McSpeed

its a matter of preference really i guess ;> i'd never go for an ati card ever again... over the last 15 years i did it twice and both times it was a nightmare for me. the drivers are just too screwed up (speaking only from personal experience, others may disagree) nvidia has never let me down no matter how many screens in whatever configuration i wanted to run. as for 550 vs 560 ... not sure if either performance will really be fully stretched out for the next couple of years. my gtx460 plays arma2 and any other game out there right now maxed out (minus pp cause i dont like bloom or motion blur) very smooth though i do notice the ram is a bit low at 768mb. so a 2gb gtx 550 or 560 should see you well sorted for a while.

post processing uses plenty more resources so its normal that you get a fps drop

i'd recommend gtx 550 ti 2gb http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Mini-HDMI-Graphics-02G-P3-1559-KR/dp/B004XUCCS6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1338236935&sr=8-3

open the pbo in eliteness and then in eliteness open the mission sqm, you will see a wall of text on the right hand side. copy that and paste that into your actual mission.sqm , replacing the initial text. done.

GTX460 here, this happens to me too every now and again (maybe once in about 20 hrs game time or so), even with no mods. restarting the game usually fixes it.

that graphic card is a bit small. high framerates are unlikely

you can see the exact specs for the Geforce 310M here, he did give the model number ^^ and yeah, that card is in no way a gaming card.

indeed +1

when you run multiple servers make sure to always start them in the same order. If the assigned port is taken / used by another instance it tends to automatically choose the next free port.

ah yeah, sorry, shouldnt post before i had my daily dose of coffee :) seems you are not alone with this problem : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?132161-ARMA-2-Microphone-Issues-(Steam-version)-(Tried-everything-google-gave-me-) MadDogX hinted it might be a network problem. out of curiosity, is yours a steam version too?

I would start by making sure all hardware is ok. check your systems temperatures and fan speeds, make sure all fans are dust free and work fine. try running a memory check wouldnt hurt either, though faulty ram would probably rather crash the system completely. something must have changed on your system, either hardware wise or software. check your task manager for running applications and services and see what else might be hugging resources. do a virus / malware scan. theres a lovely app called "game Booster" that disables all unnecessary background applications to make sure nothing hogs resources. posting system specs or dxdiag report might help some hardware savvy people here pin point a problem too.

uhm making a scenario is called Editing. you find the Editor in single player mode at the bottom - you can find just about all info you need to edit missions / scenarios under this link and this link

make sure your system recording device is set to the correct default device. win 7: right click the speaker icon in system tray (next to clock) select Recording Devices right click on the sound device your mic is connected to and make sure you have it set to Default Device (youll see a green tick)

aye i am well aware of that :) back in ARMA we used to play ACE, though after a while it just got too much for my own , personal, taste. what drove me away from it , and ultimately from the guys i played with , was the constant updates and delays we had when one of your more casual players joined in only to realise he couldnt connect cause he didnt have the latest version etc. I think that is the communities biggest problem these days; to join server YX you need mods 1,2,3,4 to join server XY you need 1,6,3,9,6,7 etc... a lot of "separation" going on.. but this is a topic for another forum methinks :)

whoa, no need to become offensive mate. i play this series since ofp and will continue to stick with it :) so i leave "modernfield" as you call it to the quick fix kiddies :p as for realism, aye, i agree partly there, an A-10 doesnt kit hellfires either, but after all, i am not sitting in a cockpit either, hehe... and as to how much realism one needs or wants to feel comfortable with what in the end is still played as a simulator or game should be up to individual taste, and not be a cause to start dissing people for simply voicing their opinion. i only stated a fact as to what the game does with and without the mod and asked if or how to accomplish the same. mods aside, i , personally, get my kick out of teamplay and coordination, i dont need to have my ears ringing, have my character collapse after 50 meters or intentionally ruin my voice comms quality just to enjoy the game or feel the realism. i dont comment on those that do and admire those that come up with mods to cater for just about anybodies taste. least i could expect is the same kind of respect as a gamer :) my 2 cents.

btc is not a mod but a script. you can add any ordonance by classname to the loadout - and yes, i can lock on targets with the mk82's and even lock up targets for the gau ( not that it tracks them though - lock on is just display ) but nvm, i just leave ace be. too many unnecessary bells and whistles with too much effort for my taste - i prefer to keep it a "game" :)

proper mods have this function in the DisableForcedOpticsForBinocular_Gameplay_C_OA_PROPER.pbo i believe. here you hit B to change to binos but they are lowered, right click will bring the binos up to your eyes and lower them. you can remove pbo's from the addon folder as you like / prefer, thus adding / removing features to suit your taste.

hmm, normally i lock via TAB (next target) this doesnt work at all, for no weapons, be it sidewinders, mavericks or hellfires.

decided to try ACE last night though i was very hesitant about it for various reasons. right away i noticed a problem: A-10 with custom loadout (BTC) cannot lock targets anymore, at least not the usual way and i couldnt figure out how. to me this is a game breaker. any way to fix this? -edit, yes, i did search and google for an answer btw :) all i found was the fact that the GBU's dont need to be locked when a laser is active. But i couldnt get the sidewinders to lock on targets, and MK82's cant acquire targets either.

that graphic card would be the biggest problem there. the 8400 is a pretty small card and the GS version is the budget version / entry level of that. so theres a guaranteed no-go here. the processor is able to handle the game and 2 gig ram might be able to get you going, but by no means with a high-ish performance.

i recommend you have a look through the script section of armaholic. most if not all of your questions have some sort of solution there. http://www.armaholic.com/list.php?c=arma2_files_editing_scripts http://www.armaholic.com/list.php?c=arma2_oa_files_editing_scripts have a good read through the various forum threads belonging to each script (armaholic is likely to have links back to this forum for most of the scripts)

yap, thats it, which brings me back to the days when win 7 was releaased... and vista... and xp.... omg... new drivers to the newest OS always trouble. be fair though. it might be classed as midrange card, but to some it does count as kick ass :) its all in the perspective. personally though, i see the words ATI, Drivers, and Problem in one sentence and its like nothing ever.. EVER changes :) hope you get it sorted. addendum: look into Dualboot setup. you should be able to run windows 7 alongside the win8 you have. keep the 7 for apps that require full hardware support and win 8 for.. well. dunno really... personally i really dont see an immediate need to yet again change OS. sure, 8 might be more optimized but i have no troubles with my 7 ultimate 64. (and i loathe the default win8 metro-touchscreeny-mobile-HUGE BUTTON- design)

taken from 1st post:

when you type #missions and select it it works as you say so it sounds like you have no mission assigned to load as default.

from the picture i would also guess its the graphic board. you have a kicking processor and plenty of ram, 256 mb graphic is a strange contrast there. are you using onboard graphics?