Big Performance Issues on a Good PC

[auroraah 0]

Hi everyone,

I'm having some really bad performance issues while trying to play DayZ, I'm getting extremely low FPS, and I know that I shouldn't be. In rural areas I get a maximum of 30-40 FPS, and in cities it ranges between 15-30 FPS.

Here are my PC specs:

AMD FX-6100 6 Core Processor, 4GHz

8GB Corsair 1333MHz RAM

AMD 7950 3GB Graphics Card

(C:) 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD (Just used for the operating system)

(D:) 500GB WD HDD (Used for all my software)

(F:) 1TB Seagate HDD (Used for all my games and DxTory/Fraps recordings)

My DayZ folder is kept under the file path "F:\Steam Games\SteamApps\common\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead\@dayz". (F: drive being the 1 TB Seagate HDD). This folder is also set up using ultimatedefrag to be a high performance folder, which was set up very recently, and was rechecked last night, and the hard drive is being read from as quick as it possibly can.

My main issue I have is that no matter what graphics quality I set my game at, for some reason the FPS will never change from the limits I mentioned earlier.

Anybody got any bright ideas for me to try?

[Guest]

Hi there,

Arma 2 is a bad game. Bad in a sense that it is highly intensive on your CPU/GPU. I know some people who have god machines and get the same FPS, whilst some people with lower quality builds will get slightly more. This is the simplest way to put it.

Zombies in Dayz mod atm have around 200-300 polygons

In the standalone they will have between 75-150.

As you can see the second number is smaller. Bear that in mind and you'll be ok in the standalone :).

[trichome (DayZ) 198]

First why would you install games to a slow 1tb drive???

Arma2 is CPU and IO intensive you need a solid CPU personally I'd go with intel as money is not an option for me, and a fast hd. You'd be far better of with arma running on a velociraptor at the very least obviously having it on an SSD is optimum. if you've the space on the SSD I'd move Arma to it which you can do through steam.

[Mos1ey 6301]

The main problem is your CPU.

1) ARMA doesn't like AMD CPUs.

2) That's a tri-core with 2 logical cores per physical, games only really benefit from physical cores.

You would see a performance increase if you installed ARMA 2, ARMA 2:OA and DayZ mod to the SSD though, hard-drive speed is quite important.

Also, make sure post-process effects and anti-aliasing are completely disabled, they eat a lot of FPS.

[Target Practice (DayZ) 1335]

Yeah, as mZLY said, your CPU was the one that jumped out at me as a potential issue here - ARMA II (and in particular DayZ) is very, very CPU-hungry - far more so than many other games. The HDD option may help, although I should add that I'm playing on a 1TB HDD (WD Black), and don't have any major problems, so it might not be a miraculous fix.

Either way, hopefully the standalone will be much better optimised - your existing system will likely run it just fine. :)

[auroraah 0]

First why would you install games to a slow 1tb drive???

Arma2 is CPU and IO intensive you need a solid CPU personally I'd go with intel as money is not an option for me, and a fast hd. You'd be far better of with arma running on a velociraptor at the very least obviously having it on an SSD is optimum. if you've the space on the SSD I'd move Arma to it which you can do through steam.

I moved my whole Arma 2 to my SSD, the performance has hardly changed, maybe 2 or 3 FPS more.

[ZlobaRUS54 441]

Do you get low fps on all servers? How many fps do you get in Arma2 missions and in Editor?

[auroraah 0]

Do you get low fps on all servers? How many fps do you get in Arma2 missions and in Editor?

That's the strange part about it all.

- In Arma 2 missions I have to limit my FPS to avoid damage to my graphics card, so that hits a solid 60.

- I get this same issue in all DayZ servers, as well as testing the DaiZy Single Player to see if that would be any different, it wasn't. Still struggling for FPS.

- Interestingly though, a friend of mine just told me about DayZ Breaking Point, it sounded like fun, so I decided I would give it a go. I've downloaded that, and on the same map (Chernarus) I'm having the same issue I get in the Arma 2 missions, my FPS is too high. It's peaking at around 500-1000 FPS if I'm at the coast looking out to sea, with all the settings turned up to maximum. I haven't managed to get to a city yet, so I'll have to get back to you there, but the coil whine caused by the extremely high frame rate wasn't tolerable, nor was it doing any good for my PC.

One thing I have changed is that earlier I had my processor running at 3.3GHz, not 4GHz which I thought, due to the time my heating was stuck on, and the average room temperature in my house was 30-40 degrees, meaning I was struggling to keep my PC cooled at all, never mind with an overclock.

Even so, after overclocking up to 4GHz, everything else in Arma 2, Arma 2 OA and all my other expansion packs are working perfectly, including other versions of DayZ like Breaking Point, and DayZ Origins, but for some reason standard DayZ just won't work properly.

[auroraah 0]

The main problem is your CPU.

1) ARMA doesn't like AMD CPUs.

2) That's a tri-core with 2 logical cores per physical, games only really benefit from physical cores.

You would see a performance increase if you installed ARMA 2, ARMA 2:OA and DayZ mod to the SSD though, hard-drive speed is quite important.

Also, make sure post-process effects and anti-aliasing are completely disabled, they eat a lot of FPS.

Do you think I could benefit from upgrading to the FX-8350. I've been thinking about this upgrade for a while, knowing it will further future proof my PC, as well as improving my current gaming performance. I've seen people using quad core AMD processors who have way better performance than I do, which I think is down to them actually having 4 physical cores, rather than 3 physical with 2 logical per core.

But the FX-8350 has been recommended to me by many different people, and I'm seriously considering it, along with my current cooling system (Freezer A30), I have seen people achieve stable 5GHz overclocks using it as well.

[Mos1ey 6301]

From what I've seen the 8350 is just short of the i7 3770k, seems to be a really good CPU, although I would recommend overclocking.