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Arma 3 Performance optimization guide [2025]

By Pelinkovac CRO

Complete game performance optimization guide for 2025

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Created by

Pelinkovac CRO
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Category: Achievements, Characters, Classes, Co-op, Crafting, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer, Secrets, Story or Lore, Trading, Walkthroughs, Weapons, Workshop

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

27 Dec, 2024 @ 12:18pm

1 Jan @ 3:04am

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Guide Index

Overview

Before we start

Video settings

Launcher parameters

Betas

Configuration file modification

Windows defender exploit protection fix (CFG)

Arma 3 executable compatability settings

Enable large-pages support for windows user

Thanks for reading

Comments

Before we start

The settings in this guide are my own personal settings that I optimized for mainly playing KoTH over the years but should work for all systems.

My system specs are

i7 4770k @3.9GHz
gtx 1060 3gb
16GB 1600MHz ram
OS = W10 64-bit
Game drive = SATA SSD

Video settings

GENERAL

QUALITY

SAMPLING: 100%
TEXTURE: Very High
OBJECTS: Very High
TERRAIN: Standard
SHADOW: Disabled (fps boost)
PARTICLES: High
CLOUD: Very High (jet eye candy)
PIP: Disabled (If you don't use first person vehicle view monitors to aim / chopper mirrors, disable for fps boost)

VISIBILITY

OVERALL: 3000 (koth in-game settings override this anyway)
OBJECT: 3000 (keep this the same or higher than overall or you don't see objects such as vehicles!)
SHADOW: 75 (if disabled it doesn't matter, if not, you get the illusion of shadows for most things in your view without a heavy performance hit)
PIP: 100 (if disabled it doesn't matter)

LIGHTING

HDR: Standard
DYNAMIC LIGHTS: Low
WATER REFLECTIONS: Disabled

DISPLAY

DISPLAY MODE: Fullscreen (all other options add additional input delay)
RESOLUTION: 1920x1080(16:9) (depends on your specific setup)
ASPECT RATIO: Custom (custom fov, I use 90 hfov)
VSYNC: Disabled
INTERFACE SIZE: Small
BRIGHTNESS: 1.0 (your preference)
GAMMA: 1.0 (your preference)

AA & PP

POSTPROCESSES

BLOOM: 0
RADIAL BLUR: 0
ROTATION BLUR: 0
DEPT OF FIELD: 0
SHARPEN FILTER: 60 (My preference)
AO: Disabled (massive performance gain)
CAUSTICS: Disabled (irrelevant to gameplay, free fps)
HAZE: Standard (new setting, my preference)

POSTPROCESS COLOR CORRECTIONS

COLOR PRESET: Custom (my preference)
BRIGHTNESS: 100
CONTRAST: 100
SATURATION: 140 (makes the game look more lively)

ANTIALIASING

FSAA: Disabled (this adds massive input delay, disabled does not look the best, it might be more difficult to spot enemies but I like the low input delay it provides. Stick to the lowest x2 if you don't like disabled)
ATOC: Disabled (related to FSAA, your preference)
PPAA: SMAA Standard (Not nearly as good as FSAA but does not mess with input nearly as much, you can go even higher but i find standard SMAA sufficient)
ANISO. FILTERING: Ultra (makes textures at distance look better / sharper, not much performance impact, your preference)

This is it for the in-game video settings.

Launcher parameters

These parameters really depend on what hardware you are running, I will mention again that these specific ones are for my specific hardware.

Parameters

Platform: Default (64-bit)
Show static background in menu: ✔
Skip logos at startup: ✔
Enable Large-page Support: ✔
(large-page parameter does nothing by itself, we will enable this functionality for your windows user later)
System memory limit (64-bit): ✔ 12288 (for 16GB RAM)
Video memory limit: ✔ 2688 (for 3GB VRAM)
No Logs: ✔
No Pause: ✔

This is it for the launcher parameters.

Betas

Steam has a betas feature (development branches) that Arma 3 uses to have a default branch "None" and a (performance) profiling branch.

I used the profiling branch for a long time but recent updates added stutters on some KoTH maps so I am using the default "None" and it really seems to help on my system.

To change your Arma 3 branch you

Click Library on Steam
Right click Arma 3, click properties
Under Betas select profiling, you will get a small download.

Since this is an official feature, you can play on all multiplayer servers just like the regular branch.

If you encounter any issues you can always revert to "None" (default).

The executables this guide reffers to are the default branch executables. I'm to lazy to check if the profiling branch used other executable names but in case it does, use those executables in the steps instead of the ones I wrote

Configuration file modification

Game file (very important)

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3

Do windows key + R and paste the path and hit enter, file explorer will open up in that directory
Open the Arma3.cfg file in any text editor (notepad++)
Find these lines with ctrl+f and alter them to these exact values (major input lag reduction)
GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1; GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1;
After you are done make sure to save the file.

User file

Default path to find your configuration files on windows

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3 %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3 - Other Profiles

if you are using the default profile the game created for you on first launch, it's the first one, the second one is if you created your own profile.

Do windows key + R and paste the appropriate path and hit enter, file explorer will open up in that directory
Open the folder with your profile name
Open the <<your profile name>>.Arma3Profile file in any text editor (notepad++)
Here are some variables of interest (you can find these variables using ctrl + f and change their values to your desire)
(out of order, find them in the file) fovTop=1.03; fovLeft=1.83; mouseSensitivityX=0.70000005; mouseSensitivityY=0.70000005; mouseSmoothing=0; mouseAcceleration=0; headBob=0;

my fov settings are for 90 horizontal fov at 1080p, you can use this webapp to tweak it to your preference https://gamecalculator.netlify.app/#/arma3-fov-calculator
as for the other settings, mouse sensitivity is self explanatory, mouse smoothing and acceleration also (0 = off, 1 = on) headbob can be preference but it does shake your view in first person so it's probably a major advantage to have it off.
After you are done make sure to save the file.

