Periodically fluctuating FPS

Dear fellow FSX-fans!

I recently bought a brand new PC, installed WIN 10 (x64) and than FSX: Steam Edition. This is what I got:

This video was recorded at KSEA in the cockpit of the default 737, with medium-high settings. Despite doing nothing, you can clearly see, the FPS drops down without any visible reason at 00:31; 01:31, and 02:31 and I can't figure out why. Little disclamer: I've been playing FSX:SE for years, but never experienced such an issue on my old PCs.

This FPS-jumping makes the game stutter in every ~1 minute.

My current config:

MSI B350 PC Mate motherboard

AMD Ryzen 5 1500X CPU (3,5 gHz)

Asus GTX 1050 ti 4 GB GPU (driver nr. 398.36)

16 GB Crucial DDR4 2400 mHz RAM

240 GB Kingston SSD

FSP 500 W Hyper power supply

I don't use any mods, tweaks, third party addons etc. I tried to delete the original cfg file in order to let it being regenerate. I tried disable Windows 10 DVR (because I read it can cause performance issues). Nothing helped.

The issue occurs in full screen and windowed mode too. I tried to set FPS limiter to 30, 40 then unlimited, and start my gameplay less dense airports than KSEA. Nothing helped, the problem still occurs, even during the flight!

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Your playback function didn't work for me. So I can't see what you're trying to show. But I have run FSX at 25fps for years and never had a detectable stutter. In fact many movies have aired in theaters for decades at less than 30fps without stutter.

Have you tried a frame rate of 25? Everything I've read says your eyes can't tell the difference. I've fooled with the speed and once it's at 25 or higher, I can't detect a change change.

Lets try againg:

Hi apeliver,

I'll bet it has something to do with GSE (Ground Service Equipment "vehicles") or AI starting at the gates or Jetway detachment from AI aircraft, although you aren't in direct view of these elements they are in the near vicinity, when they are active they will cause FPS fluctuation, as its less about GPU visuals than it is about CPU load, every active element around the airfield will impact FPS when AI are sleeping they pose less impact when the start or move or interact on the apron with other services that might be what you're seeing when FPS fluctuates.

How many AI are making their way to the Active runway or backing away from the gates, just landed or taxiing. Keep in mind KSEA and the greater Seattle area are notorious for heavy CPU load.

Cheers Jethro

Could very much be AI stuff, as Jethro pointed out.

Also, chasing FPS is a never ending saga, as Rupert also says.

As an experiment, try setting your fsp to 25 & compare to unlimited.

Cheers,

Robin

The fact that it is occurring at regular intervals means something running on the PC is 'filling up' the available processing power, causing it to have to dump/transfer some data to free things up. Question is, what is that?

Assuming that there are no other background processes external to FSX running, either linked to it or otherwise, i.e, it's not you also running Call of Duty at the same time, or something is streaming down to your computer from online, nor is it FSX updating the weather in something like Active Sky or the AI in Ultimate Traffic or whatever then bursting that data into FSX at a regular interval, then it would have to be something in the FSX options updating and causing a bottleneck for processing every minute. Likely suspects are AI road, sea or airport traffic, AI aeroplanes, or updating weather. Try knocking each one of those down/off and observing any changes in the timing/occurrence of any dip in FPS.

And you should really tweak your configuration to get the most out of your hardware. A great tweaking guide can be found here:

http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/f...ardware-guide/

Jorgen

And you should really tweak your configuration to get the most out of your hardware. A great tweaking guide can be found here:

 

http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/f...ardware-guide/

 

Jorgen

Ok Guys, I think I found a solution.

I tried almost everything to prevent these regular stutters (I even set literally all settings to the minimum) nothing helped.

As jorgen.s.andersen recommended, I read Kosta's tweaking guide, and figured out quite fast, that these stutters somehow connected to my 4 core (8 threads) CPU. So I opened fsx.cfg, added the line

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=84

and the 1-minute stutters disappeared.

I'm still testing, but hope this is the best solution. Thank you! :)

It always feels good when you finally find a solution. I have been fighting a computer issue (not FSX related) for the past 5 months, and just 3 weeks ago, I read an issue that a someone submitted, and after reading it, I thought, "Whoa, this makes sense.................. let's give this a try!" and low and behold, not one hiccup for 3 weeks now, and "HOW GOOD IT FEELS!"

I hope Jorgen has steered you in the right direction, it sounds promising! I hope your fix stays with you in solving the issue!

Rick :cool:

I am very happy that something worked for you. Try some of the other tips also - one everyone should use is

HIGHMEMFIX=1

Jorgen

A really good utility for monitoring your changes to FSX (Or ANY game) is MSI Afterburner (FREE)...

https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner

It works with any GPU and you can even see what each CPU core is doing.