Highest Settings, better graphics card?

[SLAWTERX 1]

Alright well, I upgraded my computer to play Day Z and for 3D design and such but I want to play Day Z on the max settings and so I was wondering what kind of graphics card would be best for that? Even high settings would do I guess. I'm planning on playing while recording and then editing the videos and such and I want good quality for the viewers of the videos. I was wondering if anyone knew of some good graphics cards to play Day Z on high or highest settings. My setup right now is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121506 for my motherboard, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116506 for my processor as I heard Ivy-Bridge is good for gaming, and 16 gigs of RAM. I do not have a graphics card as of now so that's why I'm in need of a better one since I'm only playing off of my motherboards integrated graphics.

[Sidekicknicholas 7]

My 6850 (fairly cheap card) plays it smooth as silk on highest settings .... anytime I see a drop in FPS it is usually followed by a, "SERVER RESTART IN 5 MINUTES - SAVE PROGRESS" .... so it isn't on my system but the server I'm on.

[Daddy'o (DayZ) 146]

I can dual box DayZ with 40 fps running everything on high and I'm using a 3 year old HD5850 1 gig.

Also the recording quality isn't influenced by the oomph of your graphics card but your processor and in addition for better quality you need a good amount of HD space. Runnin fraps at steady 30 fps capturing full screen size ends up with about 3 gigs per minute of video. Fraps usually eats ALOT of processing power, even with an i7 870 I drop from steady 45 fps to 20 fps when running fraps, so instead of having a hugely powerful graphics card (tha arma 2 doesn't really need to run everything on highest) you should focus on a powerful CPU and fast SSD hard drive. SSD will help a lot with your fps because arma 2 is very client side heavy and the faster it can access data the faster your game will process if paired with a powerful CPU.

Rendering is what takes most time in video editing, and rendering is done by the processor, not the graphics card, so having a powerful processor will speed that up as well.

Also, don't bother with 16 gigs of RAM. Just don't. Most applications in the entire width of the software world don't even make use of 8. So 16 is just waisting a good 8-12 gigs of RAM and money.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Daddy'o

[ADub 1]

I bought the ATI RADEON HD 7770 for $110.00 at Canada Computers. And it runs it on full everything. If you're looking for smoothness and anti-aliasian get a NVidia. If you want more like flashy good looking games that might not be as smooth, but probably look nice, ide suggest ATI. Thats general and might recieve some hate but I've had both and thats what i found. ATI doesnt do anti-aliasing well but the game looks NICE!

Edited July 23, 2012 by ADub

[The Poacher 31]

Even my Laptops 3-4 year old Radeon 4670 runs this game just fine on near-max graphics (no anti-aliasing).

[SLAWTERX 1]

All wonderful and helpful answers, I thank you all gratuitously. I don't need it to be flashy I just need it to run well and look nice for the videos, which are also a tad bit of the problem seeing as I'm quickly running out of HDD space because of some of the ones I've already recorded.

[arielwollinger 0]

Even my Laptops 3-4 year old Radeon 4670 runs this game just fine on near-max graphics (no anti-aliasing).

I have a 1.6 GHz i7 Alienware m15x with a Nvidia 260m. It has 8 gigs of Ram and runs Dayz like a cripple. I am using windows vista ( bleargh ). Any hints?

Ariel

[sagemred 85]

I wish people would post what resolutions they're playing at.

It's no good rushing into this thread saying "I max out DayZ with my ________ and get FPS OVER 9000" if you're playing at 600x480.

Judging by the components you've already listed, I assume you're going to be playing on at least 1920x1080...

I have a GTX 570 running everything very high except anti-aliasing (none) and post-process effects (none) and at 1080p I get 60 FPS out of towns / forests but it drops as low as 30 inside towns / forests. I don't know why this is, and I don't know if getting a better GPU would benefit or not - it seems the game is just badly optimised or being bottlenecked by something that isn't my GPU or CPU...

Edited July 24, 2012 by nfsmwbefast

[nufcmickey 32]

Sapphire OC Dirt 3 Edition HD6870, Fairly cheap, dual fans for excellent cooling, quiete as a mouse and everything maxed on Dayz and pretty much any game you throw at it. Got mine for like £150 new from Amazon.

There ya go, But this is the Deux Ex OC Edition and is a little bit cheaper, you wont find a better card for that price

http://www.amazon.co...43165520&sr=8-2

Oh and I play on 1920x1080

I dont know what the guy above going on about, A GTX570 should very easily max everything in Dayz, and the post process thingy, that setting is no good anyway as it puts a horrible blur on the graphics, turn that off and everything is crisp, and I have max AA too. Never drops below 60fps.

In fact I think this game is more CPU dependant more than a gfx card, I could be wrong I dont know.

Edited July 24, 2012 by nufcmickey

[Itchy (DayZ) 59]

First you need ram and alot if your recording and playing at the same time. 8GB+

Second I would go for sandy 2500k overclocks to hell with good cooling. 4.5ghz No problem!!

Third go for the fastest card you can afford with the most ram. Very important if you live recording memory must be least 256bit+ min.

