Frame Rates

[Guest nat2005]

Hi everyone,Before i start this post i would just like to say that i know i should really post this in the MS Flight Simulator Discussion forum but out of the five post i have post in that forum i havent had a reply from any of them, and i always get a quick reply from this forum. Here goes:I have a very annoying problem with my frame rates, for example: I am sitting at the FS9 default airport, KSEA, on the active runway, with Fair weather option in FS, in the FS9 C172 and am getting about 14-20FPS. I know people that with the same specs as me and in an enviroment full of addons (VFR Photographic Scenery, VFR Terrain, Cloudy etc...) that are getting 49FPS so they probably get about 60-80FPS when they are at KSEA (the situation above). I have enclosed my FS9.cfg and would really really like it if someone could point out to me where i am going wrong, or just give me some settings to change and see if they improve the performance. You should be able to see how i have the sliders in FS in my config file (enclosed). I have just done a clean install of FS and so far all i have installed is PMDG, Simwings Malaga, UK2000 EGNX, VFR Photographic scenery Vol 1,2 & 4, VFR terrain, FS2crew, FSNAV and SB3. I know it sounds allot but before i re-installed FS i had double that and was getting higher FPS, about 29-35FPS in the situation above. In a months time i will be buying a GeForce 6800GT 256MB which i am hoping will increase my performance, but i would like to feel i am getting the most out of my current graphics card (GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB, with 61.77 drivers) before buying the new one.TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_MAP=1TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=0EFFECTS_QUALITY=0GROUND_SHADOWS=0SMOOTH_VIEW=1IMAGE_SMOOTHING=1TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=0LANDING_LIGHTS=0IMAGE_QUALITY=0TEXTURE_BLDG=1TEXTURE_GND=1TEXTURE_WATER=1AIRCRAFT_TEXTURE=1SEE_SELF=1TEXTURE_QUALITY=3LOD_TARGET_FPS=14NUM_LIGHTS=1[sOUND]SOUND=1SOUND_FADER1=0.750000SOUND_FADER2=0.100000SOUND_FADER3=0.300000SOUND_FADER4=0.000000SOUND_FADER5=1.000000SOUND_FADER6=0.000000SOUND_QUALITY=2[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200.0]Mode=1280x1024x32TriLinear=1TnL=0TextureAGP=0RenderToTexture=0[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=60[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=0TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.5000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=9[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=3DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1DYN_SCN_DENSITY=3DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=0SUNGLARE=0LENSFLARE=0Sorry for the long post,Cheers,Nathanial

[michal 44]

How did you set up your AI traffic?Also TextureAGP=0 is not something that I would recommend.You can always delete FS9.cfg and FS9 will recreate a default version. Also you can try playing with PanelAsTexture=0(or 1) - search for this on other forums for full explanation.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

[Guest nat2005]

At the moment i do not have any AI Traffic because i fly online with VATSIM. I was still getting the same FPS when i had the FS9.cfg file as default (Just done a clean install of FS9) thats why i tried modifying it do see if i could get better results. Will try your other suggestions, Thank you for your help,Nathanial

[Guest nat2005]

I changed the got rid of the textureAGP=0 but didnt notice a difference im afraid and i looked for PanelAsTexture in my Config file but its not there...Nathanial

[Guest Robin.B]

If you have a 64MB card, and especially if it's a Ti4200, don't expect much from it :(

[Guest stevesj]

I agree with Robin a card with 64mb which dosn't offer all the 'features' of the latest dx version, just isnt going to cut it in FS9 especially if you have 3d clouds enabled. You could try simple clouds.Another route might be to visit the forums at http://www.guru3d.com/ and post your 3d mark, somebody there will be able to tell you straight away if the mark is right for the rig. This could save you a lot of time troubleshooting something that might be trouble-freeYou could also try overclocking the card, but be careful and don't expect miracles.What about background running programs are you using fsautostart or similar ?Check for a virus, they can eat cpu cycles which would case low frame rate.System/CPU temperature OKhope these ideas helpSteve

[Guest tomahawk_pa38]

Steve,How do you overclock a video card and what will it do please ?

[jjeffreys 12]

Replaced this line:>DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Ti 4200DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP< This works great for Nvidia cards. Also look into the latency of your card using latency config can't remember exactly where to find it but I am sure if you search AVSIM forums you will find a link. When I had my Ti4200 I was getting close to the same as what you are getting and after the first tweak I believe I went up to around 30. After I got my GT and overclocked it I am now getting much higher.Hope this helps.

[Guest stevesj]

DaveUnless the current driver has the overclock option then for nvidia cards you need a regedit called coolbits which allows you to change the clock speed of the core and the memory. The max core overclock is around 10per cent (I think) the memory can be overclocked quite a bit more. I would take a look at the website in my earlier post for more info, you will probably be able to get coolbits from there too.Overclocking will cause more heat, you probably will need more cooling.HTHSteve

[Guest zip]

Something is odd about your system.Suggestions:- "antialiasing" option turned on in FS (IMAGE_SMOOTHING option shows it's on in your config). That is a HUGE frame killer because it doesn't do what you think it does under the hood. To use AA in FS, set that up from the DirectX tab in video properties for your video card, and force it on there. Turn that off in FS, you're going to see much improvement.- heavy fragmentation of the hard disk.- specific to AMD: make sure your memory is setup for dual channel if your mobo supports it. I have two 512Mb sticks and depending on what slot they're in (my mobo documentation was utterly useless on the matter and the color coding of the memory slots didn't help a bit - pun intended), the dual channel didn't work and my performance impact was almost 4 to 1. I found that out by running memory perf tests. The impact in FS was phenomenal, 15 FPS to over three times that.- I would highly recommend you get a video card with at least 128Mb of memory for FS. 64Mb is the minimum requirement if I recall correctly.

[Guest nat2005]

Strange, in FS it shows antialiasing is off, and in my Graphics card options i have AA 2x and AF 8x (probably slightly to high). Sorry but im not a computer wizz so could you explain abit more about the Dual Channel? (I have a ASUS K8V-X). And also this may sound weird but is there anyway i can find out what speed my RAM is? Tell me if im wrong but would 1.25GB of fast RAM be allot allot better and improve performance than 1.25GB of slow RAM? And also another problem i have just started getting is when installing new scenery i get "Windows - Delayed Write Failed" message which corrupts my installation. I am thinking of performing a complete strip of both my HD and starting from fresh. And last thing at the end of the month i will be getting a GeForce 68000GT 256MB card.Cheers,Nathanial

[Guest stevesj]

EtiennePlease could you advise which software can perform this memory test ?Cheers Steve

[Guest zip]

Hi!Question 1:Glad that AA is turned off. Have you deleted your CFG file and re-created it?Question 2:SiSoftware Sandra has a great utility to perform these tests. You can download it from www.sisoftware.net. The memory test is what I've used.There are several "free" versions out there.Hope this helps,

[Guest nat2005]

Hi,Yes i have deleted my CFG and let FS recreate it but no improvement. Due to a problem with windows (I hope... hope its not my HD), the error message is "Windows - Delayed Write Failed", (It means i cant install anything onto my FS9 HD without it being corrupted) i am going to perform a complete reformat of both HD