http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=131300539Introduction
There will probably be a lot of guides by the time you read this addressing issues with Arma 3 Performance. The amount of people telling you to do this and that, and not be even able to explain what they do, or why you should do it. And worst of all, the people telling you to buy new hardware just to play single game that hasn't had time to be fully optimized or built yet.
Put aside the Arma 2 issues, and the whole "Arma 3 will have the same problem" thing, and it's simply a matter of just waiting. This alpha is nothing more then a Pre-order with a bonus of being able to participate in the Alpha/Beta stages. What people don't understand is that they expect us to report ALL issues to help create a better game. This is not a full release, and it states in the menu that there are functions that are not yet implemented.
If you haven't figured it out already, The game is CPU Intensive. We get it. At the release of this guide, we're currently at Alpha stage. What this guide is for is to inform you of details and to help you figure out whether or not you feel it's time YOU should upgrade, and to give you more information on why you should be a smart player, and go at it in a careful approach.
I'm going to say right now,
THIS INFORMATION ISN'T ABOUT OPTIMIZING YOUR SETTINGS TO PLAY, IT IS ABOUT LEARNING WHY THE GAME RUNS BAD, AS IT APPLIES TO OTHER GAMES, AND SIMPLE THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND THE AVERAGE USER DOES NOT USUALLY REALIZE.
There are some simple tips and tweaks to help improve your overall gaming performance, that are specifically for Arma 3, But does apply generally to all games as a whole.
Understanding the current engine, and our Cores.
Right now, we're currently seeing a lot of posts and complains about :
WHY DOES MY GAME RUN SLOW
THIS IS STUPID, I HAVE AN "X" AND THE GAME RUNS LIKE CRAP
HAH YOU PAID FOR AN ALPHA, YOU ARE STUPID
ARMA 3 IS A PIECE OF UNOPTIMIZED CRAP
Here is a picture, detailing some information about Arma 3's current CPU usage performance. As we all know, the GAME IS AN ALPHA STAGE. Meaning that not all of the game's basic functions (In-game or engine wise) is fully implemented.
As of right now, the game can only really make use of 1 actual core. Hyperthreading may or may not yield results.
(I personally do not want to say much because I do not have HT enabled on my processor. And while I can guess from people's posts. I would rather people comment below with their results.)
The other 3 cores are used in the background for other processors or minor services or PhysX if you have an Nvidia brand GPU installed and currently have PhysX to work via CPU rather GPU.
(Graphics Settings on Preset : Ultra with x8 AA)
I'm currently using the exact same CPU model as the "Recommended" model. The AMD Phenom II x4 940. (AM2+ Chipset). Despite what people say about buying a fancy 8-core PC, or an i7. I don't approve of telling people to buy expensive parts for their PC and not understand what benefit it may bring to them. Especially if it does nothing because the engine simply is not optimized or fully developed. The last thing we need are morons complaining about wasting their money.
I currently average out 30-50 frames while in Single Player (With Graphic Preset : Medium). With multiplayer taking hits down into the lower 20's and up to the higher 30's.
There is a giant performance difference between SP/MP because AI Calculations and other things are handled server side. Meaning that the server host must have a good machine, otherwise everyone suffers.
Why does it lag on multiplayer?
Calculations and raw processing power. Depending on the performance of the system that runs the server means that there's less calculation time for the players. Because we don't calculate any equations that make the game's functions run, we simply send and receive data as we play. When the host machine cannot compute the game's functions fast enough, the server suffers as a whole with lag and/or instability. This is one reason why popular multiplayer games require expensive servers because the hardware used to run these servers cost lots of money to calculate information for 10-100 players at a time, along with the game's basic functions.
CPU over GPU Utilization
As we all know, the biggest complain is the issue of CPU performance ranging back to early Arma 1 days.
This is a known problem with the Arma series as a whole. Sure there may be quick fixes, alternative temp fixes as well as official patch releases that may relieve us of some issues, but the end result is still the same.
