How to Improve my Performace and something about bad developers.

[rustam]

Hello.

I've battled out my access to the 2.4 ghz PC and I have enjoyed a couple of hours of simming with full settings and high frames. I always looked at Airports 2002 V1 and I bought it 3 days ago. I uninstalled it the first day, as it took a 2.4ghz Machine down to 3fps with a Meljet 777-200ER. This is Unacceptable. And they dare mentioning 700MHz or even 1.4 GHz! 700MHz? They must be joking! My old 700 MHz PC crashed every time I approache ny of the airports, even on minimum settings!

The other thing I don't like is that most of the airport buildings disappear about 2 miles out from the airport. I know that this is to increase frame rates, but once again... this could be addressed in the System Requirements!!!

And they dare mentioning 700MHz!

O, thanks for telling me, they have included some useful tips on how to improve frame rates... Lets see... Decrease the settings... Increase CPU speed... Delete some MDL's, but do I have to do this on a 2.4GHz?

On the box the recommended requirement is not mentioned.

Indeed, most airports have a fence, and the trucks circle the airport, and I can walk round the 737, but... All of this at 3fps. And they dare mentioning 700MHz... I fell that this "lying" has to be addressed and I will write an OP-ED on this issue.

I therefore think that the minimum for running the package is 3.06 GHz, Yep, the highest one at the moment.

My question is, I have 2 PC's. A 0.7 GHz and a 2.4 GHz. Is there a way to join them so that both of them will run FS2002, thus making the combined power 3.1GHz?

How do I overclock a PC? Are there any Precautions I need to take when overcklocking a PC? Do I need to buy anything?

Thanks

Rustam

[tjkotula]

Sorry, I know of no way to link the processing power of two PC's to run one program.

As for o/cing, at least you have a P4. That helps considerably. Nevertheless, you should be sure to see what kind of cooling system your PC has and maybe try monitoring your current temps with a freeware utility for a couple of days (Motherboard Monitor is a popular one) to see how things are in your case before you go cranking up the front side bus. With Intel processors, you can't adjust the CPU frequency - Intel locked it years ago because it was too easy to o/c that way. Only the FSB is adjustable. Luckily that is also a fairly easy way to o/c. Just take it slow and be careful. Don't o/c all at once. Jump up maybe 50Mhz at a time and see what the results are. Does the system hang or cold freeze? How stable is it? Monitor your temperature for a few minutes. Stop when you are satisfied or when you are afraid you might be pushing the limit.

Tim Kotula

XP 1800+
MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard
512 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
OC Systems Enhanced GeForce 4 Ti4200 64 MB DDR o/ced to 325/630 Mhz.
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Think you've got computer problems? You haven't until you've installed the latest version of FS!

[andyjohnston]

I don't have this package, so I can't comment too much. There may be other forces at work, I myself had two computers sharing a printer for a while. It dragged my CPU speed way down on my main system, so I stopped. But I can't get the CPU speed back. You may be encountering a bottleneck somewhere.

As far as I know, there is no way to do what you are proposing with your first question. Computers can share loads for some processes, but I doubt Flight Simulator is one of them.

Overclocking is the process of changing the settings on your motherboard (or sometimes in the BIOS) to make it run faster than it is supposed to. Precautions? Well that depends on how willing you are to spend some money if things don't work out. Some processors can be overclocked a significant amount without any damage. Others will not tolerate any change at all. You risk blowing the processor, and possibly the motherboard. Don't forget that if a motherboard blows, you risk that failure cascading to every other part of the computer connected to it...ie just about everything.

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[Flying_Turnip]

What (other than your processor speed) are your system specs. It's not just the processor that does all the work you know.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...db07e1db8e.jpg

[rankin3]

>What (other than your processor speed)
>are your system specs. It's
>not just the processor that
>does all the work you
>know.

Exactly!

Wait until FS2004 comes out, its suppose to be graphics card dependant... I can here it now "why is my 3ghz machine only getting 3fps!"

