ATI cards

[ironhulk 10]

Does this game still not like ati cards. I am getting poor textures and LOD on my 5970 vapour x . my clan mates run nvidia and they say there game looks good.

Edited December 29, 2010 by ironhulk

[[frl]myke 14]

Hmm...thats how it looks on my HD5870:

How about posting some infos about your hardware, OS, drivers, game version and settings...you know, the usual stuff.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Myke;1823203']Hmm...thats how it looks on my HD5870:

Same with my HD5870 : i'm very pleased ;)

[W0lle 1046]

Switched to an 5870 recently too and the game just runs fine. No problems at all.

[Nephris1 10]

ATI 4890 HD, very pleased with my ArmA2 results!

Dunno where these old rumors are actually from.

I am very happy that i did change to ATI from Nvidea again.

Probably just subjective meanings and opinions, I cant see any problems resulted just due the card manufactor like ATI or Nvidea.

As always the reason is maybe almost 30 cm infront of the monitor.

Means remaining HW,driver, system state, other services running etc pp are imho responsible for grafic problems not the card itself (as far as it is powered enough for ArmA2 requirements in this case).

[Driftit 0]

There is some LOD issues with the ATI cards at the moment. Have a read of this post.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1823416&posted=1#post1823416

I have a 6870 and it is running worse than my old 4890. Stuttering and slow loading LODs.

[runforrest 10]

in advance... my english is a bit bumpy, but i try

and this is a long post sry

alright, where do i start...

my specs:

Quadcore Q9400 (default@2,67Ghz) oced to 3,2 Ghz without touching Vcore

Club3D ATI 5770 HD 1GB

MSI P35 Neo2

2x2GB Aeneon DDR2 800 (running at ca 700 due to multiplier and RAM devider)

HD: WesternDigital 500GB WD5000AAKS 7200U/m 16MB cache

LG Flatron L227WTP @1680x1050

WinXP 32

Catalyst 10.8

-the OS is installed on an other partition than ArmA (will change to other HD whit new OS install)

-2048MB pagefile running on another HD (good? no idea)

-the OS was new installed just for a clean A2/OA install

-ArmA2 is installed on his very own 100GB Partition-frequently defraged

-im aware off the meaning of a fast SSD or a RAMDrive - but im not Richie Rich

Driver settings via ATI tray tools:

AA: application controlled

AF: Quality/16x

Textures: HighQuality

MipMap: HighQuality

Vsync: Default off

Prerenderlimit: 1 (also set in ArmA2OA.cfg)

Catalyst AI: OFF

-is there something i need to keep in mind? im new to ATI !

maxmem=2047

cpucount=4

ArmA2 settings:

Viewdistance on ground 2000-3000 (inside big towns 1200)

Viewdistance inside Zargabad 700

Viewdistance in Air 4000

Viewdistance on Sahrani 4000+

Overall Quality: Very High

Res: 1680:1050

3D-Res: 1920:1200(114%)

TextDetails: Very High or High

Memory: Very High ( i read often to set it to default but that will cause HEAVY grafic fractales on the screen (lines coming from 1 object filling the screen in white,grey and black)

AF: Very High

AA: OFF

Landscape: Normal or Low

Objects: High (would love to VeryHigh but to FPS consuming in certain scenes)

(normal is a NOGO because of goddamn low LOD details of some objects like vehicles or mg bunkers, vehicles miss tires and look ridiculous even on less than 30m distance; bunkers have a WALL where should be a HOLE etc... u all know what i mean, im still waiting for a patch that will fix this.. because imho NORMAL details shouldnt cause gameplay problems or eye cancer!!!)

Shadows: High (would love to VeryHigh but to FPS consuming in certain scenes)

HDR: normal

PostProcess: low or normal

Vsnyc: OFF

Performance in ArmA2 Combined Operations Chernarus : ca. 30FPS or less ?!

