Actual DAYZ Working performance tips...

[constantinepc 1]

Hey community, I'm here writing this today because there are allot of very misleading, and hopeless posts of Ramdisking, INI.Tweaks, odd settings and such floating around, and it's my desire to really clear the air for you and help you really understand what is causing performance drops with the Arma 2 OA engine. Yes some of you will know these things already, and for that I say congratulations on being perceptive, but this guide is for those whom may not understand, so please keep your nay-saying to yourself, and add anything you find is truly helpful as well for people to read

Step 1: Determine your Drop Cause: Depending on your PC, your drops could be CPU related, or GPU related, with the listed software, you can directly see what is causing the drops, either the CPU, or GPU, or possibly both. So, download EVGA Precision X, along with EVGA Precision X there is a software program in it called Rivatuner On screen display, it displays your FPS and GPU temps on your screen in 3D applications to give indication of frame-rate and GPU temp, this is what we need, but currently it only shows two GPU related stats, so to increase what it displays, we should get Hardware Info http://www.hwinfo.com/, along with monitoring all aspects of your pc, HWinfo also has a handy set of sensors which can display anything from CPU Usage to GPU core load, which are the two things we want on our screen in game, so after you have downloaded HWinfo, and EVGA Precision X(A simple google search should yeild the program). you want to install both, first time run EVGA precision, then run HWinfo and go into the Sensors sub-section on the top of the main screen(Not the smaller one displaying CPU info) after entering the sensor sub-section, click on "Configure". In here there will be a list of possible on screen displays that are compatible with rivatuner, to activate the ones we need (AKA: CPU usage and GPU Core load) we need to simply click the wanted icon and go to the Rivatuner OSD subsection directly under the white selection part, and select "Available and Label". Now close out of configure and click minimize all, this will keep the sensors running instead of closing the program. Now test a 3d aplication(ARMA) and see if the wanted sensors are now displaying.

Step 2: Find your problem, wether it is CPU or GPU related, you will be able to tell by the usage In the CPU monitor, bad usage is roughly 62%+ (this indicates the two cores arma 2 oa fully utilizes are fully taxed) and for a GPU bottleneck, its much simpler, simply monitor it and if it hits 99% usage at any point, your FPS will start to drop to lower core usage to a stable level(thus how FPS may drop in combat more then walking around) Point being, 99% GPU core load is the bad here and you want to keep under it.

Step 3: Now that you've found your problem here are some fixes that definetly will work, and i'll also give closure on what INI tweaks work, wether they are worth it or not, etc. So to start, a Breif description on what the ingame settings effect in terms of CPU or GPU.

View distance: GPU with slight CPU (to explain, ARMA has everything going on in the map always calculated on the CPU, but view distance directly changes at which point(when you are traveling) will the CPU tell your GPU to start to render the 3d display AKA the game, so lowering this will indeed lower your CPU usage from a small margin, I recommend a personal level of 1200, its not too short, its not too far, but remember increasing it will not effect your game as much as people hype up.

Texture level: This is a direct hit on GPU with Heavy hits on CPU at LOW or NORMAL levels(as arma apparently wants to render content with the CPU) and a very minimal CPU hit on very high, i recommend High or very high, and not to budge off of it unless your GPU is the weaker component of your PC and your CPU is a sandy bridge i5/i7 at 4ghz....lol but seriously, HIGH or very high unless you want your CPU fake rendering content.

Video memory: Default and always default, i'm not quite sure why there are options to lower or raise it, maybe you want to do a stress test while playing arma or something and want to set some video memory aside for it because you want to set your pc on fire, IDK Arma developers, this is a weird thing.

Anistropic filtering: This has very very minimal CPU hits, and very minimal GPU hits, only lower it off of Very High if your GPU is still 99% usage, this really isnt the most important of settings...

Anti-Aliasing: I'm uncertain of how, but this is quite the bit CPU hit, and also, Quite a bit GPU hit, but actually seems to hit the cpu harder? anyways keep this off, or keep this HIGH and up, Do not ever use normal or low, these seem to hit CPU even harder somehow and yeild way worse visuals.

ATOC: If your going to use ATOC always keep this All trees and plants, dont bother putting it to something else, or it kind of defeats the purpose, this is a looks over performance setting, and is Virtually only a GPU hit, most modern cards can handle this just fine, so only ever turn it off if your not using anti aliasing.

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Terrain Detail: This is a direct CPU hit with minimal GPU hit, keep this to your preferrence, with low being the lowest setting as most servers will use low and restrict very low due to possible cheating (AKA no grass for you but grass for them, kind of renders a gillie suit useless lol)

Object Detail: The biggest(or possibly tied with AA) hit to your CPU usage in the entire game, keep this LOW or VERY LOW, if you venture into the normal to very high reigon, you better have a fast sandy bridge or be locked at 30fps..

