ArmaHolic ArmA 2 Optimization

[nocturna 10]

NVIDIA OWNERS! Set

Max pre rendered frames to 8 in the advanced 3d settings for global or ArmA 2. This improves performance vastly. Discovered by some guy in another thread.. arhghh

o wow, i had 15/20 FPS with everything on very high now i have 30/40 while raining :eek: i love you!

[Stiler 0]

What config changes should I make?

I'm running on:

E8400

2gb ram

9800GX2

WinXP

Mainly looking for what memory and things I need to set in teh cfg.

[Fox '09 14]

o wow, i had 15/20 FPS with everything on very high now i have 30/40 while raining :eek: i love you!

No problem, i did not discover that though, somebody else on the forum did.

I always had it on, but now i realized that's why i'm getting so good fps hehe.

---------- Post added at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 PM ----------

What config changes should I make?

I'm running on:

E8400

2gb ram

9800GX2

WinXP

Mainly looking for what memory and things I need to set in teh cfg.

Keep the memory at what it is right now, play with scene complexion, and rename arma2.exe to crysis.exe or crysis64.exe (Try both) to enable SLI.

Remember to set the config to READ ONLY!

[adom23 10]

Getting 25-45 FPS now ... big improvement since doing the above tricks!

Well played!

[PuFu 4600]

Hmm i have no idea why, as your settings are identicle to mine bar one! sceneComplexity=160000;

sceneComplexity value belongs in profile.armaprofile file and NOT in the arma.cfg

@AxF Fox - at least if you are trying to help out and obvious putting some time in it, make sure your information is accurate.

[pauliesss 2]

Almost no FPS boost, maybe 2-3 FPS...campaign still almost unplayable, I guess this fix is only for SLI graphic cards, I have 8800GTX. :mad:

[Fox '09 14]

sceneComplexity value belongs in profile.armaprofile file and NOT in the arma.cfg

@AxF Fox - at least if you are trying to help out and obvious putting some time in it, make sure your information is accurate.

Really? Ill look into that again, as i believe it does belong in the cfg i specified.

[Joohan 10]

Well I finally got my problems with this game sorted...all I had to do was to physically take out 4 gigabytes of my ram (had 8gb total) and now, with only 4gigs, it runs flawlessly with everything @ max. Before when I had 8 gigs in, the game would recognize my ram incorrectly but now with 4gigs it recognizes everything correctly. Damn this game is good when it looks and runs well!

[Eda Mrcoch 0]

o wow, i had 15/20 FPS with everything on very high now i have 30/40 while raining :eek: i love you!

Out of curiosity, do you have any mouse/kb lag? 8 frames prerendered on 30 fps - if I understand nature of the tweak correctly - is more than 250ms delay which should be noticeable.

[Masterfragg 10]

Ok I just managed to get a clean 20/30 FPS Campaign mission after a whole day of tweaking.

It's still not great by any means but it's less choppy which is a start.

A few of the tweaks here really helped so great thread but I'm going to attempt a CPU upgrade. It seems that all of the settings tweaked just lightened the load on the CPU, the only things to effect FPS in a bad way was Resolution, rendering size, post processing and shadows.

So I'll upgrade to a Phenom II class CPU (after some research) and I'll post back on which choice I'm making and I'll also chuck some fps info when it arrives.

If anyone wants my config let me know I'm using the 190 drivers now they seem a tad better but I'm suffering hell with the Stereoscopic driver that bloody installed with it :P

If it's not one thing...it's another!

Anyways cheers for all the help and don't panic fox you have convinced me to up my graphics card as well it's just the CPU is more affordable at the moment ;)

Wouldn't mind getting my hands on the Limited Edition GTX 285 with 4GB ram (only 1000 made) pity about the £1000 price tag though.

[nocturna 10]

Out of curiosity, do you have any mouse/kb lag? 8 frames prerendered on 30 fps - if I understand nature of the tweak correctly - is more than 250ms delay which should be noticeable.

Nop, at least i never noticed it :bounce3:

[Heatseeker 0]

My Arma II just decided to run well, i dont know why but it just did :confused: . I think i nailed what fucks up performance the most, check this out:

All high settings (except the blur thing) and 1650*1050 display and 3d, as you can see 25 fps, some people say 25 is enough but in this case it feels terribly jerky in the forests.

Terrain set to very low disables the grass, as you can see frame rate is better (32 fps) but looking around still feels a little jerky.

This is without the grass and object detail to very low, this is smooth even in places where the frame rate drops to the 30's it just feels very smooth and responsive and i bet the low performance everyone is experiencing is caused by the vegetation when object detail is anything above very low/low!

I forgot to take a screen with terrain detail high (grass on) and very low object detail but its still good, to me object detail is frame rate killer!

Specs:

E6600, 4 GB corsair XMS2, 8800 GTX (182.06 drivers), audigy 2 ZS, Vista 32 bit SP2. Not high spec at all but still handling high AA, texture detail and shadows at my display's native resolution, wich gives a much better picture than the crappy jpegs i posted above.

Performance in Chernogorsk is still jumpy, in this area i notice my HD activity goes high wich leads me to think that Arma II isnt using as much ram as it should be, hopefully this will be adressed in the future.

None of the tweaks really helped, i dont really believe in "tweaking"...

[Fox '09 14]

@ heatseeker, your CPU is a bit dated, maybe get a E8400 and clock it to 4GHz. That will improve your performance greatly. E6600 as i remember is a 65nm conroe, which is not that fast at all.

newegg link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

159.99 (about 160-167 shipped)

Well worth it if you overclock to 4GHz.

