ArmA 2 Artifacting followed with crash.

[Joker962 10]

Alright, recently I got arma 2. and it has been non stop crashing for me.

what happens is i play for 3-5 minutes, start to get artifacting, and than the game crashes.

I have tried other games an no artifacting whatsoever.

Also while playing arma 2 i get smooth fps, settings as high as they can go

I have Uninstalled drivers, used driver sweeper, installed latest drivers (190.XX)

I even reinstalled Arma 2 and patched it thinking maybe the game is screwed up some how.

Also it's not my graphics card heat or anything.

I have 2 gtx295's and each have the fans turned up to 75 and the gpu's stay in the 60-70 degree range.

Full system specifications

2 EVGA GTX295's

Intel Core i7 920 @ 4GHZ

EVGA x58 Classified motherboard

OS Is on a 1tb HD (tried defragmenting)

Would really appreciate the help

Thanks,

Mike ;)

Edited July 21, 2009 by Joker962

[Tintee 10]

No mention of power supply? 2x gtx295`s and an overclock of the cpu will be pretty hard on a power supply.I would check there 1st if i were you.

[Joker962 10]

PC Power & Cooling 1200W Quad SLI Certfied PSU

i think i'm fine as far as power goes.

:D

[Leopardi 0]

Just nVidia's perfect drivers, as usual. I had 100% same exact issue with three different 8800GTS cards, and then the problem totally vanished after swappping to a HD 4870.

[Joker962 10]

Just nVidia's perfect drivers, as usual. I had 100% same exact issue with three different 8800GTS cards, and then the problem totally vanished after swappping to a HD 4870.

Well I'm not going to be able to do that, so I hope there's a fix.

[chlywly 10]

I have the same issue with the latest drivers, although they are def the fastest they seem to like to artifact the textures and crash to desktop. This was not happening with the 182.50s for me, I suggest trying those... but they're slower :(

[Max Hansen 10]

I managed to solve similar problems with my system and ARMA 2.

First off, the individual missions/scenarios have so far been running without big issues. Even when I started the campaign, everything went smooth, apart from occasional slow-downs and stuttering in the coastal cities.

However, towards the end of the campaign I began having constant CTDs (preceded by artifacting), black-screens, freezes and general choppiness. Plus whenever I wanted to save my game, the game just crashed with "cannot commit" -message. I knew it wasn't heat etc. as my graphics card maxed at 75C.

What I did was:

1) I updated the graphics driver to the latest version 190.38, it has an Arma2 -profile (use it and be sure to select the single display mode in the options)

2) "underclocked" my factory overclocked graphics card to the default clocks

(temporary arrangement).

3) set my max/min pagefile size to 9 GB (should be 1.5x your RAM)

4) deleted the "Arma2.cfg" -file from MyDocuments/ArmA2/ -folder. When you start the game it will create you a new one.

5) "cut/paste" all my saved games to the desktop and then back to the same MyDocuments/.../campaing folder. (I'm not sure if the save-files were somehow "corrupt", but this simple trick fixed the "cannot commit"-problem for me).

6) defragged my hard-drive

7) started the game with "-winxp" command line

8) in the in-game video options I set everything to "default" or "normal", except video memory, which I set "very high" as I have a 1GB-card. (You can work your way up from these settings if you start seeing the game being more stable.)

As a result, the CTDs and freezes disappeared, I am now able to save my game + it looks better and runs smoother. I can now run even the campaing 1680x1050 with everything set to high/very high, except texture quality =normal, without major issues.

I'm not saying the game's graphics engine doesn't need optimizing (the game is still a bit choppy when I get near the coast). But by doing these little tweaks I was able to complete the campaing while experiencing OK

performance.

If nothing else, those who have major problems with ArmA2 might as well want to give these tweaks a try. The game's content is well worth it!

My specs:

i7 920@3250

gtx 285 OC heatpipe

6GB ram

Win 7rc

[lt_darkman 0]

I get the same problem after a while if I set the video memory to default (to use the full 1GB). If I set to very high (512MB) I'm pretty stable. Go figure.

Setting single display mode does give me a bit more time before the artifacts and CTD but doesn't stop it. Overclocking/underclocking makes no difference (to me) though I am watercooled ruling out temperature pretty much as a factor.

I'm not sure if it's drivers (I've tried various) but at the moment I have to lose a little bit of smoothness using all the video RAM to gain stability. Fingers crossed for patch 1.03 improving the situation.

P

[ElSalzo 10]

Thank you Max Hansen!

It had never occurred to me before to delete the ArmA2.cfg file from MyDocuments/Arma2

I used to have constant CTD but now I'm finally able to get my game running for more than a few minutes at a time.

---------- Post added at 05:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:01 PM ----------

Damn just got BSOD

[Ekre 10]

ive got the same issue, but just if i fly a helo. if i fly a helo i start getting artifacts and then a CTD. if im using an armored etc unit everything is fine. but if im hop in a helo, its going to draw artifacts and then crash in the next minute.

[boomboomer 0]

One thing that I found reduced crashes, although mine happened from 20 mins onward, was the temperature of the mobo chipset. Mine was passively cooled and had never been a problem but after a while of playing ArmA2 the heatsink nearly burned my finger. The bios said the mobo was only 40 deg C, but I think the chipset was well over 60 deg C.

Now it has a flexible fan pointing at it I've not had a crash, so might be worth a look on yours?

