ArmA2 / OA (low) performance issues

[nerdwing 13]

The card is an ATI 5750. Runs up to about 70-ish under load in ArmA2.

[domokun 515]

Don't bother with the PSU (unless there's something wrong with it). Save your pennies for a faster CPU. In fact a decent PSU will prolly cost almost as much as a fast (<3.2Ghz) CPU.

[stk2008 14]

Hello :)

This is my computer:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=ASUS+CG1330&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=1116091274840872687&sa=X&ei=-7qMTunoC8r40gGTzYzWBA&ved=0CC8Q8wIwAg

I was foolish and bought a hexacore 2.6ghz, rather than a more capable quadcore. I'm very limited in my overall fps in any missions it seems, especially campaigns. At a glance, is it safe to say this is due to CPU bottleneck? Overclocking isnt really feasible due to the motherboard's restrictions. I'm going to attempt to upgrade the PSU today to an 800 watt model, which will be the first step in any future hardware improvements for this computer.

What power supply do you have?

Make and wattage please.

[MavericK96 0]

Also, the 5750 is a low-mid range card. I would upgrade/overclock your CPU first, but you're going to have to upgrade your GPU if you want good performance at high settings.

[nerdwing 13]

Hello, and thanks all for the replies. I'm sorry for the delay in replying :(

It seems OCing my CPU isnt really feasible at the moment, as even using the autoclock function in AMD Overdrive leads to a crash around the 2.9ghz mark. That coupled with bios that cant be unlocked (apparently) mean that it doesn't seem like a possible option at this point. I assume the crash is due to the motherboard's limitations though I've nothing to confirm my suspicion.

Regarding the PSU, I'm not sure of the exact make now. I recieved it from a friend awhile back, and I was told its in the 700 watt range. This was a huge upgrade from my default 300-ish watt model that came with the PC.

Duly noted on the card issue. I'll do what I can to upgrade the CPU in the future, and the GPU will be on the list afterwards.

Thank you for the advice everyone, its certainly appreciated. ArmA2 was one of the games I was hoping to handle with this PC setup, and I regret having not done any more research beforehand.

[rob151515 10]

6970 here:yay:

game video settings, set graphics ram to very high, if it's set to default. Geting bad performance with default vram setting.

I have 2 crossfired 6970's and I agree with this. Getting terrible frame rates running when this setting is set to 'Default'. Getting better frame rates running with video memory set to 'Very High' but by doing so I'm finding I'm getting far more textures popping in all over the place. I can't win!!!!!!

[NeuroFunker 11]

wow, i was actually thinking, default vram is kind for crossfire/SLI users, but it seems just to be bugged at ATI cards.

[Leon86 13]

you can enter your a custom vram value in the .cfg file. Be aware that games are not the only things eating up vram, windows aero interface takes a big chunk as wel as modern (hardware accelerated) browsers.

[NeuroFunker 11]

you can enter your a custom vram value in the .cfg file. Be aware that games are not the only things eating up vram, windows aero interface takes a big chunk as wel as modern (hardware accelerated) browsers.

on BI wiki, i could read, this values are auto generated, everytime you start the game, and it doesn't work when u change it manualy or something.

thats what i got there right now:

localVRAM=2107830272;

nonlocalVRAM=1877524480;

[sapped 10]

hey guys, I'm having some serious performance issues with athlon II X4 640 cpu,

how much performance can I get if I overclock it to say @3.6ghz from @3.0ghz??

[HR4 Elite 10]

hey guys, I'm having some serious performance issues with athlon II X4 640 cpu,

how much performance can I get if I overclock it to say @3.6ghz from @3.0ghz??

I have the same cpu but with no problems and great performance, what gpu are you using and OS, whats your average fps on an open plain area i.e. desert (I use two for testing 51km desert pmc gets your higher fps out and Podagorsk as it’s a heavy terrain on high or very high settings, restricts fps a little or even alot).

.

[NeuroFunker 11]

hey guys, I'm having some serious performance issues with athlon II X4 640 cpu,

how much performance can I get if I overclock it to say @3.6ghz from @3.0ghz??

ofcourse it will, i clocked my from 3,4 to 3,8, game feels quite better with it.

[rob151515 10]

Been doing some further testing (using 'Hike in the Hills') and it looks like I can get fairly smooth frame rates (40's - 50's) if I select 'Very High' and let Arma select the advanced settings. It's great getting smooth frame rates but seems a shame I can't run smoothly with higher graphics settings considering the specs I now have:

• i5 2500k
  
• 16gb RAM
  
• 2x6970CFX
  

(Already tried ocing the CPU and GPU's)

Should I be getting better performance than < 25 fps with everything maxed (view distance at approx. 4500) or is this as good as I can expect?

I seem to get good frame rates using the 'Very High' video memory setting with everything maxed until I push out the View Distance a little bit (over 3600) then suddenly it becomes very laggy (50-60 fps down to 15 - 20 fps) - only when I turn around in the game. If I keep my head looking forward it's great! unfortunately occasionally I need to turn around and check behind me. Its as if each time I turn around it needs to load the scene behind me into memory again... I've tried using the 'Default' video memory setting - this fixes the 'Turning around' issue but the frame rate instantly drops to a constant 25-30 fps everywhere. :(

[HR4 Elite 10]

Should I be getting better performance than < 25 fps with everything maxed (view distance at approx. 4500) or is this as good as I can expect?

Yes, I would think is the answer to that..

These are the things I did:

1/ I first started by finding out what my best fps was, I use ‘PMC 51km desert’ to test for highest fps as there is virtually no clutter or fps sapping surroundings, so makes for a good test site.. Fraps as you know is the one to use but also ‘DVD’ mod is very good take a look at that as well..

This gives an idea of the fps I have now..on PMC map, I have no screen shot of what I started out with but it was around 140-170fps..

2/ I defragged the hd, down to 0% fragmented, I have to point out that the pc I use for Arma2 is simply for Arma2 and related stuff, i.e. mod’s addons, etc, (so there is no other onboard clutter other than OS, security, Arma2 plus related stuff and game booster 3)

3/ I then adjusted Win7 64bit to ‘Performance’ I have this set all the time on my Arma2 pc, you can do it just for games if your using your pc for general use and want the frilliness, then switch it back afterwards. If your not sure how, just type in ‘search programs & files’, ‘Performance’ then click ‘Adjust the appearance and performance of Win7’, highlight ‘Performance’...

4/ I have ‘Game Booster 3’, it switches any background programs off that are not needed, use this before going into the game and switch off afterwards, very easy program to use and its free..

5/ Check the cores are working across fairly evenly, I use AMD Overdrive you may have a similar program, you can see both gpu & cpu workloads.. I have a quad core and had to tell the game I had 4 although it is supposed to do it automatically, it works all my cores reasonably evenly..

6/ Got Landtex, Sap Clutter, DVD, all good mods I have around to help fps…

7/ Made sure I was patched to the latest game patches (which I was) you can also run with or without the latest Beta ( I usually run with Beta)

On advice I did the following, as I know very little regards overclocking..

8/ I OC’ed my gpu, you can see the results in the system setup I have below.. (using in-built overclock facilities, ‘auto overclock’)

9/ I OC’ed my pc to 3.4Ghz from 3.0, could possibly get a little more, but it does the job.. (using AMD overdrive program ‘auto overclock’)

10/ Went back to test, and my fps had gone up considerably and the game ran even smoother than it did before, which if I am honest was pretty smooth anyway, but I could instantly see a difference, especially when spinning around a lot in combat, no more drag, lag or stutter, which I did have a little before this process..

Chernarus fps, overlooking Nova Sobor in using A2 way in using A2,OA way..

Did all this around 3-4 mths ago and since then have had zero lag or stutter and good fps on whichever map/island I use..

I make smaller combat missions and skirmish type missions to play, so there is never more than 150-200 ai in combat at once, usually less than 70 is the norm for my missions, plus some hardware, civilians, vehicles etc..

