FSX Running terrible on High-End PC?

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me.

I have been trying to use several different ways of improving performance with my FSX Steam Edition now for quite a while, but to no avail, despite having a very powerful PC capable of running games such as GTA V and Far Cry 4 on maximum settings without issue.

I seem to be getting very sluggish frame rates in-game despite following a lot of tweaking tutorials out there and even after trying to disable traffic or water effects etc...

My specs are as follows:

AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core CPU running at 4.0 Ghz (Not Overclocked)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 AMP! GPU with 3GB Video RAM (Not Overclocked)

16GB of RAM

Plenty of Hard Drive and SSD space

The only addon I am using is the PMDG 737-800 NGX Aircraft, which seems to bring about the worst perfoamnce in terms of frame rates, which always stay at around 15 - 22fps at best.

If anyone is interested, this is my fsx.cfg at the moment, I'm not usre what all of it means either but if anyone can advise me if something looks wrong or if there is anything I could possibly do to improve my fps?

Cheers!

Jay

[bUFFERPOOLS]

Poolsize=0

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=254

[GRAPHICS]

HIGHMEMFIX=1

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED_10=1693750528

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693750528

D3D10=0

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096

NUM_LIGHTS=8

AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1

AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1

COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1

LANDING_LIGHTS=1

AC_SELF_SHADOW=0

EFFECTS_QUALITY=1

GROUND_SHADOWS=0

TEXTURE_QUALITY=3

IMAGE_QUALITY=0

See_Self=1

Text_Scroll=1

[sOUND]

AmbientUIMusicVolume=-6.000000

SOUND_FADER1=0.300000

SOUND_FADER2=0.500000

SOUND_FADER3=0.300000

SOUND_FADER4=0.480000

AmbientUIMusic=FSX01

PrimaryDevice={DEF00000-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}

VoiceDevice={DEF00002-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}

SOUND=1

SOUND_QUALITY=2

SOUND_LOD=1

UISound=0

AmbientUI=0

[Display]

ChangeTime=4.000000

TransitionTime=4.000000

ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255

ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64

NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255

NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64

InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0

InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0

InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255

InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128

InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255

InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128

InfoBrakesEnable=True

InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True

InfoPauseEnable=True

InfoSlewEnable=True

InfoStallEnable=True

InfoOverspeedEnable=True

BLOOM_EFFECTS=0

SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30

WideViewAspect=False

[Main]

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.15

User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter

SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes

SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft

SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles

SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats

SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals

SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc

ProcSpeed=6788

PerfBucket=7

HideMenuNormal=0

HideMenuFullscreen=1

Maximized=1

Location=440,129,1480,908,\\.\DISPLAY1

[PANELS]

IMAGE_QUALITY=1

DEFAULT_VIEW=0

QUICKTIPS=1

PANEL_OPACITY=100

PANEL_MASKING=1

PANEL_STRETCHING=1

UNITS_OF_MEASURE=0

[Weather]

WindshieldPrecipitationEffects=1

MinGustTime=10

MaxGustTime=500

MinGustRampSpeed=1

MaxGustRampSpeed=200

MinVarTime=5

MaxVarTime=50

MinVarRampSpeed=10

MaxVarRampSpeed=75

TurbulenceScale=1.000000

WeatherServerAddress=fs2k.zone.com

WeatherServerPort=80

WeatherGraphDataInDialog=0

AdjustForMagVarInDialog=1

DynamicWeather=2

DownloadWindsAloft=1

DisableTurbulence=0

CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=6

DETAILED_CLOUDS=1

CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8

THERMAL_VISUALS=0

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780.0]

Mode=1920x1080x32

TriLinear=0

Anisotropic=1

[AccelerationPack]

ControlsFirstRun=0

HomePageFirstRun=0

[CONTROLS]

Controls_Default=Standard

Controls_Current=Standard

KBDAIL=64

KBDELEV=64

KBDRUD=64

[TextInfo.1]

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

AirSpeed=1,5

WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

[TextInfo.2]

FrameRate=1,1

LockedFrameRate=1,2

GForce=1,3

FuelPercentage=1,4

[TextInfo.3]

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

AirSpeed=1,5

WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

FrameRate=2,1

LockedFrameRate=2,2

GForce=2,3

FuelPercentage=2,4

[slewTextInfo.1]

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

AirSpeed=1,5

[slewTextInfo.2]

FrameRate=1,1

LockedFrameRate=1,2

[slewTextInfo.3]

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

AirSpeed=1,5

FrameRate=2,1

LockedFrameRate=2,2

[DynamicHeadMovement]

