Requesting hardware necessary for specific scenario.

[The Pobbit 18]

The scenario I want a system for:

lag free campaign and scenarios (every last one)

resolution: 1920x1080

graphics settings: maximum

System I'm looking at:

processor: AMD Phenom X4 9650 (fast enough?)

video card: Asus EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512M (Saphire 100259L Radeon HD4870 512 instead of 4850? 1GB RAM instead of 512MB?)

system memory: Kingston KHX8500D2K2/2G PC8500 DDR2 (3GB instead of 2GB?)

motherboard: Asus M3A76-M 760G

Edited November 3, 2009 by CougarHappy

[tcp 10]

Sorry, but you are going to have to think bigger, at least for maximum settings, which is extremely hard to do. You need SLI and probably overclocked CPU and RAM to run the game in the way you describe.

Need at least a 3ghz processor unless you plan to overclock.

Go with 1GB RAM for sure, 4870 is OK, but people with the 5k series have reported a large improvement.

Go for the full 4GB RAM and room to upgrade to 8GB and beyond might be advisable. However, that's only to give you the option to upgrade to 64-bit when it becomes usable for games. Performance all depends on the timings though.

To be honest, I don't know what exactly it takes to run this game full throttle, but I don't want to spend any more money then I have on my PC. You can see my specs, in my sig. I run the game without noticeable lag, but my FPS is not that great and I don't try to turn on the setting to Very High.

[The Pobbit 18]

Thanks for the information.

Does SLI add the VRAM of the cards together? For example, if I buy two EAH4850 512s and put them in Crossfire Mode will I have effectively 1024MBs of VRAM?

Edited November 3, 2009 by CougarHappy

[wasserkool 1]

I dont think any system nowadays can run this game MAXED. When I mean maxed that include viewdistance of 10000M

[doakwolf 10]

Does SLI add the VRAM of the cards together? For example, if I buy two EAH4850 512s and put them in Crossfire Mode will I have effectively 1024MBs of VRAM?

Nope.

And the 4800s cards will not get you the performance you want. Consider the (expensive) 5870 for anywhere near what you're wanting performance-wise. My 4890 @ 1GHz doesn't perform that well. Well enough for me though. Had no choice.. Couldn't afford any better!

Jero.

Edited November 3, 2009 by doakwolf

[liquidpinky 11]

The scenario I want a system for:

lag free campaign and scenarios (every last one)

resolution: 1920x1080

graphics settings: maximum

System I'm looking at:

processor: AMD Phenom X4 9650 (fast enough?)

video card: Asus EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512M (Saphire 100259L Radeon HD4870 512 instead of 4850? 1GB RAM instead of 512MB?)

system memory: Kingston KHX8500D2K2/2G PC8500 DDR2 (3GB instead of 2GB?)

motherboard: Asus M3A76-M 760G

Take a look at my CPUZ below, that just runs everything on normal/low with a 4000 draw distance and gives an almost solid 30FPS on a 24" 1920x1200 monitor.

That should give you an idea of what is needed.

[no use for a name 0]

chances are you'll hit a CPU bottleneck before GPU. I can run this game with all maxed settings and get 40-50FPS in the editor running a GTX260+; but I get 10-15FPS in Dogs of War (last mission in the campaign) due to the insane amount of AI in that mission. On most "average" missions I can maintain ~30-35FPS.

You don't need SLI to max the graphics on this game unless you're running a huge monitor(24"+) @ insane resolutions (or multiple monitors). A couple guys I play with run an HD4870 on 20" monitors with everything maxed

Edited November 3, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[The Pobbit 18]

Thank you all for your input.

So I should be looking at:

processor: best possible quad core

memory: 4GB of gaming RAM

video card: one 4870 1GB or two 4850s 1GB

chances are you'll hit a CPU bottleneck before GPU. I can run this game with all maxed settings and get 40-50FPS in the editor running a GTX260+; but I get 10-15FPS in Dogs of War (last mission in the campaign) due to the insane amount of AI in that mission. On most "average" missions I can maintain ~30-35FPS.

You don't need SLI to max the graphics on this game unless you're running a huge monitor(24"+) @ insane resolutions (or multiple monitors). A couple guys I play with run an HD4870 on 20" monitors with everything maxed

Is 1920x1080 insane?

How much VRAM on those 4870s?

[no use for a name 0]

Thank you all for your input.

So I should be looking at:

processor: best possible quad core

memory: 4GB of gaming RAM

video card: one 4870 1GB or two 4850s 1GB

Is 1920x1080 insane?

How much VRAM on those 4870s?

no, that's why I was saying you probably won't need a SLI setup to max out the graphics unless you plan on upgrading to a bigger/multiple monitor or you're running something more than 22-24" (not sure how big your monitor is) ;)

I believe they're using the 1GB ver. of the 4870. I would also go for 1GB VRAM. Don't forget about the HD58xx cards, but as I understand they're in short supply since everyone's buying them up

Personally I would go with a P55 mobo and i5 proc; unless you wanna stay with AMD; in which case the one you listed would probably suffice; but it seems (at least for me) that speed is also a major factor, so you could either OC it or buy a faster (GHz) one. I see a pretty big difference with my C2D at stock(2.13GHz) and OC'd (3.2GHz)...OC'ing adds ~15 FPS avg.

I would go for 4GB unless you're running a 32bit OS; in which case ~1GB will pretty much just sit there. I'm using the same RAM you listed and it works great

probably best to lay out the price you're willing to pay and brand name(s) preferences so people can give you a little better info

Edited November 3, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[The Pobbit 18]

Thanks No Use For A Name.

My monitor is 23"

My budget is less than $1000. But I'm not going to buy until I can get a system that has ArmA 2 perform smoothly.

System I'm looking at:

Mainboard: Asus M3A78-CM

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965

Memory: Kingston KHX8500D2K2/2G

Video Card: Asus EAH4870 1G

[no use for a name 0]

I think what you listed should run it pretty darn good...I'm almost certain you could run high-max graphics options, but you might see a few slowdowns here and there when there's a bunch of AI/scripts running (due to CPU resources). Overall I'm sure you'll be happy. It's really hard to say because it seems almost everyone has a different experience even when their hardware is almost the same. I found it surprising that (at least IMO) the game will still run smooth with 25FPS; while most other games start getting noticeably choppy at the same. If you can avg 30-40FPS then you'll be fine