This may help, or may not, but its worth a go, you should be getting very good fps with your setup. Of course different pc’s will act differently depending a lot on what’s on there and what’s plugged into it… (not my words but the chap that built my Arma2 pc), but it makes very good sense… I have my everyday pc and would not want to even try Arma2 on that, its got so much junk on it, plus thousands of working files, so Arma2 fps wise would probably be dismal..

.

[icehollowpoint 10]

After excitedly looking to get back into ArmA 2, I bought OA off sprocket, spent 4 days or so downloading it due to terrible speeds, installed it with baited breath and then.....

It was barely playable on low settings. Here are my specs:

windows 7 premium 64 bit

Intel I3 M380 @ 2.53Ghz (4 CPUs)

4GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 5470 (2737 MB)

Default display resolution is 1920x1080

I'm not even trying to run the bastard on fancy settings, I just want it to be playable. Granted this is no super computer, but come on it's fairly bloody solid, surely i should be able to play comfortable on at least medium settings with PP turned off and the view distance low.

Help?

[NeMeSiS 11]

After excitedly looking to get back into ArmA 2, I bought OA off sprocket, spent 4 days or so downloading it due to terrible speeds, installed it with baited breath and then.....

It was barely playable on low settings. Here are my specs:

windows 7 premium 64 bit

Intel I3 M380 @ 2.53Ghz (4 CPUs)

4GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 5470 (2737 MB)

Default display resolution is 1920x1080

I'm not even trying to run the bastard on fancy settings, I just want it to be playable. Granted this is no super computer, but come on it's fairly bloody solid, surely i should be able to play comfortable on at least medium settings with PP turned off and the view distance low.

Help?

I am thinking more of a combination of low/very low settings on that resolution with the 3d resolution at 100%, compared to a roughly similar laptop that i have.

EDIT: Actually after checking out a benchmark of your videocard i am going to say that even low/very low with a 3d resolution at 100% may be a bit out of your reach. That thing is slower than my onboard GFX.

Edited October 18, 2011 by NeMeSiS

[HR4 Elite 10]

After excitedly looking to get back into ArmA 2, I bought OA off sprocket, spent 4 days or so downloading it due to terrible speeds, installed it with baited breath and then.....

It was barely playable on low settings. Here are my specs:

windows 7 premium 64 bit

Intel I3 M380 @ 2.53Ghz (4 CPUs)

4GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 5470 (2737 MB)

Default display resolution is 1920x1080

I'm not even trying to run the bastard on fancy settings, I just want it to be playable. Granted this is no super computer, but come on it's fairly bloody solid, surely i should be able to play comfortable on at least medium settings with PP turned off and the view distance low.

Help?

Don't know if this will help any..

.

[Leon86 13]

After excitedly looking to get back into ArmA 2, I bought OA off sprocket, spent 4 days or so downloading it due to terrible speeds, installed it with baited breath and then.....

It was barely playable on low settings. Here are my specs:

windows 7 premium 64 bit

Intel I3 M380 @ 2.53Ghz (4 CPUs)

4GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 5470 (2737 MB)

Default display resolution is 1920x1080

I'm not even trying to run the bastard on fancy settings, I just want it to be playable. Granted this is no super computer, but come on it's fairly bloody solid, surely i should be able to play comfortable on at least medium settings with PP turned off and the view distance low.

Help?

That's a laptop with a very slow gpu, about half the power of the one that's on the minimum system requirements. Reducing the resolution will help. Also, disable the windows aero interface while playing, you can do this by going to the arma shortcut, properties, compatibility and "disable desktop composition"

cpu is a dualcore, HT makes it look like a quad but in most games that doesnt help much. In this case the gpu is def the bottleneck though.

It's a solid laptop, but not for demanding games. Only games that will run well are those that can scale back massively like Starcraft 2. I can run that on my laptop with intel 4500 (not even half the performance of your gpu).

compare gpu's with the link in my sig, or find the more recent list, they update it every month or so.

[icehollowpoint 10]

That's a laptop with a very slow gpu, about half the power of the one that's on the minimum system requirements. Reducing the resolution will help. Also, disable the windows aero interface while playing, you can do this by going to the arma shortcut, properties, compatibility and "disable desktop composition"

cpu is a dualcore, HT makes it look like a quad but in most games that doesnt help much. In this case the gpu is def the bottleneck though.

