ArmA2 / OA (low) performance issues

[McKie 10]

I was hoping that someone who has a lot of experience with this game ArmA2 that could give me some insight on what is the issue here. I have 2 rigs that i game on. One is a intel that is set up with 2 X 580's SLI in surround with a total resolution of 6060 X 1200. The other is a AMD with 2 X 5870's crossfire with a resolution of 1920 X 1200.

After I installed my steam version on the AMD rig. I did a couple of in game benchmarks. and something about the performance just didn't seem right. Which prompted me to investigate a little further. so I did a little comparison of my nvidia set up, and my AMD setup. both in crossfire and single 5870. As it turns out . I get better performance using just one single 5870 than I do using 2 X 5870's crossfire.

I used Play claw as my benchmark tool which most of you know is very much like fraps. I used the same graphics settings on every benchmark. Naturally the AMD rig had the different resolution of 1920 X 1200.

Both computer specs are as follows :

ASUS Rampage Formula III | i7-960 3.2GHz| Corsair A70, push/pull | 2 X GTX 580's Sli | WD 1 Tb | Seagate Barracuda 1 Tb X 2| corsair 1000 w HX | Coolermaster HAF X | Corsair 6GB DDR3 |Dell UltraSharp U2410- 24" X 3 in Surround | Logitech Z-2300 2.1 speakers | RAZER BlackWidow Ultimate Keyboard |G5 logitech | Win7 premium x64 |

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MSI 890FXA-GD70 | AMD Phenom II X6 BE 3.2GHz | CM Hyper 212 plus, push/pull | Sapphire HD5870 X 2 Crossfire | Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB | KINGWIN Lazer LZ-850 850W PSU | Coolermaster HAF X | G.SKILL 8 GB DDR3 | ASUS VW266H 25.5" LCD Monitor | Logitech Z-2300 2.1 speakers | Filco Majestouch W/Cherry MX Black Switches | Logitech G500 | Win7 premium x64 |

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I went to the B.A.F showcase. and went though shooting the gun. riding the ATV in dirt and the finishing off getting into a chopper and doing a lift off and set down with some gunfire in between. I did 2 benchmarks for each back to back.

