ArmaHolic ArmA 2 Optimization

[Uunko 10]

Hi all, newbie here.

I'm trying to understand what's needed here. My PC has:

2.8gb Intel Dual Core cpu

8800GT 512 Evga vid card. Running latest release drivers

4 GB RAM

10 GB Swap file

Screen resolution is 1920 x 1200

Just not too sure on a few settings with my specs. Any help appreciated.

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance= ????? ; <-------

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1200;

refresh=60;

Render_W=1920;

Render_H=1200;

FSAA=3;

postFX=0;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM= ?????? ; <-------

nonlocalVRAM= ????? ; <-------

[Kalamari13 10]

What would be a recommendation for the PBO files to use for someone with 3 gigs of ram on RAMdisk? And how should I set it up if required to do so differently?

[jigawatt 10]

I'm trying to understand what's needed here. My PC has:

2.8gb Intel Dual Core cpu

8800GT 512 Evga vid card. Running latest release drivers

4 GB RAM

10 GB Swap file

Screen resolution is 1920 x 1200

Just not too sure on a few settings with my specs. Any help appreciated.

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance= ????? ; <-------

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1200;

refresh=60;

Render_W=1920;

Render_H=1200;

FSAA=3;

postFX=0;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM= ?????? ; <-------

nonlocalVRAM= ????? ; <-------

Same questions here. Read through this whole thread and see a lot of different configs/claims but no real explanation.

I have the following hardware

EVGA LGA775 68oI

Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe

Radeon 4870

Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR2 800

2x SATA drives WDC/Samsung

Basically, I'd like to know what settings I should use for local/nonlocal VRAM. And if I should upgrade my CPU. I can upgrade to a Quad core for about $150, that is the lowest Quad they have.

I have been trying to tweak this game for about 2 days now and can only get into the low 30FPS range.

*EDIT* Well, I'm going to read over the Armaholic webpage that was linked in page 1 when I get home. Site is blocked here at work :( Hopefully that will cover what I need to do.

Edited October 28, 2009 by jigawatt

[Gabkicks 10]

Yeah, i started playing through the campaign today, and I just started the incity fighting. Framerates drop below 20fps at points, and I'm running an i7 920, 6gigs ddr3, and a ATi 5850... So Now I'm gonna spend some time trying to find good settings to run at 1680x1050.

[killakaze 10]

Gabkicks try ramdisk if you havnt already

[TheBlob 10]

Hi Folks first post.

I recieved my Arma2 DVD a couple of weeks back. I was a big fan of the original Ofp and did not like what I read about the new Ofp and this lead me to Arma2. Now what I have seen of it so far I know I will love this game but I only have a quite low spec computer which does allow me to play the game but with a lot of the eye candy turned off or low.

I've read through all 50+ pages of this thread and used a lot of the tweaks mentioned. Kudos to u guys it has helped me get the game to run reasonably but I have not tried any of the campaigns yet.

I am planning a home build which will take me 4-5 months to be able to buy all the components that I want as I have other commitments (family!!) that eat into my financial stability.

I have the following spec computer

Intel Pentuim D dual processor 3.4 Ghz

Radeon X1950 Pro 512Mb (8x AGP)

2GB Ballistix Ram

Audigy Sound card

Windows XP

64GB Maxtor HD

My question is this:

Would I see any improvement by adding an SSD hard drive as a second drive and installing the game on that drive. I would prefer to keep the OS on the original hard disk drive (less work involved and I have a lot of stuff on my HD that I don't want to lose). I was wondering if the game was installed in the SSD drive it would obviously recieve the data quicker. I noticed when I turn up the eye candy my hard drive ends up sweating like a rapist and the game stutters and stalls.

I don't really want to change my Graphics card or Motherboard/Processor at this moment in time as they will be the last things I purchase for my build. So I thought buying an SSD now may help immediately and can be part of my new build as well.

All thoughts and comments are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[bono_lv 10]

SSD or Ramdisk can and will help with stuttering/texture loading issues, but it will not improve frames per second.

