FSX ground performance issues

[Guest Alphahawk3]

Adam, you make a very interesting observation about the sound. I built a very similar system last week with a P6T Deluxe. Works fantastic! The first program I loaded is a racing sim called iRacing. Gorgeous! Smooth, etc. FPS is measured differently and I was getting 100-400 fps everywhere. Nice. I go to the grid to race the first time on the new rig, 18 others are racing, and the fps is at 19, virtually unplayable. I was 95% sure it had to do with sound. All the extra cars and their sounds killed my performance, like you on the ground with all the other sounds around your aircraft. I changed some sound settings and got a slight performance boost, but still wasn't thrilled. The Soundmax driver that came with the P6T was terrible and actually shut down all sound in Vista x64. Uninstalled the driver. This is what led me to believe sound was the issue. Anyway, I ordered an Omega Stryker 7.1 sound card yesterday. Take all the sound processing off the CPU (and motherboard!) which I'm pretty certain will take care of this sound issue, especially since you mention something very similar. There's also several topics on this at the Asus forums. I was going to install FSX over the weekend, but am now waiting for the sound card first. I wish you luck, but you may want to look into a sound card for the new system.Todd

I have the same M/B and you can find lots of posts of mine...and others...about my issues with the SoundMax on-board sound and FSX....and in other forums about this issue. I too had to go with a sound card and it solved all my problems. Everyone who has this board does not have this problem. Asus knows about this but since it is not 100% I suppose they intend to do nothing about it. Regards

[jostytosty 1]

No, i also have seen folks recomend high priority, and some recomend low priority.I say to set it low cause1 - Unlike most applications on a computer, when FSX runs it uses most or all cpu power, leaving little left for other things to run like, mouse, hard disk, sound etc2 - The problem is, FSX takes up so much of the computer, it starts to prevent other things even FSx needs from running, like hard disk, mouse, keyboard etc.3 - By setting FSX to low, you allow all those other tasks to run, so they can get out of the way and leave the cpu to FSX. Cause low or high, FSX is still going to aim to us all your cpu anyway.4 But when its low, it creates a smoother FSX cause every task gets it s share.5 - Its is a flaw in the design of FSX software that causes this, good applications allow other taks to run, cause those other tasks could be things that it needs too.6 - I am a software engineer, and its standard in good software to free up some of the cpu so things dont lock up.7- The name for this in software speak is called Priority inversion, high priority task becomes slow cause its stopping anything else from running.

Please read the article by Intel on the issue of Hyper Threading. Yes tasks can have to wait on each other, but they only wait for a bit (millisecond? Nanonsecond?) in line, unless priority is set to high. It is more clever and more effective to turn off all the background nonsense that

[Guest adam_uk_wmids]

Adam, you make a very interesting observation about the sound. I built a very similar system last week with a P6T Deluxe. Works fantastic! The first program I loaded is a racing sim called iRacing. Gorgeous! Smooth, etc. FPS is measured differently and I was getting 100-400 fps everywhere. Nice. I go to the grid to race the first time on the new rig, 18 others are racing, and the fps is at 19, virtually unplayable. I was 95% sure it had to do with sound. All the extra cars and their sounds killed my performance, like you on the ground with all the other sounds around your aircraft. I changed some sound settings and got a slight performance boost, but still wasn't thrilled. The Soundmax driver that came with the P6T was terrible and actually shut down all sound in Vista x64. Uninstalled the driver. This is what led me to believe sound was the issue. Anyway, I ordered an Omega Stryker 7.1 sound card yesterday. Take all the sound processing off the CPU (and motherboard!) which I'm pretty certain will take care of this sound issue, especially since you mention something very similar. There's also several topics on this at the Asus forums. I was going to install FSX over the weekend, but am now waiting for the sound card first. I wish you luck, but you may want to look into a sound card for the new system.Todd