[lt_darkman 0]

Get in a jet and fly towards Elektrozavodsk. I don't know what it is about there but if I'm going to get artifacts and CTD (with video memory set to default) that's the place it will happen. Maybe it's all the power lines going into the Power Plant but if you can fly around there with no issues you can fly anywhere on the map in my experience.

P

[MPBR 10]

Out of curiosity have you tried with just 1 of the 295's enabled ?

[frag85 10]

I get the same problem after a while if I set the video memory to default (to use the full 1GB). If I set to very high (512MB) I'm pretty stable. Go figure.

Setting single display mode does give me a bit more time before the artifacts and CTD but doesn't stop it. Overclocking/underclocking makes no difference (to me) though I am watercooled ruling out temperature pretty much as a factor.

I'm not sure if it's drivers (I've tried various) but at the moment I have to lose a little bit of smoothness using all the video RAM to gain stability. Fingers crossed for patch 1.03 improving the situation.

P

its been the same here. the game is not stable on "default". i've made several posts in various places about this and i have a feeling it is the reason behind many crashes that people have been having.

if i set Video Memory to "Default" or "very high" i get artifacts everywhere like my video card's memory is overheating and unless i alt-tab and tab back in or do a "Shift kp'-' flush" immediately when i start to see the first artifacts the game will crash. this is most likely a memory issue. as this happens the game is usually just beginning to exceed 1GB of memory usage in the task manager and a flush will usually drop it down several hundred MB. i won't say definitely because i did not program the engine or the game, but you can pretty much guarantee this is a memory issue. why arma does not yet support large memory addressing i do not know. imagine how smooth the game would run if it only had to load textures a few times instead of continuously...

the game runs a lot smoother with the video memory set on default but if i don't flush or alt-tab every 5-15 minutes (5 minutes if i'm flying real low or driving fast across a large distance of the map) it will crash. if i sit in one relative location it will not crash. in the EVO mod it took a few of us over an hour to clear one city and it did not crash. but i can jump in and drive around the map and by the 2nd town the game will always crash in almost the exact same place... this seems to happen in Win7 64+32bit and XP 32+64 bit for me. i've tried leaving my system at factory speeds, underclocked speeds, limiting cores in the bios, different ArmA launch parameters, changing video driver settings ect... with no effect.

i've noticed the game hardly uses any resources most of the time. my CPU idles at 35C, loads at 70C with LinX/Prime and arma barely ever takes it above 55C. my video card idles at 50C, loads at 80C in FurMark with the fans at 100%, and arma never gets it above 65C with t0he fans at 50%....

hardware: i7@4+ghz, GTX275, 6GB DDR3@1600+, WD Raptors.

[Leopardi 0]

if i set Video Memory to "Default" or "very high" i get artifacts everywhere like my video card's memory is overheating and unless i alt-tab and tab back in or do a "Shift kp'-' flush" immediately when i start to see the first artifacts the game will crash. this is most likely a memory issue. as this happens the game is usually just beginning to exceed 1GB of memory usage in the task manager and a flush will usually drop it down several hundred MB. i won't say definitely because i did not program the engine or the game, but you can pretty much guarantee this is a memory issue.

Yes exactly the same symptoms as I had with 8800 GTS. It's some memory bug in NVIDIA drivers.

Haven't had this problem since the day I installed an ATI card after trying 3 different NVIDIA cards. Sad to see it's still there though... but now I know my next PC will have an ATI card.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Leopardi

[cashxx 10]

I think frag85 is correct.....I set my graphics in Arma 2 to defaults pretty much and I was able to play the game for a few hours. Before I had my graphics set to HIGH and VERY HIGH and was crashing within 10 minutes or so. I have to test it again, but what frag85 is saying sounds like the issue. Why can't they get a patch out to fix this mess.....to me its a high priority, most the posts on the forums are complaining about the issue in one way or another. I think its all related to the crashing to desktop, the black screens, etc.

[private plowjoy 0]

Dammit, it's nothing to do with your system. Ignore everyone who tells you to swap graphics card or some such rubbish.

I tested this exhaustively when I had 2GB of system RAM, by watching the client memory usage. When it climbed to 1GB i'd start to get mental graphic corruption with shapes and geometry stretching all over the screen and performance took a massive hit. If I then stared straight up or down I would not crash. However if I continued to attempt to move around, causing the client to exceed 1GB of physical system RAM, it would blow and i'd be dumped to desktop with an Nvidia driver not responding error.

This is not anything to do with your system. It's entirely a fault on the client side and the only 'fix' is to install more memory so that you don't hit the 'cap' as quickly or lower all the in-game settings right down so that large textures aren't being loaded into system RAM.

It's as simple as that.

[lt_darkman 0]

Private Plowjoy I read your earlier post and understand the lengths to which you've gone to diagnose this problem and your expertise, so forgive my layman's confusion.

How is adding system RAM going to help when the game is limited by current design to only use 2GB?

If the video memory is set to default on a 1GB graphics card then surely the extra textures will be sent to the card RAM, not system RAM?

Or am I missing something?

P

[bangtail 0]

Private Plowjoy I read your earlier post and understand the lengths to which you've gone to diagnose this problem and your expertise, so forgive my layman's confusion.

How is adding system RAM going to help when the game is limited by current design to only use 2GB?

If the video memory is set to default on a 1GB graphics card then surely the extra textures will be sent to the card RAM, not system RAM?

Or am I missing something?

P

Simply put, it's not. 4-6 is more than enough for any gaming rig.

Whatever is going on with Plowjoy's machine is not universally caused by A2 as I have never seen it across 3 machines.

I've never seen the client behave like that.

Eth