FPS Issue! Do not understand the reason!

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

Hi!

I have Arma 2 since it has been released. My FPS was fine until now. Around 35-45 with medium-high details at 1280*1024.

Now I bought a new monitor, which native screen resolution is 1680*1050. (my previous monitor had the old RGB cable, and I used a converter because my video card has only DVI port at tha back - now I use the DVI cable) The first time I started the game I met with 13 FPS in the main menu. I used to have over 40 a week before I played the game. I have not changed anything in the video options until then! I was using exactly the same options as with my previous monitor.

Now, it does not matter how I set the graphic details, which resolution I choose, I have the stable 15-20 FPS in main menu and in game.

My PC is:

Intel C2D E6550 @2.6Ghz

ATI HD4850 512, Factory overclocked version

2x1GB DDR2 800

Win XP 32 bit

Catalyst 10.3

Now I do not know what to think! I tried reinstalling the game but it did not help. Have to add that every other game I have runs fine.

Edited April 23, 2010 by [SONAF]Rebel

[Arma-2-Guru 55]

How clogged is your hard drive and do you have any big programs running in the background? It could be something to do with other programs hogging all the RAM and processor/processors.

[dogz 10]

Rebel... from what you have stated you are now using an LCD when before you were using a CRT?

If so you should Google: "Frame rate limited by a factor of refresh rate".

eg Max 60fps will sometimes default to 15 or 20 fps (Vsync can affect this)

also check your config file, some on here (Alex72) find settings of 0 frames on both to give good results others use upto 8 frames.

Otherwise it could be as suggested by GURU... something has changed on your system...eg spyware/ backgound processes... always troubleshoot when NOT connected to a network/internet first.

Run Malwarebytes free version with latest defs... it is one of best freeware scanners

GL M8

Edited April 23, 2010 by dogz

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

Rebel... from what you have stated you are now using an LCD when before you were using a CRT?

If so you should Google: "Frame rate limited by a factor of refresh rate".

eg Max 60fps will sometimes default to 15 or 20 fps (Vsync can affect this)

also check your config file, some on here (Alex72) find settings of 0 frames on both to give good results others use upto 8 frames.

Otherwise it could be as suggested by GURU... something has changed on your system...eg spyware/ backgound processes... always troubleshoot when NOT connected to a network/internet first.

Run Malwarebytes free version with latest defs... it is one of best freeware scanners

GL M8

I used LCD before, 17" but it went wrong so I bought a bit bigger :)

[dogz 10]

apparently DVI cables are like network cables they are bandwidth sensitive/limited... if you have a crap DVI cable it can affect your frame rate... analogue is better http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_8.html

you have increased the resolution so it will increase the load a bit too.

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

I used an old RGB cable before, since all the other games run well.. I have no reason to assume the new DVI cable is the reason why I am having FPS drop (plus DVI got higher bandwidth as far as I know)

I blocked all unneccesarry programs at the start, also defregmanted my HDD, running that balwarebyte at the moment.. deleted the infected files but the outcome did not change!

This is the config file you mean?

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=100000;

Resolution_Bpp=32;

Resolution_W=1680;

Resolution_H=1050;

refresh=60;

Render_W=1680;

Render_H=1050;

FSAA=0;

postFX=1;

HDRPrecision=8;

lastDeviceId="";

localVRAM=536870912;

nonlocalVRAM=525729792;

winX=16;

winY=32;

winW=1680;

winH=1050;

winDefW=1680;

winDefH=1050;

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

Windowed=0;

---------- Post added at 05:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:04 PM ----------

Yaayy... I found the source of the problem! It was the cable! I was using a DVI-D single link cable that blocked my FPS... now I plugged back my 5 year old RGB cable, with a DVI-RGB converter on one side and now it works as it should be!

I did not want to believe at first that cable can be responsibel for all this, but when I started Modern Warfare 2 it lagged as well as I had 15-20 FPS, which I considered impossible because I always had 50+ with the old monitor, and old cable.

By the way ... thanx for the help guys! :)

Edited April 23, 2010 by [SONAF]Rebel

[Alex72 1]

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

Set them to "1" on both like this and test:

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1;

GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1;

FPS will not go up but it will feel better. Check background programs running in windows. Use a good defragger for your HDD since ARMA2 is pretty sensitive to neatness and order on HDD's. Its streaming big amounts of data all the time so it can not be a messed up HDD. Video memory setting (in-game video options) should be set to "NORMAL" when playing with 512MB videocard i think so you can test that as well.

BUT! If you HAD good FPS and now NOT - Maybe some piece of hardware is broken? Sounds like it. At least if you didnt change anything and now only have 13FPS. Maybe faulty DVI cable? Faulty monitor DVI connector?

Hope you get it sorted.

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

Thanx Alex for the reply, but I sorted it out yestreday. The problem was my lack of knowledge on the DVI technology. The problem was exactly, that the DVI-D is and looks different (has less pins than DVI-I), than the DVI-I input I have on my videocard.