[pryskn@ 10]

hi all

There is my arma2 setting and i want to know how can i boost my performance, if its possible.What can i change etc.

language="Czech";
adapter=-1;
3D_Performance=93750;
Resolution_Bpp=32;
Resolution_W=1680;
Resolution_H=1050;
refresh=60;
Render_W=1680;
Render_H=1050;
FSAA=2;
postFX=0;
HDRPrecision=8;
lastDeviceId="";
localVRAM=922091520;
nonlocalVRAM=1878257664;
GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

thank 4 any help..

[hamis 0]

You could try FSAA=0.

[kklownboy 43]

hi all

There is my arma2 setting and i want to know how can i boost my performance, if its possible.What can i change etc.

...
GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

thank 4 any help..

GPU_MaxFramesAhead="";

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="2";

Use quotation marks for your values. "x"

[pryskn@ 10]

whats exactly mean those numbers i should change?

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

[kklownboy 43]

first just use the quotation marks:

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="";

GPU_MaxFramesAhead="";

then run the game, you will see what value you already have. 0 or 1,2, 3 ,4.

then you can test with different values in the GPU_MaxFramesAhead="";

I found "1" to work best so far.

[Dead3yez 0]

I use:

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="80";

GPU_MaxFramesAhead="4";

Re-enabling physX with latest nVidia drivers improves performance? Can anyone confirm this?

[Fox '09 14]

re-enabling physx didn't do anything for me.. maybe your graphics card... or drivers... don't know.

the GPU frames ahead seemed to work, I use yours, dead3yez.

[Dead3yez 0]

I have written a little more on improving performance.

Altering these values in ArmA2.cfg may improve performance slightly:

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead="80";
GPU_MaxFramesAhead="4";

Lowering mouse smoothing in profile.arma2profile values can reduce mouse lag and may improve FPS slightly:

mouseSmoothing=1;

Higher FOV increases performance, take your FOV values and multiply them both the same. E.g. values 0.75 and 1.20 become 0.975 and 1.56 when multiplied by 1.3. Use to your liking. This does not effect your zoom distances.

fovTop=0.97500002;
fovLeft=1.5599999;

Click the link below for more information.

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&p=54150#54150

[edit]

To speed up hard-disk see here:

http://www.astahost.com/info.php/increase-hard-disk-speed-windows-xp2003_t12331.html

Edited December 9, 2009 by Dead3yez

[sprayer_faust 0]

About the maxPrerenderedFrames=8... I tried it and it does improve performance, however it is a bad trade-off. It introduces some kind of desync of what is actually happening in game and what you see on screen - might be slight but:

I tested headshoting at cca. 20 m (M4 reflex). You know how every AI unit never stands still in A2? They quite often move their upper body or shift from one foot to another (as a human would do - not standing like a robot at one place). With 8 MPRF I missed a lot despite having a steady aim (Yes... The character has a pretty steady aim. :p) and was sure it would hit.

It was a lot better with 3 MPRF (which is default). I am using 3 for that reason.

[nocturna 10]

I play with 1440x900 resolution and unless i set fillrate to 200% everything looks like crap but that drops my FPS to 20... With 100% everything looks horrible specially vegetation, like if there is no AA at all, even tho AA is set to high (theres no very high option for some reason) (e8400 3.8ghz / ati 5850), anyone else experiencing this ? I Just cant make the game run smooth and looking very good at the same time but i think i should be able to.

edit: i disabled AA ingame and now 100% or 200% doesnt make any difference performance wise, weird >.< still not getting more than 20 fps tho

Edited December 20, 2009 by nocturna

[elu79 10]

Arma2 settings:

1680x1050 with:

visibility: 2061

texture detail: high

video mem: high (tried it with default with no noticeable change)

anisotropic: normal

Antialiasing: low

terrain: normal

objects: normal

shadows: very high

postprocess: disabled

I have windows 7 with

9600GT SLI

4gb of 1024MHz ddr2 (ganged)

250 gb hdd with 32mb cache

AMD Phenom2 x2 550 BE

ASUS m3n-ht deluxe mobo

cpu slightly Oc´d (200-->203 or smthng), temperatures doesnt go above 55-65 celsius.

(at the moment i use for phys-x my mobo´s integrated nvidia 8400 something (or was it 8200) GPU)

I´m getting mostly 20-25 fps, 1.05 patch make it somewhat better, but still not satisfactory.

I´m not sure are these settings supposed to give my system this FPS, i have tried to tweak it, change settings etc..

