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

[Danze 10]

I think Windows 7 is good I don't want it to seem like a pariah though however. Let me explain my viewpoint. XP is my favorite OS, but 64-bit XP ain't that great. Vista was a step in the right direction visually, but was a real resource hog. Microsoft took Vista, shrunk it, optimized it, and gave it a bit of a *nix feel, and released 7. Either way I think Vista isn't so good. Windows 7 is fast, it is apparent they spend a lot of time on optimizing the 64-bit arena too. This si a nice relief because Vista's 64-bit wasnt that great. Bells and whistles aside though, if you are running 32-bit, I would recommend XP

XP: If you have less that 4 gigs of ram, run this 32-bit

Vista: Microsoft is every other in terms of success. Vista is stuck in the middle, just like ME was

7: If you have 4 gb of RAM or more, you should be running 64-bit, and in this realm, 7 is king. Also, according to reports 64-bit 7 works better than 64-bit vista, especially for ARMA

Thanks a lot for the explanation, it definitely helped me out a lot! But do all games run on Windows 7 64-bit and does my PC need anything special to support the 64-bit version?

[Vartan_A 10]

hey guys i need your advice, and this seems like the best place to put is so here goes.

after a few years i'm finialy up and around to buy a new system and this is what i came up with

MB: ASUS Motherboard P6T DELUXE

CPU: I7 920 2.66 8M 1333

ASUS GTX 280 1GB

*RAM: 3x2GB OCZ Platinum XTC Triple Channel 1333Mhz

HDD: 1TB IntelliPower 32MB WD

*PSU: Enermax MODU82+ 525W active PFC 12cm Fan

and now for the annoying questions :)

1) As all of you im an OFP/ARMA fan and so i would like to know would AMRA2 be able to make good use of this setup?

2) About the memory and PSU i am not sure, i am aiming this at a 64bit system so, but still would love some advice about the memory and PSU.

i'm not into the whole OC stuff so if you can please try to avoid it.

thank you in advance

-Vartan

[HunterPT 10]

Isn't windows 7 as heavy as Vista then? And btw that memory is x2 as you can see, so 4gb in total

EDIT: And BTW HunterPT, what are the specs of your computer and have you tried the demo? If so then on what settings?

Right now I have a 8800 ultra, 4 GB DDR2, Q6600 at 3.4 and 2 HD single plate in raid 0.

I tried with vista and with windows 7, I tried both of them with the CPU overclocked and not overclocked, clocking the CPU is definitely a must especially in firefights with lots of AI, switching windows also increases performance considerably, I got more FPS's and the game didn't stutter at all, this was all at medium/high (combination of both) at 1920x1200, and you should also remember that I didn't tweek the settings, if you tweek the settings like choosing what things should be low/medium/high/very high you can get a better quality looking game for pretty much the same FPS's.

Also If I may advice you in your hardware, since you haven't bought the PC yet you should definitely change a few things, like first of all put 4GB of ram instead of 2, you already have games that benefit from more than 2GB of ram, so your basically capping the performance for less than 20€ difference, I mean the DDR2 memories are really really cheap right now, in my country you can get 2x2GB DDR2 (4GB ram) for 50€ and this is Gskill memories (good brand). Now if your really serious about playing ARMA 2, instead of buying the 4870 buy the 4890 the price difference isn't that great but apparently in this game it makes a lot of difference.

Now about the OS, although I agree with FlunkyMonkey about the XP 64bits sucking and windows 7 being better than vista, I have to disagree when he says that XP is better performance than the windows 7, the games that XP runs better than windows 7 are probably the ones with DX10, and because XP doesn't run DX10 the games are OFC going to have more FPS's, but they won't have DX10, also the windows 7 beta (it's not even the current lease) runs faster than XP outside of games as well

Thanks a lot for the explanation, it definitely helped me out a lot! But do all games run on Windows 7 64-bit and does my PC need anything special to support the 64-bit version?

Pretty much all important games run on windows 7 64bits, and no your PC doesn't need anything special do support 64bits, although there isn't much reason to go 64bits unless you have 4GB of ram.

Let me explain windows 32 bits (no mater the windows) can only support up to 3 GB's of ram, which means if you put 4GB's of ram your windows is only using 3GB (which is still better than only putting 2GB), now the 64bits version has 2 advantages first it can use more than 3 GB's of ram, and second if a program is designed to make use of the 64bits like crysis it will run faster on 64bits than in 32 bits, unfortunately in what concerns gaming crysis is pretty much the only game to use 64bits.

That being said if a game doesn't use 64 bits it will still run equal if you have windows 64bits, so basically you loose nothing to go 64bits, the only possible disadvantage with windows 64bits is that some programs may not work, but not only do all majors games and programs work with 64bits, as I have been using windows vista 64bits since it pretty much came out, and right now the only incompatibility with it that I have found was with the drivers for a wireless linksys card, and you could get around that by installing other drivers, so pretty much there isn't any real disadvantage.

[hamis 0]

@ vartan

I'd recommend 750-850 watt psu.I had problems with 550 watt psu,E6600 and 4870x2.When launching certain games my pc just rebooted,after i changed psu to 850 watt Zalman no more rebooting.

[Sneaker-78- 0]

CPU Type DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 2381 MHz (9 x 265)

Moederbordnaam Asus P5B Deluxe )

Video nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS (Asus EN8800GTS) 640mb

Ram Corsair XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4 4gb total

and i run on vista 64bit, an ingame i have all on normal settings @1920x1200

and get an fps off 15.

What is my problem with my system?

Your system isnt powerful enough to handle the high resolution. If you turned it down, it would probably run fine.

i did turn it down to 1280x1024 and its a bit better now around 25fps , but i have some drops to around 10 is that normal ? i tested in warfare. if i must change a hardware in my system what would be the best ? or issn`t that necessary. or shoud i do some overclocking ?

[echo1 0]

hey guys i need your advice, and this seems like the best place to put is so here goes.

after a few years i'm finialy up and around to buy a new system and this is what i came up with

MB: ASUS Motherboard P6T DELUXE

CPU: I7 920 2.66 8M 1333

ASUS GTX 280 1GB

*RAM: 3x2GB OCZ Platinum XTC Triple Channel 1333Mhz

HDD: 1TB IntelliPower 32MB WD

*PSU: Enermax MODU82+ 525W active PFC 12cm Fan

thank you in advance

-Vartan

I'd change the GTX285 for a HD4890, much better deal.

@ vartan

I'd recommend 750-850 watt psu.I had problems with 550 watt psu,E6600 and 4870x2.When launching certain games my pc just rebooted,after i changed psu to 850 watt Zalman no more rebooting.

A dual-GPU card like a HD4870X2 uses far more power than either a GTX285 or HD4890, so 750-800W is completely unneceesary. But for the above setup, I'd recommend a 650W Corsair PSU.

[vRS_Billy 10]

just a quick one,

I have a GeForce 9800GTX+ 512mb card and I want to SLi it? I know I need the same GPU to do it but does that mean I need a 9800GTX+ 512mb card with the same clock speeds(std core 730mhz, mem 1100mhz[2200mhz], shader 18?? mhz) or jus any 9800 card?

I have the MOBO to do this and the PSU, 2gb 1066 RAM, XP pro 32bit os, phenom 9950 CPU.

I am so confused lol

cheers

billy

[HunterPT 10]

hey guys i need your advice, and this seems like the best place to put is so here goes.

after a few years i'm finialy up and around to buy a new system and this is what i came up with

MB: ASUS Motherboard P6T DELUXE

CPU: I7 920 2.66 8M 1333

ASUS GTX 280 1GB

*RAM: 3x2GB OCZ Platinum XTC Triple Channel 1333Mhz

HDD: 1TB IntelliPower 32MB WD

*PSU: Enermax MODU82+ 525W active PFC 12cm Fan

and now for the annoying questions :)

1) As all of you im an OFP/ARMA fan and so i would like to know would AMRA2 be able to make good use of this setup?

2) About the memory and PSU i am not sure, i am aiming this at a 64bit system so, but still would love some advice about the memory and PSU.

i'm not into the whole OC stuff so if you can please try to avoid it.

thank you in advance

-Vartan

If you building a computer for ARMA 2 switch the graphic card for a 4890, it runs better on arma 2, if your not building a computer mainly to run arma 2 then switch the graphic card for a 275, the 275 and the 280 have pretty much the same performance but the 275 is cheaper so there is no reason to go 280, also the 280 in my country is pretty much the same price as 285 which makes it pretty useless (in my country). If your not going to clock go for AMD Phenom II X4 955 AM3 or something similar, it's cheaper and as a better clock speed out of the box, but I should repeat only if your not going to overclock, because if your going to overclock then go I7. The motherboard is pretty good, I personally would probably end up in the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, but they are pretty much the same. The ram I can't really advice about it since I don't know the price, all I can say is that the OCZ blade have a excellent price performance ratio. The HDD is OK. The PSU will probably not even start you computer, and even if it does it will cause an enormous amount of stress on it, which is by far not advisable, the brand is good though at least it was for the enermax galaxy, no idea about that model.

