ArmA2 / OA (low) performance issues

[ladlon 10]

Is there a section of this thread that deals with the AI (number of units, etc) slowing things down, as opposed to it being a graphic issue? My game is usually very fluid, even with high graphics settings... It's seemingly just deep into the game that it sometimes gets bogged down, probably due to too many units being controlled by the CPU.

I started looking at all the posts in this thread, but it's a huge thread, so I wanted to make sure beforehand that this thread even addresses non-graphical CPU stress.

BTW, I defragged again, but it only gave me a 1% increase in speed, as my drives are pretty well maintained. I wanted to upgrade the video drivers, but despite the complex control panel for the video card, a 'Check For New Drivers' button seems to be missing (...frustrating that it has all those menus, but doesn't have the one thing I need!).... So, I have to do it the manual way... which can be a mess. Other than that, everything checks out fine (..tons of drive space, etc).

Edited March 31, 2010 by ladlon

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

I created a mission with a single soldier in it and I can put all my settings on "very high" and it's smooth as silk. I'm getting between 45 and 50 FPS and it looks very good, like ARMA or old OFP (frame rate). When I go into a canned mission in single player mode with the same settings my FPS drop in half to 20 to 24 FPS. As I get into a battle situation and turn left and right the video gets blurry and slow like I'm in some kind of dream state.

I was told that ARMA2 might not be using all the processor cores in an efficient way. I've done some testing and it shows in the task manager that they are all being used. The usage graphs look the same except the first one is slightly higher than the other three. I was also told that it probably isn't a problem with my video card but I'm not so sure now. I was thinking of going with two Nvidia cards linked together so I was wondering if there's a fix or a recommended set of video cards to use to resolve this problem.

I have the retail boxed version of ARMAII purchased from a retail store. It has the "Bohemia Interactive" logo on it as well as "idea games" and "Got Game Entertainment" logos. It's also patched up to 1.05 version. If it's recommended to go with linked cards instead of a single card I would like some recommendations. Can I go with two lower benchmark cards like two GTX260's or what would the minimum setup require?

I am supposedly above recommended system spec's with my current setup.

XP Professional

My processor is a genuine Intel Q9650 Quad Core

Motherboard is Rampage Extreme (original, not II)

System Memory is 2GB of DDR3

Video Card is ASUS AMD Radeon EAH 5770

Video Card Specs are:

PCI Express 2.1 x16

Core Clock 850MHz

Stream Processors 800 Stream Processing Units

Effective Memory Clock 1200MHz (4.8Gbps)

Memory Size 1GB

Memory Interface 128-bit

Memory Type GDDR5

Edited April 5, 2010 by Scottyman
Additional information added.

[ast65 10]

You sys memory is too low, even for XP. Try with 3 or 4 gigs.

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

I do not believe you are correct. The box says minimum 1GB and recommended 2GB. Also, I run lots of other games that are just as demanding graphically and do not have the same problem. Besides that, XP only recognizes a little over 3GB with system memory and video card memory combined.

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

heheheh, you come here asking for help and tell the first person he is wrong?

dont expect much more help unless you are willing to accept new information.

[ast65 10]

Well, just talkin from personal eperience, mate.

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

Blurry and slow? Try disabling PostFX ingame?

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

-Ziggy-;1603140']heheheh' date=' you come here asking for help and tell the first person he is wrong?

dont expect much more help unless you are willing to accept new information.[/quote']

OK, now I did not say anything insulting or demeaning. I only stated that I believe that his statement was not correct. I do not feel like the way I stated it warrants this type of response. Also, it appears that there are other posts indicating that there is something wrong with the 1.05 patch. I did not run the game without patching and went straight to the 1.05 patch so maybe I should uninstall and try installing the beta 1.4 patch. I'm open to other suggestions and I may add another stick but I don't feel like that's the problem.

Edited April 5, 2010 by Scottyman

[metsapeikkoo 10]

OK, now I did not say anything insulting or demeaning. I only stated that I believe that his statement was not correct. I do not feel like the way I stated it warrants this type of response. Also, it appears that there are other posts indicating that there is something wrong with the 1.05 patch. I did not run the game without patching it so maybe I should uninstall and try installing the beta 1.4 patch. I'm open to other suggestions and I may add another stick but I don't feel like that's the issue.

Yeah, I gotta nice suggestion. Get some more RAM.

[Leon86 13]

I created a mission with a single soldier in it and I can put all my settings on "very high" and it's smooth as silk. When I go into a canned mission in single player mode with the same settings my FPS drop in half to 20 to 24 FPS.

That's pretty much normal, adjust your settings to battle situations instead of using those sightseeing settings.

And getting some more ram wont hurt, arma2 might not use much more then 1.3GB but windows uses some, everything in the background as well. When windows decides to use the pagefile performance will go down drastically.