This is it for the configuration file part.

Windows defender exploit protection fix (CFG)

This part can (does) provide a boost in most cpu bound games.

Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog.
Type
ms-settings:windowsdefender
and press Enter.
Click on "App and browser control"
Click "Exploit protection settings" in the new window
Under program settings tab click "Add a program to customize" (choose exact file path)
The default path to find the arma 3 executable is
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3
Select arma3_x64.exe (arma3.exe for 32-bit)
Find "Control Flow Guard (CFG) and ✔ "Override system settings" and select "Off"
Apply and close all windows

Arma 3 executable compatability settings

You can reduce input lag and slightly improve performance by disabling the "fake fullscreen" feature of windows that disables exclusive fullscreen and allows the rendering of other apps over the fullscreen application.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3

Do windows key + R and paste the appropriate path and hit enter, file explorer will open up in that directory
Right click arma3_x64.exe (arma3.exe for 32bit) and click properties
Under the compatability tab ✔ "Disable full screen optimizations"
Apply and OK

Enable large-pages support for windows user

Large-pages have the potential to reduce stutters and improve performance encountered in large busy servers / maps.

As I mentioned earlier, the parameter setting does not do anything unless you grant your user permission to use this feature.

This feature is easier to enable for your user using group policy editor in windows but that is not available in the home version so I will provide different steps for each version.

Windows 10 Home (or if you wish it also works for Windows 10 Pro), follow these steps:

go to this link and download a very old 2003 Microsoft program (digital signature is from Microsoft itself)
The original download is no longer available however we can use waybackmachine to view the archived website and download the file (small windows server tools installer file) file name: rktools.exe virustotal: 0/69 digital signature: Microsoft Corporation signing time: ‎Friday, ‎25 ‎April ‎2003 00:41:12 SHA1: 3F3878FFB2C642E752D811DC05169BFCC2AA97B5 SHA3-512 : EB1957AE19CCD7230C878298C44137F5D7EE5E8D6DA87BE8ABEBAD1CF8C93DD6D4EA0877165D662951AA766DB2C364E33120AD663A77DA028BEFCB381F93154B Note: we are specifically interested in Ntrights.exe which gets installed along with other small programs through rktools.exe. site: https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20120429213926/http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657 direct download link: https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20120428175052/http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/e/c/8ec3a7d8-05b4-440a-a71e-ca3ee25fe057/rktools.exe
After downloading click through the installer and install, shouldn't take long (ignore incompatiablity warnings)
Verify the installation worked by doing windows key + R, type cmd hold ctrl + shift and press enter (run as admin shortcut, now you know ;) )
Once you have an admin cmd running type
ntrights
and press enter, if you get a description instead of not found, your install was successful.
Type
echo %username%
this is your current username.
Finally execute this command to grant your user the permission to use large-pages
don't write the << >>
ntrights -u "<<your windows username from the previous command>>" +r SeLockMemoryPrivilege
If you did everything correctly you should get
Granting SeLockMemoryPrivilege to <<username>>... successful
RESTART YOUR PC, do not skip this

If you have Windows 10 Pro, follow these steps:

Windows + R type
secpol.msc
and press enter, this will directly open the Local Security Policy window
In the Local Security Policy window, expand Local Policies and select User Rights Assignment.
Find and double-click on Lock pages in memory.
In the properties window, you can add users or groups that you want to assign this privilege to.
Add your current user.
RESTART YOUR PC, do not skip this

After the restart you are ready to play Arma 3!

Thanks for reading

Hope it helped!

7 Comments

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Pelinkovac CRO [author] 16 Mar @ 10:17am

@RunForRest while that works for increasing fps, it also introduces additional input latency which is not great for games which involve precision aiming. Additionally, maxing everything and relying on interpolated frames is not performance optimization, it's merely a workaround. The point of this guide is to optimize the performance of the game itself. Lastly, i wanted to mention that if you don't mind the input lag, there is nothing wrong with using LS.

Pelinkovac CRO [author] 16 Mar @ 10:00am

@Dr.Thrax that is unfortunate, I just tested it and the download link still works. Try to download from another IP address (for example your phone connected to mobile data) to see if that works around the block. I was hesitant to include mirrors but I might consider it if I find a trustworthy one.

Dr.Thrax 15 Mar @ 10:41am

Sucks that getting Error 1015 from download links as owner for way back machine give you "The owner of this website has banned you temporarily from accessing this website."

RunForRest 2 Mar @ 7:31am

Crank everthing to max and use LS, nothing else needed!
https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/
As long as ur GPU has headroom, this works 100%.
Recommended is to lock the game to 60fps and go x2 to 120fps on a 120hz screen.
But u may try a 40 fps lock and go for x3. Results may vary depending on ur GPU, resolution, hz of screen and if the screen supports adaptive sync
I even use this for competitive shooters to get stable 180fps on 180hz. (or save energy consumption on most single player games to get stable 120fps on 120hz)
5600x / 6700xt @ 1080p
Works with most GPUs no matter if Nvidia/AMD and for most games/programms. (make youtube videos run @ 120fps ^^ )
Sometimes works even better than upscaling/frame gen provided by games itself, which makes sense the less support the game gets. Frame gen is constantly improved/updated. Many game devs cant keep up with that.
Make old games that are locked to 60 fps run at higher fps without any issues.

Realm Imp 26 Jan @ 2:34am

whats your average fps in cities and crowded places?

Pelinkovac CRO [author] 20 Jan @ 12:15pm

Yes, it works for 11

Count Sackula 19 Jan @ 2:31pm

Does the large-pages support work for Windows 11 as well?

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