Todd,As it happens, I was actually using headphones with an in-line sound card - they were meant for apps like MSN messenger, with a built in mic and ythe sound card had background noise cancelling features built in, but I just don't think it was up to the complexity of FSX sound! Swithing to the onboard SOUNDMAX processor actually solved my problem.Not sure what graphics card you are using, but mine came with a hefty cooler attached and when plugged into the correct PCIe slot as set out in the Mobo guide, the cooler obscures the only PCI slot on the board!! So if you get a sound card it might be worth double checking it is PCIe or that your PCI slot is accessible!Regards,Adam

[NismoRR 191]

I have the same M/B and you can find lots of posts of mine...and others...about my issues with the SoundMax on-board sound and FSX....and in other forums about this issue. I too had to go with a sound card and it solved all my problems. Everyone who has this board does not have this problem. Asus knows about this but since it is not 100% I suppose they intend to do nothing about it.Regards

At least we know the problem and have it isolated and there's a simple fix. I suppose it's better to have separate processing for sound through a card, many people say how much better a card is as opposed to onboard. Hey Alpha(and Adam), quick question for you about the P6T concerning the SATA drivers. Did you install them? It sounds like a stupid question, but when I was finished, my drives worked fine (Vraptor, DVD-R) and I have yet to install the Marvell SATA driver......DING DONG.....UPS just delivered the sound card!!!! :( Besides installing/uninstalling the Soundmax driver, the only other utility I installed off the disc was PC probe. Thanks!

[Guest adam_uk_wmids]

At least we know the problem and have it isolated and there's a simple fix. I suppose it's better to have separate processing for sound through a card, many people say how much better a card is as opposed to onboard. Hey Alpha(and Adam), quick question for you about the P6T concerning the SATA drivers. Did you install them? It sounds like a stupid question, but when I was finished, my drives worked fine (Vraptor, DVD-R) and I have yet to install the Marvell SATA driver......DING DONG.....UPS just delivered the sound card!!!! :( Besides installing/uninstalling the Soundmax driver, the only other utility I installed off the disc was PC probe. Thanks!

I think I did install the SATA drivers, but I just went to check and it is telling me that they have been recognised as Intel SATA controllers, not Marvell... So either 1 of two things... I did, and they have since been overwritten in a windows update or I didn't. :) Eitherway, they aren't installed (well... in use anyway) and my drives all run fine.I also installed the EPU6 Engine - which intelligently controller fans and voltage depending on your current computer usage. I like this because it helps my PC run quieter when I'm not simming and saves me money in power usage! (Every penny counts!) When playing FSX, you can force the EPU engine to run on turbo then close the process to lock it there, as it were. Works well for me.Hope that was useful(?)! Have fun with the sound card!Adam

[NismoRR 191]

I think I did install the SATA drivers, but I just went to check and it is telling me that they have been recognised as Intel SATA controllers, not Marvell... So either 1 of two things... I did, and they have since been overwritten in a windows update or I didn't. :) Eitherway, they aren't installed (well... in use anyway) and my drives all run fine.I also installed the EPU6 Engine - which intelligently controller fans and voltage depending on your current computer usage. I like this because it helps my PC run quieter when I'm not simming and saves me money in power usage! (Every penny counts!) When playing FSX, you can force the EPU engine to run on turbo then close the process to lock it there, as it were. Works well for me.Hope that was useful(?)! Have fun with the sound card!Adam

OK, so I'll leave the SATA driver alone for the time being. Everything's working and don't want to screw it up. :( As far as the fans, I have the cpu fan, Zalman 9900, controlled on the MB with CPU q-fan and it's working very well for me. Idles around 30-31 at low fan setting, about 1000 rpm. High on the Zalman is 2000. After a long race session, the cpu is about 41-43, and the MB is around 47-48 and q-fan has the fan spinning around 1360 rpm at these temps and they come down fast. In five minutes, I'm around 36-38 cpu and 40 on the Mb and they keep dropping from there. As far as the case fans, I got an Antec 900 case that comes with four fans. Unfortunately they have 4-pin connectors and can't be plugged into the MB. I have them all on low and thus far, I'm happy with the temps. Adam, one other thing. This thread caught my eye last week cause we're using similar components, and also, that I have the VLJ. On my E6600/8800gts512/2 gb ram system, the VLJ killed performance, 12-14 choppy frames on the ground, and I'm very curious how it'll run on the new system. Now that you've fixed the sound, how's the performance of the VLJ on the i7? Hopefully very smooth! I think I could have fun with that plane if it performed well. I'll probably install FSX over the weekend. ( and Acceleration, a few megasceneries, SF260, Scout package, C-130, FTX, MyTrafficX, FSDiscover and VLJ. Oh, and almost every add-on has a patch too! )

[Guest adam_uk_wmids]

On my E6600/8800gts512/2 gb ram system, the VLJ killed performance, 12-14 choppy frames on the ground, and I'm very curious how it'll run on the new system.

Regarding add-ons and accelleration - I found that when I installed FSX SP2, it made a number of my old FS9 add-ons unusuable, despite me having patched them already with upgrades for FSX. A number of FS9 to FSX updates for add-ons seem to only work up to FSX SP1. I am only using FSX SP1 due to this, but it seems okay, although I'm looking at a possibility of a work around currently for SP2, if somebody replies to my question on the current thread in this forum called something like "SP2 Black Cockpit Glass in VC". However, I am also only using 32bit XP pro at the moment too, so this could be compounding the problems.Regarding the VLJ - I just tried another test flight from EGLC (London City) in heavy cloud, which is quite a demanding area in terms of scenery anyway. It was flyable, although frame rates did dip about 3-5 fps with this aircraft - I think it is the navigation/avionics guages which hammer the frame rates with this plane. I would say though, that it flies much nicer in FSX than it did in FS9, with frame rates dropping, without it looking half as jumpy as it did on my old system in FS9 for this plane. ALSO regarding the VLJ - two issues I have discovered in FSX (Can't remember if these occured in FS9 too or not) with the VLJ:1. If you crash the aircraft (For example, if you goto EGLC on active runway for, lets say, a test flight to test the performance of the add on... and then at last minute realise there is a Learjet taking off at the same time as you from the opposite direction (Quite how this occurs when I selected ACTIVE runway, I'm unsure!) and try, unsucessfully to steer round it at high speed... Well following such crashes FSX crashes to desktop (CTD) upon attempting to reset the flight (I think it screws the parameters for the add on up in memory). The fix for this is A) Restart your PC (restarting FSX doesn't work if you try and restart another flight with the VLJ) or B ) start a new flight with a different default aircraft and then reload the VLJ to memory. This seems to reset what ever needs to be reset. (I suppose C.. don't crash your plane to start with also works...!)2. The engine starter switches don't seem to work in VC mode. However, if you switch to 2D cockpit mode and start the engines from the engine start panel, they start up fine. (Actually I have noticed a few of the switches in VC mode don't seem to do anything although you can click them and they switch visually, they don't actually do anything and you have to switch back to 2D Cock pit and reswitch them to get them to work.It is a fun plane though. If you like that sort of thing. For me, I get the feeling that a small frame like that, with that much thrust would likely break up if it was ever built for real!Adam

[NismoRR 191]

No worries about the add-ons I have, they're all made for FSX.The VLJ is built for real! Cool little plane and I'm glad you say it's flyable. Does that mean smooth? I guess so, especially around London in heavy weather. In most other situations, it should work well. Here's a link to info about the real VLJ. In a google search, a bunch of info came up, including an FAA certification.http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/eclipse-avi/I do remember that the start button didn't work in VC. All I'm looking for is it to be smooth on the new system. I'm also looking for a good twin prop to add to the hangar. I've been waiting on the Real Air Duke, but it's taking forever. I may pick up the Cessna 441 Conquest.Putting the sound card in later today and will post results. BTW Adam, why not bite the bullet and go to a 64 bit OS for the new system? I know you're waiting on W7, but if you're into FSX, just to use all the fast memory seems to be worth it. So far, Vista x64 is working well. I'll let you know after FSX is installed if I feel the same.