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forteh

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Posts posted by forteh

  1. Posted

    I suffered from this last night, about 5m off the ground in a tight wooded lz the screen went black but sound continued and engine pitch changed as the collective was raised. I had to ctrl alt del to get to desktop at which point arma crashed, the screen was unresponsive to mouse inputs.

    I am also using a warthog with advanced AFM but don't own the dlc, fortunately I was only on a single player helo practise mission :)

  2. Posted

    I really like the new AFM for the helicopters, however I cannot get my head around the trim functions :confused:

    I use a warthog hotas with TM rcs pedals and with autotrim turned on it's perfectly stable as you would expect, with autotrim turned off it rotates with increased torque which is to be expected. However under certain circumstances adding pedal input causes it to bank in addition to rotating against the torque, the whole control system then goes to pot and the cyclic will not hold steady and it is nigh on impossible to get it to even move in the right direction without flapping wildy all over the sky :(

    Additionally how do the manual trim controls operate? In dcs A10c you trim realtime using the trim hat, the arma manual trim doesn't appear to be real time though and has a set and release control. Do you press trim set, then input the trim controls and then press trim release? I also cannot get the manual trim controls to have any effect on the helicopter :confused:

    Beers in advance :cheers:

  3. Posted

    Spec'd this out a month ago and will hopefully be ordering it soon.

    Should work well, no?

    http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=19687974

    ---------- Post added at 20:39 ---------- Previous post was at 20:34 ----------

    Hm, power supply seems to have disappeared. 700w something or other. :p

    That should be ok but a couple of pointers, I would get faster ram (2100Mhz) and set the ram divider to make use of the faster frequency during the overclock. Slower ram has been proven to be a bottleneck in arma3 and there has been a good increase in fps when going from 1600 - 2100Mhz ram (providing the gpu can keep up).

    Ideally you will need to be pushing the cpu over 4Ghz, to do that you're likely going to need a bigger cooler.

    With 16Gb ram, you can afford to set an 8Gb ramdisk and copy the majority of the addons folder onto it and create symbolic links (google for how to set up a ramdisk for arma - I used one from arma2, it's the same principle). Having the addons on the ramdisk makes loading and streaming very smooth and gets around the bottleneck of the slow HDD without needing to use an SSD.

    Other than the ram speed, lack of cooler and perhaps a faster second hand gpu might server you better it looks good :)

    edit: I am assuming you will be overclocking it of course! :D

  4. Posted

    If you're holding right mouse to zoom in with a scope, be aware that it is also bound to hold breath. You can only hold breath for something like 6 seconds before the scope sways again; unfortunately by default hold breath and zoom are both bound to right mouse.

    I use freetrack to zoom view for target acquisition and then short right mouse holds to stabilise the scope. Zoom or hold breath really need to be controlled by different keys/controls.

    Also recommend the shactac fatigue bar, it helps massively to manage your fatigue state :)

  5. Posted

    Xeon-based rigs are actually quite good at CPU-heavy games, due to their tendency to have large L-caches.

    The i5 750 has the same cache as the first gen xeons I was looking at but overclock better due to higher multipliers.

    If that's stock hardware, that's up to 15% improvement for having the board tailored to the hardware on it. Workstation/Server graphics hardware is quite bad at DirectX stuff though, probably takes the custom board factor right back.

    The 4770k at work is moderately overclocked to 4.2 on a bog standard asus board, no specialised hardware at all. Even with the gpu bottleneck it's faster.

    If you're relying on overclocking, don't go for a Xeon - most don't even work, and the few which do are buggy. Consumer CPUs with open multiplier are reasonably tested to work fine with non-stock multipliers, Xeons not.

    A 1st gen i7 probably wouldn't change that much, dual socket xeons will.

    I have no issue overclocking locked multiplier, my i3 has a 63% overclock and in theory as long as heat doesn't get to high the i5 750 I have coming should hit the same as it has the same multiplier and the bclk is stable. For all intents and purposes it's a non HT i7 ( I don't need more than 4 threads and HT adds a tonne of heat).

    Here are my specs:

    OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

    GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTS 450

    CPU: Pentium Dual-Core CPU E5200 2.5GHz

    RAM: 4 GB

    Would I be able to run this game, and if so at about what frame rate?

    It would run, but very, very badly :(

    CPU isn't up to it and I reckon you'll struggle to get more than 15 fps. At stock 2.93ghz (dual core i3 with hyperthreading) I get about 20 fps, at 4.62ghz I get 40+ in the same situation.

    Even with a significant overclock I don't think you'll really get it payable I'm afraid :(

  6. Posted

    Well comparatively speaking my 4770k@4.2 at work pulls about 20 fps minimum more than my i3, if I only gain 10 fps minimum more then that is sufficient for me.

