Is ArmA damaging systems?

[343rdBadger]

Bare with a moment and I'll explain why I ask this question.

While playing ARMA at what I considered a normal setting (comparing it to OPFlash of course) which was mediuim to high graphics ,turned out to be a slide show on the map editor,with only one tank placed on the map...OK,I thought,...much more graphics to render now so I'll have to adjust...okie dokie,backed her off to normal and reduced the res too 1024 instead of 1152 and fired her up.Ok,seems smoother,but definately not flashpoint performance!!??...well shit!!!....Anyway,was jumping in and out of the settings options trying to find the happy medium,and when I finally found one that seemed to work ok,(but disapointing),I went in to play .Now remember ...I'm still only a SINGLE TANK on the map...so I'm jumping around from station to station,fireing guns etc etc when all of a sudden my graphics start disappearing?!?!...AND... turning weird colors!!!

I immediately recognised it as overheating of the graphics card and shut down.Then I thought....can't be.....I play dark messiah,falcon,doom3,and a lot of other graphic intensive games and they run fine?....must be something else?.So I opened the ATI catalyst programe and started monitoring the heat on the overclock tab(I DONOT OVERCLOCK THE CARD,I JUST ENABLED IT TO SEE WHAT IT WAS AS A FEATURE)One of the features is the overheat temp gauge and it was running in the red.This is a ATI x850xt platinium card btw.so I would alt tab in and out everytime the graphic anomalies would occur and take a peak at the temp.EVERYTIME it was in the red when the anomalies appeared,So I'd shut down.At this point I'm thinking my graphics card maybe damaged,so I then went into my flashpoint game and played it to compare.It was night and day.Running cool at about 45 with a load at 1152 with the post processing on all graphics turned up.Everything seemed "normal"...OKIE dokie...wtf is going on with ARMA??...So I come here to find out what was up,and sure enough,ALOT of other people describing the same thing?!?!...but I wonder if they realised or checked,what their card temps are ***while running the game???Since not all ATI cards have the temp feature in the Catalyst Control Centre.And if your running for prolonged periods,just below the anomalie threshold,is it taking the life outta your card???

So my questions are...is this a danger to my card?...why is ARMA doing this?and do others know whither or not this is happening to their cards??
If this is something to worry about,what can I do to cool the card to run at normal res settings and get normal temperatures???

[zyklone]

Your cooling is not up to the task.

A game can't damage the card, It's likely however that the extreme amount of shader use by ArmA is revealing problems that don't show in other games.

This is fairly typical of ATI especially, their cards often get problems when all the features are used at the same time.

[343rdBadger]

Not sure what you mean here?..."cooling not up to the task"...by this do you mean relitively speaking? or that my cooling is not what it should be in terms of its specs for the card??...in otherwords...is it my card thats not copeing due to a problem with the card itself,or is ARMA asking too much that is not allowing it to cope with said task?

And when you say a game can't damage a card,what does that mean?...if it causes the card to overwork,isn't that damaging?,or are the redline areas just a representation of workload rather than a danger area??

also it seems both nvida and ati are having these problems with ARMA...no??

BTW..my card is running at the default 540mhz on the GPU

[Hudson]

I use ATI tray tools to monitor my GPU temp. I have been playing Medieval 2 Total War alot recently and I play it on full graphic settings, 1280x1024 and it will run my GPU upto around 130 degrees fahrenheit. When I play Armed Assault I am in the same boat as you. I have seen the temps on my GPU go upto 152 degrees. This is scary and yes when it gets that hot my screen is just one big artifact untill I alt tab out and let it cool down. I have to do this maybe every 10 minutes. I am now considering getting a water cooler for the GPU.

[Shadow]

Arma may be pushing your videocard more than most games, but if the card fry its the manufacturers fault. Arma cant get more data processed than your computer can deliver. If the videocard die its the videocard that is the fault here.

[343rdBadger]

Well I guess this is the point of my post...Should you even be considering to get a water cooler...OR...is there something WRONG with ARMA that were getting these weird overheats??I mean,should ARMA be this demanding that its bring our cards to the point of overheat at normal and lower settings??

[Shadow]

As Salisan is pointing out, Arma is very shader intensive.
Have you tried lowering the shading detail level?

[343rdBadger]

Well, I'll go in and play with it some more,but again,my concern is just how many times can I run it into the red while going through the tweaking process, before I do any damage???I mean is it worth the risk trying to find the "stable" level of settings?...or is the redline not at such a temp as to actually damage the card physically? And again keep in mind this all being relitive to other games that are equally demanding ,that aren't overheating the card.This is my real concern.I mean that card is a 350$$ card man! and its only a few months old.

[Hudson]

As Salisan is pointing out, Arma is very shader intensive.
Have you tried lowering the shading detail level?

I just disabled the shadows and the framerate almost doubled. It is no longer getting over 135 degrees for me. I guess Ill ask my wife if maybe santa can find the funds for a X1900 series Crossfire master card. It looks like this game might actually be able to use that much power.

[Shadow]

I mean that card is a 350$$ card man! and its only a few months old.

Then you're in the clear. You still have a warranty