ArmA2 8GB RAM Problem

[bangtail 0]

ethne, perhaps i'm missing somekind of logic here but win7 latest nvidia drivers works fine with other games right? If so there is a problem with nvidia and bis and not win7 and nvidia. (btw haven't i seen the same reports regarding 64 vista/xp in this thread? regarding the "don't use beta/rc os")

Is arma2 using some aspect of the dx that the rest don't , or perhaps the first ones that takes advantage of the higher amount of ram available, since most games is still coded in a "everybody uses a 32bit os" perspective i presume that could pose somekind of problem.

I'm having a hard problem seeing it's a win7 problem though , since most people are running earlier versions of their drivers with 8gig ram with sucess.

Just don't like the claim "this is NOT a bis problem" since i want them to look into it.

It isn't BIS, look at what I pasted directly from Nvidia. It causes problems in GTA IV as well (and I am sure others that I am not aware of). Sorry you "don't like it" but facts are facts.

Secondly, Win 7 is not released so there is no expectation of support. Don't run beta/RC operating systems and then start whinging.

Thirdly, I run A2 under XP64 with absolutely no performance problems to speak of, so it is not a 64 bit problem.

Cheers,

Eth

[survey 0]

Ok, then it's an nvidia problem and hopefully it will get fixed.

I'm not whining since the game runs fine after limiting ram under win7.

Just have to ask, do you have 8 gigs of ram? since no one claimed it was a 64bit problem but they claimed it was a 8 gig ram problem.

edit:

Oh yeah if you commented on the 32bit os perspective i just meant that if you presume that most people are using an os that only uses around 3,2gigs ram max that could create some problems.

Edited July 3, 2009 by survey

[bangtail 0]

Ok, then it's an nvidia problem and hopefully it will get fixed.

I'm not whining since the game runs fine after limiting ram under win7.

Just have to ask, do you have 8 gigs of ram? since no one claimed it was a 64bit problem but they claimed it was a 8 gig ram problem.

edit:

Oh yeah if you commented on the 32bit os perspective i just meant that if you presume that most people are using an os that only uses around 3,2gigs ram max that could create some problems.

Hey mate,

I have 12 gigs of RAM. It doesn't cause any problems for me in XP64 and it isn't a problem in Win 7 either but XP64 provides MUCH better performance in my experience.

Cheers,

Eth

[survey 0]

No black block textures whatsoever in arma2 you say with 12gigs of ram and latest nvidia drivers? Then, is it specific 8gigs of ram that creates this and above 8 goes beyond a certain threshold. Since i havent heard of any reports from people that i can remember using more than 8gigs of ram. (if i scroll back in thread perhaps?).

[bangtail 0]

No black block textures whatsoever in arma2 you say with 12gigs of ram and latest nvidia drivers? Then, is it specific 8gigs of ram that creates this and above 8 goes beyond a certain threshold. Since i havent heard of any reports from people that i can remember using more than 8gigs of ram. (if i scroll back in thread perhaps?).

No black textures or any other performance related problems. I use 182.50 and not 186.18.

[Dungeoncrawler 10]

Running Vista 64, couple gtx 280's (186.18), and 8gb of ram with no graphic anomolies.

[claus.valca 0]

There is no evidence that it is not a BIS problem. When ArmA had problems with 8GB of RAM the symptoms were similar, updating to more recent NVIDIA drivers caused an issue in ArmA, mainly textures not loading in the game with messed up verts and such. People swore up and down that it had to be NVIDIA's fault because previous drivers worked fine, then Suma (I believe) posted that they had found a bug in their code that caused systems with 8GB of RAM to detect no video memory. It was fixed in the next patch (1.14.or 1.15).

So, Bohemia may have a bug in their code that is causing this problem. I'm sure it will be resolved though.

[Desert 10]

The Problem affects ATI Users too. Take a look at this Post and this one, it seems that the Autodetect for the NVRAM Values dont work properly atm. You will see the same Behaviour on a affected ATI System, no matter wich Catalyst is installed (i tried 8.12 to 9.6).

