ArmA2 8GB RAM Problem

[skypine27 0]

Bulldogs:

Thankx for the info. I had post processing set to Very High, and was playing fine (agian, under Vista 64). I guess I will have to play the game with the -winxp line, until nvidia and/or BIS fix this issue. (Im not removing 4gb of ram to play this! :-)

Edit: The "-winxp" command seems to not help with the super bright whites. For example, anything white gets a bright, halo, type glow around it.

Anthony:

Your fix sort of works for me. Its a one time fix, as in, you have to go thru the process each time you load the game. Not workable.

Edited July 28, 2009 by skypine27

[ollem 4]

@AnthonyTheAussie: same for me: one time only fix.

Reducing 8 -> 7 Gb memory trick using msconfig solved the issue for me too.

Windows 7 64bit

e8400

HD4890 (1 Gb mem)

8 Gb mem

[skypine27 0]

Ollem:

What is the 8 to 7GB msconfig trick?

That sounds like it might be worth trying until a fix comes out.

Thanks in advance.

Edited July 28, 2009 by skypine27

[kklownboy 43]

Ollem:

What is the 8 to 7GB msconfig trick?

That sounds like it might be worth trying until a fix comes out.

Thanks in advance.

you open up msconfig, and set the BOOT, Advanced, MAXIMUM MEMORY to less than 8GB.

START/RUN/msconfig/Boot/Advance/MaxMem= chkbox/4096mb.. or some such.

[BrunoDerRabe 0]

While I was able to reproduce this issue, it seems it is gone with nVidia 190.38 drivers.

8GB on Windows7 RC1 NVIDEA 190.38 2 260GTX in SLI AMD PhenomII 940BE @ 3.0Ghz were used for the test

Hi Suma,

on my testsystem the 190.38 driver is not the cure for the 8GB issue.

After reading your post I did upgrade the testsystem once more to 8GB RAM, with the hope I could CONFIRM that the issue seems to be gone with nVidia 190.38 drivers. But unfortunately it isn´t like that on my testsystem. At the Moment I´m setting the amount of RAM in the msconfig to 7680MB.

The two last lines of the arma.cfg

before changing the amount of RAM in the msconfig to 7680MB:

localVRAM=4911104;

nonlocalVRAM=4911104

The two last lines of the arma.cfg

after changing the amount of RAM in the msconfig to 7680MB:

localVRAM=2085285888;

nonlocalVRAM=2085285888;

Greetings, Bruno

ArmA2.cfg:

language="German";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=93750;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1200;

refresh=60;

Render_W=2400;

Render_H=1500;

FSAA=4;

postFX=3;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=2085285888;

nonlocalVRAM=2085285888;

---------- Post added at 09:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------

nothing too major hindering the game's playability here besides the CO30 Evolution mod missions bugging out after 6-8hours after start.

with nvidia 186 and 190 drivers localVram always detects 2x what i have; 1792 detected vs 896 actual. nonlocalvram is also always at 1792. i noticedifference forcing localVRAM to 896 (939524096), and nonlocalvram from 0GB to 6GB. no

since i bought ARMA 2 last week off steam (version 1.02) i have found that 99.9% of everything posted on forums and word of mouth regarding "performance tweaks" either A) do not effect performance or B) actually reduce performance for my setup. the game behaves the same as ARMA on my system for whatever reason so i guess i am fortunate and lucky that i have not had any issues. if i didn't personally know people having problems i would say all these issues are user error or just a bunch of bull, but it seems like a lot of people have been having issues. i found settings that give good performance and visual quality and they work fine for me. i had the game running for 8+ hours the other day (yes i took several breaks, just never shut the game down) playing Evolution Red .9 and it never glitched or slowed down at all.

the only crashes and glitches i get is when i set "Video Memory" to Very High or Default. this only occurs if i do not occationally alt-tab or use the flush command. also when changing -maxmem= to over 2000 i get a random CTD with the "failed to commit" error window. if i am travelling at a high rate of speed through a town after about 10-20 minutes; flying very low, full speed in vehicles.

the only performance hitch i have is with AntiAliasing and Shadows set to High or Very High the game stutters and is not smooth enough to enjoy even with 80+ PFS on my GTX275. a clanmate is having the same issue with an almost identical system except for his 295.