LonAccelOnHeadLon=-0.020000

LonAccelOnHeadPitch=-0.010000

RollAccelOnHeadLat=0.010000

YawAccelOnHeadLat=-0.100000

RollAccelOnHeadRoll=0.100000

MaxHeadAngle=5.000000

MaxHeadOffset=0.300000

HeadMoveTimeConstant=1.000000

[VirtualCopilot]

VirtualCopilotActive=1

[uSERINTERFACE]

PageID=0

OpenATCOnCreate=1

SHOW_MISSION_CAPTIONS=0

PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=1

PROMPT_ON_EXIT=1

SITUATION=C:\Users\Jay\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\East Midlands to Alicante IFR

Map_Orientation=2

ShowAllACPaintSchemes=1

SelectAircraftManufacturer=Boeing

SelectAircraftPublisher=All

SelectAircraftType=All

[ATC]

ShowATCText=1

COMM_MSG_NONE_COLOR=FFFFFFFF

COMM_MSG_ATC_USER_COLOR=FFB6FFB6

COMM_MSG_USER_ATC_COLOR=FFFFD21B

COMM_MSG_ATC_AI_COLOR=FF00FF00

COMM_MSG_AI_ATC_COLOR=FFFF7840

AutoOpenAirTrafficWindow=1

UsePilotVoice=1

PilotVoice=0

[PointOfInterestSystem]

CycleSetting=0

[sCENERY]

LENSFLARE=1

DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1

IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=3

[TrafficManager]

AirlineDensity=30

GADensity=14

FreewayDensity=20

ShipsAndFerriesDensity=8

LeisureBoatsDensity=8

IFROnly=0

AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=4

[TERRAIN]

LOD_RADIUS=3.500000

MESH_COMPLEXITY=50

MESH_RESOLUTION=20

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=25

AUTOGEN_DENSITY=2

DETAIL_TEXTURE=1

WATER_EFFECTS=1

[AContain]

ShowLabels=1

ShowUserLabel=0

ShowLabelManufacturer=1

ShowLabelModel=1

ShowLabelTailNumber=0

ShowLabelDistance=1

ShowLabelAltitude=1

ShowLabelAirline=0

ShowLabelAirlineAndFlightNumber=0

ShowLabelFlightPlan=0

ShowLabelContainerId=0

ShowLabelAirspeed=0

ShowLabelHeading=0

LabelDelay=1000

LabelColor=FFFF0000

[iNTERNATIONAL]

ASLAT=2

ASLON=1

MEASURE=0

[REALISM]

PFactor=0.000000

Torque=0.000000

GyroEffect=0.000000

CrashTolerance=0.000000

General=0.000000

UnlimitedFuel=True

AllowEngineDamage=False

TrueAirspeed=False

AutoCoord=False

RealMixture=False

StressDamage=False

GEffect=False

ManualLights=False

GyroDrift=False

CrashWithDyn=False

CrashDetection=False

AutoTrim=False

[sIM]

SYSCLOCK=1

[sTARTUP]

DEMO=0

SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=1

STARTUP_DEMO=

LoadWindow=1

[FACILITIES]

COUNTRY=

STATE=

CITY=

GTL_BUTTON=1398

[Misc]

Com_Rate=7

[Trusted]

D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\gauges\PMDG_737NGX.dll.hhlnbounhrtculqaeqheqhzcbunhawtkaaibrqre=2

D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\gauges\PMDG_737NGX_3.dll.eknhnzzienbinturnqkhzclbzriiqzaekkkcwlnb=2

[RWW_WEATHER_MAP]

SHOW_AIRPORTS=0

SHOW_VORS=0

SHOW_NDBS=0

SHOW_APPROACHES=0

SHOW_INTERSECTIONS=0

SHOW_VICTOR=0

SHOW_JET=0

SHOW_AIRSPACE=0

SHOW_FLIGHTPLAN=1

SHOW_WEATHERSTATIONS=1

SHOW_WEATHERSYSTEMS=1

SHOW_DATATAGS=1

SHOW_TERRAIN=1

[FlightPlanMap]

LineWidth=2

SHOW_AIRPORTS=1

SHOW_VORS=1

SHOW_NDBS=1

SHOW_APPROACHES=1

SHOW_INTERSECTIONS=1

SHOW_VICTOR=0

SHOW_JET=0

SHOW_AIRSPACE=1

SHOW_FLIGHTPLAN=1

SHOW_WEATHERSTATIONS=1

SHOW_WEATHERSYSTEMS=1

SHOW_DATATAGS=1

SHOW_TERRAIN=1

show_waypoints=1

show_airways=1

show_markers=1

show_volume_boundaries=1

show_ac_twr=1

[MULTIPLAYER]

condAccoutPassword=0

VoiceVolume=0.960000

..The only addon I am using is the PMDG 737-800 NGX Aircraft, which seems to bring about the worst perfoamnce in terms of frame rates, which always stay at around 15 - 22fps at best..

