Here's how I got ARMA2 to perform smoothly using RAMDISK

[Tankbuster 1744]

It's not very elegant, but I copied the entire ArmA II dir to a new 16GB Corsair Flash Voyager. I changed the desktop shortcut to reflect this.

It works well, there's not a single texture slow load, no stutters and I reckon the overall framerate is a little better.

HD Tune: Corsair Flash Voyager Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 26.3 MB/sec

Transfer Rate Maximum : 29.4 MB/sec

Transfer Rate Average : 28.3 MB/sec

Access Time : 0.7 ms

Burst Rate : 24.9 MB/sec

CPU Usage : 3.4%

[Binkowski 26]

Ram disk hates me. Won't let me add large amounts of MB to the Disk. Also, it's quite difficult to do with 4GB of RAM.

[qwertz 10]

Sry for the stupid question I've been trying really hard to follow this forum with the amount to detail and info in it is rather hard. Ok here I go, I'm running XP 32bit but 6 gigs of DDR3, windows only shows 3 in use, tried Ramdisk but I won't allow me to use more than 3 gigs, and its the memory thats in usage (or the memory that XP sees). Is there a way for it ramdisk to use the 3 that is not in usage as a seperate ram drive?? and if so how?

This depends on the specific ramdisk software you use. Pls let us know so we can help.

In general, you can absolutely use the 3GB above what Windows 32bit uses.

[johncage 30]

so the game is thrashing about mainly because insufficient or inefficient ram usage?

so the textures and whatnot being streamed from the hd's causing problems huh? i guess the islands and objects are too large to be preloaded in a timely manner as well?

[hamis 0]

Sry for the stupid question I've been trying really hard to follow this forum with the amount to detail and info in it is rather hard. Ok here I go, I'm running XP 32bit but 6 gigs of DDR3, windows only shows 3 in use, tried Ramdisk but I won't allow me to use more than 3 gigs, and its the memory thats in usage (or the memory that XP sees). Is there a way for it ramdisk to use the 3 that is not in usage as a seperate ram drive?? and if so how?

Try this,open boot.ini with notepad and add /pae to the end ofthe line,eg:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/pae

[qwertz 10]

Try this,open boot.ini with notepad and add /pae to the end ofthe line,eg:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/pae

I don't think this will do anything for Kardis' problem. However, if he would post the name of the software that he is using, this would be easily solvable.

[Tankbuster 1744]

I've looked up PAE and wikipedia has an entry on it, but it doesn't really help someone of my level of expertise. I understand that it allows some applications to use memory above the 32bit 4 gig memory limit, but one has to ask;

Why doesn't everyone do this?

Why haven't we all been doing this for ages?

Why has it only been mentioned now?

Are there any downsides to doing this?

Do I need to use it if I'm going to use Dataram Ramdisk as suggested by qwerty?

Have I had my tea yet?

[qwertz 10]

I've looked up PAE and wikipedia has an entry on it, but it doesn't really help someone of my level of expertise. I understand that it allows some applications to use memory above the 32bit 4 gig memory limit, but one has to ask;

Why doesn't everyone do this?

Why haven't we all been doing this for ages?

Why has it only been mentioned now?

Are there any downsides to doing this?

Do I need to use it if I'm going to use Dataram Ramdisk as suggested by qwerty?

Have I had my tea yet?

Thats not quite correct. On non-Server Windows versions, PAE just changes the way the 32 bit address space is divided up. Usually, XP32 divides it to 2GB kernel and 2GB user space. PAE changes that to 1GB Kernel and 3GB User address space. You will still only be able to use 4GB max. If you have DEP enabled (which is default with SP2), a special flavour of PAE is automatically enabled anyways.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEdrv.mspx

http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/p/35319/287926.aspx

There are only very few programs that make use of PAE (and ArmA is NOT one of them). On the flipside, it can create a lot of problems, because some driver are getting a hiccup with PAE enabled.

To sum it up: PAE will do nothing to your ArmA (II) experience - if you don;t like more crashes, that is.:bounce3:

Edited January 1, 2010 by qwertz

[adamdf 10]

I have tried Ramdisks and tried using a usb to improve the performance of Arma 2,

My pc is:

Intel Quad Core, 2.40ghz with 8gb of ram

2 x Nvidia G-Force 9500 GT graphics cards

I cannot get more than 24FPS in Arma2 on Benchmark 1, Benchmark 2 is running really slow. can anyone help

Edited January 2, 2010 by adamdf

[Tankbuster 1744]

There are only very few programs that make use of PAE (and ArmA is NOT one of them). On the flipside, it can create a lot of problems, because some driver are getting a hiccup with PAE enabled.

To sum it up: PAE will do nothing to your ArmA (II) experience - if you don;t like more crashes, that is.:bounce3:

It seems I'm already using it!

[qwertz 10]

It seems I'm already using it!

Yeah - to quote myself:

If you have DEP enabled (which is default with SP2), a special flavour of PAE is automatically enabled anyways.

