XFX 5970: Arma II 1.05.62017 still needs -winxp for crossfire?

Hi,

I just wanted to tell my story how I was able to improve my FPS with my card (although they weren't that low, just ...).

I bought Arma II two months ago or so and it was running with minimal setting on my old system which was already at the brink of being replaced. Now that it got replaced (W7 64) I played Arma II and thought: hey fine, boot camp mission on 1600x1200 every setting maxed out and I get between 30 - 45 FPS, that's ok (lowest being 28 when looking at the tent with the shadows).

I was toying around with the community launchers for mod playing and while testing the launcher by CptArma2 (nice app, btw!) I noticed the -winxp switch and it's tooltip saying something about being able to enable sli/crossfire.

And guess: my lowest FPS of 28 jumped to 45 and now my FPS are usually around 50 and upwards!

I never realized the card wasn't using it potential, although I was running GPU-Z to see the GPU load; now that I think back: the load before the -winxp switch was around 30% on both GPUs; now it's higher, around 50% (still room? :) ).

Anyway, just wanted to share this because I read (e.g. here http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=79003 ) that crossfire should work without the switch with the latest patch, but it didn't for me.

Also, before getting my new system I was reading problems with multi-core systems and Arma II. I've a Core i7-980X (the six-core one) and got no problems whatsoever (so far).

For reference, here are my detailed specs:

• Windows 7 Pro 64bit
  
• Core i7-980X
  
• 12GB RAM
  
• XFX HF 5970 with CCC 2010.0406.2133.36843
  
• 160GB Intel Postville SSD
  

The CCC version is not absolute latest (10.05 at the moment) because it has problems with Q3 engine related games.

and what version of Catalyst drivers You tried / use ? such important detail You left out

Bummer. You're right; I updated the OP. Anything else I should add? thx.

in that case i suggest You update to 10.5 hotfix first because these drivers are quite problematic

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATI-Catalyst-Hotfix.aspx

Hi, sorry, with "these", do you mean the 10.4 or the 10.5 for which you mentioned the quickfix? Thanks for clarifying.

I've installed the hotfix (CCC says 2010.0527.1501.25109), but it's still the same thing: 35 FPS without -winxp, 50 FPS with.

But I can't use the hotfix either, still has issues with my OpenGL games.

I've now updated to 1.07.71750 and I still need the -winxp .

However I've noticed a dramatic increase in performance anyway. In certain areas where it was 30 vs. 50 FPS before it's now like 45 vs 65 FPS, it's really incredible. On large terrain views where I was hitting between 50 and 60 FPS before it's about 80 now (with distance maxed).

I'm also noticing that all of my six cores now get used; it may have been so before (I'm unsure) but I think it wasn't.

I'm still running at Catalyst 10.4 because even the latest 10.6 has problems with certain OpenGL games preventing me from upgrading.

ive pretty much got the same rig as u man, i7 950 @4.6 - xfx hd 5970 - same mobo - hx 1000watt -same ssd but 80gb and only one (win7 ultimate 64 - arma 2) - catalyt 10.6

although its overclocked to the shithouse and its all watercooled.

my point is (anyone correct me if im wrong) a 5970 card is a single card and yeah its dual gpu but u dont need to crossfire them?? i can pretty much play arma maxed out (not view dist obviously, and AA at normal). doesnt give 60fps in dense areas or firefiight but otherwise its sweet at 60. i dont use the win xp command.

looks like ur keen with pcs so why not overclock that monster cpu, thats what it was made for lol

also when i look at gpu z or msi my gpu usage on both cores is heavy, like 80% when theres alot going on in the game.

ide get to the bottom of it if i were u, all that horsepower and its not doin shit... that rig is monster, there is something wrong - try narrow it down to see if its ur rig or arma by running benchmarks (3dmarkvantage - u should be gettin around the 30k mark)

keen to give u more help if u want it

EDIT: is arma on ur ssd? u got latest firmware? if so what result do u get when u test ur drive with crystal disk mark.

a 5970 card is a single card and yeah its dual gpu but u dont need to crossfire them

My testing indicated that crossfire is not automatically used for games (unfortunately). I start "GPU-Z" twice and switch to each sensor on each started instance and I see games utilizing only one of them and the other is idle.

With Arma II it's a bit different.

Without the winxp switch, it looks like in this screenshot: http://my-serve.rs/tmp/arma2_no_winxp.png . Notice that the GPU load is around 40% on each GPU.

Now compared to when starting with the winxp switch: http://my-serve.rs/tmp/arma2_winxp.png . GPU load on both is like around 70% and also gives me 15 FPS more.

I've also posted this, albeit still unanswered, to the AMD forums: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=425&threadid=134243

It may be fixed/different with the 10.06 drivers but until my beloved OpenGL games work with it, I can't use it :-(

EDIT: is arma on ur ssd? u got latest firmware? if so what result do u get when u test ur drive with crystal disk mark.