It's a solid laptop, but not for demanding games. Only games that will run well are those that can scale back massively like Starcraft 2. I can run that on my laptop with intel 4500 (not even half the performance of your gpu).

compare gpu's with the link in my sig, or find the more recent list, they update it every month or so.

The joke of it all is, I ran ArmA 2 years ago comfortably on medium and low settings on a an ancient single core CPU and a similar card. That was on 1024x768 resolution though, and I'm guessing that is what is really stretching out the limits of performance here? The 1920x1080 reso?

[NeMeSiS 11]

The joke of it all is, I ran ArmA 2 years ago comfortably on medium and low settings on a an ancient single core CPU and a similar card. That was on 1024x768 resolution though, and I'm guessing that is what is really stretching out the limits of performance here? The 1920x1080 reso?

Well you went from 786 432 pixels to 2 073 600 pixels, thats a rather large increase.

Try lowering the 3d resolution.

[sapped 10]

The joke of it all is, I ran ArmA 2 years ago comfortably on medium and low settings on a an ancient single core CPU and a similar card. That was on 1024x768 resolution though, and I'm guessing that is what is really stretching out the limits of performance here? The 1920x1080 reso?

stop bitching, I ran all my games on 1280x800 and I'm not even complaining

:D

Yes, I would think is the answer to that..

These are the things I did:

1/ I first started by finding out what my best fps was, I use ‘PMC 51km desert’ to test for highest fps as there is virtually no clutter or fps sapping surroundings, so makes for a good test site.. Fraps as you know is the one to use but also ‘DVD’ mod is very good take a look at that as well..

This gives an idea of the fps I have now..on PMC map, I have no screen shot of what I started out with but it was around 140-170fps..

2/ I defragged the hd, down to 0% fragmented, I have to point out that the pc I use for Arma2 is simply for Arma2 and related stuff, i.e. mod’s addons, etc, (so there is no other onboard clutter other than OS, security, Arma2 plus related stuff and game booster 3)

3/ I then adjusted Win7 64bit to ‘Performance’ I have this set all the time on my Arma2 pc, you can do it just for games if your using your pc for general use and want the frilliness, then switch it back afterwards. If your not sure how, just type in ‘search programs & files’, ‘Performance’ then click ‘Adjust the appearance and performance of Win7’, highlight ‘Performance’...

4/ I have ‘Game Booster 3’, it switches any background programs off that are not needed, use this before going into the game and switch off afterwards, very easy program to use and its free..

5/ Check the cores are working across fairly evenly, I use AMD Overdrive you may have a similar program, you can see both gpu & cpu workloads.. I have a quad core and had to tell the game I had 4 although it is supposed to do it automatically, it works all my cores reasonably evenly..

6/ Got Landtex, Sap Clutter, DVD, all good mods I have around to help fps…

7/ Made sure I was patched to the latest game patches (which I was) you can also run with or without the latest Beta ( I usually run with Beta)

On advice I did the following, as I know very little regards overclocking..

8/ I OC’ed my gpu, you can see the results in the system setup I have below.. (using in-built overclock facilities, ‘auto overclock’)

9/ I OC’ed my pc to 3.4Ghz from 3.0, could possibly get a little more, but it does the job.. (using AMD overdrive program ‘auto overclock’)

10/ Went back to test, and my fps had gone up considerably and the game ran even smoother than it did before, which if I am honest was pretty smooth anyway, but I could instantly see a difference, especially when spinning around a lot in combat, no more drag, lag or stutter, which I did have a little before this process..

Chernarus fps, overlooking Nova Sobor in using A2 way in using A2,OA way..

Did all this around 3-4 mths ago and since then have had zero lag or stutter and good fps on whichever map/island I use..

I make smaller combat missions and skirmish type missions to play, so there is never more than 150-200 ai in combat at once, usually less than 70 is the norm for my missions, plus some hardware, civilians, vehicles etc..