And with the hard drive activity, sounds like your page file is too big, and instead of writing to the physical memory, it decides to go jolly o and write to the virtual memory

[Heatseeker 0]

@ heatseeker, your CPU is a bit dated, maybe get a E8400 and clock it to 4GHz. That will improve your performance greatly. E6600 as i remember is a 65nm conroe, which is not that fast at all.

And with the hard drive activity, sounds like your page file is too big, and instead of writing to the physical memory, it decides to go jolly o and write to the virtual memory

No way, board supports all 775 socket quads so i'd rather spend a bit more and go that way.

Anyway i think what i described above relates more to graphics performance and how my GPU is struggling to draw all that stuff in the high lods, th vegetation is.. problematic.

Also the game shouldnt be resorting to the page file while there is plenty of physical RAM available for it to use.

[Fox '09 14]

I was refering to video texture virtual memory.

Anyway, i didn't know your budget, but indeed a Q9550 would be the best choice, i'm very happy with it.

as for a GPU, a GTX 275/280 is a great idea.

[101_Proof 10]

I'm not understanding why I only get 10-20fps max with my video settings set anything above VERY LOW. I have a descent system that shouldnt be having these problems, I'm well above the minimum settings. Here's my specs....

Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz

Nvidia 9500 GT

3GB Memory

22" LG LCD with 1680X1050 max res and 75Hz max refresh

Set at 1680X1050 and 'quality' set to low I get crappy terrain/object detail with everything blurry unless I zoom in and about 15-20fps. Just not understanding what the problem is here. If someone could help me out I'd be SUPER appreciative! thanks!

[thr0tt 12]

Hi Thr0tt, what are your other specs please mate?

Specs: ASROCK AM2NF3-VSTA | AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.2GHz | Sapphire HD3850 AGP (Latest Cats) CCC | Corsair - TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4 GB |Samsung 2232BW 22" LCD | X-Fi Ultimate Gamer (5.1) | LiteOn DH20A4P DVD-RW | Saitek Cyborg Evo Joystick | M$ Windows XP Pro SP3

Like I say, if it was CPU that was the main worker here then the rest of my system shouldn't really matter... but it does and I know that I need to change my mobo / gfx card to get the best from gaming.

[MPBR 10]

I'm not understanding why I only get 10-20fps max with my video settings set anything above VERY LOW. I have a descent system that shouldnt be having these problems, I'm well above the minimum settings. Here's my specs....

Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz

Nvidia 9500 GT

3GB Memory

22" LG LCD with 1680X1050 max res and 75Hz max refresh

Set at 1680X1050 and 'quality' set to low I get crappy terrain/object detail with everything blurry unless I zoom in and about 15-20fps. Just not understanding what the problem is here. If someone could help me out I'd be SUPER appreciative! thanks!

9500GT is not what I would consider "decent" for 1680 x 1050 res.

With a Q6600 @ 3.3 and a 9800GTX+ I was able to get decent frames with low/medium settings.

I found nice increases from 2.8 - 3.4 (3.4 just a tad 2 hot for my taste)

Upgraded to a gtx925 and exe rename and I now can run 1920 x 1200 with most on high and 4K view distance and 125% fillrate.

There are some missions that are very fps heavy, second on in town for example, but the rest run very smooth.

Tried different drivers etc ?

CLosed down all unneeded background apps / tasks ?

what 3dm 06 are you getting with current setup, I used both 3dmark and Arma2 Benchmark after each change and could see the results improving in both.

[astral54r 10]

frame rate killer - this: Antialiasing, terran detail, objects detail, shadows, post process effects, and fillrate.

imho optimal settings:

my config: q6600(2.4gHz), 8800GT.

[pauliesss 2]

Anyone found a fix for Nvidia 8800 series ? :confused:

[aphex187 10]

Sorry for the double post in this thread but is there anything else i need to change in 3D settings and the cfg file guys?

Guys can any of you give me any pointers on better performance, my specs are:

Vista 64bit SP2

Nvidia 8800GT 512MB 185.5 drivers

Core Duo 2 E6400@2.13(2CPU's),~2.4GHz

Asus PB5 Deluxe Motherboard

4gig Corsair XMS2 DDR2 5400

Antec Nine Hundred gaming case with fans set at high, no other cooling.

Samsung Syncmaster 1680x1050 LCD

In the 3D Global settings for the Nvidia panel i have everything set to application controlled with v-sync on max pre-rendered frames at 8.

[flake 10]

ive got a syncmaster too :D awesome screen

[TheMantis 10]

@ aphex187

in nvidia control panel 3d

for arma2 force:

AA off

Vsync off

ANI off

Threading on

in your arma2.cfg file make sure that your localvram = 536870912

try that.

[aphex187 10]

Ahhh Mantis thx m8 really appreciated for the reply! i'll try what you have said there, thx again!

edit*** heres my cfg file btw:

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=93750;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1680;

Resolution_H=1050;

refresh=60;

Render_W=1280;

Render_H=800;

FSAA=0;

postFX=2;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=526319616;

nonlocalVRAM=1308225536;

Edited June 28, 2009 by aphex187

[Heatseeker 0]

Anyone found a fix for Nvidia 8800 series ? :confused:

Yes Paul, i started playing Arma 2 with 186.18 too, roll back to 182.06 and it helps, check post in previous page..