My system:

Win 7 RC

Core I7 @ 4.2ghz

275 896mb w/ Beta 190.38 drivers. 760core/1620shader/1332memory

6GB 3x2GB DDR3@1600 8-9-9-18

WD Raptor

WD AAK

ArmaIImark: 5700-5900 (1st run), 6600-6800 (2nd, 3rd+ run)

Dispaly Res: 1280x1024

Rendering Res: 1704x1364 (133%)

view distance: 3000 (or 2000 when in a larger city)

Texture: High (or normal depending on if i'm on the ground vs. air)

Video Mem: High

AF: Very High

AA: High

Terrain: Very Low

Object Detail: Normal (or high depending on coop vs. pvp for better framerate)

Shadows: Normal (High+Very high stutter)

Post Processing: Low (or off, motion blur gives me a headache)

Hi frag85,

you are not running 8GB RAM, your post seems to be off topic for me.

Nevertheless I would like to help you.

Quote: i notice difference forcing local VRAM to 896 (939524096), and nonlocalvram from 0GB to 6GB

Answer: The two last lines of the ArmA2.cfg are more for your information and not to force something.

*If you set the CFG file to read only it doesn't overwrite.*

O.K., let say it this way,,,, it will be ignored. If you change it to read only, in this case it is like an effort to ignore, that the efforts to get it right, had no success so far ....

Quote: with nvidia 186 and 190 drivers localVram always detects 2x what i have

Here an outtake of my previous post #67 in this thread from 06-23-2009, 03:01 AM that might help you to understand:

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

---------- Post added at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------

07-23-2009, 02:05 PM #142

So Suma, you could replicate it for Nvidia Users that is very good at least, but what is with us ATI users?

Will it remain once again like it was with Arma1, that you will only have disadvantages with ATI Cards?

Must i feel cheated again having thrown my hard earned cash out of the Window, in my tiny hope that i had actually bought a GOOD Graphics Card for Arma2 this time?

Looking at your latest changelog Placebo made Public recently, i cant notice any of those 8GB-Issues fixed.

I wonder what is more important to you, pleasing the crowd with Analogue Throttle Support or investigating and finally fixing the really important issues which making the game UNPLAYABLE in the first place for some of us?

We bought 3 copies of Arma2 here in my Family, 2 People can't play it properly at all because of having a top-notch graphics card and 8GB Ram.

Do i have to mention that Arma2 has already dropped over 40% in Price for a new version and on eBay you can even get it for 10-15 bucks already, while the Forums are full with complains about those serious issues making the game almost impossible to play...

I hope and really urge you with this post to fix those important issues for the upcomming patch.

Thanks!

Hi mr.g-c,

no offense, but why don´t you just calm down, read the solution offered here ( it is avaible since 06-23-2009, 03:01 AM #67 ) and make the 2 People who can't play it properly at all because of having a top-notch graphics card and 8GB Ram smile again.

After doing so you might smile about your post and maybe about youself.

Greetings, Bruno

... setting the RAM in the advanced startup settings of the msconfig to the value of 7680MB - bringing the best results, as it is confirmed by other forumusers.

Why not using this workaround for now?

As a reminder, if you change the value of the RAM in your msconfig to 7680MB,

don´t have a look in the msconfig after the restart, use the taskmanager instead. Check the total amount of total physical memory there.

It might be around 6655MB, wich is O.K. .

Using the NVIDIA 186.18 or 190.38 driver with altering the amount of RAM to 7680MB in the msconfig solves the problem and will give you best results in level of details and performance using 8GB RAM.

---------- Post added at 10:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 PM ----------

I have an additional question here, with

Vista, q9450 and a 4890 would it make an impact to upgrade von 4gig to 8?:)

With a 64 Bit Version of Vista it could.

