ArmA2 / OA (low) performance issues

[Rubber Grunt.dk 10]

try using -malloc=system

it helps me on performance and memory leak issues...

i7 3820 @ 3.6GHz

16 Gb RAM

gtx 670 2048 Mb

[Harzard.FREE 10]

does not work with the mod dayz?

- Dynamic View Distance (reduces and increases your view distance to ensure good framerates, fully configurable, with option for pilots)

- PROPER Visual Tweaks for Vegetation & Buildings

- SAP Clutter

- GDT grass

would help many people to work ;/

[malow 1]

try using -malloc=system

it helps me on performance and memory leak issues...

i7 3820 @ 3.6GHz

16 Gb RAM

gtx 670 2048 Mb

Didn't help at all. All that did was increase my GPU-load during loading screens (prolly because the system malloc is faster and therefor can better feed the GPU with data), but the FPS, CPU-load and GPU-load while in game didn't change at all.

Thanks anyway!

[mspeedo 10]

I was tweaking the graphic settings for my rig in the past few days, to completely avoid any possible CPU or GPU bottleneck (unfortunately, we can't avoid the engine's main flaw - low CPU utilization). There is practically no CPU bottleneck for me, but some graphic settings seems to be poorly implemented (AA) and can cause big lag and fps drops, even on highend GPU.

My PC:

CPU: Core i5 2500k @4.5GHz

GPU: Gigabyte GTX770 Windforce 4GB

RAM: 16GB 1333MHz

HDD: SSD 128GB

OS: Windows 7 64 bit

I play mainly Flashpoint SP missions made by thomsonb. They are great, with dynamic spawns (infantry, vehicles, aircrafts, citizens etc...). But what I noticed almost immediately was, that FPS sometimes drops down to ~25, and there is no difference between the highest or lowest graphic settings (tested with distance on minimum). After some research here on forums, I found it's because of "bad" engine and we can't to do anything abou it, and it occurs when a lot happens on the map (many units). After some more research I think the FPS drops are bigger with more aircraft units...

But to be fair, not all FPS drops were related to the engine flaw and sometime I got fps drops with GPU usage on 99%. So here are settings you should lower to avoid GPU bottleneck:

Antialiasing (regular AA, not the shader one) - AA on any setting is causing major FPS drop and lag when zooming (sniper), especially when zooming into the grass or trees - this seems to be really bad AA implemenation, because I have reasonable FPS even on highest 8x AA setting, when looking on the complex scene somwhere in the city. But when I zoom in to the forest or grass, FPS drop is ~20 frames and there is major lag, even with lowest AA setting. That's a shame because 8x AA is miles ahead before the SSAA or FXAA (in terms of quality), and I can't use it even when my GPU can handle it without problem (except when zooming). I'm not sure how the "zoom" feature is implemented, but I believe this can and should be fixed. So turn AA completely off to avoid lag when zooming (use shader AA instead).

Draw Distance - this option has biggest impact on FPS and I think it's tied to the engine flaw. Distance 5000 without AI = fluid FPS, with many AI = horror, even if they are not in sight. So I usually play with distance 1500 - 3000 (cities - desert areas).

HDR precision - there is BIG fps hit on highest setting, so use only high or normal, not a big difference between high and normal (fps wise) so I recommend high. Difference in visual quality is minimal during the day.

Post Processing - there is a notable FPS hit on highest setting, so I recommend only High.

Other settings don't have any notable FPS impact which can cause GPU bottleneck. I play on full HD res.

