ARMA III Alpha test GPU

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

 

Alpha release date: March 5, 2013
Genre: Action/RTS
developer: Bohemia Interactive
Publisher: Bohemia Interactive

 

ArmA 3 is a computer game from Bohemia Interactive Studio for PC. It is a continuation of ArmA 2. Officially announced on May 19, 2011. Classified as a combat simulator. The alpha version was released on March 5, the beta version in the second quarter, and the full release in the third quarter of 2013. 

The game will again take place on the expanses of the island, this time recreated from the real island of Lemnos.

THE GRAFICAL PART

This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.

Supported OS and graphics API

ARMA III Alpha is supported by major operating systems Windows, which includes Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Other operating systems are not currently supported by developers. 

 

The priority and main graphics API for the multiplayer game ARMA III Alpha is DirectX 11. The game is distributed through the digital game sales service Steam.

Game engine

The video game ARMA III Alpha is based on the studio's own engine, Real Virtuality. Real Virtuality is a game engine developed by the Czech company Bohemia Interactive Studio. The original name of the engine was “Poseidon”. The engine is constantly being improved and is used in all Bohemia projects.

Real Virtuality version 1 : The first version of the Real Virtuality engine was first used in the PC-exclusive game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, which was released in the summer of 2001. After that, it was used to create several add-ons for Operation Flashpoint, as well as in the army simulator Virtual BattleSpace 1 (VBS1). Image output is performed using DirectX 7. The graphics engine uses real-time shading and lighting, high-quality textures for that time, dynamic weather effects and time of day changes. Another feature of the engine is the ability to create large levels, mostly open ones. The sound engine supports dynamic sound simulation, including simulation of sound propagation speed. In addition, there was a built-in proprietary scripting language that contained approximately 350 commands.

Real Virtuality version 2 : Real Virtuality version 2006 first appeared in November 2 with the release of the game Armed Assault. This version of the engine was used in all addons for Armed Assault, as well as in VBS9. In the second version, the game engine began to support DirectX 2. Support for Shader Model 400, High Dynamic Range Rendering, and satellite textures was added to the graphics engine. About XNUMX new commands were added to the scripting language. With this version, real-time streaming resource swapping was introduced in Real Virtuality.

Real Virtuality version 3 : The third version of Real Virtuality was first used in the game ArmA 2, which was released in the summer of 2009. Optimization for running on multi-core processors has been added to the engine. The graphics engine began to use third-generation shaders, bump texturing, parallax texture mapping and hemispherical lighting. The game AI has been significantly improved: a system of gestures, suppressive fire, and a dynamic communication system have been added.

 

Real Virtuality version 4 : The fourth version of the engine is announced for use in Arma 3 and contains many innovations compared to the previous version. New features include Direct3D 11 support, nVidia PhysX physics engine and many other improvements, including a more advanced level editor

Advanced Game Settings

ARMA III Alpha has a huge number of visual settings, very similar to ARMA II. We can flexibly manipulate both basic and advanced graphics settings, setting them to low, medium, high, very high and maximum quality levels.

Below we have provided screenshots of the game at various graphics settings, where our readers can see the difference between the minimum, medium, and maximum graphics quality settings. 

Low quality settings

Medium quality settings

High quality settings

Maximum quality settings

As we can see, the difference in picture between different graphics settings is quite significant. 

General visual design and game physics

ARMA III Alpha is a pre-release product and it is quite early to talk about the final quality of the product. From your first acquaintance with the game, you can say for sure that at this stage ARMA III looks very good, especially considering that DirectX 11 functions have been added for greater realism and improved picture quality.

 

Significant progress is noticeable compared to its predecessor ARMA II. The colors have become more realistic, the game world is noticeably more detailed, and we were especially pleased with the tessellation capabilities - when we approach objects in the surrounding world, we see amazing detail, without compromising performance.

 

The game also claims to support nVidia PhysX, but at this stage we did not see the presence of this option in the game. Most likely, we will be able to see its capabilities in beta testing, or when the full version of the game is released. The controls in the game are typical for this genre, so experienced users should not have problems with it.  

Next, we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware.

TEST PART

Test GPU

 All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average and minimum FPS were taken as performance indicators. Below is a video of the test segment:   

 Our video cards were tested at separate screen resolutions of 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 at high, very high and maximum graphics quality settings allowed by ARMA III Alpha. Multi-chip configurations from NVIDIA and AMD showed a good increase in performance, which indicates ideal driver preparation, even though the release is still very far away.

Testing at high quality settings 1920x1080

At a resolution of 1920x1080 on high settings, an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 5830 or GeForce GTX 460. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 6870 or GeForce GTX 560 and higher.

Testing at high quality settings 2560x1600 

 

At a resolution of 2560x1600 on high settings, an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 480. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7870 or GeForce GTX 580 and above. 

 

Testing at very high quality settings 1920x1080

At a resolution of 1920x1080 on very high settings, an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 480 level. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GTX 580 and higher.

Testing at very high quality settings 2560x1600 

 

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at very high settings, an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7870 level or GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7970 or GEFORCE GTX 680 and higher.

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings, an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7870 or GeForce GTX 580 level. The optimal video cards will be the Radeon HD 7950 or GEFORCE GTX 660 and above.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600 

 

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings, an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7970GE or GeForce GTX 590 level. The optimal video cards will be the Radeon HD 6990 or GEFORCE GTX 690 and higher.

VRAM test

Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 with different anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory quality settings GPU 

 

The recommended amount of video memory for this game is about 1 GB for basic graphics quality settings. For ultra resolutions and maximum settings, you will need about 1,5-2 gigabytes of video memory. 

Test CPU

 

We tested the processor dependence on 19 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was conducted in places where the video card is of minimal importance for the game and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920x1080 with high and maximum graphics quality settings. Below is a video of the test segment: 

Testing at high quality settings 1920x1080

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080

 

ARMA III Alpha has a very noticeable impact on the performance of modern processors. As the graphics level increases, both the drawing range and the number of displayed objects increase. At maximum quality settings, optimal performance in some places cannot be provided by any modern processor.

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel%

 

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 AMD%

 

The game can fully load only two processor cores. As the number of cores increases, the load is distributed between them with virtually no effect on the performance itself. If the optimization is not corrected before release, then this will cast doubt on the purchase of ARMA III.

RAM test

Testing of the RAM consumed by the game was carried out by monitoring directly through the task manager Windows. The test was conducted on the base configuration of Core i 7 3930K@4.8 GHz with 16GB DDR3 2400 MGz pre-installed memory.

Testing at various quality settings

 

As we can see, with various basic quality settings, the amount of RAM consumed in ARMA III Alphais almost at the same level and is 600 megabytes. Thus, for a comfortable game you need to have at least 2 GB of RAM installed in your PC. 

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