[echo1 0]

just a quick one,

I have a GeForce 9800GTX+ 512mb card and I want to SLi it? I know I need the same GPU to do it but does that mean I need a 9800GTX+ 512mb card with the same clock speeds(std core 730mhz, mem 1100mhz[2200mhz], shader 18?? mhz) or jus any 9800 card?

I have the MOBO to do this and the PSU, 2gb 1066 RAM, XP pro 32bit os, phenom 9950 CPU.

I am so confused lol

cheers

billy

There are a bunch of problems with SLI and this game (and others), so there's no guarantee that if you add a second card that you're going to get a worthwhile increase in frames. I'd just replace the card you have with something like a HD4890 or GTX285 which are easily going to be twice as fast as the one you have already.

Edited June 28, 2009 by echo1

[Danze 10]

Right now I have a 8800 ultra, 4 GB DDR2, Q6600 at 3.4 and 2 HD single plate in raid 0.

I tried with vista and with windows 7, I tried both of them with the CPU overclocked and not overclocked, clocking the CPU is definitely a must especially in firefights with lots of AI, switching windows also increases performance considerably, I got more FPS's and the game didn't stutter at all, this was all at medium/high (combination of both) at 1920x1200, and you should also remember that I didn't tweek the settings, if you tweek the settings like choosing what things should be low/medium/high/very high you can get a better quality looking game for pretty much the same FPS's.

Also If I may advice you in your hardware, since you haven't bought the PC yet you should definitely change a few things, like first of all put 4GB of ram instead of 2, you already have games that benefit from more than 2GB of ram, so your basically capping the performance for less than 20€ difference, I mean the DDR2 memories are really really cheap right now, in my country you can get 2x2GB DDR2 (4GB ram) for 50€ and this is Gskill memories (good brand). Now if your really serious about playing ARMA 2, instead of buying the 4870 buy the 4890 the price difference isn't that great but apparently in this game it makes a lot of difference.

Now about the OS, although I agree with FlunkyMonkey about the XP 64bits sucking and windows 7 being better than vista, I have to disagree when he says that XP is better performance than the windows 7, the games that XP runs better than windows 7 are probably the ones with DX10, and because XP doesn't run DX10 the games are OFC going to have more FPS's, but they won't have DX10, also the windows 7 beta (it's not even the current lease) runs faster than XP outside of games as well

Pretty much all important games run on windows 7 64bits, and no your PC doesn't need anything special do support 64bits, although there isn't much reason to go 64bits unless you have 4GB of ram.

Let me explain windows 32 bits (no mater the windows) can only support up to 3 GB's of ram, which means if you put 4GB's of ram your windows is only using 3GB (which is still better than only putting 2GB), now the 64bits version has 2 advantages first it can use more than 3 GB's of ram, and second if a program is designed to make use of the 64bits like crysis it will run faster on 64bits than in 32 bits, unfortunately in what concerns gaming crysis is pretty much the only game to use 64bits.

That being said if a game doesn't use 64 bits it will still run equal if you have windows 64bits, so basically you loose nothing to go 64bits, the only possible disadvantage with windows 64bits is that some programs may not work, but not only do all majors games and programs work with 64bits, as I have been using windows vista 64bits since it pretty much came out, and right now the only incompatibility with it that I have found was with the drivers for a wireless linksys card, and you could get around that by installing other drivers, so pretty much there isn't any real disadvantage.

Well in the new rig there is 4gb ram. In the specs i wrote earlier the memory is x 2. And for the 4890, I don't think I'm going to pay an extra 50€ for it as it doesn't make that much difference in other games than ArmA 2. And the choices for the OS on the new rig are Vista 32-bit which I have in my current PC and Windows 7 32/64-bit. And my biggest concern is, that some games I like to play won't run on the 64-bit.

EDIT: I think I'm gonna stay with the 32-bit, as I buy most of my games from steam which doesn't have 64-bit versions of for example Crysis.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Danze

[echo1 0]

1) I've been running Windows 7 64bit exclusively for over 6 months, and have had no problems with the multitudes of games I've played on it.

