 1 with the same settings i get an avg of 25 fps i did record it on my phone and as soon as i fig out how to post it i will.

25 fps isn't 50.

Try a mission locally (Not on a server) that takes place in a city with those settings.

I forget the name of the mission but in the 1st campaign (Harvest Red) there is a mission where you start on top of a building - try that one.

As I said, the server you are playing on is likely lowering your settings automatically.

PS : No need to post anything, I don't doubt you get a 25 FPS average in the benchmark.

Edited October 12, 2010 by BangTail

[Leon86 13]

If thats the case, i just tried the oa bench mark 1 with the same settings i get an avg of 25 fps i did record it on my phone and as soon as i fig out how to post it i will.

You can make a youtube account and then use the [ YOUTUBE][ /YOUTUBE] things.

But the fluency of 25 fps average is debatable to say the least. Movies are a steady 24 fps and that's sometimes terrible, that's why the camera always moves with the cars in highspeed chases. Lot's of tv's even have functions to calculate frames "in between" the normal frames to make the movie more fluent.

[polecat.uk 11]

Who said 50?

I said an avg of 30-35 the avg on the bench mark is 25 although on the vid you can see the fps on fraps peek at over 50, ill try that mission and get back to you

[polecat.uk 11]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6w4bF5Wjg

I recorded this with fraps from the roof in red harvest

@wolfbite what do you have your ram set to in settings? try it on default.

[wolfbite 8]

@wolfbite what do you have your ram set to in settings? try it on default.

Hmmm Not too sure... Will check

[bangtail 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6w4bF5Wjg

I recorded this with fraps from the roof in red harvest

@wolfbite what do you have your ram set to in settings? try it on default.

Not acceptable at all by my standards - but to each their own.

Don't take any of that the wrong way, everyone has a different idea about what is smooth. As long as you can play it and enjoy it, it's all good :D

Edited October 12, 2010 by BangTail

[polecat.uk 11]

lol dont worry i wont, and remember I was using fraps which didn't help my fps and that map is hard on all but the best of setups, i think it coped ok with a 5000 view, very high aa and af, but this is not about me(I'm very happy with my setup) its about wolfbite getting stutter with his 965 where i dont with my Q9400 (2.6mhz) which is slower, i also have slower ram.

[bangtail 0]

There are so many other factors that could be contributing to that, it's not quite as simple as his stuff being slightly better than yours.

[firstrecon 10]

I have looked at this computer but I need help, HOW WELL WILL ARMA II OA run on a these specs. I need an accurate answer. Cheers dudes!

Processor (CPU) - AMD PHENOM II X4 945 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)

Motherboard - ASUS® M4A785TD-V EVO: DUAL DDR3, S-ATA II, 2 x PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe x1, 3 x PCI

Graphics Card - 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5770 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card - NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk - 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk - NONE

RAID - NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive - 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive - NONE

Memory Card Reader - INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply & Case Cooling - 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling - STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Sound Card - ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities - ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Modem - NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Firewire & Video Editing - 2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

Operating System - Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

[Leon86 13]

I have looked at this computer but I need help, HOW WELL WILL ARMA II OA run on a these specs. I need an accurate answer. Cheers dudes!

Processor (CPU) - AMD PHENOM II X4 945 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)

Motherboard - ASUS® M4A785TD-V EVO: DUAL DDR3, S-ATA II, 2 x PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe x1, 3 x PCI

Graphics Card - 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5770 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card - NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk - 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk - NONE

RAID - NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive - 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive - NONE

Memory Card Reader - INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply & Case Cooling - 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling - STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Sound Card - ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities - ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Modem - NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Firewire & Video Editing - 2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

Operating System - Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

does it have 4GB ram? if so, you'll be able to run at medium-high-ish settings. depending on resolution

[Azza FHI 50]

hey bangtail and leon, what are u thoughts on using the intel x25m 80gb ssd in a raid 0. is there any test done to see performance gains in arma 2?

also is the game optimised enough yet, or will it be later, to take advantage of quadfire?

im just startin to think bout my next build in 6 months (sandy bridge, 7970s or whatever)

[cannonouscrash 12]

hey bangtail and leon, what are u thoughts on using the intel x25m 80gb ssd in a raid 0. is there any test done to see performance gains in arma 2?

also is the game optimised enough yet, or will it be later, to take advantage of quadfire?

im just startin to think bout my next build in 6 months (sandy bridge, 7970s or whatever)

Im not sure if there is any performance test with arma2 and SSDs, but with an SSD you might notice a difference whilst playing arma, On the whole using an SSD would improve almost every aspect of your pc because it takes no time at all to load textures and programs.

