Prepar3D V3 and Aero in Windows7

[Cruachan 705]

Hi,

 

I'm wondering what the current wisdom is regarding Prepar3D V3.0 and Aero in Windows7? Back in November 2013 Beau posted the following:

 

"Enable Aero in Windows 7:

VSync will only work in win7 if Aero is enabled. Enabling Aero should improve performance of the menus as well and may improve performance in general. Generally speaking, if you have a GPU powerful enough to run v2, your system will run smoother with Aero on anyway thanks to hardware accelerated window composition.

 

I ask this because this time around, following my new build, I decided to use a desktop basic theme with a nice image rather than an Aero theme. I have a GSYNC capable monitor so have no need for the VSYNC solution to achieve fluidity. NVIDIA have now enabled GSYNC in Windowed mode as well as Full Screen. I believe Prepar3D still only works in Windowed mode.

 

General performance is very impressive with virtually everything maxed out. My specs include an i7 5960X, 2xGTX 980s (factory over-clocked) running in SLI and 16GB of GSkill DDR4 3000. The MoBo is the fabulous ASUS Rampage V Extreme and the CPU is water-cooled. Prepar3D is installed on a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD. This build is primarily intended to be a 'gaming' rig and all software has been installed first without any system overclocking. To date, all I have implemented in the UEFI BIOS is the XMP profile for the GSkill RAM and the CPU is running at 2.8GHz...so much performance potential lies ahead I briefly over-clocked the CPU to 4.0GHz using the auto feature in the ASUS BIOS. No issues were encountered but I was still in the BIOS and no formal stress tests were performed. Also I was concerned that running in the 'real world' would likely damage the CPU as under this automatic implementation of the overclock it is quite likely that too high adaptive core voltages would be applied.

 

I'm straying a little off topic. Back to Windows Aero. Do we need it now or not? Aero was not implemented in Windows 8/8.1 and I am assuming the same applies to Windows 10. GUI performance in V3 is now rock solid in Windows7 without any of the menu instability experienced in V2.x. My monitor is the Asus ROG Swift PG278Q and currently is running at 120Hz. This frequency was chosen rather than 144Hz as Skyrim needs this to allow the use of VSync Adaptive (half refresh). This eliminates any graphic anomalies in Skyrim, which is now heavily modded, and is a delight to behold!

 

As a further aside, it is certainly worth noting that the AffinityMask setting in Prepar3D.cfg may not be needed in V3. My Haswell CPU has 8 cores and under multi-threading all 16 logical cores are detected and are being used appropriately (I think) by Prepar3D V3. Since installing Prepar3D V3 I have not felt any need to modify the cfg file. All in all I feel LM have done a terrific job this time around. I have yet to install any Addons. I judged it best to wait awhile until the 3rd Party Developers adjust their installers to suit the new folder structure.

 

Mike

[pmb 5,137]

Good question, Mike. I am running Win 10, which doesn't have Aero as well although there are 3rd party tools for implementing it (or sort of it).

 

Maybe you ask this in the LM forum where Beau Hollis might have an educated answer? Given P3D3 is officially Win10 compatible now they might have modified this?

 

Kind regards, Michael

[RW1 615]

I have the same ASUS G-sync and running W7 64bit, set at 144hz and 2560x1440, if my aero is not on frames are crap and below 20 fps and G-sync will not kick in!! Aero enabled i get anywhere from about 35-40 fps with smooth flying. i use g-sync with the Nvidia control panel, i disable vsync inside P3d and no triple buffer also. let your monitor refresh with the gpu.

 

Edit: do not lock your frames, leave them unlocked, If you lock them you will get tearing and artifacts when the frames drop off, G-sync seems to be smoother when it turns on and off under unlimited frame rate.

[Cruachan 705]

I have the same ASUS G-sync and running W7 64bit, set at 144hz and 2560x1440, if my aero is not on frames are crap and below 20 fps and G-sync will not kick in!! Aero enabled i get anywhere from about 35-40 fps with smooth flying. i use g-sync with the Nvidia control panel, i disable vsync inside P3d and no triple buffer also. let your monitor refresh with the gpu.

 

Edit: do not lock your frames, leave them unlocked, If you lock them you will get tearing and artifacts when the frames drop off, G-sync seems to be smoother when it turns on and off under unlimited frame rate.

Hi Rick,

 

Now, that is interesting. Running st same resolution and no FXAA, VSYNC or triple buffering in sim. Frame rates unlocked. No Aero enabled in Windows7 64bit and yet I am seeing a very fluid sim (vanilla install) with no screen artifacts, and frame rates are consistently 30+ (I've seen frame rates as high as 80 up in Alaska with heavy cloud.) I'm using settings very similar to Rob as seen at the end of his Black Hawk Video. The only difference, as I recall without checking, is I have the water slider at Ultra.