Is there something wrong? Should i get more FPS? If so, any semi-pro or pro guess of "youshouldofhave-FPS" are welcome.

noobie-thanks for all interested answering :)

[jasonnoguchi 11]

@elu, if you are getting consistently 20+ FPS in the harvest red campaign, it is normal... its due to all the AI that is active. Even very high end rigs are not getting very much higher fps. If you are getting 20+ in the editor all alone on UTES, then you really have a problem. Try reducing resolution to maybe 1028 X xxx.

[reconteam 19]

My specs

GTX 260 (216)

I7 920

4GB RAM DDR3

10,000 RPM hard drive

Windows 7 64 bit

Nvidia 195.62 drivers

ArmA2 1.05 on Steam

That said vegetation lags the hell out of me as to cities to a lesser extent. I have been getting crashes since I moved to Windows 7, usually preceded by visual glitches and artifacts.

Now I have been desperately looking for ways to increase my performance enough to play at my native 1920x1200 resolution. What do you guys suggest I set my ArmA2.cfg settings to? Any idea what is causing my crashes?

[GLeek 10]

edit: i disabled AA ingame and now 100% or 200% doesnt make any difference performance wise, weird >.< still not getting more than 20 fps tho

your graphics chip is waiting for cpu to feed it. clearly, your weak part is CPU here. PURE LOGIC , people need to understand that.

identify wich part is the bottleneck: set resolution to 640x480 no AA , no aniso.

same FPS ? lawl , you find .

[demonlord89 10]

My specs

GTX 260 (216)

I7 920

4GB RAM DDR3

10,000 RPM hard drive

Windows 7 64 bit

Nvidia 195.62 drivers

ArmA2 1.05 on Steam

That said vegetation lags the hell out of me as to cities to a lesser extent. I have been getting crashes since I moved to Windows 7, usually preceded by visual glitches and artifacts.

Now I have been desperately looking for ways to increase my performance enough to play at my native 1920x1200 resolution. What do you guys suggest I set my ArmA2.cfg settings to? Any idea what is causing my crashes?

Video memory set to default? Try change it to high...it MIGHT help.

[kklownboy 43]

My specs

GTX 260 (216)

I7 920

4GB RAM DDR3

10,000 RPM hard drive

Windows 7 64 bit

Nvidia 195.62 drivers

ArmA2 1.05 on Steam

That said vegetation lags the hell out of me as to cities to a lesser extent. I have been getting crashes since I moved to Windows 7, usually preceded by visual glitches and artifacts.

Now I have been desperately looking for ways to increase my performance enough to play at my native 1920x1200 resolution. What do you guys suggest I set my ArmA2.cfg settings to? Any idea what is causing my crashes?

For crashes, try Default VidMemory, and turn of HT in your Bios. For performance get a faster card to play at 19/12. Or get another and SLI. ViewDistance under 3000, Lowest AA... No PP, 100%3Dfill. Set your "HDR Precession" to 16 in your Arma.cfg. In your NVDA CP/3D settings, no AA or AF on, set mipmap quality to just Quality(not HQ). Turn off Vsync if you can take the tearing.

[nocturna 10]

your graphics chip is waiting for cpu to feed it. clearly, your weak part is CPU here. PURE LOGIC , people need to understand that.

identify wich part is the bottleneck: set resolution to 640x480 no AA , no aniso.

same FPS ? lawl , you find .

Yes i think you are right, but i thought a E8400 3.6 would be enough,i guess not :(

[reconteam 19]

For crashes, try Default VidMemory, and turn of HT in your Bios. For performance get a faster card to play at 19/12. Or get another and SLI. ViewDistance under 3000, Lowest AA... No PP, 100%3Dfill. Set your "HDR Precession" to 16 in your Arma.cfg. In your NVDA CP/3D settings, no AA or AF on, set mipmap quality to just Quality(not HQ). Turn off Vsync if you can take the tearing.

Thanks for the help, somehow I've fixed the crashes, I think it had something to do with changing the video memory settings around.

True I may be expecting too much out of the GTX-260, but the game runs decently until I am in a really grassy area or look at grass or a bush through an ACOG. If only Chenarus was a desert nation.

I've been jaded by running everything else (but Crysis) at 1920x1200.