Wyatt Rankin
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...5256484cd3.jpg
http://atlartcc.dnsalias.com/
http://clttracon.netfirms.com/

[Flying_Turnip]

dontcha hate poeople who flame developers without knowing the facts. Why can't people do their research before tehy open up the gas valve and let light.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...db07e1db8e.jpg

[rustam]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-27-03 AT 12:55PM (EST)[/font][p]PC1:

P3 700MHz
320MB SDRAM
64MB GeForce3

PC2:

P4 2.4GHz
256MB DDR-SDRAK (Don't know what that means either...)
64MB GeForce4 Ti4200

Rick, you have to admit, 700MHz? Even the 2.4GHz Can't Handle it... I can just lower some settings, but why should I have to if My PC is 1.7GHz above Wilco's minimum? What research is there to do? I've heard on the forums that the package is bad, but how could I predict that even though my PC has 2.4GHz, this will happen?

Rustam

[rabbitcancer]

Rustam,

256MB of RAM is not going to cut it for the type of software you're running...

The GMAX Meljet alone swallows lots of RAM...Combining that with a SimFlyers package is burying your system...It's not your processor that's slowing you down. It's more likely your harddrive struggling with size of the swapfile your system has made to compensate. One key symptom of this problem is constant drive movement. If your harddrive light is flicking constantly while running FS2002, you're in need of a RAM upgrade.

On a 2.4, I would suggest bumping up to 1 Gig of RAM. Some people might say that this is a lot, but for the power of system you are running, it's just right to balance out the hardware. RAM is crucial especially when dealling with Highspeed-Bus systems like the P4. Don't expect to see improvement without at LEAST 512MB, but 1GB is recommended - This will allow your system to reserve space for read-ahead buffers and other handy features that dramatically improve performance on a PC. It will also leave plenty of RAM for those FS2002 memory hogs without dragging your system to 3fps...

I would also take a close look at your video driver. You may want to look into the Omega driversets for NVIDIA although their are most likely new drivers from NVIDIA.com itself.

Keep in mind that the SimFlyers package is most likely the real culprit. Those intense BGL files put a lot of strain on low-RAM systems. With a machine like yours, 256MB is drastically under-equipped. This is your best bet.

Good Luck,

Devon.


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[tjkotula]

I agree with RabbitCancer. RAM is at such a low price these days that there is no reason that heavy flightsimmers and gamers shouldn't have at least 512 MB. Especially when they run Windows XP and addon RAM-hogs (Virus Scans, FS, all the payware addons out there). Maybe even 1GB if you aren't strapped for cash. Taking your system to 512 MB will cost you about $70, maybe less and is well worth the upgrade. Just try to avoid the el-cheapo RAM and go for the name brands with warranties. It will allow for a larger cache and less strain on the hard drive. Too little RAM can easily lead to fried hard drives on heavily used systems. My dad's office PC is a prime example. He used to keep it on 24/7 and it only had 64 MB of RAM when its third HDD in two years finally went out. Western Digital sent us a new HDD and I recommended that he take his RAM up to 256 MB to increase his cache size - no problems since and that was about 6 months ago. Taking your system to 1GB will probably cost about $200, 1x256MB stick and 1x512MB stick. 1 GB is probably overkill. 768 MB should be plenty and for that all you will need in one 512 MB stick at around $120. Just make sure that you buy RAM that matches what can go into your system (DDR, SDRAM, RDRAM and the proper bus speed).

Tim Kotula

XP 1800+ o/ced to XP2000+ (1.67Ghz)
MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard
512 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
OC Systems Enhanced GeForce 4 Ti4200 64 MB DDR o/ced to 330/640 Mhz.
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Think you've got computer problems? You haven't until you've installed the latest version of FS!

[rankin3]

As said you need by far more RAM with that processor, I'm guessing your running XP. I would agree with 1 gig but thats also expensive and if you can't get any more RAM allow me to make a few comments. Try and get some programs like End It All to close worthless programs running in the background, you'd be suprised but some of that spyware seems like its designed just to crash your computer. These programs can be very secretive about their actions espically if your on a 24hr internet connection and they don't need permission to dial up. Norton Internt Security is the only program I run 24/7 only because I have too, its quite scary if you actually know whats going on in your computer. Like I said get End It All to close these programs and you may seem some improvement in performance. More RAM is your best bet though.

Wyatt Rankin
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