This may help, or may not, but its worth a go, you should be getting very good fps with your setup. Of course different pc’s will act differently depending a lot on what’s on there and what’s plugged into it… (not my words but the chap that built my Arma2 pc), but it makes very good sense… I have my everyday pc and would not want to even try Arma2 on that, its got so much junk on it, plus thousands of working files, so Arma2 fps wise would probably be dismal..

.

hey for overclocking the cpu, is it better to do it in BIOS or through overdrive?? u need to change alot of settings like ram speed if doing it in bios right??

also how far can I get if using the little fan that came with the cpu (its called stock cooler right?? I'm not sure), whats the expected peak that I can overclock to while also having stability, thx!!

[HR4 Elite 10]

hey for overclocking the cpu, is it better to do it in BIOS or through overdrive?? u need to change alot of settings like ram speed if doing it in bios right??

also how far can I get if using the little fan that came with the cpu (its called stock cooler right?? I'm not sure), whats the expected peak that I can overclock to while also having stability, thx!!

I used the in-built AMD Overdrive utility that came with the pc, it auto over-clock’s safely, increasing at the rate of 15Mhz per time then testing for stability, the whole process took around 2hrs, then I ran a stability test which is also built into the utility that came with the pc which it passed. I then did my own game stability test that ran over a gaming period of 10hrs, which ran very well, in-fact better than expected. If you have more knowledge regards cpu over-clocking then you can do this via BIOS etc, but I have limited knowledge and the way I did it can be done by anyone with the utility tools if provided. I have pretty basic knowledge of computers so I tend to do everything using manufacturers supplied tools/utilities, which I would strongly recommend, its easy, reasonably safe and you can stop the process at whatever level you want which I did at 3.4Ghz, I have been told that my cpu will go higher, but it runs very well at its current settings so I don’t see any need to increase it any more, I set out with the idea of maybe 3.5 or 3.6, but stopped at 3.4 to test, when I did test it there was a quite noticable increase in performance in-game. I was happy with the level of performance it acheived so thought I wouldn't bother going any further with the cpu, a thing to mention would be that the utility tool (overdrive) changes the BIOS and any other settings for you as it progresses. If your pc has the utility tool to do the same, then I would recommend that process rather than fiddling about with BIOS yourself, if like me you have limited knowledge. On the fan/temp side, I have a gaming pc which has three fans, so its a well ventilated tower, the temps under really heavy load are around 42-46c but idle is around 21-22c, usual gaming is around the mid 30c’s. I don’t think you would want temps much above 55-60c under really heavy load, but I have read on-line many people run towers with a lot higher temps, but like yourself I’m not sure, stick to the overclock utility and watch the temps for the first day or so whilst testing your new settings.

I have VaporX cooling for the gpu so that helps keep things pretty cool most of the time and even if it does reach higher temps my gpu cools down quickly when you stop gaming within a minute or so back down to idle temps.

Sorry I can’t be of more help but I would stick to the overdrive method if you have the utility tool on-board, the manufacturer knows their product better than anyone else..

It certainly worked for me..

.

[Leon86 13]

hey for overclocking the cpu, is it better to do it in BIOS or through overdrive?? u need to change alot of settings like ram speed if doing it in bios right??

also how far can I get if using the little fan that came with the cpu (its called stock cooler right?? I'm not sure), whats the expected peak that I can overclock to while also having stability, thx!!

It depends on how much time you have. You'll always have better results if you do it yourself.

Overclocking isn't that complicated these days. There's usually a base frequency and all other frequencies are multiple's of that. If you have an unlocked cpu (amd BE or intel K) all you have to do is increase the multiplier of the cpu, frequency=base x multiplier. If it's unstable (test with 50 runs linX + hours of prime95) increase vcore or decrease multiplier (depending on how hot it gets, monitor with coretemp or something).

If you have a normal cpu (with a maximum multiplier) you have to increase the base frequency, because your ram also runs at a multiple of the base you might have to decrease it a bit. Sometimes it's not shown as a multiplier in the bios but just as speeds you can choose, but it works the same way, higher or lower multipliers.

All the overdrive thingy does is automate the process a bit, but they usually dont overclock very far with a large added voltage, getting you a slower hotter chip compared to what you can do yourself.

