***New Radeon 9800XT- I am dissapointed - Need Guidance***

[Guest sj3]

Pieter: The stutters you describe can easily be caused by Windows background tasks running every so often. An example would be stock tickers, real-time weather updates, etc. Take a look at Windows tweak guides to get rid of unnecessary services. On the main FS forum here, Version 2 of someone's tweaking guide has recently been posted.Good luck.

[Guest Fltsim Phil]

You guys are freaking me out....... I just bought an ATI 9800XT 256mb card and was planning on installing it this weekend. I currently have an older nVidia card. I spent MONTHS installing FS2004 and dozens of add-ons (AI aircraft, scenery, PMDG 737, etc). PLEASE tell me I don't have to re-install FS.... I think that's more than this poor soul could handle!Flightsim Phil

[Guest Fjorko]

Well, thanks for the suggestions, but i make sure the MINIMUNM of things run in the background....only thing i didn't mention was....The stutters are usually worse if there are clouds about, but then again it is very intermittent... coz sometimes there are NO stutters with quite a bit of cloud about ???Ah well, guess i'll just have to live with it !Thanks anyway !

[WebMaximus 372]

If you haven't already done so, try to defragment your harddrive. Part from that I think like I said in my previous post that more memory and maybe a faster CPU as well would cure your problem.Good luck!

[Guest Ray CYYZ]

Just curious, you have installed whatever disk controller drivers are required to get your hard disk running in DMA mode right?Sometimes hardware changes mess up settings, and PIO mode on an IDE drive is not going to keep up with FS9.I have the same card running just dandy on a P4 but there is no point comparing Intel bandwidth to AMD bandwidth anymore.Check AI traffic, it can crater ANY machine's frame rate. Also check any utilities that are reading map type data such as FS Navigator. That extra read activity can cause just enough to do the drive stutter.Other thing to find out. Does the stutter go away when you turn DOWN detail? Does the stutter happen with just FS9 installed by itself?Ray

[Guest bdiregolo]

Can someone tell me how to check and see if my hard drive is in DME? Is there a tutorial anywhere or can someone post a quick one for me please?

[Guest Fjorko]

Yeah mate, i run in UDMA mode 5, which is the fastest for an ATA100 disk.Also, i have nothing else installed in FS9 except for PMDG 737NG............Also to verify , the stutters are especially bad in the external spot view if you circle around the plane........but insside (2d panel) the stutters are very very brief , but constant non the less......, and usually it gets worse as you make turns left or right !!!With Details (sliders) UP or DOWN.......FPS stay at 22FPS but no matter what detail i add or take away...those little stutters remain ( on turns that is)So i'm kind of starting to rule out the Graphics card by now !Cheers

[WebMaximus 372]

If my memory serves me right the sound card can mess up things pretty well too, have you tried modifying the settings for sound or even better made sure you're running the latest version of drivers for your soundcard?

[Guest Fjorko]

Yep, done all that !Have an Audigy Player SoundCard, has the latest driver installed.Guess I'm just to fussy....will get used to it i think ! If you guys saw the performance you would probably say "THATS NOT BAD AT ALL !!!"Would have been nice to know what actually causes these little annoying stutters though !Try and see if you also get them........look for* Just before takeoff ( as the wheels lift- there is a slight pause)* As you turn left or right ( even in clear wheather)....little pauses about 1/4 of a second, but in quick succession as if something is trying to catch up.And as i said...it is there no matter what quality, no matter what resolution, no matter what plane at all...they are there ALL the time. But in straight and level flight....well they seem to not be there....it seems very smooth then !Cheers !

[WebMaximus 372]

Well, I'm quite fussy myself and I for sure would have noticed if I had those kind of stutters. Very strange considering you have reinstalled everything from scratch and still have the very same problem! Makes you belive (if your Windows installation is totally clean) that it must be your hardware that's causing the problem somehow. Trying another CPU might be tricky, but what you maybe could try is if you have some friend with the same kind of memory as you have and then borrow another 512 MB RAM and see if your problem vanish with 1 GB RAM installed.Another thing you could try is having a look at this site. Lots of tips about tuning your Windows system for maximum performance.http://www.sanx.org/tips.asp?action=performanceThe two most important ones mentioned would be:1. Turn the 'System Restore' functionality OFF (in case you don't absolutly think you need it of course)2. Turn the 'Indexing Service' OFF on your HDD(s) (same as above)Also go through all your running processes (using Task Manager) and make sure you don't have any unfamiliar ones running or any processes that simply don't need to be started. At the site mentioned above you will among lots of other tips find a list of services that are running by default that don't really need to be started on an ordinary home PC.I know how annoying it can be when you have these kind of problems and don't know how to solve them. Said it before and say it again - good luck getting rid of your stutters!!Cheers,

[Guest Fjorko]

HiWell interestingly enough, i didn't think about the system restore option you mentioned, and it dawned on me that it actually monitors the system all the time......soo... i thought .....lets try that for the heck of it.....and so far ------------> MUCH less stutter...almost none, so it must have helped, coz it was much worse a while ago !Thanks for the suggestion !!!

[Guest Fjorko]

Erm....so far it seems to be MUCH Better after i disabled the system restore option....... LETS KEEP OUR FINGERS CROSSED.......mybe i'm just in a dream right now !!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZThanks anyway !

[WebMaximus 372]

That's great news Pieter, glad if I could help!Come to think of one more thing I forgot to mention and that is to take a look at your swapfile and make sure it's optimally configured. I for instance have two physical HDD:s in my PC and therefore I have divided the swapfile evenly over them. But that's only if you have more than one physical HDD of course... But even when having just one HDD configuring the swapfile correct can almost seem like rocket science when reading all different tips about it. What I found out work best is to make your swapfile 1,5 x your installed RAM. In your case that would give you a swapfile of 768 MB. Then you should give it a fixed size instead of allowing Windows managing the size on the fly since that will consume valuable Windows resources. So...try setting it to a fixed size and let the initial value be the same as the maximum value, ie 768 MB in your case.Take care and I'll keep my fingers crossed your stutters don't dare to return again ;-)All the best,

[Guest cvj4]

>>The two most important ones mentioned would be:>>1. Turn the 'System Restore' functionality OFF (in case you>don't absolutly think you need it of course)>>2. Turn the 'Indexing Service' OFF on your HDD(s) (same as>above)>Could you tell me where I find these 2 settings?Thanks

[SierraDelta 1,337]

Claus,I think that those settings might be WinXP specific (at least System Restore) and I noticed in another post that you're running Win2k, so .......