What I ended up with is this

nvidia- 580 SLI 6060 X 1200- AVG FPS 51,56

ATI- 5870 crossfire 1920 X 1200 -AVG FPS 41,39

ATI- 5870 single card 1920 X 1200 -AVG FPS 55,42

actual benchmarks shown below

--------------------------------------------------------

nvidia- 580 SLI 6060 X 1200

benchmark 1

NumFrames; 3413

Time; 60.00300

MinFPS; 24

MaxFPS; 94

AvgFPS; 51

Min NV GPU Tc; 59

Max NV GPU Tc; 62

Avg NV GPU Tc; 60

Min NV GPU Tc; 66

Max NV GPU Tc; 70

Avg NV GPU Tc; 67

Min CPU Tc; 44

Max CPU Tc; 49

Avg CPU Tc; 46

Min CPU U%; 16

Max CPU U%; 41

Avg CPU U%; 27

benchmark 2

NumFrames; 3413

Time; 60.00900

MinFPS; 34

MaxFPS; 94

AvgFPS; 56

Min NV GPU Tc; 56

Max NV GPU Tc; 59

Avg NV GPU Tc; 57

Min NV GPU Tc; 59

Max NV GPU Tc; 64

Avg NV GPU Tc; 61

Min CPU Tc; 43

Max CPU Tc; 48

Avg CPU Tc; 45

Min CPU U%; 17

Max CPU U%; 42

Avg CPU U%; 28

------------------------------------------------------

ATI- 5870 crossfire 1920 X 1200

benchmark 1 crossfire

NumFrames; 2496

Time; 60.00700

MinFPS; 0

MaxFPS; 69

AvgFPS; 41

Min ATI GPU Tc; 44

Max ATI GPU Tc; 48

Avg ATI GPU Tc; 47

Min ATI GPU U%; 0

Max ATI GPU U%; 37

Avg ATI GPU U%; 22

Min CPU Tc; 0

Max CPU Tc; 0

Avg CPU Tc; 0

Min CPU U%; 9

Max CPU U%; 61

Avg CPU U%; 36

benchmark 2 crossfire

NumFrames; 2346

Time; 60.02500

MinFPS; 9

MaxFPS; 74

AvgFPS; 39

Min ATI GPU Tc; 46

Max ATI GPU Tc; 48

Avg ATI GPU Tc; 46

Min ATI GPU U%; 0

Max ATI GPU U%; 30

Avg ATI GPU U%; 16

Min CPU Tc; 0

Max CPU Tc; 0

Avg CPU Tc; 0

Min CPU U%; 18

Max CPU U%; 56

Avg CPU U%; 36

------------------------------------------------------

ATI- 5870 single card 1920 X 1200

benchmark 1

NumFrames; 3341

Time; 60.01600

MinFPS; 29

MaxFPS; 104

AvgFPS; 55

Min CPU Tc; 0

Max CPU Tc; 0

Avg CPU Tc; 0

Min CPU U%; 20

Max CPU U%; 60

Avg CPU U%; 36

benchmark 2

NumFrames; 2547

Time; 60.01400

MinFPS; 24

MaxFPS; 64

AvgFPS; 42

Min CPU Tc; 0

Max CPU Tc; 0

Avg CPU Tc; 0

Min CPU U%; 25

Max CPU U%; 52

Avg CPU U%; 37

forgot to mention that i have 10.9 drivers with latest profiles. updating drivers for ATI will be my next option.

Edited December 26, 2010 by McKie

[cupasoup 10]

@McKie, Nice test, how well would you say sli scales these days, after reading about a bit there are a lot of people saying sli and crossfire dont work properly.

I currently have a GTX470 SOC and I'm considering getting another one, should I expect double the frame rate of a single card ?, or is there still scaling issues with ARMA 2 and SLI ?.

Thanks.

[Michael Withstand 10]

Umm how much performance gain can you get by disabling Hyperthreading?

The more I think about performance the more I believe BI is following a socialist approach to gaming: Average or just a tiny bit little over average for most PCs low end or high end and I have seen similar kind of performance and pattern for many many other games that come from the Eastern side of Europe. :rolleyes:

[Ripsaw5165 10]

The more efficient the coding, given load levels, the more even the performance accross platforms. Therefore, BIS's coding model is rather elegant, in my opinion.

[UKWFMental 10]

hey guys, hope this is the right topic to post this in. I have just come back to playing Arma2 :OA and have bought the BAF addon which is fantastic I have to say. Well done to those involved.

I have a question about upgrading my PC.

Current set up is :

AMD 955 CPU

radeon 1GB 4890 VC

8GB DDR2 800 Memory

Giga-Byte M720-US3 Motherboard.

My question is that I have around £160 to upgrade my PC so that Arma runs nice at all settings at Highest. Do i splash out on a new Graphics card 5870+ etc or do i upgrade my motherboard so that it can take DDR3 memory?(buying the memory aswell ofcourse)

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

I was hoping that someone who has a lot of experience with this game ArmA2 that could give me some insight on what is the issue here. I have 2 rigs that i game on. One is a intel that is set up with 2 X 580's SLI in surround with a total resolution of 6060 X 1200. The other is a AMD with 2 X 5870's crossfire with a resolution of 1920 X 1200.

.

.

.

nvidia- 580 SLI 6060 X 1200- AVG FPS 51,56

ATI- 5870 crossfire 1920 X 1200 -AVG FPS 41,39

ATI- 5870 single card 1920 X 1200 -AVG FPS 55,42

What was the question?

Your 580 SLI setup renders more than 3 times as much as your single 5870 and the difference in the test is 4 fps. Seems like the 580's are doing quite good.

For the crossfire 5870 vs single 5870, I have no clue. Seen a lot of posts in here about crossfire and bad performance though.

[MJK-Ranger 0]

I went to the B.A.F showcase. and went though shooting the gun. riding the ATV in dirt and the finishing off getting into a chopper and doing a lift off and set down with some gunfire in between. I did 2 benchmarks for each back to back.

What I ended up with is this

nvidia- 580 SLI 6060 X 1200- AVG FPS 51,56

ATI- 5870 crossfire 1920 X 1200 -AVG FPS 41,39

ATI- 5870 single card 1920 X 1200 -AVG FPS 55,42

I almost have the same FPS as you have with my system. I don't have OC my GPU, only my CPU.

ArmA2 need horsepower :)

In multiplayer i have average of 30 FPS on full 30 players Domination map.

You don't need more FPS, it's smooth in gameplay.

[domokun 515]

My question is that I have around £160 to upgrade my PC so that Arma runs nice at all settings at Highest. Do i splash out on a new Graphics card 5870+ etc or do i upgrade my motherboard so that it can take DDR3 memory?(buying the memory aswell ofcourse)

Whatever you do dont spend your cash on a new mobo and ddr3 cos if you do youll find your CPU doesnt fit your new mobo (AM2 vs AM3)

your better off either replacing your 955 with a faster AM2 CPU or upgrading your graphics card

given that the fastest CPU compatible with your mobo (Phenom II X4 940) is only 30% faster (3GHz quad vs your 2.2GHz quad) and it costs almost £100, Id suggest overclocking your 955 (+10% easy, +20% likely, +30% tricky, etc.) and putting your cash in a new graphics card such as a Radeon 5850 @ £150

[McKie 10]

What was the question?