    I've just picked up an i5 750 for 36 quid, I will plonk that in and clock it up to 4+. From what I've read, the i5 will match the performance of the i7 (HT aside but with 4 cores arma3 doesn't need HT) so here's hoping it pumps the min fps up from my current 25 with the i3 :)

  7. Posted

    i just upgraded from i7 930 to i7 4790k and it is a big improvement, my minimum fps (what really matters) went from 20s to 30s with view distance of 3800

    Thanks for the feedback, had you overclocked the the 930, are the two chips at comparable speeds?

    The 930 has 8mb L3 and 4.8GT/s compared to the 8mb and 2.5GT/s of the processors I am considering, the 4790k has 8mb and 5GT/s although the clock speed is far higher stock. A comparison of your chip speeds would be great :)

  8. Posted

    You don't think that by going up to a true quad core with 8mb cache it will improve matters? As I said, my work machine pulls about 20% more fps with a slower gpu (1Gb quadro2000 3D workstation card) but that is a 4770k.

    If I'm unlikely to see the increase with a 1st gen i7/xeon as I do with a 4th gen then I won't bother with upgrading the cpu, however it would be nice if someone has recorded the performance on the 1st gen chips :)

  9. Posted

    Are there any comparisons of benchmarks between 1st gen core (i5/i7) chips and later gens? How do the earlier chips handle with 2.5Gt/s compared to 5Gt/s of later ones?

    Having overclocked my i3 to 4.62Ghz I am wondering if I could do better with a xeon/i5 with 8mb l3 cache. My work machine (i7 4770k @ 4.2) pulls higher fps with a much slower gpu, the main differences are it's got twice as much l3 cache (8 vs 4) and Gt/s bandwidth (5vs2.5).

    If I get an i5/xeon I am confident of getting it up to 4Ghz and the 8mb cache will help but will it still bottleneck due to the same Gt/s bandwidth as my current i3? I don't want to buy a new cpu if it isn't going to improve fps greatly.

    In the altis benchmark I get around 36fps, 1080p all settings very high, 2500 view, 1500 objects, 100 shadow, 2xmsaa, fxaa ultra. Blur is all disabled. Lowest fps is around 27, highest around 50.

  11. Posted

    Posting to report back on the results of my recent tweaks and fps increases :)

    Machine spec: -

    i3 530 @ 4.51Ghz (215 x 19)

    12GB DDR3 1600 @ 1720 (1.5v 11-11-11-28)

    GTX 660 2GB (stock clocks)

    1TB Seagate SSHD

    Arma 3 settings

    1920x1080

    Texture = Very High

    Terrain = Very High

    Objects = Very High

    Shadow = Very High

    Particles = High

    Cloud = High

    PIP = Standard

    HDR = Standard

    Dynamic Lights = High

    View Distance = 2200

    Object = 1500

    Shadow = 100

    Bloom/Blur/DoF etc = 0

    AO = Disabled

    Caustics = On

    FSAA = 2x

    ATOC = Disabled

    PPAA = FXAA High

    AF = High

    Command Line

    -name=Ed -maxmem=8192 -malloc=tbbmalloc -maxvram=2048 -world=empty -nosplash -nologs -nofilepatching -skipintro -enableht

    CpuCount and EXthreads were autodetected as 2 and 3 (the i3 is an HT dual core).

    Running CBA, TPW Mods and Landtex as the main mods that affect fps.

    I was really struggling to get the fps up regardless of what settings and after much testing I am now achieving nice stable 30+ fps with gains of up to 30% in places. Note that this is mostly testing through SP campaign and editor, I don't play much MP at the moment so can't comment on that; this is mainly to get it running as best I possibly can.

    Things that made a big difference.

    Increasing RAM frequency - Previously I had a 4.5Ghz OC with 22x205 multi (1640Mhz DDR), dropping the multi to 19 and pushing the ram up to 1720Mhz made a couple of fps difference on the altis benchmark.

    Setting a RAMdisk - I installed 2x4GB sticks on my second channel and used RAMDrive lite to create a 4GB cache with a bunch of pbos with symbolic links using this guide. I loaded the following .PBOs onto the RAMdrive: -

    map_altis (plus all PBOs named map_altis_****)

    map_stratis (plus all PBOs named map_stratis_****)

    map_data

    plants_f

    roads_f

    rocks_f

    signs_f

    structures_f_data

    structures_f_households

    structures_f_ind

    structures_f_wrecks

    This comes to 3.87GB which works nicely with the free 4GB ramdisk.

    Loading is much faster, LOD pop out is minimal if not eliminated and it is generally much smoother. I don't know if this benefit will be seen if running from an SSD but hey I don't have one so can't comment!

    Fred41's Gimme Moar Frames - This gave me 2-3 fps more on the benchmark, not a massive increase but still 8-10%.