So if you have similar HW specs, lower those settings to avoid GPU bottleneck and enjoy engine's limitation :)

Edited July 23, 2013 by mspeedo

[Nakedgun 10]

Hi everyone

Although I've been playing Arma 2 OA and browsing around the net for "Arma-related" topics for quite a while, I am new to this forum so excuse me if I'd ask / bring up any newbie question / topic. Yes, like many others', my first post also comes to here, to the "good old" and pretty much frequently mentioned / visited performance thread. I've already read many many posts on this forum and around the net about Arma 2 performance issues and tweaking, and I've come to the final conclusion that the only real way that could really prevent ingame FPS from getting annoyingly low from time to time in MP mode is if the maximum number of AIs and the maximum number of vehicles / "manned" tools (machine guns, TOW, AA missile launchers etc.) that are present at the same time in the game could be limited according to the capabilties of the slowest one of the participating players' computers.

My questions are also related to this:

1.) Is there a simple way to limit how many members a squad can consists of on a standard Arma 2 OA MP CTI map in server mode ? (in order to limit maximum AI members present at the same time)

and

2.) Is there a way to limit the maximum overall number of vehicles / manned tools that exist at the same time on a standard Arma 2 OA MP CTI map ?

Of course I know that any scenario can be created in Arma 2 OA built-in editor with limited number of participants, and there are many that can be downloaded from Armaholic etc. but I would be interested in some kinda global settings that could be simply applied on standard Arma 2 OA CTI scenarios and all of those which allow recruiting new units and buying new vehicles and stuff. I mean when I'm playing e.g. the Chernarus CTI 24 player map, I (and each human player in the game) can buy practically limitless number of AI units and vehicles, the only limit is money. I know about limited warfare mode, but that doesn't limit the maximum AI / vehicle number present at the same time enough in order to lower the CPU load. For example, my current record of recruited squad members is 22 (all of them were present at the same time) but I am sure its far not the most I could recruit :D And each participants of the game can do that not to mention the AI team engine. It can be easily seen that even 8 human players can produce serious frame rate drop this way not to mention if there are more human players ...

From the aspect of CPU load / framerate the most essential is that how many AIs and vehicles are in the game at the same time. This should have been limited on everyway on all the maps where their maximum number is not pre-determined by the scenario. Additionally I haven't tested any of the Arma 3 versions but I've already read many complains about performance issues from people with high-end comps (!). Afraid it's just the same thing ... The number of AIs / vehicles present at the same time in a game simply can not be limitless. That's a basicly bad approach ...

Think I have found my problem on my High End pc. My CPU I7 3770 3.4 ghz is only using ~10% while playing arma 2OA. No idea why though and how to use more % ;/

Have you checked your power management settings ? If any of the settings of your power management profile has been set up to save power, no matter it's independent from the CPU, your OS will probably keep "throttling down" your CPU clock almost independently of the load Arma 2 OA puts on it.

Edit: you can shut down OS CPU-throttling particularly for any power management profile using Rightmark CPU Clock Utility.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Nakedgun

[Axnd 10]

Hey, recently my fps have been acting very strange when playing both Arma 2 and Arma 3 Beta, when i move my character around its get very low and when i stay still it works fine. The thing is i can run the game on high or very high with no problem before, and now it doesnt matter if i put it on very low or very high i still got the same problem. Tempratures are also fine not going above 53 celsius.

PC Specs:

Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4 GHz (Haswell)

Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) CL9 1600Mhz VENGEANCE

ASUS GeForce GTX 760 DC2 OC

MSI Z87-G45 GAMING ATX

Windows 8 64-bit

Anyone with the same problem? :(

EDIT: Seems to only affect multiplayer. My ping is fine so i dont know what is wrong.

Edited August 31, 2013 by Axnd

[Bluestorm 10]

Welcome, i have really low fps on mp. On singleplayer my fps getting arround 50 fps on ultra, on MP, even on ultra low with lowest resolution i have arround 20/30 fps :mad: I've played day z and my fps getting low next to an buidling too :butbut: On sp, changing details helps. :confused:

My pc:

cpu: Amd Phenom II x4 965 3,4ghz

gpu: Asus Geforce Gtx 650 ti boost 2gb

ram: 4gb ddr3

Windows 7 64-bit

[manlee06 10]

After reading many of these posts it sounds like ArmA II was designed very bad.

