High End PC = Still low frame rates!

[Guest smjfreeman]

Hi all,Since PMDG launched the 747, I have had several changes to my PC. All for the better.Please take my word for it when I say the system is "clean". I'm in IT for my business, and I see cacked up machines daily. Let me assure one, that this is not.The specs are under my name below, I'm getting between 15-25 FPS, and it occasioanlly drops to below 10FPS, which seems rather feeble for the power I'm running here.I see others reporting similar framerates for machines with less than half the power of mine, and still using the VC.I run the VC, with Track IR (of course), and run a single monitor setup.If I drop the resolution, the framerates dont budge, if I move away all the clouds/AI, the frame rates don't budge.... I just cannot get any more fluidity out of the bird - and I really want to!I have noticed this latest graphics cards CUTS through clouds far better than anything else I've had. You can do what you like with the clouds, and the FPS still wont budge from 20ish.Is anyone getting the FPS they are wanting? Thats using the VC ideally?This PC does everything else flawlessly, are there some hard limits in the performance of the queen?CheersMike FreemanDevon, UKAMD 4200 dual coreLanParty RDX200 ATI Crossfire m/board2Gb Geil RAM (soon to be upgraded)ATI 1800XT 512Mb gfx2x 200Gb RAID124" 1920x1200 - virtual cockpitCH Yoke, pedals, Throttle QuadrantAerosoft MCP,EFIS,EICASTrack IR (vector expansion)Homemade switch panel (from PS2 board)PMDG 744pax, FS2004 9.1Active Sky 05

[StarBlue 27]

Hey Mike,Also make sure that when you are flying to kill any un-necessary apps, Windows likes to drain processes as I am sure you are aware. I can't remember, someone had a utility that would kill all but the esential processes. As always make sure you have the latest drivers, the only thing I see on your hardware list that might be a clue is that ATi does not seem to run as well optimized for Autodesk's 3ds Max. (the main engine for FS) But that was more of the older cards, an 1800XT should be killer. I don't think Flight Sim takes advantage yet of dual core CPU's or GPU's, also nothing with 64bit yet. The resolution you are driving is my biggest wonder, you are pushing slightly better then HDTV so that is probably your biggest area of slowdown in my opinion. Also make sure you have the 1.01 update, there was some issues with FPS. I know you probably don't want to hear this, but drop the resolution down to maybe 1600x1200 and see what your FPS do.

[MELKOR 5]

Mike has already stated that reducing the resolution does not help.Mike,If you have the 400F installed, be sure to install the 1.01 update.Also, try setting your PMDG VC and Gauge framerates to their lowest (I believe this is 5).- Bill

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Mike-I'm going to tack onto the other poster that you should check for other apps.... Especially if you are running anything programmed by Norton/Symantec....You can find a post I made about 4 months ago regarding my experience with Norton/Symantec. DUmping their software off this machine resulted in almost a 50% boost in FPS.FWIW: I'm running a 3.8Ghz with 4GB of mem- a 7800GT and screen resolution at 2560 x 1600, with a second monitor holding the FMC/Overhead running at 1280 x 1024..... and my VC fps in the 400F are routinely around 28 in heavy scenery w/weather- and 60+ in flight.I run a super clean machine as best I can... YOu have to in order to enjoy MSFS the right way..So it can be done!

[markadeane 272]

Hi Robert, just to claify. With Symantec/Norton software, was it sufficient to just disable it, or was it a case of removing it altogether? I'm looking at their internet security suite but will shop elsewhere if the application itself kills the machine's performance just by being there.Also, with reference to an earlier poster's comment about an app that closes all but the essential processes, does anyone know what it was called? I need something like it pretty badly, lately I've added a few add-ons into the mix and I've found my performance creeping down towards 'unacceptable'.

[Guest airspace]

This is the link to the fsautostart website :http://www.kensalter.com/fsautostart/Darren

[mburkhard 23]

>I'm looking at their internet security suite but will shop>elsewhere if the application itself kills the machine's>performance just by being there.Mark,My experience is that disabling Norton does not help really. Or another thought, if you have to disable the software anyway, why bother with installing it?I've been a long time Norton user for some years. That was until last year. Their annual updates just used more and more resources form your PC and finally last year I've had enough. I dumped everything being Norton from my two computers. My notebook now starts Windows basically in half the time it used to do before.And as far as MSFS goes, use the Windows XP firewall and install a free anti virus programme, such as Avast Anti virus. This is more than enough protection. Since the XP firewall is built into the operating system it does not need as many resources as an add-on firewall would. So you can and should keep it running during your flights.But Anti virus you can disable during flight, your PC won't get infected if you do not mail or surf during a flight. Remember there's still the firewall protecting your PC. I have my flightsim PC running without any Anti virus for a year now and never had any form of virus on it, so the windows firewall is doing it's job nicely. And the money you've saved by not buying Norton should be enough for the upcoming MD-11 ;)Regards,Markus