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

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

The detected an USED localVRAM (local video RAM / perhaps extended with some amount of the system RAM ) will be increased. One bottleneck of the usage might be also the narrow 256 Bit memorybus of your ATI 4890.

Greetings, Bruno

---------- Post added at 10:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 PM ----------

This is all a lot to take in especially as I'm not all that computer savvy. I've tried all sorts of configurations of these fixes listed and am still getting random CTD.

My CTD are preceded by loss of textures and slow down in FPS, I noticed windows side bar clock shows 42% of my RAM being used and it stays filled even after CTD for the duration until I reboot.

Has anyone with these problems and similar specs to mine found a "fix" I could try. I have the following so the 8GB fix would need to be altered to suit my RAM ?

Core i7 920@3.5GHz

6GB DDR3 tri chan RAM@1333

GTX260(216) 896MB(Factory OC) - GPU: 621MHz, Mem: 1000MHz, Shader: 1350MHz

nVidia Driver Version 186.18 (roll back did not fix):(

Arma 2 config:

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=100000;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1600;

Resolution_H=1200;

refresh=60;

Render_W=1600;

Render_H=1200;

FSAA=0;

postFX=1;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=1745850369;

nonlocalVRAM=2147483647;

I've tried all sorts of fixes listed already but no combination seems to work, what should I concentrate on. Not knowing what I'm doing, I may make things worse adding the wrong switches and/or trying fixes I should not be using ?

Thanx in advance or your patience and input:confused:

Edit for more clarification: I tried in-game GFX on low, medium and high setting and different combo's. The 'Shift -FLUSH' command works but I can't always catch it in time before I CTD. Frames rates are good at higher settings but CTD are more frequent. The larger map also suffers more frequent CTD as does fast ground speed, whether in fligh or on the ground.

Hi SimonJames,

you are not running 8GB RAM, your post seems for me to be off topic too.

But certainly I would like to solve your problem.

In your case the detected VRAM is O.K..

First I ask you to run your overclocked Core i7 920@3.5GHz at its native speed @2,666GHz.

This needs to be done with your RAM or whatever is overclockeded too.

Check again and if you still having issues please contact me.

Greetings, Bruno

---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 PM ----------

Jsut wanted to put my 2 cents in as well ive read a few posts here. Im trying the Demo as some mates of mine have said its worth a go. But I Have EXACTLY that issue. My Machine is nothing short of half decent and should be able to run this game almost flawlessy at the best graphics and I mean Almost, not quite system specs as follows;

AMD Phenom II 940 Black Edition

ATi Radeon 4890 1gig

780G AMD Chipset MB

8gig Kingston Hyper X @ 1066mhz RAM

Vista Ultimate x64

Why should I have to go into the config and have to change the Memory to 4gig or a tad less everytime I want to run this game then have to go back and change it restart my machine to be able to run 4 or 5 Virtual Machines for business, waste of time. If they dont fix the Demo why should I bother buying the full game. Id like to be able to run it at 1680x1050 for Screen Res and 3D graphics I shouldnt have to piss fart around with my memory its rediculous. I assume some of you are having this problem with the full release is that right?

I may have missed a post from BI are they going to or have they addressed this issue because I had a look at V1.2.5 patch notes and looks like they did nothing about it.

Im not buying this game as I said if the Demo doesnt work so why bother wasting money on the full release. The Demo is meant to be a demonstration of what the game is meant ot be like. Well to me it looks like rubbish like Im playing some old 16bit game with new polygons. No thanks...

I hope they fix it, if they did theyd probably sell mroe copys Im sure of it.

Cheers!

Hi Revelate,

you can use the amount of 7680MB ( may be a wee bit less/7424MB for example - which is best depends on the chipset too ) stop moaning, start playing the game and you will probably be able to do your business and run your 4 or 5 Virtual Machines.

Following Quote is edited by me ( driverversions ):

Hi all, I understand that it takes some time to read all the posts here in this threat.