Performance in ArmA2 OA Takistan: depends 26 - 50 FPS

=======================================================================

my ArmA Background: this info just to let u know that i already fiddled around alot with settings/grafics/drivers (mostly Nvidia) etc...

i played OFP since ca 2006, started ArmA1 Nov2007, buyed ArmA2 at first day/same with OA - i have seen the different versions of the virtual reality engine now on so many different PCs, started back 2001 on a P2 400

i had problems with ArmA2 since the beginning (2x2,4Ghz Core2Duo,8800GT)

-receiving bug all the time(very very annoying), but without any noticable or reproducable patterns

-orange bushes and trees where more like 2D than 3d with blurry textures

-30FPS max, more like 25 or less with less good arma2 grafic settings ofc - often unplayable and not nice to look at but i played

short before OA release i upgraded the CPU, but the increase in FPS was not as good as i wished, so i also upgraded the graficcard.

result: increase of all quality settings and 3d res from 100% to 114% + a bit higher FPS, but still not what i would expect of my specs

all in all i would be quite satisfied with stable(NOT LESS!!!) 30 to 35 FPS in ArmA2 (not in quake )but the image quality must be good. normal settings in ArmA2 means = ugly grafics

now the problem is - since OA when i get close to villages the trees switch to low detail LODs and switch LODs often - and i even have that problem now on Chernarus- it wasnt that bad before OA - first i thought its related to the new buildings - but its not(the new buildings just seem to make it worse)

LOD switching got worse enough in ArmA2 - that problem wasnt present in ArmA1!! - but in OA the vegetation is ....... (insert worst word u can think of)

the closer i get to the village/town-center the worse the appearance of the trees and bushes - it seems. lower FPS go along with it- but not always.

it all starts with a short stutter (short drop down to 22FPS) when i move from the outskirt of a town to the town center, after that the trees switch to low details (other textures also switch and sometimes need very long to get back to high). when i move away from town center it gets better again but it wont revert back to normal again. the effect is not always the same, sometimes the trees look really really bad, sometimes just a bit bad.

sometimes i can play in small villages with just clean and beautiful grafics, sometimes same settings, same situation, same action - UGLY trees and popping textures.

theres no pattern. no change of grafic settings make it happen or not(lower object details and texture details make it worse ofcourse), no mission (happens also in plain editor(especially zargabad)), no addons or tons of addons(i load alot as default since OA CO needs more fixes than A2), driver settings...

BUT

where stuff like that is NOT happening is with CAA1 mod on Sahrani and on Lingor Island. LOD switching of vegetation on Lingor on normal! object settings is no problem at all (GJ Berghoff!); trees on sahrani r ALWYAS cristal clear beautiful sharp - so i can see there, it IS working and it seems NOT to be an ATI problem!

on the other hand the other problem is that in some situations the performance seems way to low for my specs and that might be an ATI problem?

example:

settings as above

ArmA2 CO started with addons

soldier placed in editor on utes grid 035013 upper left corner of the grid right on the crossing of the other grids, view direction 315, vd=2500(doesntmatter) and look a bit higher into the trees

FPS=22 !!! WTF??

to get the frames above 30 i would have to put down so many details it would look like worse than OFP !

when i turn around and look right into the sky and see just my gun, FPS

=58

theres lots of situations like that, a certain view angle close to bush/tree with just really few other trees around and nothing else, cause the frames to drop to 24?? i look a few degrees away and the frames r almost as twice as much?? ATI problem? or ArmA?

i need a clear answer to that.

maybe others could post there observations here, just simple tests in the editor but with sharp eyes on FPS counter near bushes/trees.

if its arma, and i fear it is, than a patch is needed or thats it.... once and for all.

is anyone out there having the same problems? (found nothing so far related to 5770)

did i miss anything about driver settings for ATI cards? could i maybe have overseen anything in my BIOS that can cause stuff like that in ArmA?

see screenshots of the LOD horror under this post...

HighQuality link:http://img708.imageshack.us/f/a2oalowlods155beta.jpg/

Edited December 30, 2010 by RunForrest
didnt know adding images is rocket science ^^

[[frl]myke 14]

@RunForrest

AF maxed out is surely a Killer for your card. In the CCC set it to application controlled and ingame lower it.

Also 3D resolution set to 114% is too much for your GPU, set it back to 100%.

This should result in a instant FPS raise. Also try to play around with shadow settings. On high & very high, shadows are calculated by GPU, on lower settings by the CPU. Maybe setting on Normal can also give a little FPS boost.

