forteh

It sounds as though it is running out of ram and starting to use the page file. I often see ram usage go up to 4-5gb when running arma, install msi afterburner and set the system ram to display on the OSD, that way you can keep a tab on how much is currently used. If it's using the pagefile the hard disk will be thrashing while it transfers data, while this is happening the arma engine is constantly trying to stream map data etc. so will drag the whole lot down whilst it's waiting for the hard disk. Try setting the maxmem limit to 2-3gb and see if that stops it thrashing the pagefile, if not then you should really be looking to put more ram in there. edit: the symptoms may have only recently started due to a patch affecting how the engine handles ram, it could be that the ram usage has increased and is now causing you to run out of ram. Typically I expect w7 to be using 1.0-1.5gb ram idling, if you add that arma3 can utilise up to 3.2gb on top of that (plus any other software running) you have burnt through your 4gb without an issue and windows will start writing to the pagefile. edit2: the low cpu temperature is nothing to worry about, because it isn't working hard it won't be generating heat. My i5-750@4ghz idles at 30°C, full load on all four cores at 62°C and averages about 45-50°C when playing arma.

As per above, they are pretty much the same as an i7 (architecture for achitecture), however if you get a xeon x5650 and compare it to your i7 920 you will see that it has more cores, more cache, faster qpi, more ram capacity (probably limited by your board though), less power and far more heat overhead. Xeon chips are binned for stability as well so often withstand a higher overclock. See here for a comparison of the two. If your cooling and board supports it and your ram has enough capacity for overclocking you could theoretically get a reasonable incremental upgrade for not a lot of money. There is certainly plenty of support on the ocuk forums for getting overclocks to work! Realistically speaking looking at usage within arma I can't say what sort of improvement you will get in fps over the 920, however improving memory speed (bandwidth) helps considerably - the x5650 has faster qpi than a 4770k and runs faster ram than your 920 by default. If I were in your position I would say go for it, if it turns out to not make a measurable difference then you make the jump with the expensive upgrade and sell your old board and cpus to recoup costs :) edit: all of the above is assuming you have an x58 board of course!

Before doing a full upgrade have you considered putting a xeon in there? See here :) http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18618052

Whoop! Glad to be of service :)

The motherboard will support DDR ram up to 3000Mhz by OverClocking (the OC) but at default clock speeds your cpu only uses 1600mhz ram. This is the speed your ram is currently running at unless you have set it to run faster - your ram is designed to be run at speeds of up to 2400Mhz. I'm not up to speed on newer bios but on mine there is a ram mulitplier which allows me to set the memory frequency (speed) by multiples of 2. I have options of 4x, 6x, 8x & 10x, with my default bclk of 133Mhz and a ram multiplier of 10x I get 1333Mhz ram frequency (the default speed for my cpu), because I have overclocked my processor by increasing the bclk from 133 to 200 I set the ram multiplier to 8x to run the ram at 1600Mhz. I am using 1600Mhz capable ram (in the same way yours is 2400Mhz capable) so I am using the ram at its designed speed. I can further overclock the ram by increasing the bclk. I know the later processor overclocking setup is different so the above might not be 100% true for your system, however there should be an option to set the speed that your ram is running at.

@Clawhammer I get similar performance to you with similar settings, I have AO and various blurs turned off, FSAA 2x and ATOC off. I have a first gen i5 750 @ 4ghz, gtx660 and 12Gb ram, installed on a hybrid drive with map/building/plants .pbo files on a 4Gb ramdisk to mitigate the lack of SSD. I get 43fps on the benchmark, I guess your gpu has more than enough capacity to run the extra settings and isn't the bottleneck. I think it is your cpu clock speed limiting the gpu, get it faster and I think you should see some more benefits. What speed is your ram actually running at? It's capable of 2400Mhz but by default the 4790k uses DDR3 1333/1600, it has been shown that arma3 runs much better with faster ram with significant gains going from 1600 to 2100. Check it with cpuz and see if you can change the ram speed in bios. With my old i3 processor I gained about 30% boost (10fps) by pushing my ram from 1333 up to 1760Mhz. @St Jimmy What speed is your ram running at?

I just upgraded my i3 530 @ 4.62ghz to an i5 750 @ 4ghz and gained a 50% increase in fps on the same settings (1080p, all very high, 2k view 1500 objects, fsaa 2x, fxaa ultra, blurs turned off). Bog standard gtx660 running very high with about 40% load and 1400mb vram utilised, cpu power is where it's at! The upgrade cost me 40 quid for the processor and let's me crank the view distance up to 4k now :)

I'm the same as you and consider the pedals to act like handlebars on a bike, right forwards to turn left. All flight sims I've played are animated the other way (so I guess that I am wrong), however I just cannot get my head around turning the wrong way and prefer to have it bound so right forward turns left :) Now the anti torque pedals in arma are animated they behave in the same manner as other flight sims.

New i5 750 fitted and running quite happily at 4ghz with 1.375v, only done a quick torture test in prime95 so far and it's stable so far. I will refine voltage and stability tests when it isn't 1am! Currently it peaks at 68°C on full load which I'm more than happy with. Run the altis benchmark through a couple of times and have seen an average fps increase from 34 to 43, that's including bumping view distance from 2km/1500 objects to 3km/2000 objects. Once I start tweaking the overclock I should hopefully be able to get the ram frequency back up and perhaps see a further improvement. Unfortunately the i5 just doesn't like the 2x4Gb + 2x2Gb ram setup I had before so I have had to resort to 8Gb which in turn has meant that I have to turn off the ramdisk, this has increased initial load times and occasional microstutter when flying quickly but it's not the end of the world :)

That sounds awesome, looking forward to it!