I have some of the problems that have been talked about such as strange performance and AA issues. For example my game has constant short peroids of around 2-3 seconds where it will slow down to unplayable frame rates and then go back to normal frame rates regardless of what I am doing. The anti-aliasing in ArmA II is also terrible in that if I have it turned off I notice white pixels around many objects as if it was designed to be played with 8x AA and only 8x AA turned on.

How have these problems gone un-noticed after so many patches? Are there any fixes for these?

[domokun 515]

manlee06: A2 is far from perfect but it is unfair to say that it "was designed very bad".

What are the specs of your PC?

Because A2 offers (like many simulators) are bewildering array of options that, if you don't know what you're doing (BIS make little effort to explain), will cripple all but the most powerful of PCs.

This post here goes a long-way to describing the options that can seriously affect the performance and visual quality of A2:

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

I wouldn't call these fixes but rather "tweaks".

Provided you have a mid-range PC that is 0-3 years old, A2 should run fine, provided you follow these sensible advice.

[manlee06 10]

manlee06: A2 is far from perfect but it is unfair to say that it "was designed very bad".

What are the specs of your PC?

Because A2 offers (like many simulators) are bewildering array of options that, if you don't know what you're doing (BIS make little effort to explain), will cripple all but the most powerful of PCs.

This post here goes a long-way to describing the options that can seriously affect the performance and visual quality of A2:

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

I wouldn't call these fixes but rather "tweaks".

Provided you have a mid-range PC that is 0-3 years old, A2 should run fine, provided you follow these sensible advice.

Please read my entire reply before replying. It may be unfair to say it was designed very bad. More so designed very bad for certain users.

I have a GeForce GT 545 GPU installed and a Intel Core 2 Duo CPU for the tower.

Thanks for the tweaks link... will try some and see if they fix anything.

[SHEPARD-N72 10]

In multiplayer A2 and OA,I have freeze every second:confused:(in singleplayer all fine).How fix it?

AMD PHENOM II Х6 1055T.

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3.

POWERCOLOR RADEON HD 6870.

8 Gb DDR3.

WINDOWS 7 SP1 64BIT.

Steam version.

[Zizoor 10]

Aight. Im sick of this.

Currently sitting on a Asus Sabertooth Z77 with i7 3770k processor running at 3,8 Ghz, 8GB 1600mhz RAM, Intel 335 180GB SSD and a GTX 780 2GB.

"Benchmark 2" results on medium settings: 18 FPS average.

18.

With that computer?..

Its a game from 2009 for gods sake. Bohemia. OPTIMIZING, DO YOU KNOW IT?

[domokun 515]

Zizoor: don't worry that benchmark is pretty redundant.

If you have OA, try E08.

That benchmark is much more representative of real-world performance.

This guide may also help you and Shepard too:

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

[bullhorn 18]

i5 4670K Haswell, OC'd to 4.2GHz

16GB 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix RAM

GeForce 770 GTX 2GB

250GB SSD

Game runs with 15-20 FPS when I enter a town, even on pretty low settings (View distance lowered to 1500m, all the .cfg tweaks enabled as well as the recommended Launch Options)

I sometimes get 70-90 FPS when in woods but when going into a town it's not even funny.

Same thing in DayZ mod / DayZ SA / Arma 3. :/

[araripe 10]

I play on low/medium graphics with 25-35 fps. I use post-process effects and AA on low.

4 GB RAM

500 GB HDD

Intel i5 3210M 2,5 Ghz

Intel HD Graphics 4000

Windows 8

I run OA better than ArmA 2, because Chernarus has a lot of trees than lag my game a bit. But I get great FPS-rate in Takistan, Zargabad and in the Desert, for sure.

But the best map for a great FPS-rate is without a doubt the map of Fallujah. Inside the city, I always get closer to 40 FPS, because the buildings and vegetations are from ArmA 1. And the city is in the real-size, simply awesome! I get 35 FPS on it with Civilians and Civilian Vehicles enabled.

