Can someone explain this?!?

[neumanix 113]

Hi! I've had this thing bothering me ever since I got the 8800GT 512Mb about a year ago.To get the smooth gaming experience I have to get 60 fps, otherwise the display stutters, how frequent depending on the <60fps I'm getting.I think this is what's called microstuttering.Now today I decided to try FRAPS and capture in full screen at 30 fps. In FS9 I was getting around 50 fps and when I started capturing video, the fps naturally locked down to 30.This all was stuttering like mad and very annoying.But the resulting video I captured at 30fps is absolutley smooth. Just like when I get 60fps in the sim.I remember some years back when I was using an ATI X800 XT and how 30fps felt totally smooth as well.There doesn't seem to be a fix for this issue on the 8800GT so I wonder if upgrading to a GTX280 (or similar) would help?!

[bobbyjack 61]

Your 8800GT should be more than up to the job. Tell us about the rest of your system. Drivers can make a big difference. I found 169.25 drivers to be about the best for my 8800GT, and my system. Bob

[neumanix 113]

Your 8800GT should be more than up to the job. Tell us about the rest of your system. Drivers can make a big difference. I found 169.25 drivers to be about the best for my 8800GT, and my system. Bob

My system is pretty decent... E8600 at 4.5Ghz, 4GB DDR2, Raptor 10K rpm HD...I've tried every possible driver there is, no difference, only minor differences in image quality and blurries. The stuttering is impossible to get rid of. As said, all is well when I can maintain 60fps but that is impossible when flying the PMDGs in complex sceneries for example.But I'm always getting above 30fps no matter what situation, and that should look smooth, but it's far from it because of the microstuttering.

[Guest ppokit]

Have you altered your FS9.cfg file?I was plagued with stutters for a while but cured it by editing the "TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT" value (found in the "DISPLAY" section) from the default 40 to 300.I think the max valid value is 400 so experiment until the stutters are under control.I hope this helps!Chris

[bobbyjack 61]

What happens when you lock at 30, or less.Bob

[tfm 169]

My system is pretty decent... E8600 at 4.5Ghz, 4GB DDR2, Raptor 10K rpm HD...I've tried every possible driver there is, no difference, only minor differences in image quality and blurries. The stuttering is impossible to get rid of. As said, all is well when I can maintain 60fps but that is impossible when flying the PMDGs in complex sceneries for example.But I'm always getting above 30fps no matter what situation, and that should look smooth, but it's far from it because of the microstuttering.

I could be miles off track here - but could it be that you've got your PC a little bit out of balance? Your CPU is obviously running beautifully, but maybe the DDR2 RAM is having trouble keeping up. At your level of CPU overclock, slight imbalances elsewhere may tend to show up more than on systems with slower CPUs. Why not try pulling back the CPU to, say, 3.8GHz just to see if it makes a difference: if so, then you'd know where to concentrate your efforts (and/or resources).Tim

[neumanix 113]

I've tweaked my fs9.cfg and nothing there affects the stutters.The lower I lock the fps the worse it gets.Also tried running at stock speed (3.33mhz), same thing.There must be something fundamentally wrong with my gfx card.