I have a 30fps rate in external view but as soon as I switch the 2D panels on it falls down to less than a third. Approx 6-8 fps.This is not fun and makes the 747 unflyable for me.It has to do with the CRT/Flat panels screens. PFD/ND/U/L.When I switch the upper CRT in the middle position off I notice a slight improvement in the frame rate.Do change the 2D display update rate in the PMDG menu>General has no impact.As soon as I press Shift-1 to hide the 2D-panel I get the full frame rate.Now here comes the most interesting thing:With the PMDG 737-800/900 I don't suffer from this. I have an amazing 25-30 fps with the 2D panel.Considering that 747 is the newer and supposed to be more advanced product this doesn't make sense to me!My display settings are:Render to texture ONTransform and lighting OnAA OffFiltering BilinearMIP quality 4Hardware-rendered lights 8Texture size: MassiveI use an ATI X1900XTX graphics card with a 30" Apple monitor 2560x1600 resolution.On a side note: I wish PMDG would update their bitmaps for the 2D panels to cater for more modern and higher resolution displays. I can count the pixels on my big 30" monitor on the 2D panels.The settings on the ATI are:driver Catalyst 6.4AA 6X (temporal AA Off)Anisotropic Filtering 16x (HighQuality AF ON)Disable Catalyst AI (ON=disabled)Mitmap Detail Level QualityWait for vertical refresh: Off, unless application specifiesAdaptive AA OFFAs I said frame rates with the 737 in 2D are amazing, why not with the 747?thanks,SteveFS9.1 | 2x Dual Core Opteron 270 | SuperMicro H8DCE | 4GB ECC REG DDR400 RAM | 8x SATA-II drives | ATI X1900 XTX PCIe | Apple 30" | Magma 7-slot chassis | WinXP Pro

No one?

sorry. i can only make an observation adding to your woes, but no solution. using the f/o side in the 2D panel has a lower fps than using the captain's side. very strange, but try it, and you will see. From the captains side, toggle the switch that moves the heading from MAG to TRUE, notice that it will be smoother on the left hand seat, then when you go to the right side, and do it, it's choppier becuase of lower frame rate.tomas.

>sorry. i can only make an observation adding to your woes,>but no solution. >>using the f/o side in the 2D panel has a lower fps than using>the captain's side. very strange, but try it, and you will>see. >>From the captains side, toggle the switch that moves the>heading from MAG to TRUE, notice that it will be smoother on>the left hand seat, then when you go to the right side, and do>it, it's choppier becuase of lower frame rate.>>tomas.>>Do a search for this issue in the forums. I have seen a thread like this before. Sometimes this is caused by a window open behind other windows.Here's one thread:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=searchGood luck,John

Yes I looked at all these threads.It doesn't apply. I don't have any other windows behind the 2D cockpit.When I press Shift-1 there are no panels left and only the scenery can be seen. (Filling the upper half of the screen).The moment I press Shift-1 and the cockpit panels disappear I get the full frame rate.As I said before, the three CRT/LCD displays for ND, PFD, etc. seem to eat up the frame rate.It's possible to switch the Upper right (from the captain seat) to blank mode, so it doesn't display anything (usually the Engines and warnings plus flaps) and I see a slight improvement of the frame rate.If I click on the displays so they get big I have less than 3 fps.My questions is:Why is everything perfect with the 737 and not the 747?The 747 is supposed to be an improvement over the 737. Now I hope PMDG will never 'improve' the 737!I'm really out of ideas...

There is a mysterious FS parameter called PanelAsTexture. It sometimes has dramatic impact on performance in 2D cockpit. Please search for explanation of this parameter and where to set it (or reset it) on the main MSFS forum and its knowledge base/technical forum (here on Avsim). Some people had to set it others had to reset it to see dramatic changes.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gifhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

Steve,Do I read those specs correctly, you're running twin dual core CPUs!? (4 CPUs total)

>There is a mysterious FS parameter called PanelAsTexture. It>sometimes has dramatic impact on performance in 2D cockpit.>Please search for explanation of this parameter and where to>set it (or reset it) on the main MSFS forum and its knowledge>base/technical forum (here on Avsim). Some people had to set>it others had to reset it to see dramatic changes.>>Michael J.>http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gif>http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpgI tried it. Didn't do anything.And it still doesn't explain why 737 has a full frame rate without this parameter.PMDG should be able to answer what's different between the 737 2D cockpit ant the 747 one.

>Steve,>>Do I read those specs correctly, you're running twin dual core>CPUs!? (4 CPUs total)Yes. But I need it for my work. FS9 doesn't take advantage of it anyway.

In the fs9 CFG i added this RenderToTexture=0 TextureAGP=0 PanelAsTexture=0 note:you add the lines under DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440.0Mode=800x600x32 but your card may be named differnt this gave me about 4more FPS it dont sound like much but on my slow computer it really helps.

OOOPS sorry i posted to late sorry i see it didnt help.

>Yes. But I need it for my work. FS9 doesn't take advantage of>it anyway.You may want to investigate this further. You may want to disable some CPUs (through BIOS) and see what happens. There was a very similar problem with Flight1's Piper Meridian product (may care to to go to their forum or search throuygh Avsim) - after they disabled the other processor or disabled something else related to threading they regained the performance. Sorry that I can't be more specific.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gifhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

>>Yes. But I need it for my work. FS9 doesn't take advantage>of>>it anyway.>>You may want to investigate this further. You may want to>disable some CPUs (through BIOS) and see what happens. There>was a very similar problem with Flight1's Piper Meridian>product (may care to to go to their forum or search throuygh>Avsim) - after they disabled the other processor or disabled>something else related to threading they regained the>performance. Sorry that I can't be more specific.>>Michael J.>http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gif>http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpgThat still does not explain why I can fly the PMDG 737 perfectly fine!This doesn't make sense...