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FSX/P3D Software and Hardware Tweaking Guide


Kosta

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Hello dear simmers,

 

I've been a long member of the flight simulator community, and for the most part active on the "other" forum, but decided it was time to expand my horizons.

So, as an entry, here is my first share of something that probably most of you already know, and maybe some don't...

 

My FSX/P3D Software and Hardware Tweaking Guide:

http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/

 

This guide should help anyone with a modern computer to set up their FSX to work quite well.

As usual, this might not work for everyone, but it has been confirmed many times that it usually works quite well. Just be sure to give it a detailed read!

 

Thank you and questions are always welcome!

 

(Admins: make it a sticky maybe? And please note that I prefer keeping a link to the guide, rather than posting a full guide here, since I make changes here and there, and keeping it up to date on one place is a job enough for me. Thx for understanding.)

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Thank You, Sir!

A Link to your Guide, on the other site, and your blog, is a common addition to my tweaking and tuning replies.

Definately deserves a Sticky.

 

However, I also believe Jesus "Bojote" Altuve's Auto-Tweaker is an excellent alternative for those that are too timid to edit files...Don

 

Jesus "Bojote" Altuve's Auto-Tweaker for FSX

 

BTW, I'm going to leave this unlocked for specific questions regarding the Guide and Tweaking tool.

If it begins to show a lot of "That didn't work" responses, out comes the lock...

HAF 932 Adv, PC P&C 950w, ASUS R4E,i7-3820 5.0GHz(MCR320-XP 6 fans wet), GTX 970 FTW

16GB DDR3-2400, 128GB SAMSUNG 830(Win 7 Ult x64), 512GB SAMSUNG 840 Pro(FSX P3D FS9)

WD 1TB Black(FS98, CFS2&3, ROF, etc.), WD 2TB Black-(Storage/Backup)

Active Sky Next, Rex4 TD/Soft Clouds

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Thanks guys and thanks for the sticky.

 

Important thing to note is that both me and Bojote have different approaches. While mine is geared for more powerful machines, current hardware, SB and IB CPUs, 5th and 6th generation of Nvidia cards, Bojote's tool is more geared towards older hardware.

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Greetings and welcome!

 

My computer specs below. I have Jesus' tweaks. I like them. Am I a good candidate for yours also, w/out conflict?

 

btw I'm computorily challenged compared to most of these geeks.

 

Tres Pierson

 

 

HP p6370t, Core i3 530 2.93ghz, Hard Drive 600g,W7 64 pro, Ram 6.0g, NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT WDDM v1.1, Monitor, Acer 26 in. HD

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Hi Tres,

 

Your computer is unfortunately a bit weak to carry my guide successfully I believe, but your CPU actually reflects your GPU - so it actually might work.

All you need to do is back up your fsx.cfg, start the si and then apply my tweaks one by one and see how your sim is working afterwards.

If it's worse, delete your current fsx.cfg and restore the old one from the backup!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Phil,

Most likely not, because my photoscenery is working as great as everything else, and there simply is no need for something like that. If you check the screenshots on my blog, you will see what I'm talking about.

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Hi Kosta,

I used your tweaks and its made a good difference. Only I feel FSX makes temp go up and fan spins vigorously, and when making long haul flights many times the computer just turns off in cruise flight. Settings are nearly all either maxed or 80%. Whic I should bring down to ease the temp?

 

My specs. I have no overclock

AMD Phenom II x 4 3.4 Ghz 8gb ram Nvidia GTX 550 Ti in Win7 64bit 19 Samsung 23 inch with DVI conector

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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Hi Phil,

Most likely not, because my photoscenery is working as great as everything else, and there simply is no need for something like that. If you check the screenshots on my blog, you will see what I'm talking about.

 

OK Kosta, thanks,

I'm surprised by your answer that in so much as you seem to suggest that one size fits all. I would have expected to use a different set-up for a heavy texture based flight to that for a photoscenery flight that uses no textures?

 

Thanks for your help

Phil

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Phil,

Yes, in this case, on size fits them all. The configuration is optimized for one type of the computer, making FSX run optimally on it, no matter what you load - that is the final idea.

I could probably optimize this or that better for each scenario. But with today's 10k drives and SSDs, quad-core CPUs and fast RAMs, this all becomes a non-issue.

And no flight uses no textures.

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I just spent some time reading the most comprehensive Software and Hardware Guide for FSX that I have seen to date.