Forth some serious hard drive space pref SSD as it will make everything smoother! Play game off SSD record to 1TB HD.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Itchy

[Vexus 25]

I have a 1.6 GHz i7 Alienware m15x with a Nvidia 260m. It has 8 gigs of Ram and runs Dayz like a cripple. I am using windows vista ( bleargh ). Any hints?

Ariel

You know, I have the exact same laptop. It has massive frame lag even at the 1440x resolution. I had 6GB RAM, so no DDR function - I grabbed 8GB RAM to see if it helped. Only a tiny bit. I even went so far as to upgrade my desktop with a smoking video card and SSD - just to find out I was getting huge lag still with DayZ. My desktop I forgot only had 2GB RAM, causing the game to stutter a lot. Doh! So I put in 2GB more and it's smooth except in high polygon areas like big cities.

I did a little research just now since I guess I'm not alone on the laptop:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19308594/19605816.aspx

Looks like someone else has had similar issues. Of course, without spending my life trying to resolve the problem and not knowing much different, I didn't try different drivers, but it seems if we put some time into finding the right drivers we might get the performance we expect out of the laptop. I will try it tonight, just thought I'd share since I have the exact same thing going on.

[Mercator 30]

In fact I think this game is more CPU dependant more than a gfx card, I could be wrong I dont know.

You are right. The gfx card takes care of just that..the graphics. But everything else that is client side (which in Arma's case is a lot!) will have to be computed by your processor. The faster your CPU is, the smoother everything will run. That's why the guys that posted above with the 1.6 Ghz processor are having so much difficulties. Laptops are notoriously bad for playing Arma, it's a very demanding game for the CPU.

Also, don't be afraid of lowering the settings a bit, the game still looks pretty good on medium(ish) settings. I understand it can be a bit of a surprise/letdown for people that have their pc's running everything else on the highest settings...but this 3 year old game can still bring some of the newest top of the line rigs to it's knees. It's just the nature of the beast.

[LeastDionysus 11]

I got a ge force gtx 260 which is a couple years old, but I can run this on max smooth as butter, But the problem is that this game is very CPU heavy and not so much GPU heavy, I would reccommend getting a better card but I would also suggest looking around youtube for ways to increase your framerate.

[fap 9]

... Woah... this thread is full of .... wow...

Don't use FRAPS to record with, it is a lackluster program. DXtory has a billion more options and does not take as much CPU power, though for 1080p recordings you'll need a HDD that can write close to 150mb/s, or two that can get 80mb/s. DXtory can split up the recording onto several harddrives and balance the write speeds. If you don't have a HDD that can match the data output of your recordings, you'll have weird mouse issues in-game, like it freezing on you for 2-5 seconds.

And also, for DayZ... A 6850 ain't going to cut it. Well unless you're one of the people who think "smooth" gameplay is ~~35FPS. Personally I cannot live with less than 50.. And that's the minimum.

But if you're ok with a slight unresponsive mouse and sloppy frames, a 6850 will probably cut it for you.

Both my friends have 6850's and I5-2500k processors overclocked to 5GHz, their systems built by me, and they're getting less than 30 FPS at times at lowest settings except for Texture Details at Very High.

That's what happens when you skimp on the most important parts..

Also, this thread is full of misinformed people. Rendering is not limited to CPU power only, most rendering programs now at least have the option to use OpenCL which will more than double rendering speeds if you have a pretty recent GPU.

I use a 7950 though I expect a 7850 can do pretty well too, plus it overclocks like a beast.

CPU, not so important. Though I'd personally go for a I5-2500k at 5GHz again any day to replace my Phenom II x4 955 at 4GHz.

[Itchy (DayZ) 59]

Amature night with computers i see!!! :rolleyes:

1st. No one has asked what rez he is playing at? you know its a bit important because lower resolution is higher demand on cpu,

Higher resoultion more GPU demand.

2nd. A 1gb 6850 should be fine at 1680X1050 with arma 2

3rd If you going to use fraps you need 2 hard drives pref SSD and a shit load of ram, 16gb + min for smooth game play.

4th if playing at higher resolutions then graphics card ram is very important, 1-1.5gb perfect for 1680, 2gb + for 1920 and above.

Mine runs really smooth at 1680X1050 with a GTX 480 1.5gb, i5 2500k at 4.5ghz, 16gb ram.

Lower resoultion = Higher CPU usage

Higher resolution = Higher GPU usage.

Fraps = as much ram as you can and a really good 2nd hard drive. :D

Edited July 30, 2012 by Itchy

[fap 9]

Amature night with computers i see!!! :rolleyes:

1st. No one has asked what rez he is playing at? you know its a bit important because lower resolution is higher demand on cpu,

Higher resoultion more GPU demand.

2nd. A 1gb 6850 should be fine at 1680X1050 with arma 2

3rd If you going to use fraps you need 2 hard drives pref SSD and a shit load of ram, 16gb + min for smooth game play.

4th if playing at higher resolutions then graphics card ram is very important, 1-1.5gb perfect for 1680, 2gb + for 1920 and above.

