ArmA2 8GB RAM Problem

[Desert 10]

After downloading and (clean)installing the Catalyst 9.6, i have to inform you that the Problem is still there. Looking forward to Friday and Patch 1.02. Maybe it will be fixed then. :o

[mr.g-c 6]

Same Bug here.... tztztzt fresh ordered Stuff is making these errors with 8GB Ram:

bYmi0rwtlQM

Its a real shame because with this toxic radeon card and 4GB Ram i can set *nearly* everything to very high and it runs fluid and its sooo beautiful....

WinXP Parameter did solve the iussue but it seems to me that it runs a bit slower now and that is of course not a real solution....

I hope this will be fixe by a patch soon!

[Sniperdoc 0]

Nvidia user with 8GB of ram and a GTX285, no such problems here. I'm also running Win7 RC 64bit

Ditto. Please see specs below.

Running 185.85 drivers on Windows 7 with two GTX280s (non-SLI)

[Thrawn123 10]

I am also having this issue. It looks like everything is missing textures. Grass shows up as black blocks for example.

Vista SP 2 Ultimate 64-bit

Core 2 Quad Q9450

8 GB RAM

Nvidia 8800 GTS 512

the -winxp switch fixed the problem for now.

[Richey79 10]

Hi all.

I had this problem for a time. Seemed to be related to crossfire. When I had two cards in my mobo and selected crossfire off in Catalyst, the texture problem happened.

So, I come to upgrade my graphics card (all of these ATI), and for a time have only one card in (HD 4870). The texture problem came back, and I couldn't fix it without the -winxp fix. Now, with only a HD 4870 x2 in, Arma 2 works fine without the -winxp fix.

So, this probably doesn't suggest to anybody a fix; but somebody clever might be able to narrow down where the problem lies. I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 and have 8Gigs RAM, by the way.

Hope this helps someone.

[Hazzamon 0]

I am getting this exact issue also.

Intel Q9550 @ 2.83Ghz (Stock)

8GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12

Asus P5Q-E

ATI Radeon 4870 1GB

Asus Xonar D2X

Windows 7 RC1 64-bit

Setting VRAM to 'Very High' does not fix the issue. The -winxp switch works however.

Edited June 19, 2009 by Hazzamon

[mark 1]

sorry i dont understand how to put in the winxp to the shortcut can someone tell me how please

[echo1 0]

Right click on the shortcut on your desktop, select properties. Go to the end of the "Target" field, and type "-winxp". Make sure there is a space between it and the location of the .exe file. So it should look like

C:\Program Files\...\ArmA2.exe -winxp

[goldkid80 10]

c:\progr...\bohemia interactive\arma2\arma2.exe" -winxp

[Sam75 0]

-maxmem=2047 not this one ?

[echo1 0]

I'm pretty sure there's a winxp flag that limits RAM to 3GB or something like that.

[mark 1]

cool thanks works now

[Desert 10]

No Change on this problem with the 1.02 Patch.

[BrunoDerRabe 0]

This 8GB issue anoying as hell, please get it fixed ....

older driver version works fine [ 182.5 for Vista 64 and 181,71 ( Prerelease - WDMM 1.1) for Windows7RC1]

After the nvidia GPU driver downgrade I always install the PhysX_9.09.0428_SystemSoftware from the driver package 186.18, no need to keep an older version.

You will find the PhysX_9.09.0428_SystemSoftware from the prior 186.18 installation in: C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\186.18\International ( example from Windows 7 RC1 )

If you haven´t installed 186.16 on the PC before, you can start an installation of it , cancel it after the files were extracted on your harddrive.

Here a suggestion:

Is there no way for example to implement a checkbox in the grafic options, to force the game to drop or ignore the VRAM check/driver info dialog .... then it would be possible to set up the game properly with the amount of <=4GB RAM or an

older driver version wich works fine [ 182.5 for Vista 64 and 181,71 ( Prerelease - WDMM 1.1) for Windows7RC1], tick the box and add the rest of the RAM or update the driver?

Certainly a 64 bit arma2.exe would be great to run the game as a native 64bit application. I am aware about the needed efforts to get this job done.

If you want to compare your arma2.cfg with this example look for it in: C:\Users\*username*\Documents\ArmA 2

You need to open the file with an editor to see these values.

I have edited FSAA=0 to FSAA=4 to set the antialiasing value in the game to very high.

The Render_W=2400 and Render_H=1500 are a result of me using the 3D resolution ( fillrateoptimization) of 125% for 1920*1200 in the gamesettings.

The ingame postprocess setting of high is simular with postFX=2 .

language="German";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=100000;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1200;

refresh=60;

Render_W=2400;

Render_H=1500;

FSAA=4;

postFX=2;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=924581888;

nonlocalVRAM=2143780864;

Everytime the game shuts down the two last lines will be updated and overwritten. With 8GB RAM and some driverversions the driver interfears with the game in a bad manner and as a result the VRAM will be detected wrong and the ingamegrafics srew up. If you count only 8 digits in the localVRAM and nonlocalVRAM values nevertheless you running uptodate hardware you know the bug strikes again.