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

Thanks for the suggestions. Is there a list of system tweaks somewhere where you can set the Vram or adjust settings in the config file like the old ARMA? I'm going to uninstall it this evening and patch to 1.04. I would like to try as many other options possible before I order another set of RAM. The ones I purchased may not be available any more so I may have to start all over again and I want to be sure it's going to fix the problem.

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

I believe patching back to 1.04 is incorrect. ;)

you have a nice CPU, but I understand it has a locked multiplier. Can you overclock it? I know one could get that up to 4.0Ghz easy, but it requires some knowledge and determination.

I have a 2.8 Duo @ 3.8Ghz and I gained significant performance increase, about 25%.

A thread in the ArmAholic community site about How to improve game performance

link HERE

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

-Ziggy-;1603396']I believe patching back to 1.04 is incorrect. ;)

Ack.. your little dig there, and thank you for the tweaking link!

I uninstalled, defragged, reinstalled and ran the game and got excellent frame rates. I then patched to 1.04 and exactly the same results. The game runs spectacular now even with everything cranked on very high. The problem has absolutely nothing to do with memory on my system and everything to do with the 1.05 patch. There's something wrong with it that chokes my system and apparently other peoples as well. I'm now getting 45-50 FPS like I should be. In heavy action it drops to 35-40 but I'm sure that's normal. No more weird blurriness either.

Someone needs to let BI know that the 1.05 patch is bad or has severe problems related to certain system configurations.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Scottyman

[Sgt. Marlowe 10]

Yesterday I bought ArmA 2 but I'm having these same problems.. I had it patched to 1.05 then uninstalled and back to patch 1.1. Then uninstalled again, defragged about 10 times, used CCleaner, cleaned my hard drive, then reinstalled and did the exact same thing again but the problem still consists. I went to SystemReq. Lab and I met all the requirements even above recommended. I even had 2gb RAM available at all times. Please please help me. Ive read aleast 40% of this thread and still nothing..

:confused::confused::confused:

My Specs:

Intel® Core i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz

1.60 GHz Performance Rated at: 3.6 GHz

3.0 GB RAM

Microsoft Windows 7 64 Bit

GeForce GT 240M

AlienWare M15x

Please help I'm begging! :(:(

---------- Post added at 01:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 AM ----------

Ever since release my game has been suffering from massive FPS 'dips', just for a split second, massive micro stuttering etc. I mean, the game ran fine but every so often the FPS would dip, textures would seem to have trouble loading and such.

So I finally decided to disable Hyper Threading today on my i7 and I can't believe the difference, NO micro stutters, NO dips, MASSIVE FPS Boost and the game is so smooth you won't believe it ...

How do you stop HyperThreading?

Edited April 7, 2010 by Sgt. Marlowe

[domokun 515]

You disable it via your BIOS (press either the DEL key or F1 when your system posts)

[Sgt. Marlowe 10]

Wow, I am disappointed in the developers for this game, they have had this problem for a year and they don't bother to fix it, non the less actually put up a guide on how to fix. It seems they dont care for us. I was hoping for a war sim, but all i got was a lagathon. I expect this to be fixed in the next patch because this is unbelievable that they would ignore their costumers with this..

[1337Roflcopter 10]

Hey guys,

So here are my specs,

AMD Phenom X4 9750 @ 2.4 GHZ

8GB RAM

XFX 4890 1GB

i play Arma 2 at 1024X768 (LOW)

With most graphics at normal, no postprocessing, no aa no af.

view distance like 1700

i get like 20 fps in campaign

and online 20-30 fps.

WTF?

WHY.

[callihn 10]

Same issue here and I just upgraded from a HD 3650 512MB to a 9600GT 1GB and get like two FPS more, if that.

I am now completely within "optimal requirements" yet I still get slightly over DVD performance.

I don't get it.

It's obvious they don't care either, IMO they can go ahead and eat that upcoming ARMA release.

EDIT: Guess I should have mentioned that I'm using all low except shadows which are high, textures are normal and postprocessing is disabled.

Is there anything relevant in the bios?

Edited April 8, 2010 by callihn

[domokun 515]

Guys, I feel your pain but Arma2 is a very sophisticated game (it isn't railroad shooter like Call of Duty).

Add to this the fact that it doesn't make the most of modern PCs (poor support for quad cores, doesn't use more than 2GB RAM).

So basically we have a game that is unbalanced, i.e. very resource hungry in some areas and surprisingly meagre in others.

Like many other simulators, the key to good performance is a fast CPU (2GHz min, 2.5GHz mediocre, 3GHz better, 3.5GHz good, 4GHz nice).

After that a recent & decent (>$100) graphics card will help.

Other factors which may help you achieve acceptable framerates (>25fps):

PC

• Defrag your hard disk (try Defraggler)
  
• Disable hyperthreading (only for i7 CPUs)no longer required if using the latest patches
  
• Close all other programs when playing A2 (browsers, IM, media players, etc.)
  