 

How can I confirm GSYNC is actually working? I have it set under the Global tab in NVidia Control Panel and Prepar3D.exe is using this setting, apparently.

 

Also, does anyone know how I can confirm SLI is working as the green slider does not show in a windowed screen? It would be nice to know the percentage usage by each GPU.

 

Regards,

Mike

Good question, Mike. I am running Win 10, which doesn't have Aero as well although there are 3rd party tools for implementing it (or sort of it).

 

Maybe you ask this in the LM forum where Beau Hollis might have an educated answer? Given P3D3 is officially Win10 compatible now they might have modified this?

 

Kind regards, Michael

Hi Michael,

 

Yes, I might do that. I thought I would ask here first as I believe more folk visit this forum at AVSIM than do at LM's Prepar3D forum. Also, any informed responses would be read by a greater number of people.

 

Kind regards,

Mike

[Cruachan 705]

Interesting article here on this subject:

 

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/does-disabling-aero-really-improve-performance-in-windows-7

 

Not sure it provides an answer to my question, however. It may be I would not notice much difference on my rig, but it would still be interesting to read the views of others on this matter. I'm getting the feeling that Aero is not really needed anymore as Windows 8.0/8.1 and now Windows 10 doesn't have this feature and LM haven't said anything with reference to V3 and Windows 7.

 

I've asked the question over at the Prepar3D forum. Will likely be a few days before I receive a response.

 

Mike

[Cruachan 705]

Okay, so I've completed some testing - probably what I should have done in the first place rather than running for advice and info

 

What I am about to say is underpinned with the usual caveat: here are my results, but your mileage may vary. As ever each system is different and your findings may not mirror mine.

 

If you are still on Windows 7 64 bit then congratulations! Enabling Aero does still seem to help with performance in Prepar3D V3.0. I did not note an obvious increase in frame rate, but what was immediately evident was the virtual complete elimination of micro stuttering. Performance was pretty smooth before, but I could still detect very minor micro stuttering as I viewed scenery passing by each side of the aircraft. That has now all but been eliminated and frame updates are now just as smooth as seen in Rob's videos. For me this is truly remarkable and remains so even while flying in heavy weather conditions with thick cloud and winds exceeding 36knots.

 

I can well understand why folk would choose not to enable Aero as it would free up some video ram on less capable GPUs, but if you can (by installing an Aero Theme) then you should at least give it a try to see whether by doing so you notice an improvement in performance.

 

I flew around for an hour or so - first in the Bonanza, then the Raptor followed by the Black Hawk - and never witnessed a twitch. The water now looks great and those waves are very convincing. Pushing the F22 up to 500-600+knots at low level does make the sim stutter a bit, but that's hardly surprising and not something I would attempt very often in a highly populated scenery area.

 

Frame rates throughout while flying around the Langley AFB area varied between 35 - 45 with scenery and autogen sliders maxed out.

 

CPU core temps never exceeded 40C (CPU still underclocked at 2.8GHz but all 16 logical cores are doing their bit to share the load with core 0 working the hardest).

 

GPU temps did not exceed 65C for one GTX 980 and 67C for the other.

 

I used HW Monitor V1.25 to monitor the temps.

 

All in all this has proved to have been a very satisfying experience and with an overclocked CPU and the installation of sim enhancing Addons it can only get better!

 

Mike

[RW1 615]

Hello Mike,

                   I really had not tested v3 with Aero off until you posted, probably because apart from v3, i`m still using v2.5 and also FSX/DX10 fixer so Aero is and was always on. So we really only have 1 G-sync alarm bell which indicates it has dropped out!! You will notice little flutters in the refresh rates as the fps drops below 30, its not a stutter but a very fine anomaly (thats what i call it) and you will notice this, input with view panning will become a little bit slower, ASUS should have coupled the red ring indicator on the monitors base to the Nvidia driver and used it as an indicator. Your good to go so as long as you have all the G-sync boxes ticked.. oh and in the nvidia global tab for G-sync make sure both boxes are ticked for full screen and windowed options, P3d as you know is not fullscreen.

 

For your test results i`m seeing the exact fluid performance you are Mike... same frames and temps, although my 4770k burns a bit higher conversely my 980 is watercooled also so i can turn up the OC more, i always switch back to my 2nd Dell 27 inch and run that without g-sync and you notice how crappy, stutter fulled and laggy the flying gets.....lol

 

Edit: For the SLI indicator some are using the msi afterburner which has a monitor graph for GPU output, that`s all i know. Also my AM is set to 252 and i`m also using Process Lasso and assign ASN to cores 0-1, works well.

 

 

 

Rick