Help with settings!

[fireartist]

Hello,

I have been experimenting with the settings with my medium/average computer and I thought I would share some of my findings. I have been plagued with stuttering and annoying low frame rates, so I followed NickN's guide and set up as suggested. I deleted my fsx config and let it build a new one and then only added what was suggested in the guide. I also set up the NI as per the guide, but kept the 2x sparse grid super sampling out.

I then did Fraps testing using the same scenario each time which was EGLL runway 27L heavy rain cloud and I did an aborted take off and then taxied to terminal 5.

The results below:

 

Spec: i5 3570k @ 3.4mhz [oc @ 4400mhz] 8gb 1600mhz ddr3 memory, Asus P8Z77 motherboard, GTX 970 Graphics

 

NI setting half vsync fsx internal frame limiter set to 30

 

 

2016-01-02 19:40:16 - fsx

Frames: 3610 - Time: 180000ms - Avg: 20.056 - Min: 17 - Max: 23 tbm 40 oc 3800 turbo

 

2016-01-02 20:13:07 - fsx

Frames: 4006 - Time: 180000ms - Avg: 22.256 - Min: 17 - Max: 24 tbm 40 oc 4300 [ increased oc to 4300]

 

2016-01-02 20:19:51 - fsx

Frames: 4275 - Time: 180000ms - Avg: 23.750 - Min: 21 - Max: 26 tbm 40 oc 4300 affinity mask 14 [added affinity mask]

 

2016-01-02 20:30:13 - fsx

Frames: 4303 - Time: 180000ms - Avg: 23.906 - Min: 18 - Max: 26 tbm 40 oc 4400 affinity mask 14

 

2016-01-02 20:36:59 - fsx

Frames: 5401 - Time: 180000ms - Avg: 30.006 - Min: 28 - Max: 32 tbm 40 oc 4400 affinity mask 14 [unlimited frames]

 

As you can see I started out with the turbo oc @3800mhz and then ended up at 4400Mz. The affinity mask made a big difference and helped with the stuttering, but my question is why is it when I moved to unlimited frames I increased by nearly 7 frames?

 

When I use the internal frame limiter this is causing my stuttering, but the guides are saying you should lock to 30 using the FSX internal frame limiter. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

[il88pp]

That is no avrage cpu, its plenty high enough.

 

With default fsx you should be able toget smooth play easily by justusing the in game sliders.

Some "tweaks" used in moderation, can help.

Others will make things worse.

If it's smooth gameplay you are after you should start with a fresh config and not make too many changes.

This is all I have there:

[GRAPHICS]

HIGHMEMFIX=1

 

[Main]

HideInfoText=1 ----added line

 

Set fsx to run on core 1-2-3 , not 0

[JOBSCHEDULER] ---new line top

AffinityMask=14 ---new line added

 

[CONTROLS]

stick_sensitivity_mode=0

 

Works smooth as can be, with internal fraerate locked at 20.

Don't lock it at 30 if it often dips far below that. In that case lock it lower.

 

-----

I think you put too many of those tweaks in there, like SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED= TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT= just to name a few.

For smoothness often the fewer edits the better.

 

Anyway, you should be able to get it running smoothly at the default clock speed easily with that cpu.

Make sure you don't have many programs running in the background. Make sure the pc is virus-free, and reduce the number of automatic startup programs if you can miss a few.

 

A lot also depends on the plane and scenery you use. (all default?)

and on all your in game settings. Detail level, etc, Bloom is a killer, clouds will cause slowdowns, on airport fps is lower then up high (less objects near you), airport traffic takes a toll, etc etc.

 

Find something you can live with and go fly, before you increase the overclock too far and blow the whole thing up before you ever flew a mile!

[MBKHOU]

Hello,

 

When I use the internal frame limiter this is causing my stuttering, but the guides are saying you should lock to 30 using the FSX internal frame limiter. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can't take any guide as gospel. Only as a guide. CPU's change, etc.

My i7 4790 acts the same way as yours. It's like locking the frame rate with a

current intel CPU causes FSX to "govern" the frame rate down more that it actually

should.

For instance, if I have the limiter set for 30, and I see scenery that drops the

rate down to say 15, I would be expecting the sim to at least be using all it's horsepower

to stay close to 30, and if so, I would expect unlimited to show nearly the same rate

if the sim were actually that bogged down to run that slow with the fairly high 30 fps

setting.

But nooo... I see the same as you do. A good increase when unlimited, and it seems the

more dense the scenery, the larger the difference in frame rates from limited to unlimited.

 

With a new box/CPU, trying the various tweaks can help, but I only try one at a time

to see if any increase. If not, I ditch it and try the next. I'd never try more than one

at a time. FSX runs a good bit differently on my i7, than it did on my AMD Phenom IIx4.

On that box, unlimited caused more stuttering than limited, and usually any increase

in fps unlimited was fairly small vs limited. That's not the case with a Haswell chip from

what I've seen. Also note that the increase in the OC was not that large.. Even a lower

clocked i5 or i7 is still fairly stout.

 

Anyway, go with what runs the best, even if it conflicts with any guides.

I'm using very few tweaks these days. Almost a stock FSX.cfg..

[fireartist]

Thank you for your responses, I am now also just running 3 tweaks in my config: Highmemfix, wide aspect true and affinity mask 14.

You said about running locked at 20 frames, I have tried that and set the one third refresh rate in NI. This seemed to cause lots of micro stutters and then again with the fsx internal frame limiter it reduced the frames, even though I have set my graphic settings so I know that I can achieve 20+ frames.

 

I have found the sweet spot for my overclock @ 4.4ghz so I wont be blowing up my processor. No matter what I try, since I put my GTX 970 in I cannot get rid of stuttering.

[ScatterbrainKid]

Hitting the 'Defaults' graphics settings button has got me out of trouble more than once because it gets rid of all my experimental tweaking and gives me a clean slate to try again.

[fireartist]

When I created a new FSX config everything reverted back to defaults. Just done a flight from EGCC to KMCO [TAXI2GATE KMCO] and when landing frames dropped to 18 and stuttering. I paused the flight and set to unlimited frames and they shot up to 26-27.

Looks like I will have to change to unlimited when landing or taking off from high density airports.

Thanks for your responses, Happy New Year!

[Rupert]

Hitting the 'Defaults' graphics settings button has got me out of trouble more than once because it gets rid of all my experimental tweaking and gives me a clean slate to try again.

 

+1!! Or actually probably most of us who've done this for a while.

[ScatterbrainKid]

..I paused the flight and set to unlimited frames and they shot up to 26-27...

 

Yay, I've always used 'Unlimited' and have had no trouble whatsoever, my PC seems to like having enough elbow room to strut its stuff..:)