 

It was compiled by Paul Johnson,(Avsim) a couple of weeks ago(1-22-13), and acknowledges the following Masters of the FSX Black Art:

 

Jesus “Bojote” Altuve, Nick "Nick N" Needham, Ryan “Tabs” Maziarz, Bill "Fr.Bill" Leaming, David

"OPA" Marshal(RIP), Holger "Genius" Sandmann, Pete "FSUIPC" Dowson, Mike McCarthy, Michael

"FS-GS" Greenblatt, Phil "Aces" Taylor, Srdan "Kosta" Kostic, Steve "DX10" Parsons.

 

I'm sure you will recognise most of those names.

 

Please respect the wishes of the author and DO NOT distribute copies. It is, as noted, a Living Document, subject to future revision...Don

 

http://forum.avsim.net/fsx_guide.pdf

HAF 932 Adv, PC P&C 950w, ASUS R4E,i7-3820 5.0GHz(MCR320-XP 6 fans wet), GTX 970 FTW

16GB DDR3-2400, 128GB SAMSUNG 830(Win 7 Ult x64), 512GB SAMSUNG 840 Pro(FSX P3D FS9)

WD 1TB Black(FS98, CFS2&3, ROF, etc.), WD 2TB Black-(Storage/Backup)

Active Sky Next, Rex4 TD/Soft Clouds

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Kapitan,

I think you are looking at this from the wrong angle...

You shouldn't be bringing settings down to cool your CPU, you should rather look into proper cooling for your CPU.

What FSX is apparently doing it milking your CPU down to the last straw of breath, which is great actually. But if your CPU is overheating, there is something wrong with the cooling - you should test your CPU with some external tools, like Prime95/OCCT, and monitoring the temperature. If it climbs too high, and since you have no overclock, you should really look into it.

If your computer turns off, it basically overheated and CPU sends a shutdown command (on the Intel well over 95c). I don't know about AMD, but I tend to go not over 85c on the Intel when doing hard overclocking. My FSX won't push the CPU beyond 75c.

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Don, I have seen the document, yeah. I have no intentions diving into that, as it defeats the purpose of tweaking. I would recommend it for some parts, but not as a whole.
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This might be what I'm looking for

 

Just recently upgraded the old PC to 8 core AMd @4Ghz. new Asus Sabertooth mobo, 32 Gig quad pack of DDR3 Muskin Redline, Asus Geforce 550GTX TI

 

FSX runs crazy fast fps but still micro stutters, and occasional burps.

 

OS is windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

 

Been a long time since I flew FSX, mainly do to OS upgrade 2 years ago after a hard drive went bad. I basically gave up when the fatal errors crashed me to desktop. Oh, I'm running FSX Deluxe with FSX Accelerator. I'm confused about any service packs....didn't download or install any....Should I?

 

Now I have a good rig, and want to fly stutter free. Will try your tweaks.

 

Haven't tied changing the CFG yet, just toying with sliders and the result is zero impact on stutters. You seem to know what you are talking about with CFG tweaks and I was very hesitant to go there before I researched the subject some.

 

Thank You!

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After upgrading my PC (It's an all-in-one HP Envy 23. Has dual core AMD 3.4 with radeon graphics. 6MB memory and Windows 8) I tried all ways to install FSX, even purchasing a new Gold version. I couldn't get the windows installer to install either from the DVD or the website for demo. Tried every tech in the book. Tried X-plane 10, it worked, but couldn't get mu SaitekX-45 to work. Got prepar3d for $200it installed, but same thing, even with updated drivers, my X45 wouldn't work properly, neither would a loaned CH yoke. Now I've given up and installed FS9. It works like a charm. I always did like it over FSX anyway. Problem is I can't get add ons to install using their installers. Neither can I edit config files. Never mind, at least my Cirrus 20 works well enough to pracise with the GNS 430.
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Oh, I'm running FSX Deluxe with FSX Accelerator. I'm confused about any service packs....didn't download or install any....Should I?

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I think with Acceleration you have all the service packs you need, including SP2.

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After upgrading my PC (It's an all-in-one HP Envy 23. Has dual core AMD 3.4 with radeon graphics. 6MB memory and Windows 8) I tried all ways to install FSX, even purchasing a new Gold version. I couldn't get the windows installer to install either from the DVD or the website for demo. Tried every tech in the book. Tried X-plane 10, it worked, but couldn't get mu SaitekX-45 to work. Got prepar3d for $200it installed, but same thing, even with updated drivers, my X45 wouldn't work properly, neither would a loaned CH yoke. Now I've given up and installed FS9. It works like a charm. I always did like it over FSX anyway. Problem is I can't get add ons to install using their installers. Neither can I edit config files. Never mind, at least my Cirrus 20 works well enough to pracise with the GNS 430.