We end up with an engine that may or may not work for everyone, and tends to be bugged in the sense that it cannot use all 4 wheels to drive forward. (In this case, what I meant to say was cores.)
By observing the use of your CPU and GPU through the use of specialized programs such as
GPU-Z
Evga Precision / MSI Afterburner
HWMonitor
Resource Manager / Task Manager
We can get an idea of what parts of our computer is currently crunching information left and right.
In this picture, I'm using the program "Powertech GPU-Z" to monitor the usage of my Graphics Card. When the GPU is in use, the top title of the program will adjust with the current percentage rate of usage that your graphics card is undergoing. By switching tabs, to "Sensors" we can look at hard data relating to more information like your GPU's current Core, Memory and Shader clocks.
Not just that, but also the Memory Controller, GPU and Video Engine load. This is very important as it shows you the current amount of processing the GPU is handling. In other games that are optimized differently, GPU loads will often times rocket to near 90%'s while CPU usage is mildly at a rough 50%-70%. In Arma, GPU usage will tend to be low, while CPU usage rockets sky high.
And by using such utilities such as "Resource Monitor (Accessible through Start Menu, or Task Manager) can give you an idea of it's Thread/CPU usage in more detail.
This method also gives you an idea of what exactly is bottlenecking your system when playing specific games. Please note that some games may be designed with specific requirements in mind, such as Arma being a completely CPU taxing game.
Tips for improving CPU usage
Despite what issues you may have with your CPU, or even the game as a whole. Here's a few simple steps with two heavily suggested tweaks that may increase your game speed from as far as 5% or more. (Yes, it's not exactly a lot. But every little bit helps.)
Please note these are completely 100% free tweaks, that make use of your current hardware and existing free software online.
Monitoring CPU Temperatures : Watching your CPU temperatures may be crucial to your computer's overall health, as well as performance in Arma 2. As you perform every day tasks, your CPU will process data, which will cause the CPU to slowly or in some cases rapidly rise in heat. Much like anyone who does physical tasks in real life, will begin to feel hot and eventually sweat.
Defragmenting your HDD (Hard Drive) : This is a very important factor, as previous Arma games have proven that read speeds on your hard drive may improve the performance of the game as a whole due to the huge amounts of files being read in sequence. Using specific programs with utilities that write files to the outer layer of your HDD platters may improve performance even more as data reads faster at the outer edges of the platter.
Beta GPU Drivers : Amazingly, some issues may occur with GPU drivers not being able to correctly use the card's full potential in a game that was released AFTER the current version of drivers available. Beta drivers offered by AMD/ATI and Nvidia may offer optimal performance for specific games. (Beware this may render some games buggy and/or unplayable)
Overclocking your CPU (Advanced Users Only): By making use of your computer's unique BIOS menu, you can go through the process of overclocking your CPU to higher clock speeds. This allows you to input more power and crank out additional performance of your CPU.
Enabling PhysX for GPU (Nvidia Only, I don't know the AMD Equiv) : It's obvious at this point in the guide that Arma 3 is CPU intensive. Luckily, if you happen to be an Nvidia GPU user with a PhysX enabled card, you may be able to help free up some CPU usage.
PhysX is a real-time physics processing method that was produced for the Nvidia line of cards. By default your control panel may have this option set to "Auto-Select" which will automatically default to CPU in most cases. By doing this, you are letting your GPU Control real time physics which (Considering Arma 3 now uses Physx) may help lighten the load on your CPU processing. Which might I add is very important.
Conclusion
Arma 3 is in Alpha as of the date of this guide creation. (March 3rd, 2013). Sure the engine may be fixed. Or it might not. (Much like Arma 2 OA)
Point being, I don't like to hold on to the idea that they might never fix it. Considering it's not due for even a full release until MILES down the road. (Or Kilometers for those of you who prefer it in that measurement.)
Take these tips and information with a grain of salt. Yeah, It may not be the most accurate information. But damn if I'm going to let a bunch of morons spread false information and talk a bunch of other morons into buying expensive hardware they don't even need for a single game.
