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jfri

How well will the PMDG 747-400 QOA perform on my system

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I'm considering to buy the PMDG 747-400 QOA for FS9. But I have heard that it is significantly hard om hardware resources and that 2 Gb is really needed even for FS9.I would like to ask if upgrading my system from 1 Gb to 2 Gb would have a noticable effect and make this plane runnable on my system.Also take into account that I run FS9 with Active Sky Radar Contact Ultimate Terrain and sometimes addon airport scenery.My system isAMD 64 32001 Gb RAM 400 MHzNVIDIA 6600GT 256M DDR3 AGPWin XP HomeJan Friberg

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From what I have seen myself with the PMDG 744 for FS9, your system is gonna give ~20 FPS max on the ground, maybe less with 2GB of RAM.

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Jan- I run PMDG 747/FS9 with a much less powerful system than yours- AND with triple views on 3 monitors! Works very well- thank you PMDG!For a detailed performance benchmark- in this forum, go back a few days to an AUG 5 thread entitled "Framerates Superdrop 747"- see my reply #11.When I increased RAM from 768MB to 1.2GB I got at least 20% improved FPS. Later increasing to 2.0GB did not seem to affect the highs in FPS BUT definitely seems to have put a better bottom/floor on the lows when the going gets tough in heavy scenery etc.Alex Reid

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Jan,If you got a $20 gift certificate, get the Queen (from your other post in the FS2004 section). Your system will slog down a bit but only in heavy scenery areas and especially using the VC. Another 1Gb of ram will be money worth spent as well. There'll be far less page file swappping going on and this will run FS 9 much smoother with fewer pauses as new textures load while you fly.Kim

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Not to change the subject, but Alex, how do get to run fs9 reasonably well on your lower end system? Do you turn all autogen off or is it by tweaking the cfg?Just curious thats all, I can run it decently but im always looking at ways to get a few more fps.ThanksGerry


 Intel I7 12700KF / 32 GB Ram-3600mhz / Windows 11 - 64 bit / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060TI / 32" Acer Monitor, Honeycomb alpha/bravo, CH rudder pedals, Tobii 5, Buttkicker, Logitech radio panel. 

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Gerry- here are my settings- at least the ones that seem to make triple views work on a 5 yr old 'puter.Scenery Complexity normal, Traffic below 30%, Autogen off (who wants trees and 2 story stone houses beside runways?), Simple Clouds, FPS unlimited, other FS9 settings mid range. Ultimate Terrain and Ground Environment- both full blast & seem to have no measurable effect. Generally I have most popups open- except Overhead and COM panels which are really hard on FPS.A Windows XP setting that helped was setting Virtual Memory to Let System Manage. And of course 2MB RAM- the excess over 1.25 didn't increase FPS but definitely seems to cushion frame rate from going too low when you are into complex scenery.Finally, never let a view on one monitor overlap another mon- but there is no penalty with popup overlaps! Go figure!------------Last but not least- I'm quite comfortable with frame rates of 15-18 on triple mons/views. I can't see any quality difference with single mon @ 30-36. Because of that, I continue to wonder if the FPS displayed with triple monitors/views may not be correctly computed!(I know, the tech gurus will say that's not possible.)I see the reason to want a high frame rate, is to have a cushion so it doesn't sink too low in heavy going. ("Honest officer, the reason I was speeding was to not lose any time if I get stuck in heavy traffic!")Incidentally, one of the real quirks here is that the sim is completely stable and flyable at frame rates as low as 7! (a night landing at KLAX will do it) Yes, nearby scenery- runway marks & blue edge lights will have a chatter or flicker as they flash past wingtips but the airplane motion and more distant scenery remains quite stable!! A bit strange- maybe FPS IS higher than displayed?Alex Reid

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>Jan,>>If you got a $20 gift certificate, get the Queen (from your>other post in the FS2004 section). Your system will slog down>a bit but only in heavy scenery areas and especially using the>VC. Another 1Gb of ram will be money worth spent as well.>There'll be far less page file swappping going on and this>will run FS 9 much smoother with fewer pauses as new textures>load while you fly.>>KimA final question here could it be any benefit in still anoyher Gb to end up with 3 Gb RAM?