Shadow Quality: keep this HIGH or very HIGH, normal is rendered by CPU so is a CPU HIT, but high and very high are GPU ONLY with minimal CPU so logically speaking, keep this high or V high or off for performance.

HDR: Rumored to change the bit of the HDR, i see this as a useless setting, and always leave it normal, leave it normal or somehow it will hit your GPU like a truck.

Post processing: First off i recommend okt_NoBlur(armaholic it) it seems to work with Dayz and is a must for any bloom or occlusion fan, basically speaking the mod lowers the blur effects and depth of feild overblurring and is a must, it doesnt really change GPU hit, but it changes visual heavily, so hit speaking. this is a direct GPU hit with minimal CPU at higher then normal, Low adds bloom, motion blur, normal adds small occlusion, ambient occlusion, Depth of feild, and high and V high increase these things to look better, keep it low at minimum, or keep it off if you really cant stand it, (a pro-tip is to increase brightness when using low, it will replicate unreal engine like lighting on the HDR and changes arma lighting in general)

Vsync: I recommend off unless your a fan of imput lag, i personally use Rivatuner Frame rate limiter for arma to keep it smooth, me personally i dont like being 60 outside of cherno and then 45 in cherno, so i keep it 45 and adjust to squeeze out best visuals at that frame-rate, to enable this, click the wrench icon in Rivatuner, in the bottom of the configure screen you should see fps limiter, pick and enjoy your Imput lag less frame rate.

Lastly 3D resolution: keep this native or higher to produce supersampling, this is a huge GPU hit when mixed with post processing (PP must blur more pixels) do not lower this, it doesnt improve performance and if you have to, sorry my friend your pc cannot handle arma 2

lastly ini tweaks, i personally dont recommend doing any of these, nor do i condone changing nividia settings(ATI too) to anything other then stock, but the only justifyable tweak is the GPU Max frames ahead to 1 tweak, as i see this MAY lower GPU usuage, but ive never tested it, honestly if you need to ini tweak, your PC is unfortunatley too weak.

FXAA SMAA: I personally use FXXA high sharp filter, to improve clarity with very high post processing, it acts as more anistropic filtering when coupled with very high AA, i dont recommend it as a standalone setting, i recommend FXXA high, as low seems to hit the same, all these changes are purely GPU related, and should only be turned off when in dire need of GPU usage freeing.

post processing off

My recomended settings, based on Hardware:

Dual core, low end video card, 2g ram :

View distance 500

Texture quality high

video memory default

Anistropic filtering: off

Anti aliasing and ATOC Off

terrain detail low

object detail lowest

shadows off

HDR normal

FXAA SMAA: high FXXA or off

NATIVE RESOLUTION

Lock it at 30 in rivatuner, yes you will get drops at 30, you will have to suffer it

For anyone with a higher rig, I have absolute faith you can use the information I have provided to tweak your game to your desired settings and performance, anyone with any other tips, please feel free to post, for your information, I've tested all these aspects of the game by means of hardware monitoring, and for personal referrence my rig is:

AMD FX-4100 at 4.6

GTX 570 stock

4GB ram

7200rpm HDD defragged under 5 always

heats in line and all, i play everything very high other then terrain detail which is normal, and object detail which is low I've locked it at 45fps steady, i do not drop in cherno past my lock, and fyi i locked in rivatuner....

Anyone with similar specs saying they get 60 everywhere is flat out lying, in order to get 60 in arma in cherno and all you need a sandy bridge i5/i7 at atleast 5ghz, i've seen a sandybridge with sdd, 660ti and all play this on medium settings at 4ghz and drop to 50 in cherno, so no, unless you have a sandy bridge, you are not getting 60's bro

And for anyone saying To ram disk, never do that

and for anyone saying SDD inproves performance vastly, i've tested and no, it does not, it adds a few frames due to less cpu usage, but in reality it just allows for faster startup in arma and less ghosting, your forgetting this isnt a modern game, it was made on 7200rpms when that was ultra end, and will perform just fine on one, dont let elitists fool you guys,

So that concludes this, and yes these tips work, i got tired of people giving misleading information, so i though to share my own. Hopefully this helps someone, or helps someone decide on upgrading that CPU of theirs, as you can see, arma 2 hits the cpu like a bolder, so I personally recommend a sandy bridge as a viable upgrade for anyone part hunting.

Good luck with your tweaks guys.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Constantine10

[pvtjace 37]

Iv always wondered why I can better fps using higher settings in this game. So akward for trying to create a good balance.