I do see people still looking for help.

Yes, the 8GB problem with the newer driverversions ( NVIDIA 190.38 ) still exists, just want to confirm that.

Folks, I did spend lots of time with debuging this issue - and weeks ago I did invent the workaround setting the RAM in the advanced startup settings of the msconfig to the value of 7680MB - bringing the best results, as it is confirmed by other forumusers.

Why not using this workaround for now?

As a reminder, if you change the value of the RAM in your msconfig to 7680MB,

don´t have a look in the msconfig after the restart, use the taskmanager instead. Check the total amount of total physical memory there.

It might be around 6655MB, wich is O.K. .

Using the NVIDIA 186.18 or 190.38 driver with altering the amount of RAM to 7680MB in the msconfig solves the problem and will give you best results in level of details and performance using 8GB RAM.

I got feedback by some forumusers during the last weeks that for some motherboards the amount of 7424MB is the better choice (OS/chipsets/drivers).

Greetings, Bruno

Edited August 3, 2009 by BrunoDerRabe
details added

[Desert 10]

Even with 1.03 the Problem is still there. . . :(

[kklownboy 43]

hmmm well then it may be upto a driver update... ATi is in a couple of weeks, a beta nvda maybe out at the same time...

[Bigtnaples 10]

Even with 1.03 the Problem is still there. . . :(

Wow. The devs hav known all along about this bug and yet they can't fix it?

[Fiya 10]

Wow. The devs hav known all along about this bug and yet they can't fix it?

Yes, because it must be something extremely simple, that requires almost no effort or time. Even though I believe their is a DIY fix already. Compared to many things which do not.

You did not play the original Arma did you?...

[shataan 1]

I have a BFG 295 GTX, and my swapfile is set to 8092 min/max. What should I set my local and nonlocalvram to? Thx .

[-s!Gm4- 10]

Wow. The devs hav known all along about this bug and yet they can't fix it?

I think they had a closer look to issues with the engine, like physics, faulty animations, faulty behaviour of vehicles/buildings/AI and so on.

Personally I think the'll take a look to the technical side with the next patch or several hotfixes...

Note that I dont want to defend'em. I want to use my whole 8 Gigs of RAM also - without any errors.

[XZeal 10]

I got the same problem, and I kindly ask Bohemia to pay more attention on this problem, to solve in proper way/

[Sn@keByte 10]

Bug is still present in 1.03:

Win7 RC1 x64

8 GB DDR3

ATi 4890 GS-Edition

Can still be fixed with -winxp parameter.

[nuggetz 0]

Just tried to reboot with all my RAM and I too confirm that BIS didn't even think about fixing this awful problem in 1.03.

[datter 0]

Since moving to 8GB from 6Gb I'm seeing related problems as well. This needs to be kept bumped up for the sake of all those with needless amounts of ram like us. :)

[L33t-krew 0]

Since moving to 8GB from 6Gb I'm seeing related problems as well. This needs to be kept bumped up for the sake of all those with needless amounts of ram like us. :)

Bump by me.

I had 4Gb Dominator 1066mhz working fine yesterday. Another 4gb came in the post today and its hit the corruption lark.

Disappointing it hasnt been fixed tbh.

[Rikqi 10]

I have the same problem. Running Win 7 64bit.

NV 190.38 drivers and Arma 2 Steam copy (so it is automatically the latest update).

My rig is a E8400, 8GB RAM, 9800GX2.

Only way I can get around the texture issue is by playing in windowed mode, but performance is sluggish.

I tried two previous driver releases from Nvidia and nada...

From the looks of this thread, the developers do know about this issue, but dont appear to have it high on their priority list.

This is obviously unprofessional. They should come out and acknowledge the problem officially and say whether they can or cannot fix it.

I don't consider msconfig fixes and the like to be acceptable after months of waiting. This game has allot of potential, but after spending my hard earned money to support this kind of unprofessional behavior, I simply can't recommend it to friends and family.