Unless your a squillionaire, Having 2 ssds in raid i would assume is a waste of money because im sure any improvement would be almost unnoticable

[Rainmanrainman 10]

hey bangtail and leon, what are u thoughts on using the intel x25m 80gb ssd in a raid 0. is there any test done to see performance gains in arma 2?

also is the game optimised enough yet, or will it be later, to take advantage of quadfire?

im just startin to think bout my next build in 6 months (sandy bridge, 7970s or whatever)

Buy a single Crucial C300, read the reviews.:) I'm getting reads of 355 using my SATA3 port.

The only difference I see in ArmA is in super fast loading.

[Leon86 13]

hey bangtail and leon, what are u thoughts on using the intel x25m 80gb ssd in a raid 0. is there any test done to see performance gains in arma 2?

also is the game optimised enough yet, or will it be later, to take advantage of quadfire?

im just startin to think bout my next build in 6 months (sandy bridge, 7970s or whatever)

If a single good ssd fits in your budget go for it, not sure about putting intels in raid0, as trim might not work.

The C300 is a popular ssd as well, it supports sata 3 but my advice is to just use it on a sata 2 connector as the intel sata2 controller on your mobo is way better at random acces as the marvell sata 3 that everyone's using.

[bangtail 0]

TRIM works fine on SSD's in RAID using this driver (with the exception of a RAID5 array, not sure of the reason why) :)

Obviously, you have to be using the Intel controller for those drivers. If you are using Marvell or whatever, you'll have to check if they have updated drivers that support this.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/detail_desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=&DwnldID=15251

C300s are fantastic drives, I have 2 myself.

Don't buy AMD (Crossfire) for multi GPU, SLI is superior.

[5133p39 12]

I don't want to go again for the debate about CF vs. SLI.

But there is no truth in saying that apples are better than bananas.

Gaming performance of your computer depends on all of the HW you put into your computer (and drivers), and even then it can differ in specific games.

Search the web, read the reviews, check the benchmarks.

tom's hardware - Sum of FPS Benchmarks 1920x1200 8AA (High Quality)

[bangtail 0]

I don't want to go again for the debate about CF vs. SLI.

But there is no truth in saying that apples are better than bananas.

Gaming performance of your computer depends on all of the HW you put into your computer (and drivers), and even then it can differ in specific games.

Search the web, read the reviews, check the benchmarks.

tom's hardware - Sum of FPS Benchmarks 1920x1200 8AA (High Quality)

I've owned countless CF and SLI setups and there is no doubt in my mind that SLI is superior to CF.

Read the article I posted previously (for your benefit) that shows how badly CF stacks up against SLI and how the 5970 can't even perform some of the tests. That's not enthusiast hardware in my book.

AMD's hardware is solid but their drivers are weak and instead of remedying this, they release new hardware instead and then prattle on about how they've 'beaten' Nvidia. The numbers aren't singing AMD's song. Nvidia's only crime was being late to market with the 4xx series.

FPS isn't always the final word when it comes to multi GPU setups, it's how it translates onto the screen and CF is nowhere near as mature or as well supported as SLI (microstutter is significantly worse using CF).

Nvidia is true enthusiast hardware, AMD could be, if it wasn't for their drivers and terrible support. Lately their drivers have broken more than they've fixed.

Finally, Tom's is not a reliable source for anything these days, It used to be a good site but I wouldn't trust it further than I could throw it. You can see the clear AMD bias as 480 SLI results are suspiciously absent from that chart while not only is there a 5970 (dual GPU), there is also 2 x 5870. Tom's only shows the 460 in SLI which makes AMD appear to be the fastest, a blatant falsehood.

Objective Benchmarks :

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-480-enggtx480-review/10

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-480-enggtx480-review/13

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-480-enggtx480-review/15

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-480-enggtx480-review/17

You can see how the 5970 isn't much faster than one 480 in the last 2 benchmarks and considerably slower than 2.

Edited October 15, 2010 by BangTail