Masterfragg

Consider yourself lucky mate, I do Crysis 100% better than Arma 2 it runs like hell for me. Question mate, it's been awhile since I used Windows 7 beta RC7000 has it improved any? Thanks

Good to hear mate, enjoy your Arma 2 experience lol I wish I could bloody enjoy it :p but alas my Phenom II X4 should be here tomorrow...If that doesn't improve things I'm abandoning Arma 2 for good and just giving up sadly. I'll go play Crysis/Stalker and other games that run better hehe albeit none of them are as great as Arma 2 "could" be

Firstly, I'd suggest Disabling any "RAM optimization" programs like Memturbo or Game Booster. In my experience these types of programs can be detrimental to performance. Do some testing check it out. To be honest at the moment 28/40 FPS sounds like a good start what so you're doing something right, try going to msconfig and disabling anything thats unneeded but personally 28/40 FPS sounds like the max until a decent patch. In other words...I'm stumped!. I'll think about it though see what I come up with.

Hmmm I'll redownload the demo and check out the settings, We have pretty like-4-life rigs, what FPS are you getting at the moment mate?

Mate, I dunno if this'll help you but I saw that one guy had 8GB of ram. He removed 4GB of it and the game actually ran alot better. If you do give that a try please please please report back with results mate. It'll help with future advice if we know what works for some and not for others Also if it's not too much hassle can we have your system specs? Thanks Masterfragg

I hope they do I just purchased a Phenom II X4 in the hope that'll improve a tad :P Next is 4GB ram and after that it's all about the GTX 285 (Yes Fox I did listen :D)

Hi all, this list was going to get a tad to long to be contained as a reply as such I am making a dedicated thread. This thread is purely for driver testing, using Driversweeper to clear out drivers in safe mode in between each driver set. I'll state my system specs. CPU: AMD Athlon X2 6000+ @ 3.11ghz (AM2) RAM: 2GB (2x1GB Sticks) Corsair Dominator @ 1066mhz GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX+ 512MB XFX Sound: Realtek (Pile of crap) HD Audio Device outputting 5.1 All tests will be done on a mission included in the retail package "Counterattack" GPU Drivers tested: 178.13_geforce_winvista_32bit_international_whql Average FPS 23 Min FPS 17 Max FPS 32 182.50_geforce_winvista_32bit_english_whql Average FPS 19 Min FPS 14 Max FPS 25 178.24_geforce_winvista_32bit_international_whql Average FPS 20 Min 10 Max 44 Operating System Details Windows Vista x86 (Customized) 33 Processes (On boot) 350MB Memory Usage (on boot) All quality graphical features tweaked for performance All Services tweaked for performance Desktop Resolution of 1024x768 Feel free to test a few yourselves just post system specs and driver version used. Also please include the amount of Processes on startup and memory usage on boot please. Thanks guys. Hopefully this'll help someone out there. Masterfragg (Zedfragg from OFP :D)

Yes you can use optimize or rather attempt to, read this thread thoughout but instead of going to the "ARMA 2" folder go to "Arma 2 Demo" Good luck mate, hope you get it running fluid!

I had tried the 190's before and to be honest absolutely terrible for me. I dropped FPS by about 5 on Arma2 and about 40 in Warcraft (Took me down to about 30 in Outlands) Right half the list downloaded I'll do a test with the 190's again though for the list. Night all