Arma2 is played here with Track IR and the resolution set at 1920*1200 - memory and GPU´s are swapped as needed between the 2 PCs

Intel Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz OC**************AMD PhenomII 940BE @ 3.0Ghz

4GB DDR2-1066@933MHz**************4GB DDR2-1066

1 260GTX **************************2 260GTX in SLI

X-Fi Xtreme Gamer*******************Onboard Sound Realtek High Definition Audio

Asus P5N72-T Premium****************Asrock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi

PSU Xilence 750W Gamer Edition********PSU Xilence 750W Gamer Edition

Windows Vista 64 Ultimate*************Windows 7 RC1 64-bit

ArmA2 (1.02), BIOS, drivers and OS are up to date

Edited July 9, 2009 by BrunoDerRabe

[Thrawn123 10]

Confirmed issue is still happening in 1.02. :mad:

[technologickill 10]

same here with all driver versions newer than 182.x :(

[BrunoDerRabe 0]

THE SOLUTION

8GB on Windows7 RC1 NVIDEA 186.18 2 260GTX in SLI AMD PhenomII 940BE @ 3.0Ghz were used for the test

The reward of using the up to date NVIDEA 186.18 version with an higher amount of RAM is a performance increase and a better imagequality COMPARED to the driverversion NVIDEA 182.50 .

msconfig 4096MB = shows after reboot 3071MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=924581888

msconfig 6144MB = shows after reboot 5119MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=1217781761

msconfig 7168MB = shows after reboot 6143MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=1754652673

msconfig 7424MB = shows after reboot 6399MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=1888870401

msconfig 7680MB = shows after reboot 6835MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=2117459969

msconfig 7804MB = shows after reboot 6779MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=2088099841

msconfig 7936MB = shows after reboot 6911MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=4911104= NOT GOOD

With the value of 4069MB for systemstart via msconfig an amont of total 3GB physical memory only are shown in the performance tab of the taskmanager.

With the value of 6144MB for systemstart via msconfig an amont of total 5GB physical memory only are shown in the performance tab of the taskmanager.

With the value of 7168MB for systemstart via msconfig an amont of total 6GB physical memory only are shown in the performance tab of the taskmanager.

With the value of max. memory for systemstart via msconfig an amont of total 8GB physical memory are shown in the performance tab of the taskmanager.

It looks like that decreasing the amount of RAM via msconfig to a lower value than the installed 8GB makes sure that 1GB is hidden somewhere, and ArmA2 and the new driverversions team up correctly.

With other games the 8GB is no issue, so I think the new drivers have seen a change somehow to handle the growing amount of Memory, but it and/or the OS change the handling of it with 8GB detected and on top of that ArMA2 delivers not the nessecery ignition to OS/ drivers as they desire like other games do.

Time to see the mechanic ;-) .....

language="German";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=100000;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1200;

refresh=60;

Render_W=2400;

Render_H=1500;

FSAA=4; [manualy edited by me - with patchlevel 1.02 the standard value is 0 ( disabled )]

postFX=2;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=1754652673;

nonlocalVRAM=2147483647;

detected VRAM with Nvidia 182.50 (8GB RAM; *msconfig value default*) = 924581888

detected VRAM with Nvidia 186.16 (8GB RAM; msconfig value 7168MB ) =1754652673

detected VRAM with Nvidia 186.16 (8GB RAM; msconfig value 7680MB ) =2117459969

Arma2 is played here with Track IR and the resolution set at 1920*1200 - memory and GPU´s are swapped as needed between the 2 PCs

Intel Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz OC**************AMD PhenomII 940BE @ 3.0Ghz

4GB DDR2-1066@933MHz**************4GB DDR2-1066

1 260GTX **************************2 260GTX in SLI

X-Fi Xtreme Gamer*******************Onboard Sound Realtek High Definition Audio

Asus P5N72-T Premium****************Asrock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi

PSU Xilence 750W Gamer Edition********PSU Xilence 750W Gamer Edition

Windows Vista 64 Ultimate*************Windows 7 RC1 64-bit

ArmA2 (1.02), BIOS, drivers and OS are up to date

Edited July 9, 2009 by BrunoDerRabe

[Phr34k 10]

Bruno, ive read your post 3 times now, but im still not sure what you mean.

I have now forced my Vista64bit 8gb ram down to 5gb and it work fine.

Is your post saying that if i put it back on 8gb and change he localVRAM it should work?

How do i get the correct VRAM with Ati?

