Poor Performance?

[Foxtrot360]

I got this game and it runs very poorly on my system, I tried throwing the settings all the way down to the lowest in graphics but it still runs like crap. I know my system isnt the most up to date or anything, but really I think not being able to run it on Very Low is pretty pathetic. I have some addons but it doesent matter it did this before I added those. It sucks that it runs so bad because it looks like a nice game otherwise, but its just unplayable with this kind of graphics lag. I also have random Crash To Desktop, and slow loading of textures (low LOD textures inplace of what should be high quality textures).

ArmA is patched to 1.14 .

My specs are

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.2 GHz

Corsair 1 GB RAM

Nvidia 7600 GT 256MB AGP

ASUS A7N8X-E

Edited September 17, 2008 by Foxtrot360

[CrowmanUK]

Viewdistance and fog settings make a big difference in this mate, more ram would help a lot too, take the viewdistance down to 500 and work your way up from there, if its any consolation it knocks the crap out of my system too, AMD 3800 dual core, 2 gig ram and a 7800GTX 512, both graphics cards are getting on a bit now.

[Buehgler_AS]

I think Crownam's diagnosis is probably accurate. I get reasonable performance from a 7900, but I need to be sensitive to view distance settings to avoid trouble. There can also be a huge level of variability that depends on the complexity of your surroundings -- despite some significant improvements that came with 1.14 and the older patches, I still notice a performance hit associated with the heavily wooded areas. I do have 2G of RAM, but I have never experimented to understand how much of a performance difference you can expect from 2G vs 1G.

I hope you get your performance issues resolved, it really is a nice game for playing some long coop missions with friends.

[rookie]

I get an average performance on my system (AMD64 3200+; 2GB Ram; GF 7900GS) on 1024 I am running most settings on medium. Can't remember the settings in detail though, since I uninstalled it last week - to tough to find decent crowded servers, where I am not getting kicked because of some plug-in errors.

The Shadows, and Anti-Aliasing on a lower setting made the biggest difference. Besides the shader, that can't be high either.

One of those games which took me a huge amount of time until I found the right settings.

I loved the gameplay, which is why I played it for so long - but I just couldn't stand it anymore.

This is why I want ArmA II to be ready, when it is being released - and I want [OFP: DR] not to blow.

[Foxtrot360]

Thanks for the replies, I thought the ArmA tech forum looked abandoned LOL. I'll try some of the suggestions listed here, I know I kinda need to upgrade but the only thing worth upgrading is upping it to 2 GB but I think I'd be better off just overhauling to a new system next year if possible. But I couldnt believe the lowest settings ran that terribly.

@ Buehgler, Greetings from Team Nighthawks! (5 Delta)

@ rookie, What made you stop playing ArmA? Was it the online play?

Edited September 17, 2008 by Foxtrot360

[rookie]

@ rookie, What made you stop playing ArmA? Was it the online play?

too tough to find decent crowded servers, where I am not getting kicked because of some plug-in errors.

[Sup]

Rookie, hook up with a co-op group like the Tactical Gamer crew or (ideally) Shack Tactical and you'll always find a good place to play -- shacktac especially has weekly 60+man co-op and mission based adversarial games.

Foxtrot: Got the patches? they optimized a lot. Otherwise, it's just your system lagging behind

[pz3]

Upgrade to a new system is probably your best bet.

I found that the game is heavily dependent on your memory bandwith and CPU power more so then anything else.

Get a 3+ghz dual core or a quad core processor

2gb min of DDR2 800 or up

8800GTS or up and you should be able to run the game maxed out at 1600x1200 with 35 to 60fps

not including maxed AA

Edited September 18, 2008 by pz3

[Foxtrot360]

Ok thanks for the replies. I got all the patches up to 1.14. I'll probably upgrade/overhaul when I can, since technology really got better with quad/dual core and PCIe which I've been lagging behind (no pun intended) on buying. I'm really gonna have to upgrade now that games like ArmA and STALKER wont play smoothly. Its still a pretty good system for the older games, maybe I'll keep it and just make a new one.

@rookie Also, I havent got to play ArmA online yet but Sup is right, you should try to hookup with a tactical team or server, thats where the mature good players are.

Edited September 18, 2008 by Foxtrot360

[Buehgler_AS]

Indeed playing coop on-line is a completely different experience. Foxtrot, do not hesitate to stop by the Alpha Squad TS server. We are usually on in the evenings and weekends, you may even find 4 X-ray playing with us, although I think the seasonal RL demands are keeping him busy.

Rookie, we use a tool (Yoma) to make it relatively straight forward for people playing on our server. Info can be found at http://alphasquad.ro/forums/index.php/topic,2328.0.html

[Noraf]

one thing you might try, is, in the settings menu, hit the "Default" button. it's not for a game default settings, but a system default, ie it waries from system to system as to witch settings it applies.

Other than that, i'd hold the upgrade til afther arma 2

[=warcloud=]

ArmA has vsync on by default, why on earth did they not have an option in the games settings to enable or disable this feature is beyond me. I use ati graphics so i turn "wait for vertical refresh" to "always off" in the catalyst control centre or by the system tray menu.