[chrisb 196]

If your not too fussy, download ‘PvP_Veg’ from Armaholic or Armed Assault site, then add all accept the ‘ResistanceVeg’ones, all the others add into a folder say @game_enhance this will give you around 20fps boost as it replaces the veg on Chernarus, Podagorsk etc with original veg from earlier games, i.e. heavy terrains made lighter..

They don’t look too bad, I use them if I have large numbers of ai in a mission, helps keep the fps up, plus helps with cpu, need that for good ai.

Other enhance pbo's to consider; disable ballistics computer (pvp tweaks), instant view distance (IVD) or dynamic view distance (DVD). Other pvp or proper tweaks are; vehicles, tree's, roads & statics visible at distance, 'Summer Veg' mod is good too but not to use with the others mentioned here. There are a number of things you can do to increase performance, my A2 pc runs both A2 & A3 really well (sig) on more or less highest settings (differ in mp), so you should be able to run with a medium range pc upwards.

[araripe 10]

If your not too fussy, download ‘PvP_Veg’ from Armaholic or Armed Assault site, then add all accept the ‘ResistanceVeg’ones, all the others add into a folder say @game_enhance this will give you around 20fps boost as it replaces the veg on Chernarus, Podagorsk etc with original veg from earlier games, i.e. heavy terrains made lighter..

They don’t look too bad, I use them if I have large numbers of ai in a mission, helps keep the fps up, plus helps with cpu, need that for good ai.

Other enhance pbo's to consider; disable ballistics computer (pvp tweaks), instant view distance (IVD) or dynamic view distance (DVD). Other pvp or proper tweaks are; vehicles, tree's, roads & statics visible at distance, 'Summer Veg' mod is good too but not to use with the others mentioned here. There are a number of things you can do to increase performance, my A2 pc runs both A2 & A3 really well (sig) on more or less highest settings (differ in mp), so you should be able to run with a medium range pc upwards.

Oh, thanks for the tips! Will the game look bad or is the Original Vegetation from earlier games also good?

[chrisb 196]

Oh, thanks for the tips! Will the game look bad or is the Original Vegetation from earlier games also good?

Look, try it, no problems will occur and to be honest in the height of battle your not going to notice too much, they look o.k.. Collect what's needed, put the pbo's in a folder '@veg' or something, I have @game_enhance for bits and pieces, then put it in wherever you keep your mod/addons and fire it up and have a look. Try a terrain without it first, say Podagorsk, that's pretty heavy going in places, use msi or similar to check the fps rate, then do the same spot with the veg folder fired up, see if you have a difference in fps, I'll be amazed if you don't see a good jump in performance.

Well worth trying these things, the difference between mud and a hard surface..:p

[domokun 515]

Bullhorn: as I mentioned earlier try these tweaks and let us know how you get on;

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

Araripe: unless I'm mistaken your graphics card is in fact an integrated GPU. My guess is that you are playing on a laptop. To be honest, you've done very well to get Arma2 running so well on a laptop. This is because integrated GPUs and mobile CPUs are generally quite weak compared to discrete graphics cards. The above tips mights also help you increase performance without sacrificing too much image quality.

[araripe 10]

Bullhorn: as I mentioned earlier try these tweaks and let us know how you get on;

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

Araripe: unless I'm mistaken your graphics card is in fact an integrated GPU. My guess is that you are playing on a laptop. To be honest, you've done very well to get Arma2 running so well on a laptop. This is because integrated GPUs and mobile CPUs are generally quite weak compared to discrete graphics cards. The above tips mights also help you increase performance without sacrificing too much image quality.

Well, It took me some time. I needed to test a lot of different configurations. But unfortunately I cannot run well on Chernarus. But it is not the main problem.