Edited July 3, 2009 by Desert

[bangtail 0]

There is no evidence that it is not a BIS problem. When ArmA had problems with 8GB of RAM the symptoms were similar, updating to more recent NVIDIA drivers caused an issue in ArmA, mainly textures not loading in the game with messed up verts and such. People swore up and down that it had to be NVIDIA's fault because previous drivers worked fine, then Suma (I believe) posted that they had found a bug in their code that caused systems with 8GB of RAM to detect no video memory. It was fixed in the next patch (1.14.or 1.15).

So, Bohemia may have a bug in their code that is causing this problem. I'm sure it will be resolved though.

Actually, there is. Nvidia posted it in the driver's readme and I pasted it a few posts back. It affects GTA IV as well and is rumoured to be fixed in the next driver release.

I'm talking about the game detecting the available memory erroneously and disallowing you from selecting certain menu options. This is a direct result of the new way Win 7 communicates memory size through DX.

Cheers,

Eth

[Yoma 0]

I have 6 GB of memory on Vistax64.

My "localmemory" gets detected wrong when on nvidia driver 186.12 (the game works fine though,except crashes a lot more then usual)

If i remove 2GB of memory the localmemory gets detected correctly and the game crashes a lot less...

With driver 182.5 my vga memory get's detected correctly by Arma2 on both 6GB or 4GB.

I'm starting to think that this is in fact a fuckup by Nvidia and not by BIS.

Could others test this too?

[Desert 10]

This Problem affected different Systems with different Hard- and Software, like i said in my second Post on the first Page of this Thread, so i really think this is a "BiS Problem" and we have to wait for a Fix.

Edited July 3, 2009 by Desert

[StormbringerGT 0]

It seems that ArmA2 have the same/a similar Problem with 8GB RAM. I have some major Textureproblems with 8GB RAM (Gras is black, Trees are big Blocks and so on, Buildings are totally messed up), it looks normally only in a 640x480 Resolution. When i`m limit my System to 3328MB RAM ArmA2 works fine in 1680x1050.

P.S.: Sorry for my bad english, i hope you understand what i mean. I`m trying to do some Screenshots later because the "print" key doesnt work.

I have 8gbs RAM in my system, how do I limit my system RAM to 4gb to fix the problem?

Unless you are talking physically taking the RAM out.

[bangtail 0]

I have 8gbs RAM in my system, how do I limit my system RAM to 4gb to fix the problem?

Unless you are talking physically taking the RAM out.

Start menu --->

Run ---->

type : msconfig (You can also type this in the search box if you don't have "run" enabled in the start menu)

Go to the "Boot" tab, then select "Advanced options".

Check the maximum memory box.

Type in 7804.

Click on "OK"

Reboot.

NB : Do not return to the advanced options page after you have set the amount of memory as it will change the memory size to ~3GB

Eth

Edited July 3, 2009 by BangTail

[StormbringerGT 0]

Start menu --->

Run ---->

type : msconfig (You can also type this in the search box if you don't have "run" enabled in the start menu)

Go to the "Boot" tab, then select "Advanced options".

Check the maximum memory box.

Type in 7804.

Click on "OK"

Reboot.

NB : Do not return to the advanced options page after you have set the amount of memory as it will change the memory size to 3xxx GB.

Eth

Thanks I will let you know of my findings!

Also I dunno if this helps anyone, but I am having a very similar issue in Empire Total War. I am using the newest NVidia Drivers.

Alright! I did two things, I went back to 182.50 drivers. I also limited my memory as per your guys suggestions.

The game runs great! I got everything cranked on Very High and I get a very playable 30 FPS (my game was saved in the middle of a large firefight and it runs great) I'd make a video and show it, but FRAPs ruins framerate and ruins the point of my video.

Its also worth noting that after doing both of those my Empire total War problem went away as well!

Edited July 3, 2009 by StormbringerGT

[bangtail 0]

Thanks I will let you know of my findings!

Also I dunno if this helps anyone, but I am having a very similar issue in Empire Total War. I am using the newest NVidia Drivers.

Alright! I did two things, I went back to 182.50 drivers. I also limited my memory as per your guys suggestions.

