ArmA2 / OA (low) performance issues

[RadicalAtHeart 11]

Drastically? Depends on your definition, I suppose. You aren't noticeably going to reduce the life of a modern SSD by defragging it occasionally. Not that you need to, of course.

Wasting your time? Yes. Shortening the life of the drive? Not really.

*Oh dear. I'm replying to a 3 year old post. LOL. Damn these 'smart' phones and their tiny screens.

I say defragging a normal HDD is barely useful if you treat your PC well. You don't need it really. So defragging for SSD is also not necessary.

Does anyone know how I can get more out of my GTX650? I am only having GPU bottleneck here. Switching from ATI to Nvidia helped my CPU usage a lot.

[Tankbuster 1746]

*replies to a more recent post* :)

It's all about seek times. That is, the time it takes for a drive to locate a certain piece of data. SSD can do it instantaneously, to intents and purposes. So they don't care if data is spread out across the drive, they can flit about getting all the bits of a fragmented file with no performance hit.

HDDs are a different story. Because of their mechanical nature, their seek times are MUCH longer. Given this, it makes sense to keep the files are defragmented as possible. If an HDD can read a single file in one hit, they are quite fast. If it has to go hunting around the drive for bits of this file, the time it takes to get the data goes up exponentially.

[KingM535i 1]

Has anyone else traced performance problems with Arma 2 (Combined Ops in my case) to Google Chrome? I have and I can't find anything about it, in this forum or the web. Here's the story;

I went into Chrome's settings to tick the "Send a 'Do Not Track' request" box under "Privacy" and decided to have a look around as I hadn't for a while. Right down the bottom of the "advanced settings" I found a box marked "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed", which seemed to be ticked by default.

"I don't know what Google apps are, I clearly don't need them." thought I and un-ticked the box. The next time I played Arma 2 I noticed a marked improvement with the program.

The only change I had made to my system was those two boxes in Chrome's settings. I ran some system tests and quickly discovered that with "background apps" allowed there was a low level but variable demand on my systems resources, including "spikes" of demand on the CPU's, even though I have never used a "Google app" (as far as I know). With this box un-ticked I ran the benchmark scenarios in A2:CO and found a 3-4 fps improvement across the board, as well as noticeably more stable frame rate and, after playing the "Razor Two" mission for a while, less glitches.

The biggest glitch I had with the Harvest Red campaign was vehicles being fired hundreds of feet into the air in front of me as I was being transported around by helicopter. They would fall back to the ground, explode and then I couldn't talk to any AI in the area as they were all in "danger" mode. One Ural nearly took out my helicopter. I'm glad to say I haven't had a single flying Ural since I un-ticked that box!

Google Chrome Version 23.0.1271.95 m

Open a tab in Google Chrome.

Click the little box with 3 lines on it at the top right (it used to be a spanner).

Select "Settings" from the drop down menu (used to be called "Under the hood").

Scroll down and click "+ Show advanced settings" at the bottom.

Scroll down and under "Background apps" un-tick "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed". (Erm, unless you need them to run in the background. Whatever they are)

[flyboy96 1]

ok so i get low performance when im on the ground, but when i fly its like my comp went super, no lag, any explanation or help to fix ground performance? my comp specs are:

processor: Pentium® dual-core CPU E5800 @ 3.20 GHz 3.20 GHz

RAM: 3 GB

system type: 64-bit operating system

OS: win 7

any help is appreciated

[chrisb 196]

I'm glad to say I haven't had a single flying Ural since I un-ticked that box!

I was laughing out load at that, great.. Nobody ever wants a chopper took out by a flying ural..;):D

Good tip though, will remember that should I ever use google chrome..

ok so i get low performance when im on the ground, but when i fly its like my comp went super, no lag, any explanation or help to fix ground performance? my comp specs are:

processor: Pentium® dual-core CPU E5800 @ 3.20 GHz 3.20 GHz

RAM: 3 GB

system type: 64-bit operating system

OS: win 7

any help is appreciated

What graphics do you have ?

[flyboy96 1]

i have no idea where to get that information

[MAVEN 1]

Low performance with games comes for two reasons.

1st is that you don't take good care of your system's OS, and systems hardware. And as such your system slows down up to 90% in a short period of time.

2nd is that games are often coded for Windows, Windows is customizable but lacks ease-of-use and thus games get released with less options in settings, while in the engine core they do have the ability to change far more options than you may think (Crysis best example)

So if you can't keep your system safe, clean, organized, if you don't know how to tune game settings, don't play games or don't complain.