[markadeane 272]

I had a nasty scare with a trojan that got onto my system a few months back and took a fair bit of effort to clear. I was running Avast and had the Windows Firewall on, I don't browse dodgy sites or anything like that either (honest!), so I'm a little wary of sticking with just Avast and the MS Firewall.So far with the Norton trial version installed I've found that, yes, FS performance went through the floor. With it disabled there wasn't much in the way of a FPS hit, at least as far as I can see. However if people have found that by it merely being installed the system slows down then I'll reassess. As always it's a balancing act between keeping my system clean and keeping my system fast!And don't worry I'll be a starter for one MD-11 thanks. :)Anyone who hasn't seen the ITVV MD-11 programme would be well advised to do so, I wasn't too fussed about the MD until I saw that programme, awesome bird.

[mburkhard 23]

Mark,too bad about that nasty trojan. I am really happy with the combination of Avast and XP Firewall. Then again no software can protect you 100%. The problem with Norton is you can't really completely disable it, there's always some sort of left-over running in the background. But as I said what good is Norton for if you have to disable it anyway when flying... Looking at it this way you'd still be safer sticking with the XP firewall than going the Norton way as you don't have to disable your firewall. Anyway as a general rule, never ever connect your PC to a broadband internet connection without any firewall running. This really is dangerous. I know most of the time this is not realy a problem as intelligent modems come with a built-in firewall. But if you don't have one of these and disable your Norton firewall... bingo!And about that ITVV MD-11 programme, a great one indeed! Trust me soon you won't like any other way of flying than the Douglas way! ;)Regards,Markus

[michal 44]

>I am really happy with the>combination of Avast and XP Firewall. Same experience here. :-)Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gifhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

[Guest]

I have a fast computer and the pax 744 works fine. but the freighter gives me less than 10 FPS all the time, even with clear weather and no traffic. and even with the 1.01 updateoh well, its fitting that the addon ive wanted for ages doesnt work right on my machine!

[Guest D17S]

I agree that Norton is a hazard. I use the free version of AVG's antivirus and my router's hardware firewall. Works fine. Just for fun, run the highest resolution possible and shut OFF anti-aliasing. See what that does. The LOMAC guys swear by it . . . but they (ahh, we) have an especially 'challenging' software enviroment.

[Guest smjfreeman]

Hi,Thanks very much for the interest in this, and your replies.I don't use Norton or any other system leech. I actually remove this rubbish from about 10-20 machines per week. It really is dack. As is McAfee. I use AVG for virii, and its highly efficient and doesnt slow a machine up.For the record, I have no AV on this machine anyway and disable many services and eye candy.I have dropped the resolution to 800x600 and the FPS is still low!! Can you beleive!I've ruled out the gfx card as being the bottleneck, I will change the RAM to Mushkin extreme next I think. Will place an order today.Thanks,Mike Freeman

[Guest Ray CYYZ]

FS can kill any machine, it is always about playing with the options and adjusting the configuration downwards until you have an acceptable level of performance. Do not delude yourself into thinking there is that perfect setting for everything. What might work for you in 90% of the area will crater in the remaining 10%. Also, do not fall prey to the "other guy" gets better syndrome. Unless you are running with his exact FS9.CFG, you can not even start to compare speed.I'm sitting here with an AMD FX60 with 2 Gigs of Ram and RAID0 SATA300's and an ATI 1900 XT. It looks pretty at 1920 x 1200 with max video effects (6x AA, 16x AF, etc) but ... I am locked at 20 fps. Some areas of the world *will* crater my performance. I either avoid them or reduce my visibility range and/or weather (clouds) to deal with it.Cleaning up eye candy in Windows XP is not going to make any real difference on any modern system. Disabling virus Scanners will make a huge diffence as all those scenery files coming off your hard disk and going into memory non-stop as you fly have to go through whatever protection you have running and if you do not have a VERY fast set of drives (read that raid0 striped set or SCSI array), you will stutter.Ray

[mburkhard 23]

Mike,are you by any chance using programmes like Ultimate Traffic or Traffic 200x? As long as your AI-Traffic is not hand-made it will bring every system to it's knees. Regards,Markus