Solved problem with getting low FPS on 200 series Nvidia Cards (Also solved bugs)

Duxa · 06-27-2009, 09:40 PM

EDIT - Sorry guys but after playing for a bit I realized that starting with mission 4 FPS goes down the gutter again, back to mid to low 20's. =(

Woohooo... 20+ hours spent on this.. finally got it working.. Im pretty confident this will work for anyone with 200 series card (perhaps other ones too).

In addition to trippling my FPS it also fixed the Bug where under Advanced Video options I couldnt select anything above Normal for Video Memory size (top 2 options on the left, textures and memory) now i can set them to very high.

This is for Vista 64 bit, not sure if it will work on other ones.

I have GTX 295 GTX (which is an SLI card with 2x GPUs) 2GB of vram.

Here are the steps:

1) Uninstall the current Nvidia driver and install 182.50 from April. You can find it on Nvidias site under archived drivers. its HAS TO BE that particular one. I have tried 7 other ones including the new Beta 190 without any results.

2) In steam right click on ARMA 2 under Installed Games and go to Properties and under Launch Options put "-winxp" without the quotes.

3) Go to START -> (and in the Start Search thing on the bottom) type msconfig. Then go to Boot tab and click Advanced Options. Top right check mark "Maximum Memory" and type in "3584" and click OK. Then Apply and OK.

4) If you have an X2 card or a 295 GTX or an SLI of any Nvidia card (doesnt have to be EVGA, mine isnt).. install the EVGA SLI Enchancer from here http://www.evga.com/articles/00463/ (you have to create an account to download)

5) Reboot

6) Start ARMA2 from Steam sidepannel thing (desktop shortcut might work too).

PS - I am also using the Beta steam version (not sure if it matters) but you can get it via going to View -> Settings -> Account tab (look at the bottom).

BOOM! I went from 20-30FPS to 58-60FPS.

Ofcourse the end user shouldnt have to go through this much trouble to get the game to run good. But this works for now... until BI patch the game.

My Full sped:
Intel Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz per core)
8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Nvidia 295GTX (dual GPU)
10k RPM Veloci Raptor HD
1680x1050 22inch DELL

Hope this helps everyone. Feel free to repost this if it works for you. Please give (Duxa) credit though if you do

Thanks!

Duxa · 06-27-2009, 10:02 PM

Just for reference after doing this:

Intro aircraft carrier - was 20-25fps now 55-60fps
Intro to the night mission on the chopper - was 10-15fps now 40-55fps
Out in the field/forest - was 20-30fps now 55-60fps

Crazy_Bob · 06-27-2009, 10:25 PM

Very nice writeup.

ersin50 · 06-27-2009, 11:23 PM

What about ATI cards ... same thing???

Awakening · 06-27-2009, 11:32 PM

I'm currently on a 9800gt Win7 64bit, even though it says Vista64 I'm going to give it a try and see if it does anything.

I was getting 18 fps average, but after my PC overheated once or twice I get 12 fps now on average, not sure if my hardware was damaged. I can't even OC (if it let me I would apply more cooling) for some reason, but then again my ram and gfx card are the only things that aren't factory defaults.

beugnen · 06-28-2009, 01:21 AM

dwarden posted some tips here which might have helped too

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=905086

good to see you got it going!

Duxa · 06-28-2009, 03:11 AM

and I knew this was too good to be true... i went from 20-30fps on intro and 15-30 fps on first couple missions up... but once i get to mission Razor Two it is again at 20-25fps... when driving, it goes down to 5-10fps. =(

Punisher!|ITA · 06-28-2009, 04:27 AM

This game is just overbugged. It is absurd we (community) are supposed to solve techical problems such as FPS drops \ memory leaks and so on.

Crazy_Bob · 06-28-2009, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punisher!|ITA

This game is just overbugged. It is absurd we (community) are supposed to solve techical problems such as FPS drops \ memory leaks and so on.