Do all your planes slow things down, or just that one?

Meantime try using the 'Unlimited' frames-per-second setting, I've got a high-end PC too and it seems to like Unlimited best so that it can "stretch its wings"

20ish FPS sounds about right for this system.

Compared to my 3770K (780ti) the AMD is quite a bit weaker when it comes to crunching numbers, see here:

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/450/AMD_FX-Series_FX-8350_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-3770K.html#bench

3D games are no valid comparison, they simulate very little, so the ALU processing power is not that important.

I am afraid your computer is not as "high end" as you think it is. Games like FSX require a rather high level of cpu computational power to run acceptably. Unfortunately your AMD cpu is not as capable as the equivalent Intel Cpu at this time.

While your graphics card is rather good, it is infact under-utilised by FSX as the game is all about raw cpu power when it comes to performance. For example my i7 4770k is currently maxed on two of the physical cores and near max on a third while playing FSX, yet my R9 270x barely goes above 45% load.

Since the i7 I have is one of the better chips you can buy, the performance your getting at the moment seems rather in-line with its currently processing ability in comparison. More cores are not always better, and in FSX's case this holds true.

It's a bit on the low side considering you have water effects at the minimum and LOD at 3.5 with minimum traffic.

Are you running one screen or two? I see you have wideviewaspect False. get rid of freeway traffic.

Take a look at Kostas guide pinned to the top of the forum.

20ish FPS sounds about right for this system.

 

Compared to my 3770K (780ti) the AMD is quite a bit weaker when it comes to crunching numbers, see here:

Total rubbish, and posting a irrelevant bench test link is of no help what so ever to the problem this user is having with FSX, before you choose to make sweeping comments that are totally baseless have just a minor clue on what you are talking about.

As for your problem Yokies I agree with ScatterBrainKid with changing your fps to unlimited, also see what else is running in the background of windows, many times a anti virus program will effect your fps quite a bit. You can also make sure you are running the right resolution settings for your rig in FSX. These are basics I know but quite often overlooked and is best to check and test these things before getting to deep in to cfg settings. One other thing turn your shadows off.

Total rubbish, and posting a irrelevant bench test link is of no help what so ever to the problem this user is having with FSX, before you choose to make sweeping comments that are totally baseless have just a minor clue on what you are talking about.

 

As for your problem Yokies I agree with ScatterBrainKid with changing your fps to unlimited, also see what else is running in the background of windows, many times a anti virus program will effect your fps quite a bit. You can also make sure you are running the right resolution settings for your rig in FSX. These are basics I know but quite often overlooked and is best to check and test these things before getting to deep in to cfg settings. One other thing turn your shadows off.

I agree with you darrly, heck with my low in PC with all settings at Med/high I get above the 25-30 FPS

I see darrly you are from Christchurch, wife and I did our bucket list Feb. 2015, loved it, did New Zealand and Australia.

rcca

YorkiesWorld,

Your cfg looks OK so far, the settings are even a bit low all things considered. Are you using NvidiaInspector and did you set up a profile for FSX?

I have good results with DX10, but you need to use the commercial DX10 fixer with that. But dont expect massive improvements. Our systems are pretty similar, except mobo and CPU, so I am applying my experiences here. With everything tuned just right and running my triple-full-HD-TrackIR setup with a ton of addons, I'm getting between 20-30 FPS too in the NGX on the ground, and 40-60 in the air.

If you are game for experimenting, I suggest trying the following:

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=4096

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

WideViewAspect=True

TextureMaxLoad=32

[GRAPHICS]

ForceFullScreenVSync=0

(For Vsync use NVI, set it to "Force On" or in Nvidia control panel turn VSYNC "ON")

[sCENERY]

LENSFLARE=0

DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1

IMAGE_Complexity=5

MAX_ASYNC_BATCHING_JOBS=3

SmallPartRejectRadius=4.0

[TERRAIN]

LOD_RADIUS=6.500000

MESH_COMPLEXITY=100

MESH_Resolution=23

Texture_Resolution=28

Autogen_Density=5

DETAIL_TEXTURE=1

Water_Effects=6

SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=10

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti .0.0]

AntiAlias=1

Anisotropic=1

Mode=5760x1080x32 (set your resolution here)

Please make a backup copy of your FSX.CFG first. This is part of my all-things-unlimited setup, I came up with that one after 2 years of tweaking - settings may seem exotic, but they work very well for me. Plus the matching NVI profile of course.

But be warned that they are for an i7, FSX Boxed and DX10, and they may not work for you at all.

Here are my settings when I had an almost identical system to yours:

https://uchisworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/happy-anniversary-part-2/

There are significant differences in FSX performance between an AMD processor running at 4.0ghz and an Intel processor running 4.0ghz. FSX is not completely multicore optimised and the Intel processors have a higher single core data throughput. This gives FSX better performance on an Intel processor.

Good performance is definitely possible with your system. As someone suggested, check your background processes as well, eliminating any program competing for that Core 0 activity.

According to Kosta's tweak, there seems to a problem with display settings.

Your cfg

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=4096

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

WideViewAspect=True

TextureMaxLoad=32

Kosta's tweaks

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096

It would appear that the settings are reversed.

Bruce

These are all notorious fps killers:

AirlineDensity=30

GADensity=14

FreewayDensity=20

ShipsAndFerriesDensity=8

LeisureBoatsDensity=8

Set them all to zero and things should be better (yes I know, these settings are no fun :(). Then tune these values to whatever tradeoff in performance you find worthwhile. BTW, I almost always have FreewayDensity=0, for IMO car traffic may be quaint, but it's so inaccurate I find it annoying after a few minutes.

I see darrly you are from Christchurch, wife and I did our bucket list Feb. 2015, loved it, did New Zealand and Australia.

rcca

Oh nice, I am pleased you enjoyed your stay and made the trip all the way down here. A long time in a plane I know. Christchurch still a mess from the earthquakes so sorry about the mess :). If you ever down this way again give me a holla got plenty of room at the house.

If you want to improve your frame rate go to Avsim (Have not seen the file here) and search for airtrafficmanager. All 1 word just like that. You will find a thread for it. It is free, it is awesome and I guarantee it helps. The only traffic program it does not work with is UT2. You run it in the background and you can limit the planes within a certain bubble. I have my traffic set at 30 and 25. I run the airtrafficmanger with it set to 25 to 50 aircraft shown depending in the kind of flight. If you can not find the file let me know and I can put it in my dropbox for you.

Ross G

Oh nice, I am pleased you enjoyed your stay and made the trip all the way down here. A long time in a plane I know. Christchurch still a mess from the earthquakes so sorry about the mess :). If you ever down this way again give me a holla got plenty of room at the house.

Wow! thanks for the invite at your place, did not catch your invite, been very busy, traveling, and had to buy a new gaming desktop, crap! came with W10, my FSX runs pretty good, older game don't work on W10, which I knew that, 100's $$$$ down the tube, oh well. Have a good day.

Set your frame rate at 30fps. You mention running 15-22 fps. .this will be quite normal around built up areas. Though as you don't mention what add ons you might be running? Have to say though, that frame rate is a little low from a vanilla set up. Now i say lock down your frame rate as what you require is a smooth frame rate rather than a jerky one. Your frame rate will NEVER be greater than your screen refresh rate!! never!! don't care what others say. . it simply won't be. . so forget about your 100fps crap people post. Set 30fps and let the cpu do the maths rather than waste its power on trying to establish high frame rates. Shadows off, light bloom off set normal autogen and high scenery. water set at either low 2 x or high. Setting too low can sometimes cause stuttering depending on your affinity mask setting.

as for affinity mask set at 84 and see how you get on.. .try bench marking to start with with a constant set up as I've highlighted, then start pushing up the ai. .traffic, boats etc. .

Set it until you get your 30fps constant outside of the built up areas / cities etc. If your getting 15-22 frames in these high burden areas don't panic.. its fsx and 10 years old!

I have an AMD (drat it all) Phenom II x6 1055T 6core processor, and I discovered an interesting little item.

Many of the FSX.CFG Tweaks posts I have read say to put in the

[bufferpools]

Poolsize=0

tweak for FSX. I tried it, and I had stuttering, white boxes, and GFX card lockups, along with a few BSODs. I took it out, and suddenly all that cleared out, it was smooth as silk on a woman's thigh...ahem...sorry.

Point being, the BufferPools tweak seemed to be a very bad thing ON MY SYSTEM. I saw it was present in the OP's post of his FSX.CFG file, and no-one has mentioned it since, so I am. It is not the be-all and end-all of all tweaks. At least ON MY SYSTEM. Taking it out lets me turn several sliders up higher. Max? No, but higher. It also lets me us Anisotropic Filtering, and the rarely mentioned Sparse_Grid_Supersampling in the NVidea Inspector settings.

Some interesting things to adjust in the Inspector, too, but that's another subject entirely.

Just my little bit...

Pat☺