Arma 3
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Arma 3 Alpha Performance Issues + Fixes & Drivers
By Cheetohsum
Ideas to fix performance issues in Arma 3 Alpha
   
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NOTICE
This guide is meant almost exclusively for current performance issues in Multiplayer
Main content
You've likely noticed a lot of performance issues in Arma 3 right now if you dont have either:
A. A high end GPU
OR More importantly...
B. A high end CPU

A high end GPU can help with running Arma 3, I'd say the lowest you should go for if you want decent fps is a 7850/650Ti.
A medium-high end CPU is where it's at if you want to get Arma 3 up and running at high fps, regardless of your graphical settings, I'd say if you want to run this game @ Max settings you're going to need a 8350/i5 3570k

Tweaks to help you get where you want:
If you have anything above a 660Ti you should notice that increasing your Graphics settings has little to no effect on the FPS you're getting, Either you go out and you get a new CPU that fits into your current motherboard's socket (AMD: FM2, AM3, or AM3+ Is the most likely case, Intel: socket 1155, or less likely 2011) But right now I cant get a better CPU, and if you're reading this you likely cant either.

1. Depending on your current GPU adjust the graphics settings accordingly, You will get better FPS when you increase the settings to a higher level, try messing around with the Terrain and Texture qualities until you get the best fps in game.
2. Reduce your Resolution, or if you dont want to do that, Reduce the Resolution that it's Rendered at, it is standardly set to whatever your screen resolution is, but you can reduce it down to increase performance.
3. (The most effective) Reduce your Overall Draw Distance, View Distance, Object Distance, Shadow Distance, whatever, reduce it down to ~600, this will increase your performance by a decent margin.
4. Reduce all settings to lowest (This one doesnt do much for me, in fact it actually harms my performance.)

Arma 2/3 Is an extremely CPU reliant game, it uses your CPU to render almost everything that is happening in your game, the GPU is relied on very little, no matter how beautiful it looks @ Ultra, You can expect Performance to be optomized the farther we get into the Alpha, and hopefully will run fantastically upon it's full release (much like Crysis 3 or Planetside 2 was during Beta.)
Notes
Arma 3 Will likely be optimized as soon as your Graphics Cards Drivers are updated, and as soon as Bohemia removes the massive performance lags you get from being around Vehicles/NPCs/Units, You should not be receiving a massive amount of lag while playing single player, although that still needs to be heavily optimized, the most issues come into play when you start to play Multiplayer.

MOST LAG OCCURS WHILE PLAYING MULTIPLAYER, THIS GUIDE IS MOSTLY FOR PLAYING MULTIPLAYER WITH DECENT FPS.

Please, if you're going to ask a question about your hardware, for god sake's include your specifications.
Driver Downloads (May help performance)
Nvidia cards (ex: 560Ti, 680): http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
GeForce Experience (Automatically checks for driver updates, optimizes game performance): http://www.geforce.com/drivers/geforce-experience

AMD cards (ex: 6670, 7970): http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Razer Game Booster(Might help with performance slightly, also tweaks a few windows settings to make closing things faster): http://www.razerzone.com/gamebooster
88 Comments
Mrmeeps360 Jul 17, 2017 @ 4:55pm 
Hello i have a quite decent PC but i still cant run it i did this, CanIRunIt.com it says i can run it at recommened settings
Humanhead Jul 29, 2013 @ 12:57pm 
reducing the resolutions is like the worst idea ever. if i would want that, i would go play voxel based pixel games :P
Redcap Jun 6, 2013 @ 4:34pm 
-high:
makes your operating system prioritize services and processes to run your game better but this can cause system failure and instability if you dont have a good running system. If you Overclock this can cause system instability.
-noSplash:
disables startup videos and advertisements.
-cpuCount=#:
enables extra CPU cores and Hyperthreads.
-maxMem=#:
when set to "6144" (6GB) and up lets your game use more system Ram then 4GB.
Do not set to higher than 4GB if you dont have at least 8GB. You can set to "8192" (8GB) if you have 12GB+ Ram.
Redcap Jun 6, 2013 @ 4:34pm 
Intel CPU:
For Hyperthreaded CPU's such as a Quad Core you will apply this:
-cpuCount=8
This will enable your Hyperthreads on your CPU so your CPU will act as an eight core when running Arma 3.
If you are running a Hyperthreaded Six Core then:
-cpuCount=12
If you are running a Hyperthreaded Eight Core or Eight Core Xeon then apply this:
-cpuCount=16
If you are running just a non Hyperthreaded CPU such as a Quad Core then select "4" instead of "8" same for a Dual Core you will select "2" instead of "4".
All AMD CPU's are NOT Hyperthreaded so Hyperthreaded options is highly not recommended as this can cause system failure or damage.
I will not be responible for system failure and damage if you choose to select more cores then you have on your command line!
Redcap Jun 6, 2013 @ 4:32pm 
Arma 3 CPU Optimization Arma 3 CPU Optimization

http://www.battleguns.net/forum/m/7737561/viewthread/6153624-arma-3-cpu-optimization-fix

1. Go to Steam Library
2. Go to "Arma 3" Right Click then select "Properties"
3. Select "Set Launch Options"
4. Copy and paste the correct launch command line below to what your system is setup for and click "OK".

For AMD CPU users:
AMD Dual Core with 4GB System Ram:
"-noSplash -cpuCount=2 -high"
AMD Quad Core with 4GB Ram:
"-noSplash -cpuCount=4 -high"
AMD Six Core with 4GB Ram:
"-noSplash -cpuCount=6 -high"
AMD Eight Core with 4GB Ram:
"-noSplash -cpuCount=8 -high"
______________________________________________
If your running more than 8GB Ram then apply this to the end of the launch line:
"-maxMem=8192"
This will allow your game to utilize 8GB system Ram instead of 4GB.
______________________________________________
Wipeout May 13, 2013 @ 4:32pm 
Did you people try the fancycache software.
To me it did some improvement to game, it didn´t gave fps but the game got a lot more fluid, less lag.
Maybe could help some people.
Important info, must have at least 6 gb, i recomend 8 GB.
Wipeout May 6, 2013 @ 2:43pm 
Yes, i understand that.
I´m saying that (on system settings) play with low or ultra settings there for overloading cpu or gpu i get always the same fps maybe a diference of 5 fps+/- and lags on the same places airfield ou high density forest and if i do autodetect i get better gfx and more fps, and the autodetection set the game on very high settings.
Cheetohsum  [author] May 6, 2013 @ 10:21am 
@Wipeout changing the graphics settings has to do wiht the distribution of the workload between your CPU and GPU.
Wipeout May 6, 2013 @ 9:59am 
Hello to all.
I answer to white said, i do not believe that arma 3 only uses 1-2 cores because i have a 8 core cpu and i overclocked to 5 ghz and i got the same fps when i only got 3 ghz speed,
The only thing i notice was when i turned off 4 cores (4 active cores) the game got slower, so if i turn off to 6 cores using only 2 cores i do not belive the game will get the same fps when i was using 8 cores.
To me arma 3 was a improvement comparing to arma 2 cause i get fps , weird.
Still theres something wrong with this game, no matter what i do on gfx options, lowest gfx or ultra gfx the difference is not significant ( around 5 fps), i understand the game is not final burt still it´s weird.
Regards to all.
Gripen Apr 3, 2013 @ 2:26am 
yea i now and i have good grafik card as well that help (gtx590) but befor i did use the unpark program i hade small lag then looking at the ground and moving forward now that is gone as well ,, i have all settings to high did try ulttra but cant see any better grafik and just use the high settings.. But i can i understand older or med-lower end computers can have hard time run this game it seams realy demanding to have good computer