Here's my CrystalMark bench: http://my-serve.rs/tmp/crystal_d.png ; it's the drive where Arma II is installed on.

very strange... well weather it will fix ur exact problem or not, i would go buy a good cpu cooler (thermalright ultra 120 is prolly still the best) and get ur cpu to atleast 4ghz. from 3ghz to 4.6 for me made about 15 - 20 fps better in arma. some say it doesnt make a diff after 4.2

i just fired up operation arrowhead and wouldnt u know it, im only getting usage out of my second core lol. BUT it is at about 100%, havent noticed much performance diff because normally both cores go at bout 70%. instead i have 1 core workin overtime. i tried -winxp and it did spread the load over both gpus but made the game run like absolute crap.

u got any other ideas? going to make a seperate thread bout it

I was finally able to update to the latest drivers (OpenGL now works, was broken in 10.05 and 10.06) which is 10.07 and the behavior is still the same: winxp switch gives 10 to 15 FPS more.

rfc, my rig is almost identical to yours and I'm having the same problem. Low fps, but in my case closer to 25-30 than 50. I've tried the -winxp switch and it doesn't do anything for me. Did you ever find a solution?

Settings:

Everything on v. high

PP on normal

View distance: 3000 (tried messing around with this but didn't seem to have much of an effect)

AA: normal

Hdr: normal

Video memory: I've tried default and v. high - no difference

resolution: 1680x1050

3d resolution: 150%

Specs:

Intel i7 980, 3.6ghz

Ati Radeon 5970, 2gb

12gb ddr3 ram

300gb hd, 10k rpm

Using catalyst 10.12

Hi george176,

I don't think I ever found a real solution, but your Q encouraged me to get current numbers.

How I conducted these tests: loaded up the 01 boot camp mission, waited a few seconds, wrote down numbers. At first I started a new 01 and sub sequentially only resumed it. I did not move my character nor the camera.

All settings to the highest, distance 3006, 1600x1200. Warning: the linked screenshots are around 3MB each!

I used FRAPS for FPS and GPU-Z, started twice, for GPU load measurement. Arma2 is at 1.8.0.74450, Arma2OA is at 1.56.0.76134 , Catalyst 10.12 .

Legend: executable + switches, FPS, load GPU1, load GPU2.

arma2 : 57 FPS, 81% / 78% Screen

arma2 -winxp: 65 FPS, 99%, 96% Screen

arma2oa : 42 FPS, 96%, 93% Screen

arma2oa -winxp: 42 FPS, 96%, 92% Screen

It seems -winxp does nothing at all on Arma2OA. The FPS goes way down with OA, but if you look at the images, the quality is very different. It seems the post processing does a lot more.

Copied over from my Sig for later reference:

System: CPU: i7-980X, RAM: 12GB Kingston HyperX, GFX: XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition, MOBO: GA-X58A-UD7 X58, POWER: be quiet P8 1200W ATX 2.3, HDD: 2x Intel X25-M G2 160GB, 2.5", OS: W7Pro 64bit, Drivers: Catalyst: 10.12, 2D: 8.01.01.1105, D3D: 8.14.10.0798, OGL: 6.14.10.10362, CCC: 2010.1125.2148.39102

I've tested this for arma and you're right, using the -winxp switch utilizes more of both cores and produces better fps. I get similar fps to you, maybe a little higher but I'm running at 1680x1050. I haven't tried oa yet, but i'm curious... what is your aa setting. I use either low or disabled because anything else produces a big performance hit. Is that because I'm using cat 10.4 drivers do you think?

As I said, I conducted all testing with all highest setting, this includes AA.

I've tested this for arma and you're right, using the -winxp switch utilizes more of both cores and produces better fps. I get similar fps to you, maybe a little higher but I'm running at 1680x1050. I haven't tried oa yet, but i'm curious... what is your aa setting. I use either low or disabled because anything else produces a big performance hit. Is that because I'm using cat 10.4 drivers do you think?

your running 150% 3D, so the AA will be a big hit. Its a tradeoff, between high 3DRez and AA. He also has a faster clocked card with twice as much VRAM and can get a good high filter set. The drivers really haven't changed much for FPS in a longtime... What they have done is fix some spiking textures over the 10.4, but you would also have to use the newer OA betas.. so get OA, game runs much better(zfighting ect...)

-winXP

should be obsolete for W7 and Vista with new drivers as they have profiles for it

it in fact disable the DirectX 9Ex ...

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma2:_Startup_Parameters#Performance

Yes, I knew that and I also thought it shouldn't make a difference, but it definitely does.

If you feel like digging into this, I'm happy to provide you anything you need.

NVidia? This about AMD but I get your point :)

But ... to be honest, I've no idea what I'd tell them :)

"Hey, Arma2 with latest driver without -winxp switch on W7 64bit doesn't take full advantage on both GPUs of my HD 5970" ?

thx