SATA II / AHCI / Win7 performance win

[Blechreiz 0]

Hi folks!

I was running Vista 64 bit and "upgraded" it to Win7 what gave me some problems with user datas. Yesterday I formated my HDD and installed a fresh and new clean Win7 64 bit Pro. I also changed my HDD mode from Native IDE to AHCI (read warning below!!!) and activated the SATA II controller (BIOS changes). I didn't do any benchmarks before and I cant tell you how much more performance I got - but the game seems to run better. Has anyone else made same or similar experiences?

*** Care when you switch to AHCI in your BIOS Windows may show a bluescreen when booting. You got to change your registry for that. I found nice manuals with google. If you switch from Native IDE to AHCI your windows may need a new activation!!! My experiences maybe different with other hardware or an older BIOS! Do not expect magical wonders!

My system:

- AMD Phenom II X4 955 4x3.20GHz

- Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P 790X (fresh BIOS (Jan 2010) update.)

- G1024P Club3D ATI Radeon HD4890 1024MB video card

- 4096MB Corsair PC3-10666 CL9 Kit (DDR3 1333+)

- 680W SuperFlower Atlas Design Modular

- Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ without AAM (running loud, but fast mode)

- CPU/GPU not overclocked

Cant wait for the ATI 5XXX or Geforce 4XX card and a fast SSD to get affordable :p

[evilfury 0]

Actually it semse its working. I followed this guide:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/storage/14074-will-enabling-ahci-boost-performance-2.html

Windows is more responsive than before. And Arma is indeed running smoother. And you dont need to reinstall windows or reactivate. All can be done through registry. Or Its just placebo effect. Hard to say. Its worth to try though. :D

EDIT: After one hour of testing, I can confirm, its placebo effect for me. I think that with AHCi disabled its actually working better. However I think that registry tweak improved my HDD performance some how...

Edited March 14, 2010 by evilfury

[wamingo 1]

However I think that registry tweak improved my HDD performance some how...

My technical knowhow here is very limited, but this could be because your HDD's support NCQ? - Native Command Queuing, which, as I understand it, improves performance in some HD intensive situations.

I've long wanted to find out in whether I should enable AHCI to get NCQ support myself. ArmA is quite HD intensive so I thought maybe it would help.

But I've been worried about whether it would get me in OS-trouble or degrade performance in other areas.

Does anyone know more?

[Blechreiz 0]

After some testing I got to say that there is no real boost. Playing large maps on multiplayer still lets the FPS drop more than with large groups of AI on SP (where my CPU hosts the AI).

[mr.g-c 6]

After some testing I got to say that there is no real boost. Playing large maps on multiplayer still lets the FPS drop more than with large groups of AI on SP (where my CPU hosts the AI).

Yes this is very strange and i noticed the same... normally this shouldn't happen at all, since all stuff is calculated by the server - or at least should be and furthermore thing beyond your viewdistance should also not be calculated by your machine at all...

But why is it happen? I have complaint about that since Arma1 as i feel that was introduced at patch 1.08 or later in Arma1. Arma2 has same oddity with low MP Performance as a client.

There was a post about that in the CIS, look here: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/6963#note-20

I still think this would deserve its own ticket in the CIS as this is either not normal or we are to stupid to get "why" it is happen :p:D