 

Hmm, those are really weird problems. Seems like your hardware is not being recognized and something is wrong in the windows too.

You should start troubleshooting there and not FSX really.

In such cases it is not the worst idea to install Windows clean and start from there.

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Kapitan,

I think you are looking at this from the wrong angle...

You shouldn't be bringing settings down to cool your CPU, you should rather look into proper cooling for your CPU.

What FSX is apparently doing it milking your CPU down to the last straw of breath, which is great actually. But if your CPU is overheating, there is something wrong with the cooling - you should test your CPU with some external tools, like Prime95/OCCT, and monitoring the temperature. If it climbs too high, and since you have no overclock, you should really look into it.

If your computer turns off, it basically overheated and CPU sends a shutdown command (on the Intel well over 95c). I don't know about AMD, but I tend to go not over 85c on the Intel when doing hard overclocking. My FSX won't push the CPU beyond 75c.

 

Thanks for your atention, I will look into better cooling resources. The temperature turn off happens sometimes on long haul flights.

I have affinitymask set at 14 but my cpu makes intermittent spinning noise hard during most fsx flight, which I find it strange because with my older two core cpu, didnt.

K

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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Kapitan,

Now that is really weird.

With long hauls, it's quite clear it crashes, if it gets too hot. Did you ever measure the CPU temperatures while running Prime95?

I forgot: what is your CPU and how many cores do you see in your task manage?

The intermittent spinning noise is actually funny, because FSX should be loading the CPU quite well, so the cooling should be working all the time. Maybe look into BIOS if there is a setting to set the sensitivity of the CPU cooler?

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Kosta,

My CPU is AMD Phenom II Black x 4 965 3.4ghz (this is said to be compared to Intel i5) 8mb ram GPU Nvidia GTX 550ti, I see the 4 cores in Task Manager.

 

I use FSX since 2006, Until 2011 I had a 2 core slower intel processor. Its true that settings couldnt be maxed and fps was slower in ense arival areas, but the processor never spinned with such furor. What is bothersome is the noise.

 

Temperatures are stable, right now as I right Core0 is 63, when running FSX it spins and can go up to 70 or 72. Unfortunately I was not monitoring temp when it quits in long hauls, it just turned off and I no way to know what temp it was.

 

My affinitymask is at 14. No other programs running while fsx is on, Im good at this, My install is very clean and I dont let unnecessary process running in task manager.

 

Temperature here in Brazil is around 28 to 30. I remember in colder days in winter when it was 15 it didnt spin as much.

Anyway this spinning only happens with fsx or when converting videos.

 

Regards

Kap

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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Temperatures are stable, right now as I right Core0 is 63,

 

If the CPU temperatures are above 60C when the computer is basically idle, there is a cooling problem with the system. At idle, the CPU should be in the 40-50C range. The max safe temperature for Phenom II CPUs is around 70C. You may want to start a new thread in the hardware forum to get this sorted out. Probably need to look into how well the CPU heatsink is mounted, the number and setup of the case cooling fans, and possibly the BIOS fan control settings

 

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/index.php?pageid=CPUtemperatures

 

but the processor never spinned with such furor. What is bothersome is the noise.

 

This is the CPU fan trying desperately to keep the CPU cool. The best way to fix this is sorting out the hardware side.

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If the CPU temperatures are above 60C when the computer is basically idle, there is a cooling problem with the system. At idle, the CPU should be in the 40-50C range. The max safe temperature for Phenom II CPUs is around 70C. You may want to start a new thread in the hardware forum to get this sorted out. Probably need to look into how well the CPU heatsink is mounted, the number and setup of the case cooling fans, and possibly the BIOS fan control settings

 

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/index.php?pageid=CPUtemperatures

 

 

 

This is the CPU fan trying desperately to keep the CPU cool. The best way to fix this is sorting out the hardware side.[/color]

 

Thanks Loki.

OK. will open a thread and look at cooling hardware.

 

Edit> Just restarted and went to BIOS. Temp target was at 60 C, and minimum fan speed was at 0 zero.

I changed it to tem target 50 C and minimum fan speed 50%

Now temp at idle is at 52 C. But fan is working at slow speed all the time.

Is this target ok?

 

regards

K

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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