The thing I did, that I plugged the DVI-D to the DVI-I slot on my videocard. I had not noticed at first, that there are lesser pins on the monitor`s cable, I just plugged it.

http://www.hisdigital.com/UserFiles/news/200902261616114965.png

Check the link if you wish to know the differences between DVI-D, and DVI-I. All I need is a DVI-I to DVI-D converter in the future, now I am fine with the old RGB cable.

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

I do not understand this. I read that DVI-D and DVI-I should just work fine! Now my RGB cable is performing the same result. I am having 15 FPS in the main menu.

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

I wrote to ATI about the issue I am having with the DVI-D cable, and they wrote me back in 2 hours that I should update all drivers, bios, including USB driver. The point is I had all things updated of course, except the USB driver.

Well, I would not thought that it could be the USB driver resposible for all this, but since I updated it the DVI-D cable works well in harmony with the videocard. I do not see the connection, though.

[walker 0]

Hi all

Glad to see you sorted out the problem and that it was just a cable and drivers problem.

That said here are some thoughts on screen resolutions:

If you have increased your Screen resolution in ArmA you have the GPU pushing round more pixels and the CPU doing calculations for what can be seen at the increased resolution.

Lets just look at what those resolutions mean just in terms of brute force needed:

1280 x 800 = 1,024,000 pixels

1440 x 900 = 1,296,000 pixels nearly 300,000 more pixels than the previous setting

1680 x 1050 = 1,764,000 pixels over half a million more pixels than the previous setting and three quarters of a million more pixels than first setting.

Hint display settings are not just numbers they have a physical effect on the calculation load your computer is under.

And of course those pixels are not just dots in ArmA they are a representation of objects in a 3D environment which triples their effect on computer load. So every increase in number of pixels has to multiplied by three for 3D calculations eg occlusion shadows etc.

This not to say that ArmA cannot be run on advanced rigs at these resolutions but expecting to increase resolution on the same rig and not see a performance hit is wishful thinking.

Kind Regards walker

Edited April 29, 2010 by walker

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

Hi all

Glad to see you sorted out the problem and that it was just a cable and drivers problem.

That said here are some thoughts on screen resolutions:

If you have increased your Screen resolution in ArmA you have the GPU pushing round more pixels and the CPU doing calculations for what can be seen at the increased resolution.

Lets just look at what those resolutions mean just in terms of brute force needed:

1280 x 800 = 1,024,000 pixels

1440 x 900 = 1,296,000 pixels nearly 300,000 more pixels than the previous setting

1680 x 1050 = 1,764,000 pixels over half a million more pixels than the previous setting and three quarters of a million more pixels than first setting.

Hint display settings are not just numbers they have a physical effect on the calculation load your computer is under.

And of course those pixels are not just dots in ArmA they are a representation of objects in a 3D environment which triples their effect on computer load. So every increase in number of pixels has to multiplied by three for 3D calculations eg occlusion shadows etc.

This not to say that ArmA cannot be run on advanced rigs at these resolutions but expecting to increase resolution on the same rig and not see a performance hit is wishful thinking.

Kind Regards walker

The thing is in terms of Arma it does not matter wether or not I run it on 1280*1024 or 1680*1050 - I have the same FPS fortunately

[Bulldogs 10]

The USB system links with the bus system on your motherboard, so if your USB is limited it could slow the rest of your system down. That's why it's always suggested to update everything (people commonly ignore the motherboard but it's the backbone of the system, they also ignore older versions of Direct X but a lot of games use older versions of direct x)

[kklownboy 43]

The USB system links with the bus system on your motherboard, so if your USB is limited it could slow the rest of your system down. That's why it's always suggested to update everything (people commonly ignore the motherboard but it's the backbone of the system, they also ignore older versions of Direct X but a lot of games use older versions of direct x)

True, but not on the DX, DX is all the same just with updates, that WONT break any older DX setting. EVER. What does happen is the Vid card Drivers DX_dll change, and it can be helpfull to older games, to put the old Driver's version of DX_dll in the root game folder. As for A2 the newst DX is great.

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

I do not get it... I played with Arma 2 yesterday, it was all right.. 60FPS in the Main menu.. now I am having the same issue again. I tried stopping down incrementally the backround programs, but as you can see it did not help, not updating drivers.

---------- Post added at 03:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:24 PM ----------

What is Arma 2 using that other games don`t? I also play Rise of Flight but there I have not experienced any FPS problems. I have Assassins Creed 2, where I experience the same as in Arma 2, -20 FPS, Modern Warfare -50 FPS. I can not understand this.

It was all fine yesterday.

Can it be the memory, or the motherboard that is causing this?

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

I took this pic right now

[Zipper5 74]

Careful of the filesizes/image size, dude. Both are over 100kb right now and both are... Well... Quite big.

That's a very odd issue, though. Are you sure nothing really changed between the taking of the pictures?

[-SONAF-Rebel 10]

Careful of the filesizes/image size, dude. Both are over 100kb right now and both are... Well... Quite big.

That's a very odd issue, though. Are you sure nothing really changed between the taking of the pictures?

Apart from a beer I drank :)