Nothing but Problems

I just bought a new rig. I thought I was upgrading from my junk Toshiba C55A laptop to a new Dell IntelCorei7-6700 with a GeForce GTX750. I knew the vid card wasn't great, but I thought it would be a big improvement.

On my old C55 laptop, I used FS9 and then, P3Dv3.

I just bought FSX-SE and have been using it for a couple weeks now.

All I am having are major issues with display.

I guess it is because I have settings cranked too high. I have flickers, times when the windshield goes completely black with side windows showing strange patterns of graphics (swirly paisley stuff), which I fix by simply turning anti-alaising on/off.

I was getting framerates in the 60s or better at first. I set it to max 30fps to alleviate strain. At airports with weather and WOAI traffic, I now am seeing framerates as low as 3fps at times.

So my question is:

Am I stuck turning all settings low? Should I ditch WOAI or crank it down to 10% or something? I also use MAIW and GA-Traffic program.

Or what kind of upgrade do I need to do so that FSX works as well as my junk C55 laptop ran P3D.

I didn't have half the problems on my C55 than I do on my new Dell.

Do I need Pascal technology to run this thing the way I want?

Should I buy a better processor? Will it even make a difference or is the dated FSX technology starting to become incompatible with all this new stuff?

Should I buy the latest P3D and ditch FSX? My problems with P3D were many, but not general display problems. Mostly menu glitches, not many FSX products freeware work properly, concrete taxiways appearing as grass, and terrible night graphics. Also the AI cannot be seen further than 5 miles, it seems.

This is just very frustrating. I thought about trying to overclock this new rig, but I am not sure how, and could not find anything google searching that actually explained how to overclock. With my luck, I would burn up my new system. And I am not even sure if overclocking would make much difference from what I've read thus far.

I feel if I have to turn everything down, I might as well not even use it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Andrew

What is the clock rate on this new rig, Andrew? The rig ought to be fine, and the graphics card too, as FSX is very much CPU-oriented.

But let's start at the beginning - or at least what I see as the beginning. :D

Update the OS (which one is it, BTW?) to the latest level, and that includes the drivers for your graphics card etc etc. If the OS is a 64-bit one (doesn't matter if it's 7, 8, 8.1 or 10) then put at least 8 GB of RAM in the system, and preferably more. Install FSX to somewhere OUTSIDE of where Microsoft wants it by default, that is install it to for example C:\FSX, or preferably to a different drive. Then follow Kosta's tweaking guide, located here: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?259352-FSX-P3D-Software-and-Hardware-Tweaking-Guide

And if you run on HDDs, keep them defragged.

My own rig is a I7-6700 at 3.4 GHz, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, one 1 TB HDD for the OS and "everything else" and 2 x 1 TB Samsung Evo 850 SSDs, one for FSX and scenery and the other for photoscenery. The whole thing sits on an ASUS Z170-A motherboard with 6 GB/sec SATA interfaces, and feeds a nVidia GTX 960 graphics card. It runs Windows 10 64-bit, and it runs to my satisfaction. I don't crave high frame rates, but smoothness in operation, and this rig delivers. The next thing I'm going to do is gets another 1 TB SSD to replace the HDD, and then I'm going to look into careful, conservative overclocking.

My AI is set to 100% - both Airline AI, GA AI and Ship AI. Leisure Boat Ai is at 40%, but Road Traffic is at 10%.

So, bottom line as I see it - there's hope out there!

Jorgen

I have a Dell Windows 10. I assume that everything is updated as I just bought this rig two weeks ago. But I will see about updates. My display adapters all say they are up to date.

I think I have the same exact system you have. i7 6700 with 16GB RAM. Not sure what kind of RAM. I assume DDR. Clock rate 3.4 GHz

I cant even find where it says what dang computer it is I bought. A Dell something or other 8940 or something... It's not a lamborghini by any means. Even after using computers for about 35 years. I still seem to be an idiot concerning exact specifications, how they are used, but it is what it is.