;)

[Tankbuster 1744]

Next you'll be suggesting I skim-read this thread! :D

---------- Post added at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 PM ----------

Despite what that screeie says, I have 6 gig of memory installed. Time to install ramdisk

---------- Post added at 02:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 PM ----------

Intel Quad Core, 2.40ghz with 8gb of ram

2 x Nvidia G-Force 9500 GT graphics cards

I cannot get more than 24FPS in Arma2 on Benchmark 1, Benchmark 2 is running really slow. can anyone help

You've got 2 weak graphics cards. There's your problem.

[adamdf 10]

Funny how my weak graphics cards seem to do just fine on games far more visually impressive than Arma2

[TimRiceSE 10]

Funny how my weak graphics cards seem to do just fine on games far more visually impressive than Arma2

uh huh. likely story.

or not. your cards ARE weak and outdated. two last generation, budget range cards are not adequate enough for arma2.

edit: and btw, ramdisk isnt about improving max FPS, its about removing stuttering that occurs when models/textures are loaded from disk.

Edited January 3, 2010 by TimRiceSE

[bangtail 0]

Funny how my weak graphics cards seem to do just fine on games far more visually impressive than Arma2

Your cards are no good for anything more than gaming at 1024 x 768 with any degree of visual quality.

Trying to argue the point only makes you look foolish.

Edited January 3, 2010 by BangTail

[Dcope 10]

as an aside i decided to try a diferent aproach and enable software raid stripe in win7 using a

SAMSUNG HD321KJ & a Hitachi HDT721010SLA basicially i used the first 320 gig of a 1 TB drive with the full samsung both are 7200 16mb cache.

and got the following results from SiSoft Sandra

Detailed Benchmark Results

Buffered Read : 340.52MB/s

Sequential Read : 163MB/s

Random Read : 74.58MB/s

Buffered Write : 318.85MB/s

Sequential Write : 149MB/s

Random Write : 83.57MB/s

Random Access Time : 7.28ms

Having tried the ram disk and usb options, i decided to give this a try used to do it many moons ago for Star Wars Galaxies, another hd intensive game (well at the time), and it seems to be working well, for those without matched pairs of disks for hardware raid this could be an option, as it allows you to use the extra capacity for other things, tho its best if your stripe is away from your boot drive so 3 disks are required.

[Nazul 10]

Symlink or ramdisk modfolder- is there any difference? Im using the ramdisk modfolder method and it is faster texture loading. Any noticeable advantages using the symlink?

[liquidpinky 11]

Symlink or ramdisk modfolder- is there any difference? Im using the ramdisk modfolder method and it is faster texture loading. Any noticeable advantages using the symlink?

Not really, same result using different method + symlink doesn't work on XP.

[[aps]gnat 28]

your cards ARE weak and outdated. two last generation, budget range cards are not adequate enough for arma2.

.

No! Sorry guys, but I'll go on record to say I found ArmA2 to work amazing well on my old GTS8800 640mb card.

I now have a whole new uber machine, but its surprising how much the game HASN'T improved in proportion to the punch the new rig has.

Its like the game has a built in speed/performance-limiter lol (jj)

[Tankbuster 1744]

That card is OK, Gnat, as is my 8800GTX, but Tim was replying to a guy that had a pair of real old clunker cards.

[Leon86 13]

my 8800gtx is having trouble with those red trees, but I refuse to upgrade until I can get something twice as fast for 100 euro's. probably another year.

[GLeek 10]

my 8800gtx is having trouble with those red trees, but I refuse to upgrade until I can get something twice as fast for 100 euro's. probably another year.

"@Proper vegetation low" detail man , just sayin'

[Nazul 10]

Im using the ramdisk and PROPER LOD tweaks with great success.

[oxmox 73]

I have only one HDD currently and my pagefile was located here aswell. I noticed that the game loads faster after i did install my 8GB usb stick (12 €) as none permanent pagefile, just plug in the stick set the pagefile to system management and you are ready to go.

I will try to put only parts of pbo´s to the usb stick later on like some described. No need to spend much money except your pc in general is outdated.

edit: No LOD loading at all or stutters....wow, iam suprised about this cheap solution.

Edited January 12, 2010 by oxmox

[Tankbuster 1744]

I've just finished what I euphamistically call my system midlife upgrade. The game absolutely flies along. In some areas, framerate has doubled, in practically all other areas, I'm seeing increases of at least a quarter. I've yet to see a texture pop yet and screen changes are instant - presss M, the map is there, bosh. Press it again, instantly back to viewpoint. There's no slowdown either. I played for a couple of hours last night, the game was still as frisky when I left as when I joined.

Old system = XPP, Q9550 @ 3.3, 6GGB RAM (only 3 seen), 500GB Spinpoint and 8800 GTX.

New System = Win7 64 Ulti 6GB RAM, Q9550 @ 3.3, Intel X25M 80GB (OS, games and pagefile), 500 GB Spinpoint (data and non crit apps) and 8800GTX.

Note the motherboard, CPU and RAM are unchanged, only the main drive and OS are new.

Edited January 16, 2010 by Tankbuster
edited to add CPU details