The question was why do I see better preformace with a single 5870 vs. 5870 in crossfire.

[UKWFMental 10]

Whatever you do dont spend your cash on a new mobo and ddr3 cos if you do youll find your CPU doesnt fit your new mobo (AM2 vs AM3)

your better off either replacing your 955 with a faster AM2 CPU or upgrading your graphics card

given that the fastest CPU compatible with your mobo (Phenom II X4 940) is only 30% faster (3GHz quad vs your 2.2GHz quad) and it costs almost £100, Id suggest overclocking your 955 (+10% easy, +20% likely, +30% tricky, etc.) and putting your cash in a new graphics card such as a Radeon 5850 @ £150

my cpu is the AMD Phenom II X4 955 AM3 alrdy running at 3.2 GHz.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/AMD+Phenom+II/AMD+Phenom+II+X4+Quad+Core+955+Black+Edition+125W+C3+%28Socket+AM3%29+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=39930&source=googleps

Thanks for your help anyway, i will look at a new VC in the next month.

[rhysduk 0]

I thought i may try this in ehre before starting a thread;

Is it me or does anyone else have serious problems with the blur and bloom and general look of the game? It's bloody horrendous! Seems to run a bit like porridge... nothing like the old Flashpoint

Here's some pics to try and explain what I mean;

I'm just not enjoying the game due to the shoddy graphics.. I've seem videos on Youtube and they all most have crisp graphics... Can anyone PLEASE help?

I've tried turning off Post Processing et al and nothing I've tried the Kegetys Blur and Boom mod for ARMA2 but that doesnt seem to be working despite coming up int he addons menu in-game.

[bobgold 10]

I just bought ARMA II & ARMA II OA and I was able to play for a little while before reaching a town and then gameplay just got so choppy that there was no point in playing.

I have the following hardware setup, can you point out any problems or stuff that I should upgrade to get it running?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHhz, 4GB RAM

XFX GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3

Corsair 120GB Force Series F120 (Solid State)

Windows 7 64-bit

I have over 40gb free space on the drive. Thankful for any help!

Edited January 3, 2011 by bobgold
Operation system

[WikChi 10]

I have i7 920 6gb and gtx460oc and i cant run this game smoothly at 1920x1200 on any setting.

30fps is the max i get, considering how dated the graphics are why is the performance hit so big?

[McKie 10]

I have i7 920 6gb and gtx460oc and i cant run this game smoothly at 1920x1200 on any setting.

30fps is the max i get, considering how dated the graphics are why is the performance hit so big?

You didn't mention your HDD which is also a factor in the equation. But really this isn't a FPS with small maps and just a couple of vehicles. This is a Simulator with an expansive world.

[Leon86 13]

I thought i may try this in ehre before starting a thread;

Is it me or does anyone else have serious problems with the blur and bloom and general look of the game? It's bloody horrendous! Seems to run a bit like porridge... nothing like the old Flashpoint

Here's some pics to try and explain what I mean;

I'm just not enjoying the game due to the shoddy graphics.. I've seem videos on Youtube and they all most have crisp graphics... Can anyone PLEASE help?

I've tried turning off Post Processing et al and nothing I've tried the Kegetys Blur and Boom mod for ARMA2 but that doesnt seem to be working despite coming up int he addons menu in-game.

is your 3d resolution 100%? (or more, if you dont mind the performance hit)

[johncage 30]

Yeah...dont worry about it.

The only people who have bad performance with good rigs are morons, you can make arma2 run o.k. with a shit pc if you are a reasonably competent human.

Ive run Arma2 on a P4 3.0GHz AGP system with 1gb of shit ram and a 7950GT without major dramas.

Gotta love people who aren't imaginative enough to realize there are a lot more variables then "reasonable competency" at play here. The game doesn't run well for a lot of people using high end systems. It's easy to dismiss them as "morons" if you're the kind of person who thinks running Arma 2 on a p4 is fine enough. Some of us have standards.

[Atkins 10]

Could someone list some tricks how to take the load off the cpu in this game (other than changing shadows from low to high). It is getting frustrating that no matter how much i lower the graphics and tweak config files (til a point where the game looks like playing doom1 with 640x480, except uglier) the fps is 15-25ish in mp and most of the sp as well.

The gameplay is totally not enjoyable when the game looks like crap and like a slide-show on top of that.

I am running win7, c2d e6750@3,1hz, 4gigs, hd4850.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Could someone list some tricks how to take the load off the cpu in this game (other than changing shadows from low to high). It is getting frustrating that no matter how much i lower the graphics and tweak config files (til a point where the game looks like playing doom1 with 640x480, except uglier) the fps is 15-25ish in mp and most of the sp as well.

The gameplay is totally not enjoyable when the game looks like crap and like a slide-show on top of that.

I am running win7, c2d e6750@3,1hz, 4gigs, hd4850.

First trick is to turn off your FPS counter.

Shadows to high lowers CPU usage. (The sharp shadows are rendered on the CPU though you already knew this)

Lowering viewdistance and possibly terrain detail may help

Lowering your resolution may also help but never tested this.

Turning vsync off may help to eliminate mouselag and with your FPS tearing is not a problem anyway, game feels alot better in my case.

The amount of sounds played at the same time can also make a huge difference in FPS in large firefights, though anything lower than 16 can make you miss alot of sounds which is annoying. If you dont want to lower it any further, complain to BI about it and demand HW accelerated sounds. :p

All the other settings only affect your GPU load i think, with your GPU you should keep most things on medium, AA to low or off depending on your resolution. Then it should be playable, dont expect 60FPS in this game with your system, you dont need it anyway. And dont make the game more ugly than needed, you wont gain any FPS by turning off every possible setting, your GPU will just sit there being idle instead. The trick is to strain each part of your HW as much as possible.

What may also help is to remove all unnecessary programs running in the background, virusscanners, etc.

Edited January 5, 2011 by NeMeSiS

[Atkins 10]

First trick is to turn off your FPS counter.

Shadows to high lowers CPU usage. (The sharp shadows are rendered on the CPU though you already knew this)

Lowering viewdistance and possibly terrain detail may help

Lowering your resolution may also help but never tested this.

Turning vsync off may help to eliminate mouselag and with your FPS tearing is not a problem anyway, game feels alot better in my case.

The amount of sounds played at the same time can also make a huge difference in FPS in large firefights, though anything lower than 16 can make you miss alot of sounds which is annoying. If you dont want to lower it any further, complain to BI about it and demand HW accelerated sounds. :p

All the other settings only affect your GPU load i think, with your GPU you should keep most things on medium, AA to low or off depending on your resolution. Then it should be playable, dont expect 60FPS in this game with your system, you dont need it anyway. And dont make the game more ugly than needed, you wont gain any FPS by turning off every possible setting, your GPU will just sit there being idle instead. The trick is to strain each part of your HW as much as possible.

What may also help is to remove all unnecessary programs running in the background, virusscanners, etc.

As I explained, turning everything from the video settings to basically as low as possible or even off still doesnt stop the slide show. Btw, shouldnt turning shadows off be even more efficient than just setting them high?

I am gonna try the sound thing. Every other thing u said and read from here and else where i have tried without any luck.

[NeMeSiS 11]

As I explained, turning everything from the video settings to basically as low as possible or even off still doesnt stop the slide show. Btw, shouldnt turning shadows off be even more efficient than just setting them high?

Off has no impact on the CPU, high has (virtually) no impact on the CPU but some on your GPU. No point in letting your GPU do nothing. ;)

[bensdale 0]

I always thought

Shadow quality

high = cpu calculated

verry high = gpu calculated

i am wrong?

[NeMeSiS 11]

I always thought

Shadow quality

high = cpu calculated

verry high = gpu calculated

i am wrong?

Yes. The sharp shadows are calculated on the CPU, the blurry/blocky ones on the GPU. Unless this recently changed and i didnt notice you enable the GPU ones on high (Though i think some of the sharp ones still excist on the players character, but cant be bothered to check)

[bensdale 0]

Thx for the explanation :ok:

[AngryGamer94 10]

Hi,

I am having some performance issues with Arma 2:

~All the training missions ran fine on max settings

~As soon as i tried a real mission(right now i was playing a custom zombie map) i get slideshow frame rates.Seriously it averages at like 10fps!What is this!

Here's what i tried:

-I changed the view distance to 3000 and it improved the frame rates a bit(15-20).Changing it to 0 doesn't help at all

-Turning off AA doesn't do anything

-Turning down the settings doesn't do anything

-GPU usage stays at like 20-50%(it's obvious that the cpu is causing a bottleneck)

Specs:Core i7 920(overclocked to 3.4Ghz stable),GTX 580(Stock),6GB RAM,Fast HDD(read/write over 100MB/s)

Got any tips to improve performance besides killing my processor from overclocking it too much?Or besides buying a new CPU?

[johncage 30]

the game is naturally laggy. you won't get call of duty or even crysis level framerates. there's nothing wrong with your setup, and i suspect you've already tried updating drivers and turning off excess background processes(neither of which does anything, really, unless you're really out of date). the only thing you can do is turn down the graphics to low/normal and just get used to the sluggish gameplay.

i've tried the beta patches and they are in fact somewhat laggier than version 1.57.