Please Help ... Can't Get Above 10 Fps On Fsx

[Guest woodsey]

Hi All,I'm hoping someone can tell me where i'm going wrong...my configuration is:Asus P5B Deluxe with :Core Duo E8600 3.1Ghz4Gb RAM XfX Nvidia 8800GTS graphics cardrunning Vista 32bitsFSX installed on separate harddrive from C: and defraged regulary...All non essential services shut down under windows...Despite what i believe is a pretty good configuration i cannot get decent framerates on FSX...when flying across Europe i barely get above 10 fps (i have Active Sky & Radar Contact running in the background)Can anyone provide any tips for improving the situation ? please... !ThanksChris

[Guest ThrottleUp]

That is a capable system you have there but even I get 10+ FPS on my ancient Pentium 4 machine. Obviously something else is going on.Some things to check:1. What slider-settings you are using in the sim? Particularly clouds & water effects as they are quite a drain but even then with an E8600 I would expect much better. 2. SP1 applied?3. FS9.cfg tweaks applied4. How much resources your security apps are using?5. What aircraft are you using when you see this low FPS count? A complex one with a VC?Another suggestion would be to get rid of (disable) the Aero interface. I have noticed quite the speedup on my laptop when this was done. Its unecessary unless you a really must have glass buttons Strip the OS down to the bare minimum!You can also have a go at using the freeware Vista Services Optimizer:http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/vista-ser...soptimizer.html

[Guest UlfB]

Your mobo is an old one. Maybe you need to update BIOS?Does your cpu run at the correct speed? You could check that with CPU-Z.At Asus support forums I found this post that might be of interest.http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=200...SLanguage=en-us

[Guest woodsey]

Thanks guys....To answer some of your questions:- Yes SP1 installed- Clouds on Max density & Water efforts Low- Avast antivirus is disactivated when I run FSX- Low fps with most 3P aircraft...yesterday was with E-Jets from Wilco but the same with PMDG 747X or Captain Sim 757 - i don't use the VC cockpits only 2D.- Last BIOS installed (1237) and CPU-Z shows a bus running at 333Mhz. And memory (Corsair PC2-6400 DHX) appears to be running at same frequency (ratio 1:1)I was running a system with a E6600 2.4Ghz processor + 4Gb of Corsair Value RAM before ungrading the processor and memory - i've seen no improvement and if anything a slight decrease in performace :( i 've noticed the partition i've got FSX installed is also a system partition (i don't know how as system in installed in C on a different physical drive...) .. anyway once I figure out how to format it i'll re-install and start again.i'll also have a go with the system optimiser you mention.Thanks

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Try bumping down the clouds a bit, that will definelty boost performance.Also here is a link to manually tweaking Vista services (if you prefer it to using an app like VSO) from the Black Viper website (scroll down for table). Needless to say make sure you have backups before doing any tweaking :( http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

[Guest Nick_N]

Hi All,I'm hoping someone can tell me where i'm going wrong...my configuration is:Asus P5B Deluxe with :Core Duo E8600 3.1Ghz4Gb RAM XfX Nvidia 8800GTS graphics cardrunning Vista 32bitsFSX installed on separate harddrive from C: and defraged regulary...All non essential services shut down under windows...Despite what i believe is a pretty good configuration i cannot get decent framerates on FSX...when flying across Europe i barely get above 10 fps (i have Active Sky & Radar Contact running in the background)Can anyone provide any tips for improving the situation ? please... !ThanksChris

Chris.. the first 5 posts in this thread has everything you need to know about system optimizing, FSX tuning, driver setp and memory managementhttp://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Ya...?num=1208959973STAY AWAY FROM BLACK VIPER you are asking for trouble using that site because:1. He has people shut down services that can cause perf issues due to background 'loop' activity2. How he says to shut down a service WILL NOT remove that service footprint of the system3. Modern system that use 2GB or more in system memory do NOT need a massive shutdown of services! Its useless! There are KEY SERVICES and STARTUP software applications which DO need to be shut down that do the complete optimize job and it does not require a total shutdown of services to accomplish for best results. Using a massive 'shutdown' routine is nothing more than taking a machine gun to a system and if not performed correctly the wrong services shut down WILL create more background activity that if they are active for the system to poll and in standby. unless you know exactly what you are doing... dont go near Black Viper

