Reduce CPU usage?

[demowhc 10]

Is there anyway to tweak ArmA 2 to use less CPU usage? like for instance disable the swaying grass and trees etc? In other games in the past this has helped a lot..

I am severly CPU limited with a Q6600 @ 3.69GHz and 4870 crossfire, FPS are great until there are a few bots around etc..

[Razorman 10]

The normal clock speed for your cpu is 2.4ghz, are you overclocking it to 3.69ghz?

if you are that cpu speed should handle Arma 2 pretty well, i think you need to tweak the game settings because it should run pretty well on those specs IF you have your rig configured properly.

If you've just made a mistake & 2.4GHZ is your current cpu speed, try overclocking it to get better performance, but you MUST research overclocking before you attemt it as it's easy to fry your cpu & mobo.

Good luck.

Ps: Arma 2 hates most cpu's below 3ghz, it is not a graphics dependant game, it is a cpu dependant game performance wise.

[demowhc 10]

Yes I have overclocked my CPU to 3.69....

Yes ArmA2 is CPU dependant, hence my post...

No performance is pretty poor, I get roughly between 30-60 fps and when there are a lot of vehicles and bots around it pretty much stays at 30ish fps..

So my question is, are there any tweaks to disable things that use up CPU cycles, like the swaying effect for grass and trees, and even some wild life.. I dont mind missing out on a few birds and swaying effect on grass if it will be a lighter load on the CPU, resulting in higher fps..

[Razorman 10]

That performance my friend is the best you will see in this game, no more tweaking will help.

I get average 35-40fps with dips into high 20's up to 150's.

Running at 1920x1200 on both settings, on the rig below, all settings very high exept post processing which is off & AA which is high, oh & the texture detail on low.

[demowhc 10]

hmm fair enough

I run the game at 1920x1080 +150% everything very high and low AA, but the thing is the game gets the same FPS in single player no matter the settings... FPS are great, sitting on 60, then as soon as there are a few bots around it plummits.. I may have to invest in a faster CPU.. lol I wonder what sort of CPU is needed to keep this game at a constant 60FPS :confused:

Intels 6-core i9's will be out soon, might have to start saving the pennies...

[Razorman 10]

Do your own missions on the Utes island, you'll see great fps there, it's the ai (bots) that use so much cpu power, multiplayer performance is great if u find the right server.

[=Spetsnaz= 0]

hmm fair enough

I run the game at 1920x1080 +150% everything very high and low AA, but the thing is the game gets the same FPS in single player no matter the settings... FPS are great, sitting on 60, then as soon as there are a few bots around it plummits.. I may have to invest in a faster CPU.. lol I wonder what sort of CPU is needed to keep this game at a constant 60FPS :confused:

Intels 6-core i9's will be out soon, might have to start saving the pennies...

Its common in arma 2, i have the same problem, i can get away with 50+ FPS with very few bots. but when im in city or have quite a few bots on my fps drops straight to 20-35

[von_paulus 0]

Yes I have overclocked my CPU to 3.69....

Yes ArmA2 is CPU dependant, hence my post...

No performance is pretty poor, I get roughly between 30-60 fps and when there are a lot of vehicles and bots around it pretty much stays at 30ish fps..

So my question is, are there any tweaks to disable things that use up CPU cycles, like the swaying effect for grass and trees, and even some wild life.. I dont mind missing out on a few birds and swaying effect on grass if it will be a lighter load on the CPU, resulting in higher fps..

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=75873

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=73964

Look at those and don't forget to look at:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=73947

[demowhc 10]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I am not GPU limited so those threads dont really help..

[kremator 1065]

If the game is playable and you get all the goodies at 20FPS then stop whining. You DON'T NEED 150FPS !

If you are worried about high CPU usage then get a i7 proc..... mine sits at 30-40% during even the biggest battles.

[acrh2 0]

If the game is playable and you get all the goodies at 20FPS then stop whining. You DON'T NEED 150FPS !

If you are worried about high CPU usage then get a i7 proc..... mine sits at 30-40% during even the biggest battles.

That doesn't mean anything at all. Your argument is invalid.

It has been shown many times that this game was severly cpu limited on a number of modern systems.

BTW, your cpu sitting at 30-40% means that your video card is abysmal. Get a new card, then post comments.

[Razorman 10]

@ arch2

Please don't post misleading information as it may confuse others.

Cpu usage has NOTHING to do with gpu processing.

Thank you.

The op, has achieved all the fps he is going to on that rig @ those settings.

Theres only one thing to look at when trying to get Arma2 to run fast & thats cpu,cpu,cpu, the faster the better in single GHZ speed, thats not all of them multipled together but SINGLE core speed, any cpu over 3.4ghz (my rig has a combined ghz of 15.2GHZ!) will achieve no more than 30-40fps as an average, with high graphics settings to achieve the best combo of look & play.

This game is massively cpu dependant, despite others shouting about poor cpu usage on multi core rigs.

It's no suprise when you remember how many units & ai controlled lifeforms are being processed at the same time, thousands of objects/items/bots that can be directly influenced by your character.