Ok I've tested 2 drivers so far and I shall continue to edit this post. I'll state my system specs once more. CPU: AMD Athlon X2 6000+ @ 3.11ghz (AM2) RAM: 2GB (2x1GB Sticks) Corsair Dominator @ 1066mhz GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX+ 512MB XFX Sound: Realtek (Pile of crap) HD Audio Device outputting 5.1 All tests will be done on a mission included in the retail package "Counterattack" GPU Drivers tested: 178.13_geforce_winvista_32bit_international_whql Average FPS 23 Min FPS 17 Max FPS 32 182.50_geforce_winvista_32bit_english_whql Average FPS 19 Min FPS 14 Max FPS 25 178.24_geforce_winvista_32bit_international_whql Average FPS 20 Min 10 Max 44 This is all done on a fresh install of Vista 32-bit OS Services tweaked for max performance 33 Start up Processes Desktop at 1024x768 All Vista visual effects DISABLED Nvdia PhysX DISABLED I shall continue to test drivers throughout tonight (it's currently 4AM) and later tomorrow night. Hopefully we'll find the best performing driver although as always...Don't expect a mircle driver that gives 60fps. Hope this post helps someone out there. **Edit** I am currently downloading EVERY WHQL driver released by Nvidia since 178.13 to the very lastest drivers. (Using Driversweeper in safe mode don't panic) So expect...A very very tired man to post back reporting a great load of sod all soon!! **Edit** @FOX Nope SP2, I had to intergrate SP2 onto this disc due to my hardware being finicky with anything BUT. Odd really...If I install Vista Minus SP2 it won't let me install SP2 and/or audio drivers. ---------- Post added at 02:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 AM ---------- Sadly mate, I've got another computer here with a faster Core 2 Duo 4GB ram and a 8600GT 512MB and there is absolutely no way Arma2 runs on my computer so...Sorry I know this doesn't help much but I'd suggest steering clear of laptops if you can help it. A fresh format may help and you never know tweaking the services MAY help but I'm doubtful. What sort of FPS do you get at the moment? and post your config files if you can

Bawb? AWESOME!!! Anyways I've installed the new Vista 30 processes on install with a 388MB Memory usage. Lets try and cut those services down shall we? Back soon

Ok, I'm back already lol. Sorry but, every fiber in my being refuses to quit like I did last time. I'm currently re-hashing my own version of windows vista on my other computer. Basically making my own install disc (Legit version used don't panic I am no pirate) with all the useless features and drivers cut out. Managed to get the install disc down to 800mb. This is going to be a bare bones test, literally no unneeded services will be active no unneeded programs and nothing else installed. Arma2 will be installed on both the OS HDD and a spare HDD to test performance gains. Wish me luck fellas. I'm also going to re-read through this threat and re-re-read the optimazation tips! I'll post back soon

Yeah, but hey huge amount of respect to you Fox you're here helping people! I just wish my tests had come up with some useful information other than "I can't run it *Crys*" lol To be honest I'm still trying to talk myself out of spending money I haven't got on a CPU hehe Or overclocking it into OMGZ TIS GONNA BLEWWW ;) But hey, this game must be worth all the effort right? If not smack me...Smack me hard...

Right I've made my mind up, sadly the day has returned where I decide to leave Arma until patch 1.1-something. Armed Assault was unplayable for me until the later patches so it's quite possible that BIS have made the same mistakes this time round. Rather than put myself out of pocket I'm just going to refuse to play the game, I'm giving it to a friend who CAN run it so he doesn't have to fork out for the game. That £29.99 that's been taken away from BIS should teach em!! :D I'll keep an eye here to help with anything that I can but as of now I'm classing Arma2 in the same league as S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC. That is...Unplayable for the general public until futher notice unless they own super computers (UotGPUFNUTOSC for short....sort of) I say this because sadly the optimization of this game is just downright terrible and it turns out AMD CPU's are generally the ones that suffer (Because AMD are...well crap nowdays) Hopefully by 1.08 it'll be fixed...again...like in arma 1... I just don't understand it sometimes why make a game and only aim it at the people that have untold £/$ to spend on a computer?! Still frustrations aside I know in time it'll be fixed. Semi-good job BIS... Fix it like you did with Armed Assault and you'll make me a life long dedicated BIS phreak!... I really don't wanna have to settle with OFP2 (Because I have bad feelings that it'll suck) Sorry if I come across like...As an arse or anything but it's just frustrations. A mix between my dedication to AMD not paying off and BIS screwing things up slightly* Masterfragg *Saying they screwed it up is just me venting sorry about it but I have to get this stupid frustration outta my system. I'm just highly disappointed that I won't get to play this effing awesome game.

Thanks for the reply mate, Yeah I see your point with the CPU. Although gotta admit didn't know they still made mid/high end AGP graphics cards I thought it was dead! Learn somethin' new every day. I'm most probably going to head down the CPU path to be honest as it's the most affordable upgrade I can do and it'd help with general processing power.