[GSalden 4,653]

Yesterday I was at the Dutch Aviation Mega Store.There they had a 6850 processor with 2 Gb DDR800 and a 7900 graphcis card running FSX with all sliders set to max !The "secret" : the computer had Windows Beta 7 installed !They tried before with XP and Vista but never got a framerate over 5.I saw an average of 14-20 with my own eyes.They let me check the FSX settings .AA and Af from within FSX.They also used the DX10 preview mode.With a seaplane I flew at a tropical desitination and incredible how it all looked , especially the water.They had put REX on the machine. The rest was default scenery.Myselfs I just finished downloading Windows 7 beta 64 bit.....

[Guest Nick_N]

Yesterday I was at the Dutch Aviation Mega Store.There they had a 6850 processor with 2 Gb DDR800 and a 7900 graphcis card running FSX with all sliders set to max !The "secret" : the computer had Windows Beta 7 installed !They tried before with XP and Vista but never got a framerate over 5.I saw an average of 14-20 with my own eyes.They let me check the FSX settings .AA and Af from within FSX.They also used the DX10 preview mode.With a seaplane I flew at a tropical desitination and incredible how it all looked , especially the water.They had put REX on the machine. The rest was default scenery.Myselfs I just finished downloading Windows 7 beta 64 bit.....

I would need to understand the miracle of how they ran FSX in DX10 on a video card that has a DX9 coreAs for Windows7... even in pre-beta its killing both XP and VISTA in benchmark tests

[GSalden 4,653]

I would need to understand the miracle of how they ran FSX in DX10 on a video card that has a DX9 coreMy fault, it was a simple 8000 series.I just burned Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit Build 6801 on a DVD.Now I need for W7 64 bit :- a good defrag program- a good anti virus- a good register cleaning program- a good anti spyware program Any suggestions ?Nick , any tuning advice ?

[Guest ThrottleUp]

STAY AWAY FROM BLACK VIPER

Whew guess I was lucky then :( I used those tweaks on my Vista laptop and its screaming along now compared to what it was, definetly more responsive! However having said that I didnt do ALL that is mentioned on that site and perhaps thats what kept me outta trouble! Bottom line simmers - backup backup backup and did I say BACKUP before you do ANY fiddling around!

[dolph98 24]

Hi,Your system is somewhat equal or even better than mine and I'm getting 24FPS (locked) solid most of the time except over LA at night. I have a Dell XPS420 with a Q6600 @ 2.4GHz, 3GB RAM, Vista 32, nVidia 8600GTS. The video card is the bottleneck. I would upgrade but the cheapo Intel mobo Dell puts in won't take anything better. My power supply is lame too.That being said, here's how I got to 24FPS:1. Followed the setup tips at this location within FSX: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_fsx_techtips.html2. Updated video drivers to 181.00 from Guru3D (they're beta but they work very well so far)3. Shut down non-essential services using EndItAll available at http://www.docsdownloads.com/enditall-1.htm, then I open task manager and shut down what I missed. Do not "end process tree" or it could cause problems, just end process. I want to check out what Nick said - he may be onto something. I know a Windows guru - I'll ask him tomorrow about it. 4. Use the nVidia control panel for the settings, I no longer need nHancer. I have all settings in the control panel maxed and use in-game AA and Trilinear mipsI don't have a lot of hours on it since the driver upgrade but FSX seems ever so much better. Before the video driver switch I was only getting 20 FPS most of the time...

[tfm 169]

Hi All,I'm hoping someone can tell me where i'm going wrong...my configuration is:Asus P5B Deluxe with :Core Duo E8600 3.1Ghz4Gb RAM XfX Nvidia 8800GTS graphics cardrunning Vista 32bitsFSX installed on separate harddrive from C: and defraged regulary...All non essential services shut down under windows...Despite what i believe is a pretty good configuration i cannot get decent framerates on FSX...when flying across Europe i barely get above 10 fps (i have Active Sky & Radar Contact running in the background)Can anyone provide any tips for improving the situation ? please... !ThanksChris

I don't disagree with any of the advice you've already been given. In particular, you are likely to end up bewildered and frustrated if you randomly push and pull the sliders because some make more difference than others. With your specs, the ones to target initially are probably these:(i) Light bloom (keep OFF under DX9);(ii) Shadows (try turning OFF all shadow options and see what happens: I would settle for keeping "Aircraft casts shadow" on ground and discarding all the others); (iii) AI traffic (turn it ALL off - air, road and sea - and see what happens);(iv) Water (try High 1.x and do not go higher than Low 2.x (except in areas far away from lots of complex land/ground scenery));(v) Scenery complexity ("Very dense" or below);(vi) Autogen ("Dense" or below);(vii) Resolution (should be OK but try reducing it; and try reducing colour depth to 16 bits: very little difference in visual quality but sometimes a slight improvement in performance).After that, if you find your framerate occasionally DIPS to 10 fps, for example when you are on approach to a major airport over a large city with AI traffic, then your experience is broadly typical - although with your kit, personally I would expect 10 fps to be a very unusual occurrence even in a heavy add-on from PMDG or Level-D, even using the virtual cockpit.But if you still LITERALLY cannot get above ~10 fps no matter what the conditions then either (i) Radar Contact (which I have never used) is doing it; or (ii) something has gone wrong with your specific configuration.More generally - at the risk of teaching a grandfather to suck eggs - there is no magic solution to performance in FSX. Everything in your PC needs to be in balance, which translates to "you really need the best of everything and a compromise in any one component may affect performance either directly (by being a bottleneck in its own right) or indirectly (by preventing other components from performing to their full potential)". But in your case, you might start by trying to get more out of your CPU. The stock speed of your E8600 is 3.33GHz, so it is not a good sign that yours is under-clocked to 3.1GHz: is there some particular reason for this? It implies that your BIOS settings for the CPU (and probably also for the RAM) are sub-optimal even for a conservative configuration. Do not rely on "Auto" to get it right, even when all you want is stock speeds: my experience of two Asus motherboards (the P5K and, now, the Rampage Extreme) is that "Auto" seldom picks the right settings, even when you just want conservative defaults.Moreover, the only way to get reasonable performance in ALL conditions with FSX in a heavy add-on is by over-clocking. People have different expectations but by "reasonable" personally I mean NEVER less than ~15fps even in heavy weather on approach to Aerosoft's EGLL on Vatsim at dusk with UTX night lighting in the PMDG MD-11: obviously the average framerate is considerably higher, but these are the conditions when performance is most critical. With a decent CPU cooler and motherboard an E8600 will comfortably exceed 4GHz: why not read around and see what you can expect with your own combination of components, or see if further investment (eg, in a new motherboard) might be cost effective? I know that some people say it makes no difference but personally I would recommend that, if you get the CPU right (and probably, in fact, as part-and-parcel of the process of doing so), you also invest some time in a little fine-tuning of your RAM.Tim

[Guest JAS39]

[Well said, Tim............

[Guest woodsey]

Hi Guys,Thanks for all your answers ! I've been through the reconfigurations & defrags and have re-installed FSX completely. I did some tests as I was installing the different add-ons. A completely clean install saw fps at over 250 for Ayers Rock, between 30 - 40 for Edinboro and 15 - 40 Le Bourget (Paris) doing a take off, loop and landing using standard FSX aircraft in the spot view. Traffic @ 30%.Once i installed UTX Europe the fps dropped 18 - 40 for Edinboro and 1-19 for Le Bourget (Paris) and installing CDG X further dropped the average fps in the Paris area.At the moment outside of major urban area the fps are high (over 50) but urban areas and landing at add-on scenery airports see then drop to below 10 at times.I had a couple of questions : - The fps jump around widely ... they can be at 100 then drop to 20 then back up, they never remain stable - does anyone know the reason for this ? Is it the PC having trouble buffering data ?? - NHancer - what does this application do ? I have not installed it but will it improve performance with a better graphic card management ?ThanksChris

[Guest UlfB]

- The fps jump around widely ... they can be at 100 then drop to 20 then back up, they never remain stable - does anyone know the reason for this ? Is it the PC having trouble buffering data ??

This thread might answer your question: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=239604