FS2004 and slow frame rate

[Knight55 0]

Hi,I have been reading this forum for a while and wanted to ask a question. I have been having trouble with frame rates. They have been very jumpy going as low as 5 frames a second to 20+ frames a second. The following are my computer specs:Pentium 4 3.0GHz HT ProcessorASUS Motherboard1GB DDR400 memorySeagate 80 and 160 GB ATA100 7200RPM 8MB cache hard drivesASUS DVD-ROM and DVD-RW IDE DrivesATI Radeon X700 Pro Video Card with 256MB of memoryVideo card is running at 8X AGPWindows XP Pro with Service Pack 2Sound Card on the motherboardI have been doing hours of experimentation with all different settings but the problem still occurs. I have used EndItAll to end all unnecessary services and ran the ATI utility to check the video card settings and temp. I have noticed that the video card is not utilized to the fullest when the simulator is running with all of the sliders maxed out. I have tried turning the onboard sound off thinking that the sound card is not good but it doesn't really make things faster. I have noticed that other people with similar computer specs are getting 60+ fps with all settings maxed out. Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to increase the frame rate without loosing quality? Thanks in advance.

[Guest JTEK99]

Well, first off, I can assure you that some people who are getting 60+ FPS with all settings maxed out might not have the same scenery/aircraft setup that you do. I mean, lots of people with similar systems can get 60+ fps with all settings maxed out using the DEFAULT FS9 scenery and simple aircraft. However, with your system, you should reasonably expect solid performance with most sliders set to high, including a solid 25-30FPS with complex sceneries and textures (e.g., Ultimate Terrain, GEPro, ActiveSky hi-res clouds, payware airports, etc.).The first thing I would check is if you have any anti-virus packages running. Generally speaking, an anti-virus utility running in the background is the first thing you should check as it might be really hampering framerates by scanning every file accessed by FS9. Do you have an anti-virus package running?

[MarkRey 16]

Another thought - One of the most significant drains on fs performance is wasted cpu cycles as fs sometimes has to hunt for missing files, like textures, effects etc:http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...sk/Filemon.mspxYou can also search forums for 'Filemon' - there's been a lot of discussion regarding theuse of this tool in nailing down performance issues. regards,Markhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/a320/custbanner2.jpgPC Power Silencer 470/3.2HT/2048mb/ATI X1950pro/SB Audigy

[Guest over and out]

I have a very similar system and I only got frame rates in the 50s to 60s when I first used the basic default FS2004 with default aircraft. As soon as I started added junk my frames started decreasing. It also depends on where and what you fly. If I'm flying a Frieght Dogs mission in Alaska I get good frame rates 20 to 30. But when I roll out of LAX in the PMDG 737 Im lucky to get much more than the mid to high teens!Also it depends on your views during the flight. For example, with an outside view, if I look down on my plane with ground back or up at it with sky back I get good rates, but if I look at it from the side with the complex horizon scenery the rates drop.Also my rates dropped when I went from a 19 inch to a 24 inch screen.I also found that all the config file tweeking and using things like FSAuto Start etc, does'nt do anything to improve it on my system.So, if you run a lot of add ons, your FPS will drop. If you are running the default and you get really low FPS then maybe you got a bug somewhere?

[Guest billnltc]

Not sure if this will apply in your case, but my only experience with poor frame rates came early in my FS "career" when I went nuts and downloaded every free aircraft and cockpit gizmo I could find. One (or more of them) ended up causing a performance problem. Ultimately, I got rid of all of that stuff and the issue was resolved. Now I stick only to things I pay for, or the free downloads that have been downloaded by thousands of other simmers.Hope this helps...

[Guest MikeGTO]

I don't know if the following will help, but some users with hyperthreading Pentium processors get poor performance with FS2004 unless they tweak some settings...some info from an old post follows:>After starting FS, go into task manager (CTRL_ALT_DEL)>>Select Processes tab>>Right click on FS9.exe, select "Set Affinity">>Disable one of the two check boxes so that FS9 only runs on>one virtual CPU (I use CPU 0).>>Do the same on any other running utilities (i.e. FDC, RC) and>select the other virtual processor.>>I see better than a doubling in frame rates. This, of course,>assumes that hyperthreading is supported and enabled on your>motherboard and BIOS settings.>>An even better (permanent) way of constraining FS9 to run on a>single virtual CPU on an HT CPU is using the Microsoft>IMAGECFG utility (an older NT/2000 utility that works fine in>XP -- do a google search). Command syntax (in a Command>window):>>IMAGECFG -a 0x1 fs9.exe>>This writes a processor affinity mask into the executable. 0x1>specifies virtual CPU 0, 0x2 specifies vCPU 1, and 0x3 uses>both 0 & 1 (default). FS will always run on the specified>virtual CPU(s) from that point on.>>I have done the same to the other utilities I run on the>machine while FS is running, only restricting them to the>opposite vCPU.>>Thanks to Sean McLeod for pointing out this setting to me.>>Regards>>Bob Scott>ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300>Washington, D.C>