You have not a bad machine although i wouldn't call it a badass gaming rig. But i guess with spending some time on balancing ingame settings around normal will give you a good result for FPS and quality.

As a guideline to easier spot weaknesses of your rig:

Viewdistance, Terraindetail and Objectdetail are related to CPU power, the rest relates on GPU power. Exception shadows read above.

And btw, having high FPS while looking the sky and dropping frames while looking into a forrest is nothing else than normal. In the sky is nearly nothing to render while a forrest...well, the forrests i know have a lot of trees in there. ;)

Take some time and lower your expectations one notch and i'm sure you'll find settings that will fit pretty well.

[runforrest 10]

wow that reply was fast thx :)

ive seen no difference on performance when changing AF ingame, i tried that, and not just once

100 % is a nogo, i need some kind of AA, i cant stand looking at dizzling edges everywhere, its end of 2010!!!! and i spend enough $$$$ to deserve at least a little little bit of AA :)

i know the stuff about object details etc... the shadows... also here; shadow on normal = NOGO lookslikereallyuglysh... doesnt loook like game from 2010 more like 2002

i already spend ALOT of timing fiddling around with the settings, and thats the problem it seems. with arma its ALL or NOTHING, there is nothing u coudl fiddle around with

either u have MONSTER-NASA-rig or arma looks like shit. is that really everything? is that the conclusion of 4 years arma? we waited and waited and waited and upgraded and now we cant even look at a few trees at high settings with nice frames?

we could do that in ArmA1!!!! not at first but some patch after patch 1.08 made the vegetation smooth even when looking close at it. i remember that really good, because i was very happy with it :)

if thats really the truth and arma2 CANT do better, than the engine is really the greatest sh.. ever sry ... and that says me one of the biggest fanboys lol :o

lowering expectations.... if that would be possible... thers is no medium or normal in arma .... and low means arma looks worse like Farcry1

i CAN see in some situations that it CAN indeed run on high or very high settings even with some action around and blastcore and GL4 effects... but than at some certain point BAAM frame drop and the shit begins.... as if there would be a memory leak or something....

other people can play with monster rigs on 60 FPS that means with a lower rig i must be able to play it on stable 30 FPS or not??

30 is not much! i do not demand 40 or so. 30 stable with clean, sharp grafics as i had at end in arma1 with 8800Gt and dual core

thats what i want not more

what about the screens? any1 playing with ugly trees like that? if yes and no one complains, than i better get outa here and delete arma asap ^^

[avengerzx 10]

-Try the latest beta patch (1.57.76934)

-In the ArmA2OA Config change LocalVRAM = 0

-Launch OA Beta patch 76934 and the new ArmA2OA will be created with a New Memory Detected

This should be the correct limit for 5870 1GB

localVRAM=1063714816;
nonlocalVRAM=1877504000;

Vram Detection doesn't work in some ATI driver versions

Edited December 30, 2010 by avengerzx

[runforrest 10]

im always running beta when available :)

deleting arma.cfg ... i feel like i already did that a zillion times... not that it would change anything... but i still do it after patching and driver update...

but looking in the cfg right now im abit confused about:

3D_Performance=-4194304; minus???

the vram is a bit different from urs but seems ok:

localVRAM=1059913600;

nonlocalVRAM=123076608;

but thx anyway :)

btw: changing any driver version has never ever changed anything for me in all that years... hours over hours of reading here and

testing ...

testing ...

testing...

nothing...

nada...

noste...

null...

fürn a....

btw2: in arma1 we were 15-20 players in our group playing at least 4 times a week, make a guess how much we r today and how often we play... and someone might guess why... its a shame...

really

:(

[jgbtl292 0]

I have a 6870 and it is running worse than my old 4890. Stuttering and slow loading LODs.

slow loading lod,s is your HDD not your grafic card !!!!!!;)

my 4890 runs fine all of very high

high resoluton and 4-5 km sigh view

[Nephris1 10]

Well m8, i am running a 4890.

As alredy posted i am pleasured.

Checking your screenshots ya posted, i must say what do u expect more?

The Lod popping here and there is acceptable on my rig, and i got used to it.

