Gaming: ArmA 2 - DigitalVersus

Gaming: ArmA 2

Régis Jehl
Updated: September 24, 2009 - Test date: September 22, 2009

The test

ArmA 2 uses the Real Virtuality 3 graphics engine which is only compatible with DirectX 9. The same version of the game is therefore used on both machines.

We use the built-in game test so as to evaluate the average number of frames per second. On the entry-level machine, the graphics settings are set on high and anisotropic filters and antialiasing are put on low. On the second machine we put the graphics settings on very high and the texturing filters on normal.

ArmA 2 is a first person shooting game (FPS) with single and multi-player modes. Its graphics rendering engine is particularly demanding and a handful for many machines. As the results are given in frames per second, high is best.

On our low-end machine, Windows XP is way out front. At our settings however, the game has trouble whatever the OS. You need to reduce settings to get a sufficiently fluid image.

Once again, Windows Seven seems better able to exploit the high-end components of the computer. It does better than both XP and Vista, with Vista down on the other two in this test.

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