I have a workstation with several powerful systems, but also 2 older test systems (one of which is a single core with 1 gb ram and older 3.0 shader gcard) and I managed to play ArmA 2 on it on custom but medium settings with ~20 to even 30 frames, just by tweaking OS, drivers and A2's settings...

Developers try hard to make things solid for you, so return the favor, buy their products and make an effort to use them properly.

[chrisb 196]

i have no idea where to get that information

Simple download (Speccy), will give you all the info you need for your system, well all you need to know to see if Arma 2 will run.. Plus its a handy little tool.

[Sephisto 1]

I'm getting 20-25% CPU usage playing Arma 2, is that normal? GPU usage is 40%+

i7 920 3.8 Ghz

7850 2gb

12gb ram ddr3

w7 64 bit

1680x1050

[domokun 515]

No it's not normal.

So try these tips:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?85124-ArmA2-OA-%28low%29-performance-issues&p=2081466#post2081466

and let us know how you get on.

I have a similar setup (i5-3570k OC @ 4.3, 7850 @ 1000/1450, 8GB RAM & Win7-64, 1920x1200) and everything runs fine.

[Sephisto 1]

I've used some of those tips already except disabling hyperthreading, do you have it disabled?

Anyway with the low cpu usage I still get pretty good Fps, it varies anywhere from 30-90 Fps..

Made a little video showing gpu and cpu usage on the Wasteland mission http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7sKYEck66Y

Edited December 9, 2012 by Sephisto

[jumpinghubert 49]

@Sephisto

the 3570k has no hyperthreading at all. Try to disable it. Whats the program you logged the cpu-usage with? empty chernarus (editor) I get 55% cpu-usage and 99% gpu usage.

[Sephisto 1]

Oh didn't know that lol, i'll try disabling it. I used PlayClaw (recording software), it has various overlays that show CPU usage etc.

Edit: Disabled HT, I think theres improvement, I went into chernarus editor and it shows 50-60% CPU usage and 70-80% GPU usage, FPS was alright too. Uploading short video to show

Edited December 10, 2012 by Sephisto

[jumpinghubert 49]

thanks sephisto for answer. I think 50-60% cpu-load is the best you can get in arma2.

[Sephisto 1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtJLOh0_anQ&feature=youtu.be

In chernarus editor, with hyperthreading disabled..

[Leon86 13]

^^^

recording in 1080p also takes up quite a bit of cpu, not really representative.

[jumpinghubert 49]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtJLOh0_anQ&feature=youtu.be

In chernarus editor, with hyperthreading disabled..

similar to my results in editor. I think its all ok. If you want higher gpu-load you have to overclock your cpu or/and push some graphic setting like shadows from high to very high (@very high the gpu will manage the shadows). Or push antialiasing quality and reduce view distance.

@Leon86

the video is representative to people who play arma2 in native resolution....if you understand..

[Sephisto 1]

similar to my results in editor. I think its all ok. If you want higher gpu-load you have to overclock your cpu or/and push some graphic setting like shadows from high to very high (@very high the gpu will manage the shadows). Or push antialiasing quality and reduce view distance.

@Leon86

the video is representative to people who play arma2 in native resolution....if you understand..

FPS is fine so I'm happy, cool of you for helping out.

[chrisb 196]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtJLOh0_anQ&feature=youtu.be

In chernarus editor, with hyperthreading disabled..

Take a screenshot rather than video, it should give you a truer reading..

Video reduces all readings, well for me it does..;)

Edit:

CPU (4 cores): I usually bounce around with one core between 85-99% (won’t go to 100% for some reason), and two cores in the 70’s and one behind usually in the 50’s or 60’s.

GPU: dense areas as seen 95-99%, open areas can be 60% or more. But the gpu will depend on view distance a lot. The lower the distance the more GPU, screenshot was taken with 2000vd, will be around the same upto 3000vd then loose gpu while the cpu picks up. Smoke grenades also reduces gpu usage for me, quite a bit..

1920x1080 res..

Edited December 11, 2012 by ChrisB

[Leon86 13]

the video is representative to people who play arma2 in native resolution....if you understand..

Well, maybe the performance is, but cpu load is not. Recording means transcoding 30fps 1080p in realtime, that eats up a lot of cpu unless you record raw, but you need epic harddrive speeds for that.

[jumpinghubert 49]

Well, maybe the performance is, but cpu load is not. Recording means transcoding 30fps 1080p in realtime, that eats up a lot of cpu unless you record raw, but you need epic harddrive speeds for that.

my fail....i misunderstood you completely. :p

[Waters 1]

I get 20 FPS on high and 20 FPS on low, no matter what I change my settings to I can not get over 20 FPS. I've done almost all of the known fixes for low FPS but nothing is helping, my frames are not limited in any way within my graphics card unless it's set only for this application. I'm unable to play in groups or in player versus player servers because it's extremely hard to shoot accurately when your game looks like a PowerPoint slideshow.