[suma 8]

8GB on Windows7 RC1 NVIDEA 186.18 2 260GTX in SLI AMD PhenomII 940BE @ 3.0Ghz were used for the test

msconfig 4096MB = shows after reboot 3071MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=924581888

msconfig 6144MB = shows after reboot 5119MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=1217781761

msconfig 7168MB = shows after reboot 6143MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=1754652673

msconfig 7424MB = shows after reboot 6399MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=1888870401

msconfig 7680MB = shows after reboot 6835MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=2117459969

msconfig 7804MB = shows after reboot 6779MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=2088099841

msconfig 7936MB = shows after reboot 6911MB in the taskmanager detected localVRAM=4911104= NOT GOOD

Great observation, you did really good debugging job. It seems there must be some more 32b overflow, as what you observe is exactly when detected localVRAM goes over 2 GB. I think finding and fixing this should be easy now.

[Palad1n 10]

I have no problem like this

Phenom II 3GHZ

8 GB DDR2 A-DATA

ATI HD 4850

WINDOWS 7 RC1 7229

[Desert 10]

@Bruno

Yeah you can limit your System to ~4GB to get ArmA2 working correctly or you can use the -winxp Parameter in the ArmA2 Shortcut to play without limiting your System to 4GB completely.

@Suma

I have a 4870 with 1GB RAM, whem i´m backup my .cfg and start ArmA2 without the -winxp Parameter and with 8GB RAM the Autodetect shows this:

localVRAM=3768256;

nonlocalVRAM=3768256;

With the -winxp Parameter and 8GB RAM it shows:

localVRAM=2134048641;

nonlocalVRAM=2147483647;

Is the non functioning Autodetect the Cause for this Problem, like Bruno describes?

[Survey78 10]

Doing as bruno suggested and limiting ram "msconfig 7804MB" fixed the problem in win 7 rc x64 with the 186.18_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql driver.

Just wanted to confirm it since it's such a simple fix, thanks.

[BrunoDerRabe 0]

Bruno, ive read your post 3 times now, but im still not sure what you mean.

I have now forced my Vista64bit 8gb ram down to 5gb and it work fine.

Is your post saying that if i put it back on 8gb and change he localVRAM it should work?

How do i get the correct VRAM with Ati?

The idea is to avoid the bug , but to use more than just 4GB of the total installed 8GB RAM while playing ArmA2 1.02 with the NVIDEA 186.18 driver as you might have to cope with while using other workarounds, if they work at all.

On my Windows 7RC1 the peak of RAM for a good result to set in the advanced startoptions is 7680 MB.

If you add more, the direction changes very soon and it will turn around into a disadvantage.

As a result VRAM detection screws up.

You DON`T have to change the value of VRAM in the ArmA2`s config. This is done by the game, depending on the amount of reported RAM.

THe VRAM value in the test #detected localVRAM=2117459969# is the result of choosing the amount of 7680 MB in the advanced startoptions in the msconfig .

With this setting the taskmanager reports after a reboot 6835MB total physical memory ( in the testresults above ).

Because the detected localVRAM=2023088129 and nonlocalVRAM is 2147483647 in my config with above settings (7680 MB , taskmanager now shows 6655MB of total physical memory ) I am not going to change it soon.

Depending on the choosen amount of RAM in MB in the advanced startoptions of the msconfig,

the reported MB of total physical memory shown in the taskmanager will be different, this all is managed by the OS.

The VRAM detection of the application ArmA2 1.02 depends on the above settings.

According to them the amount of detected VRAM is reported to the config of ArmA2.

That means you can check via the config (detected localVRAM=? after ending the game) if you have set an amount of RAM to start Windows Vista/7RC1 with, without spoiling the VRAM detection of your so loved game.

Does the bug strike you at all? Did you check the VRAM in the config? For Nvidia users it depends on the driverversion. Please read last posts. Best you try it youself and please tell us the results.

Detailed info about the used PC and ATI driverversion is always helpfull.

@Desert

Thanks mate, I have tried that all and more ;-) ...

The -winxp parameter in the ArmA2 shortcut doesn´t work on this rig.

I also wanted to narrow down the source of it.

---------- Post added at 11:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 PM ----------

Great observation, you did really good debugging job. It seems there must be some more 32b overflow, as what you observe is exactly when detected localVRAM goes over 2 GB. I think finding and fixing this should be easy now.

@ Suma

Thank you for the recognition. :bounce3:

My pleasure.

Edited June 25, 2009 by BrunoDerRabe

[Desert 10]

Installed the 1.02.58134 patch, deleted my old ArmA2.cfg, removed the -winxp Parameter from my Shortcut aaand the Problem is still the same.

The VRAM parts from the 1.02.58134 generated ArmA2.cfg and 8GB RAM:

localVRAM=3768256;

nonlocalVRAM=3768256;

The VRAM Parts with the -winxp Parameter and 8GB RAM (no Problem):

localVRAM=2140766144;

nonlocalVRAM=2140766144;

The VRAM Parts with 4GB RAM (msconfig, no Problem):

localVRAM=1068449792;

nonlocalVRAM=1475870720;

Edited June 26, 2009 by Desert
Typo

[technologickill 10]

Confirm that the prob still exists while testing with the latest nvidia driver 186.x and the new updated patch ... so we should go back to 182.50 ?