That goes without saying, but I'm still glad to see SOMEONE is getting workarounds out there. What gets me is that ARMA had the same goofy 'over 3.5gb RAM' issue; it's not like they didn't know to test for that one in ARMA2

R33ferMadness · 06-28-2009, 06:13 AM

Managed to get though the first 4 missions in the campaign at 20 to 35 FPS. Seems to be a lot going on in the 5th cuz all i can get in that mission is 10 to 20 FPS.

There is something about the game that doesn't work proper. Arma was the same way, I had to have the settings low to keep very high frames so when it did drop it was mid 20 range and hopefully not too noticeable.

Running 8800GT, 3gig ram, amd9500. Farcry 2 (30-35 FPS), FEAR 2 (60-70 FPS), Crysis (25-35 FPS). Arma 2 (10-60 FPS).

Arma 2 is the only game I've played so far on this rig that is unplayable due to frame drops-even at the low settings.

Dwarden · 06-28-2009, 06:14 AM

if you NVIDIA card owner read (performance tips) and post your experience here : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76908 and http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=907283

R33ferMadness · 06-28-2009, 11:35 AM

Man, I spent all weekend reading post about FPS, reinstalling drivers, multiple configs (ingame and config file)....nothing changes. Settings on high or low doesn't matter, same mid to low 20s FPS.

After reading posts from people that were happy to play with these frames, I tried my best to ignore the slow down and stops but it's too frustrating.

IMHO, 40 FPS is ideal for shooters. 30 is the min. Mid to low 20s= no fun. I'm done till new drivers or patches show up. Even then, I don't have hopes of ever having good frames in this game.

Punisher!|ITA · 06-28-2009, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R33ferMadness

Man, I spent all weekend reading post about FPS, reinstalling drivers, multiple configs (ingame and config file)....nothing changes. Settings on high or low doesn't matter, same mid to low 20s FPS.

After reading posts from people that were happy to play with these frames, I tried my best to ignore the slow down and stops but it's too frustrating.

IMHO, 40 FPS is ideal for shooters. 30 is the min. Mid to low 20s= no fun. I'm done till new drivers or patches show up. Even then, I don't have hopes of ever having good frames in this game.

Mate, I could have said exactely the same. (please post your hw conf.).

R33ferMadness · 06-28-2009, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punisher!|ITA

Mate, I could have said exactely the same. (please post your hw conf.).

8800GT, amd 9500, vista 32, 3gigs ram-(all stock-I'm not an enthusiast)

Not the greatest rig but this is the first time that a game has been unplayable for me on it.

Punisher!|ITA · 06-28-2009, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R33ferMadness

8800GT, amd 9500, vista 32, 3gigs ram-(all stock-I'm not an enthusiast)

Not the greatest rig but this is the first time that a game has been unplayable for me on it.

Thanks a lot mate.

06-27-2009, 09:40 PM	#1
Duxa Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 42	Solved problem with getting low FPS on 200 series Nvidia Cards (Also solved bugs) EDIT - Sorry guys but after playing for a bit I realized that starting with mission 4 FPS goes down the gutter again, back to mid to low 20's. =( Woohooo... 20+ hours spent on this.. finally got it working.. Im pretty confident this will work for anyone with 200 series card (perhaps other ones too). In addition to trippling my FPS it also fixed the Bug where under Advanced Video options I couldnt select anything above Normal for Video Memory size (top 2 options on the left, textures and memory) now i can set them to very high. This is for Vista 64 bit, not sure if it will work on other ones. I have GTX 295 GTX (which is an SLI card with 2x GPUs) 2GB of vram. Here are the steps: 1) Uninstall the current Nvidia driver and install 182.50 from April. You can find it on Nvidias site under archived drivers. its HAS TO BE that particular one. I have tried 7 other ones including the new Beta 190 without any results. 2) In steam right click on ARMA 2 under Installed Games and go to Properties and under Launch Options put "-winxp" without the quotes. 3) Go to START -> (and in the Start Search thing on the bottom) type msconfig. Then go to Boot tab and click Advanced Options. Top right check mark "Maximum Memory" and type in "3584" and click OK. Then Apply and OK. 4) If you have an X2 card or a 295 GTX or an SLI of any Nvidia card (doesnt have to be EVGA, mine isnt).. install the EVGA SLI Enchancer from here http://www.evga.com/articles/00463/ (you have to create an account to download) 5) Reboot 6) Start ARMA2 from Steam sidepannel thing (desktop shortcut might work too). PS - I am also using the Beta steam version (not sure if it matters) but you can get it via going to View -> Settings -> Account tab (look at the bottom). BOOM! I went from 20-30FPS to 58-60FPS. Ofcourse the end user shouldnt have to go through this much trouble to get the game to run good. But this works for now... until BI patch the game. My Full sped: Intel Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz per core) 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM Nvidia 295GTX (dual GPU) 10k RPM Veloci Raptor HD 1680x1050 22inch DELL Hope this helps everyone. Feel free to repost this if it works for you. Please give (Duxa) credit though if you do Thanks! Last edited by Duxa : 06-29-2009 at 11:08 AM.

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06-27-2009, 10:02 PM	#2
Duxa Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 42	Just for reference after doing this: Intro aircraft carrier - was 20-25fps now 55-60fps Intro to the night mission on the chopper - was 10-15fps now 40-55fps Out in the field/forest - was 20-30fps now 55-60fps

06-27-2009, 10:25 PM	#3
Crazy_Bob Join Date: Oct 2008 Reputation: 2 Posts: 13	Very nice writeup.

06-27-2009, 11:23 PM	#4
ersin50 Join Date: Mar 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 8	What about ATI cards ... same thing???

06-27-2009, 11:32 PM	#5
Awakening Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 1 Posts: 105	I'm currently on a 9800gt Win7 64bit, even though it says Vista64 I'm going to give it a try and see if it does anything. I was getting 18 fps average, but after my PC overheated once or twice I get 12 fps now on average, not sure if my hardware was damaged. I can't even OC (if it let me I would apply more cooling) for some reason, but then again my ram and gfx card are the only things that aren't factory defaults.

06-28-2009, 01:21 AM	#6
beugnen Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 2 Posts: 178	dwarden posted some tips here which might have helped too http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=905086 good to see you got it going!

06-28-2009, 03:11 AM	#7
Duxa Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 42	and I knew this was too good to be true... i went from 20-30fps on intro and 15-30 fps on first couple missions up... but once i get to mission Razor Two it is again at 20-25fps... when driving, it goes down to 5-10fps. =(

06-28-2009, 04:27 AM	#8
Punisher!\|ITA Join Date: Jan 2004 Reputation: 6 Posts: 774	This game is just overbugged. It is absurd we (community) are supposed to solve techical problems such as FPS drops \ memory leaks and so on.

06-28-2009, 06:13 AM	#10
R33ferMadness Join Date: Oct 2006 Reputation: 0 Posts: 134	Managed to get though the first 4 missions in the campaign at 20 to 35 FPS. Seems to be a lot going on in the 5th cuz all i can get in that mission is 10 to 20 FPS. There is something about the game that doesn't work proper. Arma was the same way, I had to have the settings low to keep very high frames so when it did drop it was mid 20 range and hopefully not too noticeable. Running 8800GT, 3gig ram, amd9500. Farcry 2 (30-35 FPS), FEAR 2 (60-70 FPS), Crysis (25-35 FPS). Arma 2 (10-60 FPS). Arma 2 is the only game I've played so far on this rig that is unplayable due to frame drops-even at the low settings.

06-28-2009, 06:14 AM	#11
Dwarden Bohemia Interactive Join Date: Sep 2003 Reputation: 78 Posts: 1,351	if you NVIDIA card owner read (performance tips) and post your experience here : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76908 and http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=907283

06-28-2009, 11:35 AM	#12
R33ferMadness Join Date: Oct 2006 Reputation: 0 Posts: 134	Man, I spent all weekend reading post about FPS, reinstalling drivers, multiple configs (ingame and config file)....nothing changes. Settings on high or low doesn't matter, same mid to low 20s FPS. After reading posts from people that were happy to play with these frames, I tried my best to ignore the slow down and stops but it's too frustrating. IMHO, 40 FPS is ideal for shooters. 30 is the min. Mid to low 20s= no fun. I'm done till new drivers or patches show up. Even then, I don't have hopes of ever having good frames in this game.