Yet another frame rate improvement thread...

Hello all, I've been playing flight sim for around 6 months now and I really enjoy it, love flying aircraft like the Dash 8, and PMDG NGX and T7 (I'd like to fly the Airbus too but performance is just too bad). However, a few years back when I first invested in a PC, flight sim was not considered (TBH I didn't know it was a thing) so my hardware definitely struggles. I can get around 40 fps (internally limited for smoothness) in external views, and around 20 fps max in internal views, however this is on very low graphics settings and almost unreadable textures.

I would like to invest some money into getting better, more consistent frame rates, however I'm unsure as to how to go about this. Here's my current specs to the best of my knowledge.

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 Motherboard

AMD FX6300 6-core 3.5GHz (can be overclocked but I ain't got a clue what I'm doing)

AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB (downgraded driver because apparently the latest hates FSX)

8GB DDR3 RAM

Some 1TB HDD that I couldn't tell you the specs of

FSX:SE somewhat tweaked

Could you please guide me in the direction of a new graphics card / processor / ram / storage drive? I don't know where to start in the market, not even the brand, cause it's so huge and varied.

Budget wise I'd rather not spend more that £100 if possible but I might be able to stretch to £150, £200 if completely necessary.

Thanks very much,

Calum.

There is no hardware there capable of PMDG+sceneries+sliders even if you spend L2000, so save the money or donate to incoming immigrants, or give it to Merkel or Erdogan, they'll know what to do with it ))))))))

I hope the upcoming Kaby lake CPU will bring some improvement over 4790k and with it an almost satisfactory experience, although I believe we are another 5 years off, and by 2020 we shall be ok.

I have an i7-4770K (at 4.0Ghz) paired with a 4GB GTX760 running at 2560x1440. My frame rates go between 12-30 (limited) and I've been consistently happy with my results.

With that said, a 100 to 200 quid budget won't get you very far. You might as well plan for an upgrade to Skylake and an nVidia 1070.

Cheers!

Luke

Hi TheSkiMC,

I can only tell you about my experiences with FSX and the pursuit of acceptable performance...

Since you are fairly budget-limited (aren't we all, and I was too), the first thing I would try is to learn about overclocking your CPU.

The key word is "LEARN."

Do some Google searches on your CPU and overclocking - here is one place to start:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/749975-Info-amp-Tips-gt-gt-Using-the-AMD-FX-Bulldozer-Piledriver?highlight=amd+overclocking

I was able to overclock my old AMD CPU (Phenom II X6 1035T) from the stock clock - 2.6 GHz - to 3.5 GHz. I wouldn't call the process "easy" but with adequate research and knowledge, I was able to get there and the overclock was extremely stable in FSX. The best part? It was "free."

Overclocking above 4GHz (4.5 and up) will really make FSX appear fairly fluid - that will also depend on what addons you are running - the more complex (read detailed), the more processing speed you will need.

I was able to obtain decent frame rates and, more importantly, "smoothness."

This was also with very nice (in my opinion) graphical quality.

While I didn't have all the FSX sliders up to max, I did have most of them up high (not max) except for Water (mid 2x I think), and lowered others in a trial and error fashion until I was satisfied with the compromise - you will have to make compromises with current hardware available, but you may still be able to find satisfaction.

With my AMD rig, I also had an AMD GPU (video card), the 6950 w/Gb of ram. I had to run the 12.8 driver, an old version due to problems in FSX, probably similar to what you're experiencing.

There seems to be some controversy as to which video card company (AMD or Nvidia), as well as which CPU company (AMD or Intel) performs best with FSX.

I've had both an AMD CPU paired with an AMD GPU, and now an intel CPU paired with an Nvidia GPU.

My subjective impression is that I see no real performance difference (performance defined by FPS and smoothness) between the two. (That reminds me - I have to update the rig in my sig).

But...

When it comes to my subjective impression about image quality, Nvidia seems a bit better. Very subtle, but noticeable to me. Now, it may not have anything to do with who has the "better/faster" hardware. I suspect it has to do with drivers and software - how they are executed within FSX. And this concept is not new - many others have said this as well.

I find this especially true when using DX10 with the DX10 fixer (Google SteveFX DX10 Fixer). With the fixer, I no longer get OOMs (the dreaded Out Of Memory errors!) and I just can't fly without the moving cockpit shadows anymore - they are great!

Using Nvidia Inspector (a software program for tailoring Nvidia drivers/image quality/performance), I was able to finally get rid of some annoying flashes and some anti-aliasing problems within FSX that I couldn't do much about when using my AMD GPU/drivers and Radeon Pro (a program similar to Nvidia Inspector but for AMD GPUs).

The switch to an Nvidia GPU has made me fall in love with FSX all over again - when doing carrier ops (landing on an aircraft carrier), I can now see much more clearly the "meatball" and my (successful) landings have much improved because of that.

Sorry, I tend to ramble when providing input - what I would suggest you do (in a nutshell):

1. Research and understand how to overclock your CPU safely. If you end up feeling comfortable with overclocking, that will make the biggest, immediately apparent, performance boost. It doesn't require money to try out, although I must say that overclocking can become a slippery slope where you may end up spending money on better cooling solutions (water cooling, for example), or there is the possibility of frying your CPU (although that is pretty unlikely - most motherboards will shut your computer off before that happens).

If you are successful with overclocking, you may want to just stop there. It is believed that FSX performance mostly relies on CPU speed, and the GPU is secondary - your current GPU is probably fine. I would save that money for water-cooling your CPU - even a fairly low-end, inexpensive water-cooler usually works better than the most expensive air-cooler. I went with the cheapest I could find at the time - the Corsair H50 (~ $60 (US)) and have not needed to upgrade it - the only thing I did was mount 2 fans on the radiator in a push-pull config. Works great and is silent!

This step is optional, and MAY increase subjective image quality:

2. Get an Nvidia GPU. It doesn't have to be an extremely high-end one - I changed mine to a GTX 960 w/2Gb ram - this was more of a lateral move from the AMD 6950. I recently bought mine for under $200 (US). I did this more as a curiosity thingy (I also had a little bit of extra money at the time), and am extremely happy I did it! I'm now able to run with bloom and aircraft ground shadows with no real dip in performance - although having a lot of AI aircraft flying around does affect performance noticeably...

The only other thing I've noticed from switching from AMD to Nvidia is that when I undock a 2D panel (GPS for example), the Nvidia GPU shows a slight decrease in framerates and smoothness. The AMD GPU did not. Also, I feel that AMD's Eyefinity (using multiple screens to create one large screen) is better - more refined from a software interface - than Nvidia's Surround. Again - I had to compromise.

Another thing you can do is what others have suggested - save and wait for the next generations of CPU/GPU to come out and see if their possibly increased performance translates in increased FSX performance per money expense...

Good luck - I hope this helps!

E-Buzz :pilot:

Hi all, thanks for the replies. I've been looking more into replacing PC parts with help from a friend, I am definitely keen to move away from AMD and more towards Intel and Nvidia. However, I have an AM3+ chipset which obviously cannot take an Intel CPU, so I would have to replace that too.

I kind of know where I'm going in terms of C and G PU but when it comes to motherboards I am lost. Whereabouts should I be looking to best balance budget and performance with an Intel CPU under the £250 mark?

Thanks

Here's a place to start:

https://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

E-Buzz :pilot: