Arma 2
187 ratings
Improve your FPS - Works on low-end PC's.
By ṋBểx ☠
Tips,tricks and tweaks to improve the FPS in arma 2, and dayz mod.
   
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Welcome to my guide for improving FPS in Arma II and the DayZ Mod
Hello and welcome to my guide.

I have a low-end pc and i've spent some time looking around the internet trying to find
tweaks to improve fps in this game.

This guide is the result of my search.
My FPS was much higher after using these tweaks.

Hope it helps you.
Optimise your Arma 2 OA settings
First things first, you're gonna want to open up your Advanced Settings

There you will see these options:
-Set the options according to your PC specs.

Texture Detail: Set this to Very High unless your graphics card has less than 1GB RAM
Video Memory: This works best when set to default.
Anisotropic Filtering: Set to Very High, same reason as Texture Detail
Antialiasing: Using this setting will result in major performance hits unless you have a fast CPU/GPU combo, use low if you can as anything higher seems a waste.
ATOC: Disabled for performance, else either all trees or all trees + grass with a good CPU/GPU.

Terrain Detail: Up to your system specs, use as needed but generally either Low or High.
Object Detail: As Terrain Detail except this also influences the distance at which you can spot men, however unless you are zoomed in or using optics they will still be difficult to see.
Shadow Detail: This setting can result in a moderate to major performance hit, use as needed.
HDR Quality: Set to Normal, higher settings are purely cosmetic.
PPAA: Set to FXAA - Low, other settings don't seem better.

Postprocess Effects: Set to Off or Very Low, Low+ enables motion blur of which there is too much for most people.
Interface Size: Normal+ if you want to be able to read the degrees on the compass.
Aspect Ratio: see below
Vsync: Off unless you are experiencing screen tearing or have a very high spec computer that is always 60fps+.

ArmA2.cfg and ArmA2OA.cfg

You can find these files in Documents > ArmA 2

Open the documents using notepad or wordpad.

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1; This may help smooth your frames and/or increase performance.
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=0; this is the same as above.
refresh=120; This will make VSync work better if you need it.

Startup Parameters

These are the parameters you enter by right-clicking ArmA 2 in Steam and going to Properties, then select Set Launch Options.

-cpuCount= set this to however many physical CPU's you have either 2 or 4.
-exThreads= use 3 for dual-core and 7 for quad-core and only if you have an Intel CPU.
-high sets ArmA 3 as a high value CPU process.
-maxMem= set this to 2048 or about 1GB (1024) less than your maximum RAM, I am not sure if higher values have an effect.
-noPause Does not pause the ArmA window when alt-tabbed in Fullscreen window mode, good for multi-taskers and streamers.
-noSplash gets rid of the intro stuff at startup.
-world=empty Starts up the game faster as it loads empty level.
45 Comments
jacobgardiepy28 16 Dec, 2024 @ 1:43am 
Of course, we appreciate your hard work man (sincerely). I was more of a windows 7 power user, even though I used 10 for years I slept on it until a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to share what I've learned, good luck everybody
jacobgardiepy28 16 Dec, 2024 @ 1:39am 
I've had good experience with Process Lasso. ProBalance auto-prioritizes tasks, but exclude processes like Arma 2 for performance boosts. SmartTrim mode trims RAM as set, and Performance mode requires whitelisting programs. All features are free.

Disable unnecessary startup apps and set windows graphics settings to High performance for each app. For old setups, manually install latest GPU drivers. My R2 uses Radeon Pro instead of Adrenalin; disable updates and optimize (check features)

Lower native resolution if needed; try 768 or 720 with scaling. Undervolt/underclock CPU/GPU to reduce heat or overclock slightly if cool. Lower refresh rate and cap in apps. Adjust fan speeds in BIOS if temps are high, but proceed with caution.

Increase page file size if drive is healthy; I went from 2GB to 6GB. Disable Indexing for HDDs, run disk cleanups/defrag often, and enable performance mode in Power Settings
Coopy 9 Apr, 2024 @ 3:03pm 
Just Disagree on the (refresh=120; ) set it to whatever your screen is on the tv) around 60 should help raise the gfx in other settings, anything above 60 you hardly notice a difference and can make it use more CPU/GPU
Lunatiklucas2024 15 Sep, 2023 @ 11:29am 
helped me so much with my rtx 3060 and trying to run arma
Muçi 11 Jul, 2022 @ 6:26am 
My Pc Medium-End Pc
=INSIG= 9 Sep, 2021 @ 11:10pm 
@IPuncake Welcome to gaming. 40-30 FPS is pretty good FPS, so dont get bothered by it. If somehow you can not play the game at 30-40 FPS, somethings wrong.
pondabyss 31 Mar, 2021 @ 12:19pm 
your mom
Paulie Gualtieri 1 Jul, 2020 @ 9:08am 
What about original Arma 2
462 24 Nov, 2019 @ 8:27pm 
i wish more people would realize how much they mean when put on the scale of the universe so that they may to be kinder towards other people both on the internet and in real life
Ciuco 14 Mar, 2018 @ 12:21am 
well -nosplash was the only useful cmd