Developers, please honor your end of the deal and fix the problem. Everyone in this thread has honored their part by not only paying upfront for this product, but also investing our time in documenting and writing about the texture issue.

Thank you.

[Desert 10]

With BetaPatch ARMA2_Build_58834 i see no Change here.

[nyran125 10]

Get rid of Vista for gaming. fullstop :):). wow DX10, DAMN dx9 people are missing some slight visuals, what a shame. Id rather my games run better than have to go out an buy 6gb 's of ram just to play my games properly , screw that. Why bother?

[datter 0]

Get rid of Vista for gaming. fullstop :):). wow DX10, DAMN dx9 people are missing some slight visuals, what a shame. Id rather my games run better than have to go out an buy 6gb 's of ram just to play my games properly , screw that. Why bother?

Win7 64bit and 8GB ram here... why bother? 3d animation, HD video editing. etc.

There is more to life than game playing, and it's rather silly that just having 8GB causes issues for those of us to have/need it. Frankly I'm getting sick of this entire thing, I hardly touch ArmA2 anymore and that's surprising.

[Drasta 10]

Then just rename arma2.exe to crysis.exe and add -winxp and you can play ArmA2 without problems... It worked for me.

[shuurajou 10]

While I was able to reproduce this issue, it seems it is gone with nVidia 190.38 drivers.

Hi Suma,

This still seems to be an issue.

My specs are...

GFX: BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX

Sound: X-Fi Fatal1ty

Mobo: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe (BIOS 1303)

CPU: Intel Woldfale E8400 Intel Core 2 Duo

Cooler: Tuniq Tower 120 (on the CPU)

Case: Cosmos S

Keyboard: Microsoft Natural 4000

Mouse: Razer Diamondback

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Final RTM Build

RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 PC-8500C5 @ 1066MHz

Display: Dell 2005FPW

PSU: Hiper Type M 880W

My findings...

Using 190.62 drivers, with 2x 8800 GTXs in SLI, no command line arguments and no msconfig modifications, Arma 2 detected 2GB localVRAM.

Using 190.62 drivers, with 1x BFG GTX 285 OCX, no command line arguments or msconfig modifications, Arma 2 detected 200MB localVRAM. Also had white textures.

Using 190.62 drivers, with 1x BFG GTX 285 OCX, with the -winxp command line arguments and no msconfig modifications, Arma 2 detected 2GB localVRAM.

Using 190.62 drivers, with 1x BFG GTX 285 OCX, with the -winxp command line arguments and 4GB msconfig memory limitation, Arma 2 detected 1002MB (essentially correct) localVRAM.

This is with Arma v1.03. Same applies with 190.38.

Edited August 26, 2009 by shuurajou

[kklownboy 43]

..

Using 190.62 drivers, ...

suma; "..with nVidia 190.38 drivers"

[datter 0]

shuurajou, you're an inspiration as to how to stay positive about this stuff. I've about given up and gotten rather down on things... but at least what you're doing lately is constructive.

For me (Win7 64 bit, 8GB ram):

Dual 8800GT's, with 190.62 and command line arguments (-winxp) or NO command line arguments... localvram is detected at 213mb with eventual texture issues in game.

Same set up, with or without command line and in game texture memory settings set to low, medium, high, very high or default all result in the same thing... 213mb detected, plus eventual texture issues in game as above.

Frustrating.

[kklownboy 43]

shuurajou, you're an inspiration as to how to stay positive about this stuff. I've about given up and gotten rather down on things... but at least what you're doing lately is constructive.

For me (Win7 64 bit, 8GB ram):

Dual 8800GT's, with 190.62 and command line arguments (-winxp) or NO command line arguments... localvram is detected at 213mb with eventual texture issues in game.

Same set up, with or without command line and in game texture memory settings set to low, medium, high, very high or default all result in the same thing... 213mb detected, plus eventual texture issues in game as above.

Frustrating.

your 3D cp setting for ARMA2 is local and set to multigpu? single display?