    A lot of this is probably just common knowledge but for me it has made it infinitely more playable whilst pushing graphics settings up far higher than I expected it would run. Whilst it hasn't made massive increases on the benchmark score (up from 32 to 38fps) it has made it much smoother and consistent in game. In the survive campaign at Camp Maxwell (at night time just before the Tipping Point mission) I would typically get 20 fps, I now get 30-32fps solid - a very positive result. Loading the editor and bombing round in a littlebird I have gone from 25-30 up to 40-45 fps.

    I hope this post is useful for someone :D

  12. Posted

    When you say controlling your breathing are you holding right mouse/zoomed view for extended periods? By default the right mouse hold controls breathing for a limited time only whilst also zooming. I believe it's something like 6 seconds of controlled breathing ( at which time the crosshair only moves vertically a fraction) after which you return to a slightly higher fatigue state and wobble all over.

    You can alleviate this by splitting the breath control and zoom to separate keys; I zoom using freetrack and use breath control sparingly.

    I also installed the improved fatigue system mod (for sp only to allow me to keep up with superhuman ai) and the shacktac fatigue bar to give a useful guide as to current fatigue states.

    I did find it annoying that sitting on the right click zoom fatigued you through holding your breath but separating the two actions/controls has made it far better :)

  13. Posted

    Some more questions from me I'm afraid!

    My cpu is now running at 4.51Ghz stable and within temperature limits. I have 8Gb of bog standard crucial 1333 running at 1230Mhz on a 6:1 divider @ 9-9-9-24 1.5v. I have a 2x2Gb kit of corsair xms3 1600 that will run the same timings but at the higher frequency - would I do better to invest in another 2x2Gb pair and run a memory divider of 4 to give a ram speed of 1640Mhz (assuming it will stand the 40Mhz overclock). Will there be any noticeable difference in arma?

    I have picked up a gtx660 for £65, whilst it's not a 660ti or 670 which I ideally wanted, it fits better with my psu (an old ocz modstream from 2004/5 that only has 28A on the 12v) and it should be a considerable increase over my 260!

  14. Posted

    Change the motherboard to allow a decent overclock if it doesn't currently; cpu cycles is what arma wants, not loads of ram or a billion cores working simultaneously.

    I achieved a 50% increase in fps simply from increasing my overclock from 4.2ghz to 4.5ghz, I have more headroom to play with so planning on pushing it further. Bear in mind I don't have recommended hardware and it plays smoothly enough with a moderate mixture of standard and high settings. With my stock 2.93ghz I get around 20fps stood in the middle of Pyrgos, @4.2ghz I get around 30fps and @4.5ghz I get around 45 fps.

    I'm running: -

    i3 530@4.5ghz

    Gtx260 core 216 @ Gtx280/285 clock speeds

    8Gb bog standard crucial 1600mhz DDR3

    1Tb seagate hybrid drive

    Once your cpu is 4ghz+ it will stop bottlenecking the gpu and will free up the fps, read up on good guides for overclocking (I used this one as it explains things well and gave me good results).

  15. Posted · Edited by forteh

    I have cleaned the cpu and heatsink, reapplied a thinner layer of the coolermaster paste and also flipped the fan direction so it is now pulling air up through the heatsink. Full load temps immediately dropped to 76°C :)

    edit: I have now tweaked the vcore settings manually (was set to auto before) which has brought full load temp down to 70-72°C and has been prime95 stable for 10 mins and counting. I will do a proper burn test on it later!

  16. Posted

    For simplicity the trackir is the way to go, I believe it performs better than freetrack as well but that's what you pay for!

    I would pick up the hotas and rudder pedals to start with, you can bind the toe brakes to different things as well - have a look at Dslyecxi's video on rudder pedals in arma3 for inspiration :)

  19. Posted

    A decent hotas and freetrack setup makes flying in arma a whole lot better imho, I'm not so taken on the requirement for a wheel and pedals though. For me the mouse and keyboard are fine for driving but I just don't get on with them for flying.

    There shouldn't be any compatibility issues apart from physically having the space to mount all the hardware, arma3 allows you to bind multiple controllers to the same command without any issue.

    See my comment about the requirement for a wheel/pedals, you can bind the rudder pedals to other functions such as incremental lean whilst on foot or steering whilst driving. The rudder pedals are a bit of a luxury but when added to a hotas makes it feel just that little bit more real.