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Jan,Since you have Windows XP Home, you won't get much if any benefit from 4GB's of RAM. The OS won't see all of it, only about 3.25GB's will show. There's also some hacking involved to get it to work. You really need the 64 bit Windows version for the 4GB's of RAM to work.http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=79235http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988Unless you want to work at it, I would just suggest getting another 1GB of RAM to keep it simple for yourself.Kim

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>Jan,>>Since you have Windows XP Home, you won't get much if any>benefit from 4GB's of RAM. The OS won't see all of it, only>about 3.25GB's will show. There's also some hacking involved>to get it to work. You really need the 64 bit Windows version>for the 4GB's of RAM to work.>>http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=79235>>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988>>Unless you want to work at it, I would just suggest getting>another 1GB of RAM to keep it simple for yourself.>No 4 Gb is not considered only 3 Gb. I already have two 512M Samsung modules. I consider getting two 1 Gb modules instead of two 512M modules. That could give me 2*1 Gb + 2*512M = 3 Gb. It can be a little tricky to find two 512M modules that will work optimally with my current modules. With two 1 Gb modules I will still end up with at least 2 Gb if this turns out to be a problem.

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Thank you very much for the info Alex, much appreciated.Gerry


 Intel I7 12700KF / 32 GB Ram-3600mhz / Windows 11 - 64 bit / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060TI / 32" Acer Monitor, Honeycomb alpha/bravo, CH rudder pedals, Tobii 5, Buttkicker, Logitech radio panel. 

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>No 4 Gb is not considered only 3 Gb. I already have two 512M>Samsung modules. I consider getting two 1 Gb modules instead>of two 512M modules. That could give me 2*1 Gb + 2*512M = 3>Gb. It can be a little tricky to find two 512M modules that>will work optimally with my current modules. With two 1 Gb>modules I will still end up with at least 2 Gb if this turns>out to be a problem.HiIf you are considering purchasing new DDR RAM (and if you feel you need more than 2GB of RAM in the first place) then I suggest purchasing 2 x 2GB dual channel ram straight away. Dual channel relies heavily on 2 identical ram modules manufactured, tested and used together. Exact same timings, same voltages and a few other things. Mixing 1GB and 512MB modules together is not a recipe for stability. Furthermore a lot of motherboards are not all that fond of having all 4 memory banks filled. Some can refuse to work outright, some can give up under pressure. 2x2GB is also much more future proof (especially if you are looking at DDR3).A 32 bit OS will see (and use) anywhere from 2.5GB to 3.25GB with 4GB of RAM installed. This depends on a few things (the amount of memory on your gpu being just one). My system sees exactly 3GB (my 9800gtx has 512MB RAM).BE VERY, VERY, VERY careful when using any /3GB/Userva=2560 (or similar hacks with XP or Vista 32 bit) in your boot.ini file!!! I cannot stress this enough. This is especially dangerous if you are using XP SP3. If you want to use all 4GB of your shiny new ram then 64 bit Vista is your only viable solution (XP 64bit is an option but driver support is generally better for Vista 64 bit and this will only continue to improve). Hope this helpsKonrad


Konrad

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>If you are considering purchasing new DDR RAM (and if you feel>you need more than 2GB of RAM in the first place) then I>suggest purchasing 2 x 2GB dual channel ram straight away.>Dual channel relies heavily on 2 identical ram modules>manufactured, tested and used together. Exact same timings,>same voltages and a few other things. Mixing 1GB and 512MB>modules together is not a recipe for stability. Furthermore a>lot of motherboards are not all that fond of having all 4>memory banks filled. Some can refuse to work outright, some>can give up under pressure. >Purcasing new DDR RAM is one of the option. But I think I must reconsider this. The PMDG 747-400 is the only reason I considered the need for more than 1 Gb in the forst place. I have found new 1 Gb 400 MHz corsair modules that according to Corsair has been tested to work on my Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard. They will cost almost as much as 2 * 2 Gb 800 MHz DDR2 which make me feel wary. Also from what I have heard the PMDG 747 won't run well on my system even with 2 Gb RAM.>2x2GB is also much more future proof (especially if you are>looking at DDR3).>My motherboard does not support 2 Gb modules neither do I think any 2 gb PC3200 modules exist.

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