Look, try it, no problems will occur and to be honest in the height of battle your not going to notice too much, they look o.k.. Collect what's needed, put the pbo's in a folder '@veg' or something, I have @game_enhance for bits and pieces, then put it in wherever you keep your mod/addons and fire it up and have a look. Try a terrain without it first, say Podagorsk, that's pretty heavy going in places, use msi or similar to check the fps rate, then do the same spot with the veg folder fired up, see if you have a difference in fps, I'll be amazed if you don't see a good jump in performance.

Well worth trying these things, the difference between mud and a hard surface..:p

Ok, I will download it. Will it complain my multiplayer?

Because @fallujah and @fata always complain when I try to get in a mp match. I always need to disable 'em.

[chrisb 196]

Ok, I will download it. Will it complain my multiplayer

Ah yes, they may be a problem in mp, not for any other reason than they may think they give an advantage against stock veg, depends who you mp with, but you can only just try.:)

Edited January 13, 2014 by ChrisB

[araripe 10]

Ah yes, they may be a problem in mp, not for any other reason than they may think they give an advantage against stock veg, depends who you mp with, but you can only just try.:)

This is the worst thing. I really enjoy MP in ArmA. Single Player is cool, immersive but the AI isn't intelligent. AI doesn't know how to use homes as a tactical maneuver, things like it. For open-area battles AI isn't so stupid, but for CQC they are very, very, very, very, very, very, very stupid. Looks like a squad of retards.

I am also looking for an AI mods, to improve it. Unfortunately 99% of the AI mods are WIP.

[lendova 10]

Hey! Have terrible performance, just the lowest preset gives 40+ fps in towns. The game is fully updated (1.11), installed via steam.

Win 8.1, audio, chipset, directx, vga drivers are the latest.

FX 6300 @4.2GHz, 8GB ram @ 1866MHz, Ati 260X 2GB GDDR5

[Formicate 10]

Hi! Just built my new $1,500 PC! I've had this game for a bit, but i could run it now! I digress, but im having horrable FPS issues. I get 10 FPS in towns and about 20 in the open. Here are my specs. Intel i5-4670k @ 3.4GHz GeForce GTX 780 8 Gigs of DDR3 ram at 1600 Windows 7.

I have my resution at 1920x1080, and my 3d resulution at the same. Draw distance all the way down. I have tryed every combo of settings. In GeeForce Experence, i had it optimize it, and that was basicly eveything maxed except PPAA dissabled. Video memery has always been set to default. Here is my settings in the OA config.

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=48387;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1920;

Resolution_H=1080;

refresh=60;

winX=16;

winY=32;

winW=800;

winH=600;

winDefW=800;

winDefH=600;

Render_W=1920;

Render_H=1080;

FSAA=4;

postFX=0;

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=0;

HDRPrecision=32;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=2147483647;

nonlocalVRAM=1154744320;

vsync=0;

AToC=7;

PPAA=0;

PPAA_Level=0;

Windowed=0;

Any help would be awesome! I have the latest drivers for my GPU. I have not overclocked at all. My CPU and GPU temps hover over 40-50C under load. HELP PLEASE!

[MaximiliaanEU 10]

Hey guys! I have been playing ARMA II: OA for a long time, and not with great FPS tho. Recently I bought a new computer which I thought would run ARMA as smooth as a babies but. Well NOT. Everyone says yeah it should run great blablabla, but it just doesnt. Now I mainly play Island Life but it's the same with the normall ARMA with Chernarus for instance. Ill post my specs and what I have tried, if you have anything that might help that would be AWSOME!

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-BIT

Video-Card: Nvidea GeForce GTX 650 Ti

Processor: AMD 4.1GHZ Gaming Processor

RAM: 4GIB

Motherboard: Intel gaming something...... im not sure but this isn't the problem :P

I have tried:

-Memory unparking

-Reïnstalling

-Turning everything of but ARMA

-Setting everything as low as possible

-Razor GameBooster

-Buying a new PC :P

If anybody could please, PLEASSEEE help me that would be awsome. Feel free to ask anything about the PC itself.

Greets,

MaximiliaanEU