Mine runs really smooth at 1680X1050 with a GTX 480 1.5gb, i5 2500k at 4.5ghz, 16gb ram.

Lower resoultion = Higher CPU usage

Higher resolution = Higher GPU usage.

Fraps = as much ram as you can and a really good 2nd hard drive. :D

First off, don't come here acting like you know anything without posting something you have sources for. (also, fyi, amature is spelled "amateur")

Second off, my DayZ uses up more than 2GB's of vram at 1920x1080 at fairly low settings because it prefers more vram, and it runs better that way, everytime I turn around my textures don't need to load, 'cos they're still in the memory (smooth 360's, yes please).

Third off, both my friends with 6850's (overclocked to hell, I might add) can barely run this game at 1680x1050 (one plays at 1920x1080) and yes it is true that it only uses around 990 mb's of vram, but only because it's limited to that amount..

Fourth off... Writing tons of gigabytes of data to an SSD will kill it very quickly, and only a true idiot would do something as stupid as that.

[Itchy (DayZ) 59]

First off, don't come here acting like you know anything without posting something you have sources for. (also, fyi, amature is spelled "amateur")

Second off, my DayZ uses up more than 2GB's of vram at 1920x1080 at fairly low settings because it prefers more vram, and it runs better that way, everytime I turn around my textures don't need to load, 'cos they're still in the memory (smooth 360's, yes please).

Third off, both my friends with 6850's (overclocked to hell, I might add) can barely run this game at 1680x1050 (one plays at 1920x1080) and yes it is true that it only uses around 990 mb's of vram, but only because it's limited to that amount..

Fourth off... Writing tons of gigabytes of data to an SSD will kill it very quickly, and only a true idiot would do something as stupid as that.

Steps up to his box.......

1st Amateur is

An amateur (French amateur "lover of", from Old French and ultimately from Latin amatorem nom. amator, "lover") is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training.

An Amature

One lacking the skill of a professional, as in an art.

Go figure!!! <_< I speak English not fucking French OK!!! You pedantic prick!!!

2nd You did not mention system ram, because as you should know, buffered video ram that is larger than video card memory is stored in main ram!!!

3rd No a 6850 should run Arma 2 on high at 1680x1050.

4th Proof, link, etc because if that was the case there would be thousands of returns on SSD`s.

So am calling bullshit and you dont have a fucking clue what you are talking about.

Writing tonnes of gigs to a SSD will kill it, were the fuck do these people come from!!! >:(

Last point if anyone trys using AA then that will kill most card unless you high end!!! Just saying! ;)

Edited July 30, 2012 by Itchy

[fap 9]

1st Amateur is

An amateur (French amateur "lover of", from Old French and ultimately from Latin amatorem nom. amator, "lover") is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training.

An Amature

One lacking the skill of a professional, as in an art.

You speak english? Riight.

The word amateur is normally used to mean: somebody who does something (e.g. a job) without being paid for it, or without having had training or education for it.The opposite of an amateur is a professional. A professional is someone who has had formal training for something. He (or she) will expect to be paid a professional fee for the job.The word “amateur” comes from a French word meaning: "lover of". An amateur is someone who does something (e.g. play the piano, football) because they enjoy doing it. They are not doing it in order to be paid. It is not how they earn money to live.People often forget the real meaning of the word “amateur”. It is often used to mean: someone who is not good at something. Someone’s performance might be described as “amateurish”, i.e. not very good. On the other hand, they might be described as having done a very “professional” job, i.e. a very good job.

But, I admit, you might be right on the SSD's, though that was true not long ago. I remember tomshardware doing a test of some kind where the result was if you recorded more than 300gb's of data per day (I record up to a terabyte) it would be dead in a month or so. Tried to find the source, but yeah... afraid that's not really true anymore, though I'd love to see some "counter proof".

And yes, I have proof that a 6850 will not run DayZ PROPERLY, which in MY OPINION and many others, is at least a steady 50 FPS, drops to 40 can be tolerated, but a steady 50 or above. I have a 6850 on my shelf because it did not perform well enough. Both of my friends use the same card and they say the same.

Second off... "buffered video ram that is larger than video card memory is stored in main ram" - Le, what. So literally you're saying you could pick out all the ram in a GPU and just rely on the system RAM.

Cool story bro.

Tell me more.

("16gb ram +" ... really... I don't believe you can say that, and then call /ME/ an "amature".. seriously, get a grip)

Edited July 30, 2012 by Fapguy

[Zcilo 0]

Sorry to bump this if this is an outdated thread, but to let some of you know that CPU is dependent in this game. I upgraded to an FX-6100 from a core2duo e7200, and I still use my GTS 250. With just the CPU upgrade I've gotten an enormous boost in FPS. Core2Duo- Cities: 7-15/Wild 16-30. With the FX-6100- Cities: 25-50/Wild: 51-90. Both with the GTS250, I'm upgrading to the 660ti or 680, but just for you all with low-end processors, I'd recommend upgrading for better frames.