[Knight55 0]

Hi,Thanks for all your tips. I will uninstall and reinstall the simulator. I used to have it installed on Windows 2000 and I backed up my flight simulator folder before performing a clean install of windows xp pro. I then installed it on the new OS and copied the folder back. I have recently installed Flight Environment Pro including the weather part of it and it is possible that it is the cause of my problems. I use the automatic weather updates. I also bought and installed Ground Environment some time ago. Should I have these two addons installed at the same time? I did notice that the frame rates were much more steady and reasonable when I was using one of the fixed weather themes rather then updating the weather every 15 minutes. I will perform the reinstall and let you know if it works.

[Guest TomOOO]

I have some concern on the method you used to transfer FS2004from the old OS to the new version. It is usually considered unwisewith this sort of thing due to problems with the registry file. Thecomputer might be hunting for dll links and other files normallyreferenced in the registry, but these are not set up properly dueto the copy. It is usually considered that FE (pro ??? do you mean GE pro) improves frames rates, I have GE pro, UT and 76meter terrain andonly the terrain had a minor effect on the fps.

[aerdt 0]

You "copied the folder back"? What folder? If you're talking about the FS9 folder then that's a big "no no". You definitely need to completely re-install FS9 and start from scratch. Programs like this require a complete re-installation and cannot be simply copied. Even if you're only taking about addons or textures. Don't copy anything. Start from scratch.GE Pro and FE work just fine together and I would even highly recommended to use those 2 programs together.I would check the following:a) Ensure you use the latest chipset and IDE drivers:( Reinstall DirectXc) Download and re-install the lastest graphic driver. Uncheck anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering in FS9 and set the setting with your driver. This setting can be HUGE performance improvement in FS9 (not so in FSX).d) Continue to use "EndItAll". Great tool!e) Use the task manager (taskmgr.exe) to identify possible persistent resource hogs and CPU eaters.With your setup, I would expect at least 20-40fps in the default flight with most sliders maxed out.I forgot to mention: Never ever use the traffic that is built into FS9, because the traffic will use all available fligth models, which will absolutely KILL you frame rate. Always use traffic from freeware sources, like WorldofAI or commerical packages like MyTraffic or Ultimate traffic. Otherwise, turn the traffic off!Also: The someone with the Courier font needs to change his signature to not make the entire thread look like from a 80s style Unix terminal.Pat

[Guest blaster331]

Greetings Pat,How do you turn off AF in FS9 and i would also like to try your comment about taffic.I use both Ultimate traffic and WOA. How do you turn off fs9 traffic?ThanksAndrew

[Guest sdgulls]

Hi, Make sure that you don't have any adware on your computer. That tends to slow things down. Also, on my system, using the shadows setting uses up 10+ FPS. I've gone from 9 FPS to 20+ FPS not using shadows . Hope this helps. Bill P.

[Knight55 0]

Hi,I performed a complete uninstall and reinstall of FS2004 and tried all kinds of settings with mixed results. I was experimenting with different driver versions to see how the simulator would perform but I wasn't sure which driver is the best. What would be the best driver and version number for the ATI Radeon X700 Pro card? If ATI is the best source should I install the Catalyst Control Center or a utility like ATI Tool? Is it okay to install the display driver only? I would prefer to not use the Control Center as it uses up resources if it is not necessary. Are the Omega drivers better then the ATI drivers? Thanks for all the replys.

[Chuck_B 2]

I've got their Radeon X1300 and I use only drivers I've downloaded with the Control Center from their home page - I got tired of "hunting" for drivers. And I most definitely turn the Control Center off when simming. It eats up my FRs like a mad man.I have quite a lesser system than yours - Celeron 3.2 ghz - and I get very good frame rates using GE Pro and Ultimate Terrain together. I felt both were Godsends to my Flight Sim experience and wouldn't think of flying without them. FWIW, I use the old fashioned MSCONFIG method of booting up, and it has worked wonders for me: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796 Chuck B.KPHL, KVAY

[Chuck_B 2]

>>I forgot to mention: Never ever use the traffic that is built>>into FS9, because the traffic will use all available fligth>>models, which will absolutely KILL you frame rate. Always use>>traffic from freeware sources, like WorldofAI or commerical>>packages like MyTraffic or Ultimate traffic. Otherwise, turn>>the traffic off!How would one do this? Do I put the AI slider to 0%? I use WOAI and ProjectAI as my only AI Traffic addons now -- don't they override the default FS9 Traffic automatically? Thanks.Chuck KPHL, KVAY