I make a flight, park at the gate, leave the computer sit for an hour, come back and try to make another flight and something always goes wrong where I have to shut down flight sim, or sometimes ever re-boot the computer and start over. Every time I have used this sim on this new computer, there has been some kind of problem. I am getting old and I certainly would like to see a flight simulator that runs smoothly without problems before I leave the earth. Ha

I too, have 1GB for memory. I have traffic sliders around 60%, 10% ground traffic and no ships. I try to keep settings lower. I do like having terrain cranked up, but I have water set low.

IDK, what a mess. I feel like I totally wasted my money.

I might have to go with X Plane but I dont think you can fly with a keyboard. I don't use yokes and pedals. I have had about enough of Microsoft.

I would be VERY surprised if your system's Windows 10 was updated ex-factory. You'll probably need to run Windows Update a couple of times before that's complete, and that will take some time, but be worth it. Also, you should install nVidia Experience to keep your graphics card drivers up to date, nVidia releases new ones twice a month.

Jorgen

Certainly too much AI aircraft can bring down every computer. So about 15-20 percent is good for a lot of AI activity.

Maybe also other settings need to be reduced to high instead of max and it will run better with fewer crashes.

Dan

Intel Core i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93 runs FSX maxed out

AI is 60% airline, 80% GA

GET THESE CLOUDS...

HDE v2, Photo Realistic Texture Pack (Category: FSX > Scenery)

They make a HUGE difference in FSX and look better than default

One thing I recommend to get better frame rates in FSX and P3D is a program called AirTrafficManager. It allows you to control the amount of air traffic seen. For instance, I have my traffic sliders at 20% in the simulator but I set AirTrafficManager to only display no more then 25 aircraft at a time. it works with Aircraft and boats. I don't fly without it anymore.

I don't know if it is ok to put links to other sites here but I will give it to you and I would imagine someone will let me know if it needs to come down.

You can find a link to this free program here in this thread.

http://www.avsim.com/topic/451048-traffic-optimizer-for-p3d/page-32

So if having the AI sliders cranked too high causes fps decrease, what do I need to buy to improve this?

Is it the better processor, better vid card, both?

If I go ahead and buy these things, is there a chance I will still get unacceptable frame rates/slide show/less than 30fps? I heard 30fps is the slowest that the human eye cannot detect a difference...

Continued thanks,

Andrew

***I heard 30fps is the slowest that the human eye cannot detect a difference...***

If your ego can tolerate it try 19fps, that leaves huge amount of resources for detailed clouds, scenery, no stutters, etc

It's one of the reasons my lowly i3 can run FSX maxed out

Everyone may love to see that 30fps up there, but it's mostly pointless

I can switch from 19 to 30 and there is NO visible difference

Your processor is already the i7/6700 - no one better around now, as far as my knowledge goes. After this it's overclocking - which will void your warranty.

Frame rate is a touchy subject, but about 30 is correct. That's the TV frame rate in the US and other countries with 60 Hz mains power, in 50 Hz countries the TV frame rate is 25.

Jorgen

Actually, the HDE v2 can be found HERE in the library.

Also, just a note, not only clouds, but, of all things Airport Ground Traffic can be a real framerate eater. Airports, especially very detailed 3rd party add-ons, can be a big drain on the processor. The Ground Traffic slider turned up too high can really boost their CPU usage, lowering framerate.

Road Traffic can eat frames too, but not as badly. I am flying in the air, and I don't do much in the way of screenies, so I turned both those down to 0. But that's me :)

Hope that helps a little...

Pat☺

I just purchased GTX Direct and ASN for xmas. I have all AI traffic working; MAIW, WOAI and even GA-Traffic. It looks great and runs great. I did some tweaking to anti-aliasing using NVIDIA Inspector, and that has helped a bunch. Good to know my processor is sufficient. I will upgrade the vid card when finances permit.

Thanks everyone, And I did use the HDE-v2 and was happy with that.