Re: Squeezing out performance

**SailinDawg** · 04-07-2008, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by Bamboo

Also, how did you get it to run more than 60 FPS. I never go over 60, no matter how little the game is having to render, it just hits a wall there and stays at 60. I thought Vsync was the reason because I read that having that on limited you to 60fps, but even when I went to the Nvidia control panel and forced Vsync off, I still stick at 60.

You missed the part where I stated that the refresh rate for the resolution used was 75 Hz. V-Synch locks the fps to the monitors refresh rate, which avoids graphic tearing of the rendered image.

With V-Synch off, I can sometimes see fps over 75, but I get a lot tearing.

Regarding the target line tweak, right click the ARMA launch icon, scroll to Properties, click to open, the top line is called target. My target line looks like this:

"G:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA\beta\arma.exe" -mod=beta -nosplash -mod=Islands;@Mapfact;@COC @SIX_Pack1 -mod=@AACFSOUND -world=empty -maxmem=768

where G:\ is the partition that the game is installed on, it could be C:\ on your pc. The balance are mods that are being used. ARMA uses the convention to name a mod file, @modfile, which refers to a similar folder in the ARMA main directory. The @modfile folder contains the modded files. It is activated by listing in the target line as above.

The referenced tweaks are listed above as you shold enter thejm into the target line.

**SailinDawg** · 04-07-2008, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by Tripper

I've been having weird GPU issues since 1.11 and 1.12 have come out. I've got two 8600 GTS cards in an SLI config. This ran great until 1.11 (and now 1.12), and now it seems ArmA turns off the SLI. I start out as normal, but part way through the mission optics start to not work, crosshair disappears, and dappling under trees and such cause the screen to white out. I exit the game and SLI is now set to off.

If I run the game with SLI off in the beginning, nothing weird happens, but the performance isn't very good. It's hard to hit the bad guys as they stutter around.

So there's my backstory. Would the 9600GT give me an improvement? Why is it cheaper than the 8800 series?

Any advice would be totally appreciated.

Try using nHancer to adjust quality settings instead of the nVidia control panel. nHancer writes directly to the regsitry as the nVidia control panel is supposed to, but sometimes doesn't do as well.

If the stock ARMA SLI profile is not working, using nHancer, paste the ARMA.exe location into the FEAR SLI profile so that ARMA will start up using the FEAR SLI profile.

I used that trick a lot when running early versions of ARMA when I had a 7950 GX2 card. Using the FEAR profile should also give as bit of a performance boost as well. Enable the load bars from within nHancer to see that SLI is working.

I hope this helps.

**Bamboo** · 04-08-2008, 12:01 AM

But SailinDawg, why am I still bound to 60 FPS even when I force vsync off.

**Redd_Wiggler** · 04-08-2008, 05:50 AM

thanx for the maxmem tweak

**Tripper** · 04-08-2008, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by SailinDawg

Try using nHancer to adjust quality settings instead of the nVidia control panel. nHancer writes directly to the regsitry as the nVidia control panel is supposed to, but sometimes doesn't do as well.

If the stock ARMA SLI profile is not working, using nHancer, paste the ARMA.exe location into the FEAR SLI profile so that ARMA will start up using the FEAR SLI profile.

I used that trick a lot when running early versions of ARMA when I had a 7950 GX2 card. Using the FEAR profile should also give as bit of a performance boost as well. Enable the load bars from within nHancer to see that SLI is working.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for the advice. I'll give it a whirl within the next few days and report back.

**SailinDawg** · 04-08-2008, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by Bamboo

But SailinDawg, why am I still bound to 60 FPS even when I force vsync off.

My cpu is running at 2.9 GHz. How fast is your cpu running? If you are running < 2.9 GHz, your cpu is holding you back. Also, what vid card do you have? One more thing, what type of hard drive are you running? Also, how fast is your RAM running?

This game will bottle neck with a slower I/O sub system, such as running a cpu < 2.6 GHz and a 7200 IDE hard drive. It will only be able to render the game world so fast.

Also, I use the cpu speed value of 2.6 GHz somewhat arbitrarily. I have found over the years, that a cpu speed of ~2.6 will generally run most games at high quality settings at very reasonable frame rates. In overclocking my rigs, at 2.6 I would generally see a lot of improvement when running a game. Anything >2.6, is very helpful.

I have also found that tweaking your RAM to go as fast as it can stably run goes a very long way. My approach to gaming has been to build the best machine I can, overclock the heck out of it (maintaining stability) and enjoy the benefits when gaming.