    If you're reasonably handy then you can setup a freetrack IR headtracker for the cost of a couple of beers. I use freetrack with a ps3 eye camera and an IR led array made from biros and an old usb mouse lead for power. If you don't fancy the time investment in making and setting up freetrack then you could buy a trackir5 but for me as an engineer I would rather make it :)

    I've got a thrustmaster warthog hotas with rcs pedals and it's a wonderful bit of kit, makes flying helos a joy when coupled with freetrack. I made a plug in socket for the stick so it can be fitted to the front of the chair between your legs where it should be and stowed out the way whilst not flying (because engineer!). I bind map and 3rd person view to the PoV hat on the stick, the inventory and default select to the mouse pointer on the throttle and can bind any of the rest of the buttons as I need to for proper hotas control.

    If you're up for overclocking your cpu you could get significant fps gains by pushing past 4ghz, I've just gained best part of 50% increase simply buy increasing my overclock from 4.2ghz to 4.5ghz (i3 530@2.93ghz default clock). My gpu is old now though a probably a limiting factor - looking to upgrade pretty soon.

  21. Posted

    I would agree, as I said the case is completely open with zero consideration to air flow, I have a bunch of 120mm fans I can stick in where I need

    This particular chip has always run hot though, at 4.0ghz it still hit 60°C; I guess I didn't get one of the cool running ones :(

    For reference this is the case build, my pc is in a 43" square walk in cupboard and there simply isn't room for a decent sized case. I took an angle grinder to a generic atx case to harvest the mobo tray and back plate from it and screwed it onto a sheet of wood which is in turn screwed to the wall and will eventually be built into the desk. I now have plenty of room for my chair without kicking the pc and it is well off the floor to minimise dust inhalation :)

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9j0i1vytd1m55m/IMAG0379.jpg?dl=0

  22. Posted

    I have been having all sorts of memory issues at home since swapping the gpu around so last night I cleared the cmos and set about overclocking the machine again from first principles. I got the mobo/cpu/ram as a pre-overclocked bundle from OCUK 4 years ago (to save the time/hassle of having to learn the method on new hardware); it was clocked from 2.93 to 4.02, I upped the bclock to 192 to get 4.2 about a year ago and have been reasonably happy with it since.

    I have now tested the bclk and ram stable up to 222Mhz, ram at 6:2 to give 1333Mhz (9-9-9-24-34-1T). As I left it last night I dropped the bclk to 205 and multi up to 22 for a 4.5Ghz which was prime95 stable for a good 30 minutes (will do proper stress testing when it isn't 2am!) with a peak core temp of 82°C; the temperature is a little high although still more than 20°C from the tjmax of 105°C. I will look to improving the airflow to the machine, it is currently screwed to the wall in a home rigged wooden box with a completely open side, I will look into putting a hinged door on and channelling fresh air into it.

    Tested it in arma and have gained approximately 50% fps on my control test (load into the middle of Pyrgos) going from 25-30 to 40-45 fps! Under game load cpu temperature didn't reach 56°C.

    Very pleased with the increase, it will be interesting to see how quickly the cpu will bottleneck a newer gpu when I get it installed :)

  24. Posted · Edited by forteh

    I've just been doing a few quick tests in A3, running through the combined arms showcase scenario.

    GPU load is 90% pretty much constantly, CPU load is 45-60% per core, fps is sitting around 25 with the settings I have worked out.

    I have taken two of the ram sticks out and just have the corsair installed now, looking at it in cpuz the it is specified as pc3-10700H (667Mhz), however it has an xmp1600 profile in the timings table with 9.0-9-9-24 at 1.650v.

    I tried running with the 2x4Gb kit from work but ended up with a system hang on boot :/

    edit1: found another matched pair kit of 1600mhz at work so I can install 4x4Gb sticks for a full compliment, all of them crucial pc3-12800.

    With regards to the system hangs would it possible that some dust has settled in the ram slots and is causing bad contact? This is the first time I have experienced this issue in the four years I've had the system and only since switching ram sticks around.

    I have now installed A3 at work (i7 4770k @4.2Ghz - 16Gb - 500Mb/s SSD - quadro2000), it's a cad workstation but I will see how it runs with the quadro and later test it with the gtx260 from home :)

    edit2: Ran a quick test over lunchtime and it was pulling slightly higher fps, but not by much, using the same settings I spawned in the editor in the middle of Pyrgos town and was getting a steady 30 fps. Once I have the 260 back in my machine at home I will test the same again and see what happens.

    edit3: Have now tested the same location in Pyrgos with the same settings on my machine at home and it's the getting 30-32fps, if anything it's slightly faster and I was able to bump the settings up a little; I dare say heavy AI involvement would bring it back down though. I tried the same thing with my cpu clocked back to default 2.93Ghz and got 20-22 fps.

  25. Posted

    I know that I shouldn't mix and match the sticks, I put the spare 2x2Gb sticks in because I needed to use solidworks at home and that uses 4Gb + just opening some of the models and the extra ram facilitated this (speed isn't as critical as volume). I don't actually know what timings the ram is currently running at, I think it is all set to auto in bios but the system is rock steady.

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