Still fairly new to A3 and not playing MP yet so SP with AI, just installed this and it's fantastic. Makes your AI squadmates far more controllable for with regards to combat awareness without needing to navigate the command menus! Is it possible to be able to scroll both up and down the action menu to replicate the default A3 operation? i.e. you scroll up from the top of the action menu and it continues scrolling up from the bottom or is this not feasible with the scripting?

Ah so this wouldn't work as a method of binding controls/macros outside of the normal control configuration. It doesn't work like the old autoexec.cfg file for counterstrike for example.

With the code written into init.sqf will that be persistently available ( i.e. in sp campaign, mp missions, messing about in editor etc.) as a bindable script? When you say place the script into the mission root directory does that mean that this particular script will only be available in custom missions that you write it into? Apologies for the stupid questions, stuff like this really isn't my strong point :)

I bound left and right scroll in my Logitech setpoint to ctrl+a and ctrl+d when arma3.exe is running, that way I can use it to adjust stance sideways quickly.

I just read the first 30 odd pages of focks guide to scripting and I'm 100% lost :( I was the same at uni trying to learn C, I had no idea what I was doing or how to do it, I guess this is why I'm a mechanical engineer not a coder :D If it were as simple as creating a text file script that executes on a certain keypress (trackstick up = excute map pan up) then it would all be so easy!

I think that's what you need to use the event handler for? I personally would like to be able to pan the map around using the trackstick on my warthog but to be honest I haven't got a clue how :( You can pan the map using the numpad keys, however if I bind the trackstick to the same commands it doesn't work, need to take hands off stick to view the map properly.

Likewise! The last time I did any game scripting was configs in counterstrike 15 years ago :D Are the scripts something that can be bound to as per a normal control and run on a keystroke like a macro? If so is there a quick and dirty beginners guide?

I don't think it's possible to bind context sensitive actions to a key without scripting. I bind one of the hat switches on my warthog throttle to next/previous action and another button to action. Would be awesome if you could record command macros though!

Thanks for the info, I will bear it in mind when I get the processor in and setting up the overclock. My bclk and ram is good for 220 & 1800mhz so hopefully the chip shouldn't get bottlenecked as I up the multiplier.

When you're trimming do you use the trim set/release or do you bind the individual directional trims to hat switches? When trimming with the set/release I guess you get the controls in a steady position and press the switch? For some reason that doesn't work for me and if I re-centre the stick after setting stable it drifts all over :( I use a warthog with rcs pedals, I have to set sensitivity to pretty much zero otherwise it is uncontrollable.

Well that sucks, shows how far out of the loop I am on hardware :D So it was only the 1st get core i3/i5/i7 processors that had unlocked busses that allowed the massive bclk without bumping the frequency of the rest of the system? Arma3 does actually make use of the hyperthreading on my i3, typicall core 1 is about 80%, 2 is 5-15%, 3 is 60-70% and 4 is pretty much idle. Unfortunately the i5 750 I bought off ebay turned out to be DOA so have sent it back and hoping to pick up another one shortly. If I can't get one within my tiny budget then I will look at a xeon 3430 and have to put up with the slower processor, should still be able to push it to 4.05Ghz with my current ram though. New i5 750 purchased, now the horrible wait for it to be delivered :(

Is there a way of panning the map view without using the mouse? I have bound one of the hats on my warthog hotas to show map and would like to be able to use the cursor nipple thing on the throttle to be able pan the map around and other buttons bound to zoom in/out and place markers/waypoints. This way it would be possible to check the map real time whilst flying and not have to go hands on stick to grap the mouse for panning/zooming (the whole point of having the hotas setup). I've searched through the control bindings but can't find anything that does this. Are there any addons/scripts that would achieve this?

Do the later generations of core chips overclock differently to the 1st gen? My i3 530 is multiplier locked and is overclocked from 2.93 to 4.62 perfectly stable by increasing the bclk from 133 to 220. Overclocking locked cpus is certainly very feasible, just easier if you have a locked multiplier cpu. Did intel lock down the adjustable bus multipliers/dividers that were on the 1st gen core chipsets? Granted not all motherboards will overclock the bclk a huge distance but the gigabye h55m-ud2h I have seems super stable, I can run my bclk and ram at 225/1800Mhz without issue, my cpu can't hack the 4.725Ghz though :D Going from 1333Mhz to 1700+Mhz gave me another 4-5 fps for the same cpu core speed, that was a 10% increase for nothing! Tonight I will hopefully be swapping my i3 530 for the i5 750 which came through the post earlier, hoping to get it running at the same 4.62Ghz (heat allowing it should hopefully do it straight away) and will see how much difference 4 physical cores (over 2 physical + 2 HT) + 8MB L3 cache (vs 4MB) makes. Even if it doesn't make that much difference in arma it will certainly make solidworks run a little better :)

I'm using windows 7 pro 64. The warthog doesn't need specific software to run, it can be run plug and play in windows. The TARGET software can be used for programming the stick and writing macros but it isn't necessary to even have it installed (I don't presently).

Possible but the drivers haven't been updated since Feburary '14, I have reinstalled windows since then so should have the latest; I will try updating them either way.