[rob151515 10]

Yes, I would think is the answer to that..

These are the things I did:

1/ I first started by finding out what my best fps was, I use ‘PMC 51km desert’ to test for highest fps as there is virtually no clutter or fps sapping surroundings, so makes for a good test site.. Fraps as you know is the one to use but also ‘DVD’ mod is very good take a look at that as well..

This gives an idea of the fps I have now..on PMC map, I have no screen shot of what I started out with but it was around 140-170fps..

2/ I defragged the hd, down to 0% fragmented, I have to point out that the pc I use for Arma2 is simply for Arma2 and related stuff, i.e. mod’s addons, etc, (so there is no other onboard clutter other than OS, security, Arma2 plus related stuff and game booster 3)

3/ I then adjusted Win7 64bit to ‘Performance’ I have this set all the time on my Arma2 pc, you can do it just for games if your using your pc for general use and want the frilliness, then switch it back afterwards. If your not sure how, just type in ‘search programs & files’, ‘Performance’ then click ‘Adjust the appearance and performance of Win7’, highlight ‘Performance’...

4/ I have ‘Game Booster 3’, it switches any background programs off that are not needed, use this before going into the game and switch off afterwards, very easy program to use and its free..

5/ Check the cores are working across fairly evenly, I use AMD Overdrive you may have a similar program, you can see both gpu & cpu workloads.. I have a quad core and had to tell the game I had 4 although it is supposed to do it automatically, it works all my cores reasonably evenly..

6/ Got Landtex, Sap Clutter, DVD, all good mods I have around to help fps…

7/ Made sure I was patched to the latest game patches (which I was) you can also run with or without the latest Beta ( I usually run with Beta)

On advice I did the following, as I know very little regards overclocking..

8/ I OC’ed my gpu, you can see the results in the system setup I have below.. (using in-built overclock facilities, ‘auto overclock’)

9/ I OC’ed my pc to 3.4Ghz from 3.0, could possibly get a little more, but it does the job.. (using AMD overdrive program ‘auto overclock’)

10/ Went back to test, and my fps had gone up considerably and the game ran even smoother than it did before, which if I am honest was pretty smooth anyway, but I could instantly see a difference, especially when spinning around a lot in combat, no more drag, lag or stutter, which I did have a little before this process..

Chernarus fps, overlooking Nova Sobor in using A2 way in using A2,OA way..

Did all this around 3-4 mths ago and since then have had zero lag or stutter and good fps on whichever map/island I use..

I make smaller combat missions and skirmish type missions to play, so there is never more than 150-200 ai in combat at once, usually less than 70 is the norm for my missions, plus some hardware, civilians, vehicles etc..

This may help, or may not, but its worth a go, you should be getting very good fps with your setup. Of course different pc’s will act differently depending a lot on what’s on there and what’s plugged into it… (not my words but the chap that built my Arma2 pc), but it makes very good sense… I have my everyday pc and would not want to even try Arma2 on that, its got so much junk on it, plus thousands of working files, so Arma2 fps wise would probably be dismal..

.

Thanks for going to the trouble of writing this post some great tips in there - I will try some of these out and report back.

What's odd is that last night I disabled crossfire to see what would happen and weirdly enough the frame rate didn't seem to change (maybe 1-5 fps difference) but MSI afterburner was reporting only 1 gpu in use and the lag issue when spinning around in game seemed to be less of a problem than with Xfire enabled.

I also overclocked the CPU to 4.2GHZ which made a small increase in performance but nothing to get excited about - tried this with both Xfire enabled and disabled.

I should also mention that I'm not running with AA on because of the white dotted trees that occur when I do - this should boost performance somewhat but still only getting 35-45 fps on average.

I'm starting to wonder if this may be a catalyst driver issue...

[kazenokizu 10]

ok i have a pretty decent pc. i have a 6 core 1090t amd black edition cpu

a gt 450 msi video card windows 7 ultimate 64 bit 8 gigs of ddr3 1333 mhz ram

and my game runs like crap any clue at what i can do to get some better frame rates out of this thing at a good res like 1920x1080 i can deal with less if i have to -_-