The game will improve performance wise as did the original Arma but it's still not going to be huge, 5-10% maybe.

For those of you looking for COD4 type performance, forget it, smooth & steady for Arma2, no run & gun here...he he.

Edited July 12, 2009 by Razorman

[acrh2 0]

@ arch2

Please don't post misleading information as it may confuse others.

Cpu usage has NOTHING to do with gpu processing.

Thank you.

The op, has achieved all the fps he is going to on that rig @ those settings.

I am sorry, but misleading information? Really?

For example, Firingsquad disagrees:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ARMAII_gpu_performance/page3.asp

This is a thread about reducing cpu usage, not about weak gpus...

[Segwin 0]

If the game is playable and you get all the goodies at 20FPS then stop whining. You DON'T NEED 150FPS !

If you are worried about high CPU usage then get a i7 proc..... mine sits at 30-40% during even the biggest battles.

Question for you:

I have a i7940 sitting on a ASUS Rampage extreme II, 6 gig of tripple channel ram and a nVidia GTX 285. The sound is Creative X-fi ( I think).

While my CPU is about 30-40%, as yours, I get stutters in the game. Do you? If so any thought on what causes this?

[Razorman 10]

I am sorry, but misleading information? Really?

For example, Firingsquad disagrees:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ARMAII_gpu_performance/page3.asp

This is a thread about reducing cpu usage, not about weak gpus...

Read the rest of the reply then?

Theres only one thing to look at when trying to get Arma2 to run fast & thats cpu,cpu,cpu, the faster the better in single GHZ speed, thats not all of them multipled together but SINGLE core speed, any cpu over 3.4ghz (my rig has a combined ghz of 15.2GHZ!) will achieve no more than 30-40fps as an average, with high graphics settings to achieve the best combo of look & play.

This game is massively cpu dependant, despite others shouting about poor cpu usage on multi core rigs.

It's no suprise when you remember how many units & ai controlled lifeforms are being processed at the same time, thousands of objects/items/bots that can be directly influenced by your character.

The game will improve performance wise as did the original Arma but it's still not going to be huge, 5-10% maybe.

For those of you looking for COD4 type performance, forget it, smooth & steady for Arma2, no run & gun here...he he.

__________________

[acrh2 0]

Question for you:

I have a i7940 sitting on a ASUS Rampage extreme II, 6 gig of tripple channel ram and a nVidia GTX 285. The sound is Creative X-fi ( I think).

While my CPU is about 30-40%, as yours, I get stutters in the game. Do you? If so any thought on what causes this?

Stutters are related to other things than discussed here (gpu mem, video mem, slow hdds, bad drivers etc.)

This is about heavy cpu usage and optimizations.

---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:25 AM ----------

Read the rest of the reply then?

Theres only one thing to look at when trying to get Arma2 to run fast & thats cpu,cpu,cpu, the faster the better in single GHZ speed, thats not all of them multipled together but SINGLE core speed, any cpu over 3.4ghz (my rig has a combined ghz of 15.2GHZ!) will achieve no more than 30-40fps as an average, with high graphics settings to achieve the best combo of look & play.

This game is massively cpu dependant, despite others shouting about poor cpu usage on multi core rigs.

It's no suprise when you remember how many units & ai controlled lifeforms are being processed at the same time, thousands of objects/items/bots that can be directly influenced by your character.

The game will improve performance wise as did the original Arma but it's still not going to be huge, 5-10% maybe.

For those of you looking for COD4 type performance, forget it, smooth & steady for Arma2, no run & gun here...he he.

__________________

I'm not sure what you are trying to push here.

Your "rest of the reply" was edited in after my post. I said cpu was the most important factor with a modern gpu setup. You said something that looked like the opposite.

What's your point?

[Razorman 10]

BTW, your cpu sitting at 30-40% means that your video card is abysmal. Get a new card, then post comments.

This is my point.

[acrh2 0]

This is my point.

Well... I agree. No need to bite my head off.

The developers should focus on optimizing cpu usage.

My quad core only/already used 3 cores at any given moment, which is pretty good. Time to optimize that code to make things look good w/o using more cpu.

[Razorman 10]

The devs are optimizing cpu usage, your quad uses all four cores when running Arma2, my point is that there is no magic cure for faster fps, other than getting a very fast cpu.

There is no way for us as the end user to reduce cpu load when running Arma2.

This thread is prettly pointless inmho.

[acrh2 0]

The devs are optimizing cpu usage, your quad uses all four cores when running Arma2, my point is that there is no magic cure for faster fps, other than getting a very fast cpu.

There is no way for us as the end user to reduce cpu load when running Arma2.

This thread is prettly pointless inmho.

1) Like I said, I'd like an official statement. It may put my, and other people's, mind at ease for a while. It's just good business.

2) My quad uses, on average, 3 cores, which is pretty decent, I suppose.

There are tricks like using lower object detail to combat this issue though.

EDIT: If you could slip in my complaint about mouse skipping issues to the developers...

Edited July 12, 2009 by acrh2