ARMA really benefits from a fast stable machine. With the new patch, I have been playong around the view distance and I am now able to run the VD at 10,000 m. Runs sweet for single player. It doesn't matter for multiplayer because the server sets the VD.

ARMA this last patch fixed some type of memory usage issue. It really seems to have worked. I'm hoping that VON is better now as well. I need to get onto the TG server.

I'm also using the latest nVidia beta driver, 174.74. They really seem to run ARMA very well. I'm only using a single card though. The user 3D program control panel seesm to work well with this driver set as well. In previous 16x.xx, the user CP always seemed broke, therefore I used nHancer.

One other tweak that I use, is that since I got my 8800 GT, I changed the HDRPrecision from 8 bit to 16 bit. 32 bit seemed a bit too much, but I should try it now with the new patches. Changing this value makes HDR lighting in the game look much more natural. HDRPrecision is found in the arma.cg file. This file is located dir:\user name\My Documents\ARMA. Open the cfg file in Word pad and change the default value from 8 to 16. If you have anything lower than a 88xx, your card cannot perform 16 bit HDR.

**Bamboo** · 04-08-2008, 10:53 PM

I have:

Vista 64
Intel q6600 Quad running at @3.0 (could go higher, but haven't felt the need)
4 gigs Corsair Dominator 1066 speed
74 gig raptor for the OS, and a fast Seagate for the game
8800GTS 640mb overclocked with RivaTuner

So it is not being limited by the computer. It really goes right up to 60FPS and sits there, except when I recored with Fraps, then of course it drops to the 30s

**vanity11** · 04-09-2008, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by Bamboo

I have:

Vista 64
Intel q6600 Quad running at @3.0 (could go higher, but haven't felt the need)
4 gigs Corsair Dominator 1066 speed
74 gig raptor for the OS, and a fast Seagate for the game
8800GTS 640mb overclocked with RivaTuner

So it is not being limited by the computer. It really goes right up to 60FPS and sits there, except when I recored with Fraps, then of course it drops to the 30s

Man this is kinda weird. I was getting 80+FPS on Evolution Red today High everything but shadows.

E6400 Core2Duo - not overclocked
6GB RAM DDR800(win only sees 3.75 tho so I dont think it matters)
RAID0 for the game
9600GT 512 - not overclocked.

What are you using to view your FPS? I'm using TS Overlay

**206 Wolfpack** · 04-09-2008, 01:54 AM

TS overlay= Teamspeak?

and any mods to improve in the FPS? Heard some about the bush fixes but then that that only effects AI stuff???

**vanity11** · 04-09-2008, 01:59 AM

Ya TS Overlay = Teamspeak Overlay

I also have it displaying the clock for me too. Easy to lose track of time in Arma World

**206 Wolfpack** · 04-09-2008, 02:08 AM

Good idea, I just realized I entirely frogot about 3 book reports and another 5 page write up I need to do for tomarrow, Good round though..

**vanity11** · 04-09-2008, 02:14 AM

LMFAO

good luck with those!

**Bamboo** · 04-09-2008, 10:12 AM

I am some how getting stuck at 60 because that is my LCD's refresh rate, which is usually because of Vsync being on. Which is why I can't figure out when I go into Nvidia control panel and force Vsync off, I am still stuck at 60fps.
I am using Fraps to show FPS by the way.

**ednos** · 04-09-2008, 12:34 PM

Vertical sync is something you can disable in the game, isn't it?

**SailinDawg** · 04-09-2008, 06:13 PM

@Bamboo

I'm running XP with SP2. I have not yet tried VISTA, however, I am tempted to try VISTA 64 bit once I put my quad core system together, but then again, maybe not.

Bamboo, you're seeing VISTA locking your refresh rate to 60 Hz inside the game.

I'm running a Samsung 205BW, native res = 1680x1050 @ 60 Hz, however, I run ARMA at 1152x860, which runs at either 60 Hz or 75 Hz refresh rate. I choose 75 Hz, because when I enable V-Synch through the vid driver, my highest fps will be 75, my lowest will be about 30. PLus, I enable triple buffering through Riva Tuner and my lowest frames stay about 30.

However, VISTA forces any game to run at 60 Hz just like XP did until the vid card manufacturers started adding in force refresh rates in the drivers. Also game developers starting writing games that enforced refresh rates in the quality settings. ARMA also enforces V-Synch by default. One has to manually force V-synch off with the vid card drivers or use nHancer. In your case, I'm not sure what the work around is.

Read this thread. It pretty much covers your question. Seems RefreshLock 2.21 might solve your situation with VISTA forcing your game to 60 Hz.

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