• Disable unecessary services (try Gamebooster)
  
• Grab the latest beta patch
  

In-game video settings

• Ideally set Interface your screen's native resolution
  
• Ensure 3D Resolution (Fillrate) is set to 100%
  
• Try Video Memory at "Default" or failing that High
  
• Reduce Draw Distance to 1800-3600 (biggest impact on performance)
  
• Disable AA, if not Low or even Normal (but big hit)
  
• Keep Terrain at Normal
  
• Set Shadows to High or even Very High
  
• Lower Post-Processing to Low or even Disabled
  

Mods

• Lighten the load from trees & bushes using Proper Vegetation Tweak
  
• Enjoy lovely visual effects offered by Post-Processing without the nausea-inducing and performance-sapping blur thanks to Oktane's noBlur mod
  
• Trim that lovely but useless (AI can see thru it, you can't) grass and increase your framerates thanks to GTD grass trim
  

Let us know if that helps.

Edited February 18, 2011 by domokun

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

The fact that you basically have to overclock your cpu insanely (or buying a very expensive one and still have to overclock slightly) to get this game running properly is bothersome to me.

[kingnl 0]

The has not been fixed yet for modern computers?

That's a shame. Is their an eta when this game will be playable on game computers?

[pAuthority 10]

Maybe 2-4 years. :) At least for me it took years to get OFP running smoothly with full graphics. First played with P3 500MHz and Radeon 32 SDR .. boy that was fun. Very large battles killed my PC totally as well as random memory leaks, but with today's modern computers OFP runs just fine :P

[Leon86 13]

Hey guys,

So here are my specs,

AMD Phenom X4 9750 @ 2.4 GHZ

8GB RAM

XFX 4890 1GB

i play Arma 2 at 1024X768 (LOW)

With most graphics at normal, no postprocessing, no aa no af.

view distance like 1700

i get like 20 fps in campaign

and online 20-30 fps.

WTF?

WHY.

Your processor is the limiting factor here so resolution shouldn't matter. If you want to improve your framerate you should lower model detail, terrain detail, shadow detail or viewdistance. Anti-aliasing, postproccessing and anisotropic filtering can probably be quite high before it affects your framerate.

If you can overclock your cpu that might help but if you dont have the time to do that properly you could look if your motherboard supports Phenom II processors, they're significantly faster then phenoms.

[langgis08 10]

Leon86: same here

same amd phenom 9750 @2,4 , radeon 4870 512 mb, 4 GB, os: xp

-> settings all maxed out ecxept:

postprocess: low

aa : high (very high unsupported on my gpu)

view distance: 2000 - 4000 (depends on scenario, island and amount of AI)

fps Harvest Red around 20, Multiplayer > 25

own scenarios on utes >40 fps (few AI)

community created missions & campaigns: depends on AI, but much better than harvest red

>>> GPU is not the problem, it's CPU that matters ! <<<<<

my fps won't rise when I lower my settings, even turning aa off won't affect the bad performance in harvest red, for example. I can trigger fps best with lowering viewing distance.

I can deal with that, I won't buy a new rig just for arma2 but ... I will still play Arma2, when I have a better rig ... :)

There are of course lots of missions , sp or mp doesnt matter, in the web created by the fantastic modders and missionmakers in our community (thx to all of you, guys), that are much fun, with low or high fps, anyway !

Edited April 10, 2010 by langgis08

[fooflinger 10]

Guys, I feel your pain but Arma2 is a very sophisticated game (it isn't railroad shooter like Call of Duty).

Add to this the fact that it doesn't make the most of modern PCs (poor support for quad cores, doesn't use more than 2GB RAM).

So basically we have a game that is unbalanced, i.e. very resource hungry in some areas and surprisingly meagre in others.

Like many other simulators, the key to good performance is a fast CPU (2GHz min, 2.5GHz mediocre, 3GHz better, 3.5GHz good, 4GHz nice).

After that a recent & decent (>$100) graphics card will help.

Other factors which may help you achieve acceptable framerates (>25fps):

PC

• Defrag your hard disk (try Defraggler)
  
• Disable hyperthreading (only for i7 CPUs)
  
• Close all other programs when playing A2
  
• Disable unecessary services (try Gamebooster)
  

In-game video settings

• Ensure 3D Resolution (Fillrate) is set to 100%
  
• Reduce your Draw Distance to 2000 or less
  
• Disable AA
  
• Lower Post-Processing to Low or even Disable it
  
• Avoid insane resolutions (1920x1200) unless you have a really fast CPU and tick all of the above
  

Mods

• Lighten the load from trees & bushes using Proper Vegetation Tweak
  

Let us know if that helps.

Hey, that vegetation mod helped alot. Anyone know of any other addons that tweak performance like that?