Neverthelss i run AF and AA and shadows on normal, with 3d res. on 100% (1920x1200); HDR: normal;PostProcess: off;Vsnyc: OFF.

Leaving all seetings controlled by application.

So e.g. your first posted SS is absolute acceptable, dont u think?

http://img442.imageshack.us/i/a2oalowlods155betakopie.jpg/

[runforrest 10]

AA on normal would be sweet but higher 3d res is performance wise better than even low AA for me

the screens r so downscaled it seems u cant see the obvious

i will put link with HQ screen 1sec

http://img708.imageshack.us/i/a2oalowlods155beta.jpg/

if u still cant see it i will mark it in red :D

Edited December 30, 2010 by RunForrest

[ironhulk 10]

think i may just buy a nvidia card a be done with the ati crap

[runforrest 10]

my thoughts m8... my thoughts...

that was for sure my last ATI my whole life(dont get me start talking about alt-tab with ATI), but if nvidia is not helping, than bye arma and bye computer...

[[frl]myke 14]

@RunForrest

Mate, i don't know what is wrong on your side but i doubt that the card is the cause. I tried to copy your ingame settings aswell as CCC settings and this is what it looks like on my side:

And this is a ATI card, same series as yours, so quality on same settings should be comparable, ignoring FPS for this purpose.

[Nephris1 10]

Yes plz, mark it red.

I still cant see the issue.

If u are talking about the texture or Lod washing, well this is not the grafic card.

think i may just buy a nvidia card a be done with the ati crap

Founded on this discussion, a wisely made decision....:p

[ironhulk 10]

could this be a ssd issue 9just thinking aload0

[HitmanFF 6]

RunForrest, try dropping back to Catalyst 10.4

I've got a 5970 with the exact same low texture issues (vram being detected wrong seems to be the cause) if I use any version newer than 10.4. version 10.4 runs fine with good texture quality.

[ironhulk 10]

i have tried 10.4 no diffrence for me i have 5870 2gb vapour x edition

[runforrest 10]

RunForrest, try dropping back to Catalyst 10.4

strange, we might have a winner here, but not as expected lol ^^

i installed 10.4 (newest version on the DVD that i bought with the card vs 10.5 btw)

same settings as first post, same test on utes

34FPS!!! thats +10!!!

as i already wrote, no driver change had ever an impact on my frames, but this one is it!!

the really low detail model/tex trees remain while first short test on zargabad and elektrozadovdsk

Hitman if u ever come to Germany i owe u at least "n Kastn" (some beers :D)

i must see how further playing develops... but an increase of performance of 30% looks promising

@Myke i can make screenshots like that, but its just a moment and luck, when i make screens on takistan near to a town, they look more proabably like those, that i posted

@Nephris can u see branches or leaves on the screenshot? can u see details? look at Mykes shot and compare! and use the zoomed image not the small one! u can clearly see that the trees and bushes on my screens are just plain simpelst models with very blurry textures. u cant overlook it :)

heres a nice screenshot from Lingor with ingame gameplay settings, nothing changed, i just added the black bars and our squad logo, VD=ca1000, objectdetails=normal, landscape=normal, rest high or very high, FPS around 30

http://img412.imageshack.us/i/a2oalingornacht02wallpa.jpg/

[EDcase 87]

Anyone tried Catalyst 10.12?

[kklownboy 43]

If you use pre 10.8 ATi drivers for OA/CO, you will have to rename the arma2oa.exe , to arma2.exe for CF.

The 10.8 drivers have the OA/CO profile.Arma2 profile has been in since 9.10~

---------- Post added at 10:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

Anyone tried Catalyst 10.12?

yeah, and right now I'am on the 10.11s, seem to get a polyspike here and there with the 10.11s.

The 10.12a's seemed good enough for my 4870x2s, but i have read for the 58xx cards 10.5 to 10.8... have better frames..? And if you get really bad frame drops check your sound stuff.

Simple test is to stop the "audiodg.exe" process in TaskManager. you will loose all sound, but it just a test.

[EDcase 87]

I'm on 10.11 too (5870) and I'm quite happy. No big problems.

Its just that when new drivers come out there is that slim posibility that it will be improved.