Hardware upgrade for ArmA 2 - help?

[Magenta]

Hello guys! I have original OFP and ArmA and now I would like to play ArmA 2 - love the series. Unfortunately the demo version showed me that my PC suck monkey balls.

I'm wondering If I should buy new machine or an upgrade that will make a deal. I need professional help with it.

What I have:
Inter Core Duo CPU E6850 3,00 Ghz (1333 MHz)
4,00 GB RAM (DDR2)
NVidia Geforce 8800 Ultra (768mb)
( http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_8800.html )

this bastard is 2 years old (and most of games are runing on maximum with no AA sometimes)

I'm runing ArmA 2 with normal-high settings (no AA, no Vsync) with resolution a little bit lower than my monitor (full is 1680x1050 - playing on it means framerate cut). It looks ok but sometimes worse than ArmA1 and this time I don't want to spend my money If I can't get satisfied (I hope you understand).

So, tell me - what should I buy to play ArmA 2 on maximum settings with my 1680x1050 and at last with a little bit of AA? Is this even possible? Can you help me somehow?

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Sorry for my english - I'm pole. And I know many polish people are working hard in this community (that makes me proud!) Może coś poradzicie chłopaki?

Best regards everyone!

[tpw]

Hi Magenta

Your box is not that differently specced to mine (E6750/8800GT) and I got decent enough framerates at 1440x900 (~25-35fps, but obviously nowhere near what I get for most of my other games) after fiddling around with it a bit. The real killers for me are AA (I use none) and Terrain/Object detail (I use normal for both). Nearly everything else is on very high. For our computers, the game seems to be mostly CPU limited.

The trouble is, you can read any number of posts on this forum from people with higher spec computers (i7/GTX285) who still suffer from poor frame rates, and you might turn out to be one of those unlucky ones.

The other common complaint is stuttering, no matter what the frame rate. There are a number of posts showing it being due to the almost constant hard drive access Arma2 uses to stream textures. Many people have reported elimination of this problem by installing > 8Gb RAM, creating a RAMdisk, and running Arma2 from there. The much smoother performance makes it seem like the frame rate is higher.

My advice before you run out and buy a new box or RAM is to read these forums for various performance tweaks, and try out the latest beta patches (or wait for patch 1.05 in a few weeks), which certainly run a fair bit better for me.

Good luck!

[Special_Air_Service]

Hi Magenta

Your box is not that differently specced to mine (E6750/8800GT) and I got decent enough framerates at 1440x900 (~25-35fps, but obviously nowhere near what I get for most of my other games) after fiddling around with it a bit. The real killers for me are AA (I use none) and Terrain/Object detail (I use normal for both). Nearly everything else is on very high. For our computers, the game seems to be mostly CPU limited.

The trouble is, you can read any number of posts on this forum from people with higher spec computers (i7/GTX285) who still suffer from poor frame rates, and you might turn out to be one of those unlucky ones.

The other common complaint is stuttering, no matter what the frame rate. There are a number of posts showing it being due to the almost constant hard drive access Arma2 uses to stream textures. Many people have reported elimination of this problem by installing > 8Gb RAM, creating a RAMdisk, and running Arma2 from there. The much smoother performance makes it seem like the frame rate is higher.

My advice before you run out and buy a new box or RAM is to read these forums for various performance tweaks, and try out the latest beta patches (or wait for patch 1.05 in a few weeks), which certainly run a fair bit better for me.

Good luck!

Yes, that's right
However if u want to upgrade ur video card, u can try gtx 260 above...But wait for the latest patch 1.05 before u decide to upgrade it

[cm.]

Yes, that's right
However if u want to upgrade ur video card, u can try gtx 260 above...But wait for the latest patch 1.05 before u decide to upgrade it

I agree with this.

Wait for the latest patch and then see if you still have problems with it.

[Paajtor]

What OS do you use?
If you're on XP (-32bit, preferrably), you may want to wait with upgrading your hardware, and indeed - wait for the next patch.

[S-M]

The current Beta patch helps things run a LOT smoother, i suspect the next final retail patch will be the same

[Magenta]

Thanks for your reply, guys!

But how can I check new patch or beta patch with demo version? Is this possible?

What OS do you use?
If you're on XP (-32bit, preferrably), you may want to wait with upgrading your hardware, and indeed - wait for the next patch.

I have Vista 64

[No Use For A Name]

you can't patch the demo...but just know that more than likely the full (patched) game will probably run better.