2) Practically all games and software that are out today are 32bit. 64bit Windows can support 32bit software without any problems. It's only hardware drivers with certain older and unsupported/badly supported hardware that has issues. So it's irrelevant whether there are 64bit versions of the game or not.

[Danze 10]

What about older games? Have you tried them?

[echo1 0]

Depends on how old old is. The oldest games I've run on it are Tropico and the original Max Payne... I'm pretty sure that anything that ran under Vista will run under Windows 7 (And Win7 comes with an XP emulation mode for running really old software) If you have anything particular in mind, you should google "[Game name] Windows 7" and see what pops up.

Edited June 28, 2009 by echo1

[Danze 10]

Alright. Well I'll think about the OS.

[buddhabang 10]

I have one or two questions if someone can help please. Here are my system specs:

Asus P5N-E-SLI

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2333MHz

4GB Memory

NVIDIA GTX 260

Vista 32 Bits

First my problem is this, whenever i load Arma2 the first instance, i get major jitters, get really low fps, can barely move. Leave the game running for 30 mins or so and everything gets back to normal, running smoothly.

I have my Res at 1400 x 960 and most settings are on normal and high. All i want to know is why am i having this problem? Also when i leave the pc running over night, i don't get this problem. It seems it only happens when i first boot up.

Thanks.

Edited June 28, 2009 by BuddhaBang

[dangmypoons 1]

im getting a new graphics card tomorrow. im thinking about getting this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-GTX-285-XXX-PCI-E-20-(x16)-Mem-2500MHz-GDDR3-GPU-670MHz-240-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

what do you guys think?

my specs:

Windows vista

intel® core2 Quad CPU

Q6600 @2.40GHz

2.40GHz, 4.00GB of RAM

NVIDIA 8800gtx

XFX nForce 680i LT SLI motherboard

HG216D ( 22 Inch in 1680 x 1050 Resolution )

[TheMantis 10]

I upgraded from 8800 gtx to xfx gtx 285 black edition and as of now I only gained about 2 fps average. For all my other games the gtx 285 dominates though easily nearly twice the performance. So I think that once BIS gets this issue sorted out arma2 will show a good increase aswell.

Just don't expect arma2 to show a great increase at the moment.

[echo1 0]

What sort of PSU do you have? And have you tried dualbooting Vista and Windows 7?

[xclusiv8 10]

One question. Ive heard that ArmA2 runs better on WinXp. Has this been confirmed? If it really is like that then i might go back to WinXp.

I get 35fps when i run the benchmark in the demo but if i could get more than that with WinXp well then thats a clear win situation for WinXp :P

Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz

4Gb Ram

8800GTS 512mb OCed

Vista x64

[Dwarden 1124]

if you NVIDIA card owner read (performance tips) and post your experience here : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76908 and http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907283

btw about hardware discussion there is huge thread only for it

[buddhabang 10]

What sort of PSU do you have? And have you tried dualbooting Vista and Windows 7?

I recently upgraded PSU just to go with my newly acquired GTX 260, and it's a PS-900 Tornado ( 700W). And no i don't have Windows 7.

---------- Post added at 02:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

if you NVIDIA card owner read (performance tips) and post your experience here : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76908 and http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907283

btw about hardware discussion there is huge thread only for it

Alright thanks i will check there.

Updated------> Thanks for the link, seems to work. But not sure whether i had the game running for a while in the background or not, but keeping faith.

Edited June 28, 2009 by BuddhaBang

[echo1 0]

That PSU doesnt look like a particularily good one, have you noticed any crashes or other problems with the computer?

And it might be worth your while shrinking your Windows Vista partition and installing Windows 7 alongside it.

[buddhabang 10]

You reckon. Is there any link? Ta

[FlunkyMonkey 10]

Thanks a lot for the explanation, it definitely helped me out a lot! But do all games run on Windows 7 64-bit and does my PC need anything special to support the 64-bit version?

Danze, If you give me your specs I can help you check.

As for all programs working in 7, that is a good question. Technically, not all programs that have worked in past windows work in 7. However, the new compatibility mode fixes this problem. If a program worked in XP and not 7, you can set the program to run in XP compatibility mode. This will create a virtual layer that emulates windows xp between the program and windows 7. I have used it a few times already and from what I can tell it works great.

[Danze 10]

CPU: Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16ghz

GPU: MSI Radeon HD4870 1GB

RAM: 2x Kingston 1333mhz DDR3