The game runs great! I got everything cranked on Very High and I get a very playable 30 FPS (my game was saved in the middle of a large firefight and it runs great) I'd make a video and show it, but FRAPs ruins framerate and ruins the point of my video.

Its also worth noting that after doing both of those my Empire total War problem went away as well!

Great news :)

[ste4lth004 10]

Im using 6gig, but its only showing 2.99 gig ram, but i have no graphic probs, so must be the 8gig only bug, by the way im using 185.85 driver, and havent installed the latest version of 1.02 patch, im only using the first 1.02 not worried about added aa.

[bangtail 0]

Im using 6gig, but its only showing 2.99 gig ram, but i have no graphic probs, so must be the 8gig only bug, by the way im using 185.85 driver, and havent installed the latest version of 1.02 patch, im only using the first 1.02 not worried about added aa.

XP32 will only address up to 4 Gigs, usually allocating ~1.0 - 1.5 for the system and leaving you with about ~2.5 - 3 gigs

[StormbringerGT 0]

It appears I can get way better framrates, if I set my textures to normal. They still look good and in a firefight you don't notice a difference. Some people may want to try lower the textures, that helped with stuttering and "texture pop inlag" not sure if I described that right. Think Unreal engine texture problems. :D

[btbalance 10]

I had a similar problem when I went from 3gb to 8gb yesterday. I didn't see the dark textures but every time I would look at a tree, for example, I would see a very low rez version of the tree which would then shift to mid-rez and then high-rez. Nearly everything was doing this and would continue to do so when I turned around.

Reverting my GTX275 to the 182.x drivers fixed it.

[Rhodite 3]

Just for some additional feedback.

My System - 8GB on Windows7 RC1 Build 7100, NVIDEA 186.18 2 8800GT (512mb) E6600 CPU were used for the test.

I used the msconfig 7804 "fix" suggested and it worked.

Still only get 20fps from the ingame test but I have set all settings to high, so I am quite happy.

[Dungeoncrawler 10]

I'm talking about the game detecting the available memory erroneously and disallowing you from selecting certain menu options.

I stand corrected. I just noticed that I'm restricted on a couple of my graphic options with 8gb of ram.

Update: Setting my ram to 4gb has enabled the texture detail and Video memory to be set to higher values than normal. Definately something

up regardless of which type of gpu you are using. Thanks for the tip!

Update2: Unfortunately I seem to get worst performance with this workaround :(

Edited July 6, 2009 by Dungeoncrawler

[-s!Gm4- 10]

I stand corrected. I just noticed that I'm restricted on a couple of my graphic options with 8gb of ram.

Update: Setting my ram to 4gb has enabled the texture detail and Video memory to be set to higher values than normal. Definately something

up regardless of which type of gpu you are using. Thanks for the tip!

Update2: Unfortunately I seem to get worst performance with this workaround :(

Sorry to use your post for a quote lad, but I thought your words brought it out most clear:

So, the disability to set Videocard-Memory and Texture-Detail to higher levels _in the game_ are prevented by having 8 GB of RAM - do I get this right?

And this can be fixed by either that workaround (limit the amount of RAM allocated to 4 GB / whatever) or sitting it out and waiting for the next patch from nvidia as well as the BIS devs?

Now, that are quite good news, I think. At least there is a silver streak on the horizon.

Now, nevertheless I got another question.

Is the fact thtat my gfx-card (along with its VRAM) get detected incorrectly also related to this 8GB RAM thingy?

As you can see in my sig I use a gtx285 with 1 GB VRAM - but initially the arma.cfg only detects 256 MB.

I circumvent that with manually configuring the .cfg but was not getting any obvios results...

[BrunoDerRabe 0]

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 186.18 ) still exists, just want to confirm that.

Folks, I did spend lots of time with debuging this issue - and weeks ago I found 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 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.

[Dwarden 1124]

i get multiple reports that users on Windows 7 fixed these issues by falling back to v181 drivers ...

on other OSes and some certain configs stable driver builds vary ...

so if someone want to try it ... feel free

[Desert 10]

Yeah thats a good Idea, but for ATI Users doesnt exist a Nvidia Driver :p

We can use the -winxp Prameter or the msconfig Workaround. :cool: