arma 2 quad core usage / performance

binaryknight · 27 Jul 2009 at 19:20

hi just wondering what sort of performance quad core users are getting with this after running a test on mine.

specs q6600 at 3.6ghz 4gig ram at 1000mhz with 5-5-5-15 timings and a radeon 3870

running settings at 1680 x 1050 with shadows off and post processing off

ran the arma2mark benchmark that seems to hit about 70% usage which is fair however in order to stress the cpu i decided to fill an island part of the map with a load of units and let them fight it out result laggy experience at about 5 - 10 fps with fraps and cpu usage only being about 35 - 40%

i thought the load of ai would surely bottlekneck the cpu, even if the gpu cant render all the fps the cpu would be loaded with the ai doing its thing?

any one any idea on this?

derkaderka · 27 Jul 2009 at 19:23

try the BIS forums maybe ?

craig3000 · 28 Jul 2009 at 14:40

70% sounds about normal, this is what most users report on BIS forums

Nothing will every get a CPU up to 100% apart from those extreme CPU test programs, I wouldn't expect any game to max out a quad core to 90-95% for a while yet, we probably won't see it until the next gen of consoles tbh

binaryknight · 28 Jul 2009 at 16:47

aye craig the 70% didnt bother me its the low usage when i put a lot of ai in and the slowness of it, surely more ai should use at least the same cpu if not more not down to 30%

gonna try the bis forums when i get a free min

thaFunkster · 29 Jul 2009 at 01:10

Yeah mate, I used to hang out at BIS forums before release.

This game only uses two cores, so its not optimised for quad cores.

They reccomend a fast dual core over a slower quad, as performance will be better, which works out nicely for me with my E8400 which should soon be OCed high.

HangTime · 29 Jul 2009 at 19:28

Unless a game is incredibly well coded you won't get up to 100% cpu usage on a quad core, the problem is that you will end up with one or two threads maxing out their cores and becoming a bottleneck, with the other threads/cores having to wait around a bit.

I suspect what you are seeing with adding additional AI is that possibly the bottleneck shifting to your graphics card, I know that sounds strange but for example there might be a lot of more lighting calculations required if any of those units (and their fighting!) is visible to you.

A 3870 is fairly weak by modern standards and it's not inconcievable that it could be the bottleneck under some circumstances with a quadcore cpu, even on ARMA2