Ok I just managed to get a clean 20/30 FPS Campaign mission after a whole day of tweaking. It's still not great by any means but it's less choppy which is a start. A few of the tweaks here really helped so great thread but I'm going to attempt a CPU upgrade. It seems that all of the settings tweaked just lightened the load on the CPU, the only things to effect FPS in a bad way was Resolution, rendering size, post processing and shadows. So I'll upgrade to a Phenom II class CPU (after some research) and I'll post back on which choice I'm making and I'll also chuck some fps info when it arrives. If anyone wants my config let me know I'm using the 190 drivers now they seem a tad better but I'm suffering hell with the Stereoscopic driver that bloody installed with it :P If it's not one thing...it's another! Anyways cheers for all the help and don't panic fox you have convinced me to up my graphics card as well it's just the CPU is more affordable at the moment ;) Wouldn't mind getting my hands on the Limited Edition GTX 285 with 4GB ram (only 1000 made) pity about the £1000 price tag though.

Hi Thr0tt, what are your other specs please mate?

Cheers for the advice mate, currently looking into the 280. I made a mistake with this graphics card but I'm thinking CPU first then Graphics card because of overall in games the 9800 runs everything fluidly at high settings in DX10 (On DX10 games) It's really a pain this game. I would like to see 30> FPS I've been advised elsewhere as well that this game is all CPU grunt and been told my CPU is the one thing holding it back, a friend of mine has a Quad Core Intel (unsure of model) OC'ed to 2.9ghz paired with a 8800GTX 768MB and he said soon as he overclocked his CPU he was running everything in High/Very High at always +30 FPS. Theres so much conflicting information on this game that I'm starting to think I should just do these last tests then give up until BI sort it out. Arma 1 done the same thing for me. Disappointed that it's this harsh on hardware I mean I knew it was going to be a killer game but I thought BI had heard of "Scaling" rather than "Bastardized Optimization" Thanks again dude looking at GTX series now

Didn't notice there was a patch out either guess I should pay more attention to the arma2.com site. Ok well I'm downloading the patch now, I can't connect remotely to my main rig with perfmon because of a network (sharing) issue which I can't be bothered to fix. However, CPU usage did not max 100% much in "Trial by fire" and the ram usage was 1.4gb out of 2gb and Arma2 had only used 780mb of it. I'll edit this post with more information shortly

Hi guys I've decided as I'm getting such poor performance on Arma 2 I'd post a message, I'm currently doing some tests with all different settings and what not whilst using a seperate computer to connect to my gaming machine. This 2nd machine will be monitoring Perfmon. My main rig specs are Athlon X2 6000 @ 3.1ghz 2GB Corsair Dominator @ 1066 500GB SATA Maxtor @ 7200RPMS Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB (XFX) Realtek HD Audio Device outputting 5.1 So far I've only managed 19 to 26 FPS average being 23 FPS. This is with all settings on normal expect Post Processing = Low Shadows = High/Normal/Off (Has no effect on FPS it seems) AA = off AF = off (Normal or > = 5 FPS drop Screen resolution 1280x720 with rendering at the same (I can run rendering 1920x1080 with barely a performance drop but for testing purposes we'll leave it at 1280x720. It seems in the menus the FPS suddenly cranks up to 40's 50's and at some points 58 FPS however in game it never goes above 29 FPS no matter what I do. This includes looking at the ground or looking straight up. Terrain Details on low (no grass) seems to help with FPS until I exit the menu then it's pretty much the same. I've tried 1024x768 resolution with same rendering and 200% rendering and the performance sticks the same. If anything this game is hugely confused within itself and doesn't know what it wants. I've overclocked my CPU to 3.3ghz with no increase in performance. Any higher and my motherboard starts having a fit and BSOD gets me. I'll log performance and report back to you guys I'll also reinstall Arma so we get a clear value. Also I may try my old XP Pro SP2 disc see what the difference is. Hopefully we'll figure out this beast of a game...Although I feel like this is a bit of a White Elephant situation and I'm chasing a dream...I doubt it'll run properly for me ever. Still I am considering buying a Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU if anyone is using that could you PM me your thoughts? Thanks guys back soon

Actually, my rig is Athlon 64 X2 6000 @3.1ghz 4GB Corsair XMS TwinX ram @ 1066mhz GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB And I can barely run this, it's not playable... I've tried various drivers, this is just sadly a poorly developed game. I'ma going to have to wait a year like I did with Arma 1 sadly :(