I run BF3 on High with 40+ FPS, I don't see why I have such irritating problems with ARMA2.

Specs:

Resolution: 1600x900

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 840 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

[peebeds 1]

Hey guys,

Its probably been asked a million times before, but can anyone help me with my lagging issue.

System specs are:

Abit AW9D Max with a quad core Intel Q6600 running at 2.6 and 4GB of OCZ Memory.

Graphics is an ASUS 7850 OC running at 1440x990

ARMA is installed on an SSD, with Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit on a WD Raptor.

Internet connection isnt brilliant, we average about 1mb dl and .5 up

DayZ runs fine, Ive never had an issue before, but Ive just recently started getting into the actual ARMA2 game itself and specifically, Wasteland.

Problem is that I can play fine for about 20mins to half an hour, then the FPS drop to virtually nothing. All the textures and models turn into big blocks, wheels look square as opposed to round and playing the game is impossible, this is in MP. Ive not tried any SP missions, just the training stuff which seemed to work fine.

Ive gone through quite a few setup tips etc, turned most of the graphics settings to default, Post Processing and AA are off, and Ive added the '-CPUcount=4 ' to my shortcut properties, but nothing really seems to help.

I know my system isnt top spec and from what I have read, ARMA is quite CPU intensive, so could that be the issue?

Ive got a copy of Win7 Ult 64bit which I just need to get round to installing, I can then bung another 4gig of ram in there, but dont really want all the hassle of re installing everything!

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

Cheers.

[dar 12]

Having similiar issues here.

So after trying countless cfg and ingame settings, nvidia settings and other tricks (like ramdisk which I dont get to work at all)to improve my A2 CO (non steam) performance, I finally decided to post an offical call for help here as I just cant get a major improvement.

First, my specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 870 2,93GHz

RAM: 8GB DDR3 (3x Samsung 2GB 667Mhz + 1x Kingston 2GB 1333MHz running on 667MHz)

GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA Geforce GTX 660 Ti OC 2GB GDDR5 Windforce cooling

Data from Nvidia Inspector:

-current clock (no game running) 324MHz | Memory: 324MHz | Boost: 1197MHz

-GPU clock: 1041MHz | Memory: 3104MHz | Boost: 1120MHz

-Default clock: 941MHz | Memory: 3004MHz | Boost: 1020MHz

Win7 Home Premium 64-bit

So I'd say this is a pretty powerful machine and actually Im able to play nearly everything on ultra (BF3/Crysis2 etc) and still I get a smooth performance. Not so for Arma 2.

The benchmark 1 on Chernaus shows an average FPS of 20-23, depending on AA on or off (looks horrible even with SMAA or FXAA high). Benchmark 2 - was even worse than I expected. It freezed my game after 5 minutes of what looked like a diashow with shattered sounds and I had to shut down the process. I gues there were around 3-4fps at its best.

So what could I do to improve this? Im running out of ideas and internet tipps so maybe its something else. Heres my ARMA2OA.cfg:

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=1500000;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Windowed=0;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1080;

refresh=60;

winX=16;

winY=25;

winW=1901;

winH=1040;

winDefW=1901;

winDefH=1040;

Render_W=1920;

Render_H=1080;

FSAA=1;

postFX=1;

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=0;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=2102777856;

nonlocalVRAM=2102777856;

vsync=0;

AToC=7;

FXAA=12;

PPAA=1;

PPAA_Level=1;

serverLongitude=2147483647;

serverLatitude=2147483647;

And an extract from my profile .cfg:

shadingQuality=10;

shadowQuality=4;

maxSamplesPlayed=128;

anisoFilter=4;

TexQuality=4;

TexMemory="4";

useWBuffer=0;

tripleHead=0;

Nvidia settings for arma2oa.exe are: AA appcontrolled, FXAA off, Gamma correction on, AA transparency off, prefer max power, single display performance mode, texture filtering high performance, Trilinear opt. on, vsync off.

Im running the Arma 2 CO with the latest beta patch via Sixupdater with a bunch of mods loaded. Anyway without mods the fps doesnt change. Heaviest lags occure in the big citys of course (chernaus capitol and zargabad) but also on Shapur for example and when there are many troops at once in battle (more AI actions = less fps)

I really hope someone can help me with that.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Dar

[chrisb 196]

If you could lower that 3D performance down from 1.5 million to 93750, then put in these settings and try E08 bench, then list your bench mark score..:)