I was setting up a flight today and got some strange behavior as I began to taxi. Odd geometric shapes appeared, completely obscuring my outside view. The 3d panel of my plane was fine, but outside it was a kaleidascope of shapes and colors. Then, after rebooting, flying in the Napa Valley, trees started distorting into tall, thousand foot high poles - and some were floating. I have an overclocked I7 920. I stepped it back wondering if that was the issue, but even taking it back to the rock solid settings I had it on up until last week didn't do anything. I thought it might be active sky, which puts a big load on my cpu. But flying with default weather caused the same problem. Is this a software problem or is my 7 month old graphics card toast?Thanks for any help. ColinSystem:i7 920 ocd to 3.333 ghz3 gigs sytem ramRadeo 4800 HD video card - I think over a gig of ddrWin xp home with all updatesNo anti virus runningFSX with accelerationUTXGEXASA with X Graphics

Take a screenshot - one picture is better that 1000 words.

I was setting up a flight today and got some strange behavior as I began to taxi. Odd geometric shapes appeared, completely obscuring my outside view. The 3d panel of my plane was fine, but outside it was a kaleidascope of shapes and colors. Then, after rebooting, flying in the Napa Valley, trees started distorting into tall, thousand foot high poles - and some were floating.

I don't think it's a cpu issue. My guess is that it is memory related. I am not sure about the geometric shapes, but sometimes I see the 100 foot telephone poles you are talking about. If I see them, it is usually at the end of a long flight, and before I upgraded my computer, it was a sign that it was going to crash soon.The reason I think it is related to memory is because it never showed up when I had freshly rebooted the computer - it was always after extended use, especially if I was using a heavy duty addon from PMDG, or if I was at a busy airport. Checking Task manager confirmed that FSX was taking a lot of resources. Upgrading video card drivers, etc, didn't really help. Even with my new system, there are times when I think FSX is eating all the memory. There are many posts extolling the virtues of a 64-bit version of windows couple with 6GB of ram, but I am unsure how a 32-bit app (FSX) can use this extended memory. I would say that when I went from 2GB of ram to 6GB, things got better, but I upgraded the rest of my computer at the same time too. however, occasionally, I still have problems which might be memory related so having a 64-bit OS might not solve every problem.I mention this because it looks like you use a few resource-hungry addons. Anyway, it's just a thought.- Martin

Turn your autogen down a notch. Have you OC your video card? Most likely Autogen is set too high.

I was setting up a flight today and got some strange behavior as I began to taxi. Odd geometric shapes appeared, completely obscuring my outside view. The 3d panel of my plane was fine, but outside it was a kaleidascope of shapes and colors. Then, after rebooting, flying in the Napa Valley, trees started distorting into tall, thousand foot high poles - and some were floating. I have an overclocked I7 920. I stepped it back wondering if that was the issue, but even taking it back to the rock solid settings I had it on up until last week didn't do anything. I thought it might be active sky, which puts a big load on my cpu. But flying with default weather caused the same problem. Is this a software problem or is my 7 month old graphics card toast?Thanks for any help. ColinSystem:i7 920 ocd to 3.333 ghz3 gigs sytem ramRadeo 4800 HD video card - I think over a gig of ddrWin xp home with all updatesNo anti virus runningFSX with accelerationUTXGEXASA with X Graphics

Definitely a memory issue. You didn't indicate whether you had the 32bit or 64bit version of your XP OS. If 32 bit, you need to install the /3GB switch. Since you have OC'd your CPU, you might also try turning that down. Turning down your scenery sliders in your FSX.cfg might help too. If you haven't seen the tune up tips at the following link, you should try those excellent suggestions: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041.Best regards,Jim Young

I used to experience "Autogen Spikes" as I panned my TrackIR round. I solved this I think by lowering Autogen to Dense. Toasted graphics card usually shows in the form of misdrawn clouds, or textures on aircraft and ground going randomly in patterns.

Try setting the frame limit in FSX at 30 and then Enable VSync in your video card control panel.See what happens.AND ...In the FSX.cfg add the following if it is not already there[JOBSCHEDULER]AffinityMask=3use these settings for N as you test and you must EXIT the sim and relaunch between changes255 - all 8 in use254 - 7 in use with the first remaining free252 - 6 in use with the first entire CORE remaining free127 - 7 in use with the last remaining free 63 - 6 in use with the last entire CORE remaining free 1 = 1 core 0001 3 = 2 cores 0011 7 = 3 cores 011112 = 2 cores last 110014 = 3 cores last 111015 = 4 cores 1111

Try setting the frame limit in FSX at 30 and then Enable VSync in your video card control panel.See what happens.AND ...In the FSX.cfg add the following if it is not already there[JOBSCHEDULER]AffinityMask=3use these settings for N as you test and you must EXIT the sim and relaunch between changes255 - all 8 in use254 - 7 in use with the first remaining free252 - 6 in use with the first entire CORE remaining free127 - 7 in use with the last remaining free 63 - 6 in use with the last entire CORE remaining free 1 = 1 core 0001 3 = 2 cores 0011 7 = 3 cores 011112 = 2 cores last 110014 = 3 cores last 111015 = 4 cores 1111

Thanks for this info - all the stuff below Affinity Mask=3 is new to me. Can you give me a quick rundown - esp. about what and where I make entries? Thanks!

Affinity Mask is NOT going to address this issue!This issue is caused by one or more of the followinga. The video card is defectiveb. Bufferpools was added to the FSX.cfg file by the user and it is set far too highc. System has low physical memory. 4GB is more than enough however 3GB is borderline if you are pushing settings in large scenery areas with large payware product on a 32bit OS. d. The user is exceeding the installed hardware ability in FSX settings, but that can also be because of background activity forcing slow system responsee. Drivers may not be working well with the video adapter. Sometimes a different driver revision can work betterf. Corrupt FSX install or improper installation of the FSX DVD + the SP patchesBeing 3GB on i7 would suggest this system is probably using very cheap/slow memory. This issue can be one or a combination of items in the list above, nothing else.

Affinity Mask is NOT going to address this issue!This issue is caused by one or more of the followinga. The video card is defectiveb. Bufferpools was added to the FSX.cfg file by the user and it is set far too highc. System has low physical memory. 4GB is more than enough however 3GB is borderline if you are pushing settings in large scenery areas with large payware product on a 32bit OS. d. The user is exceeding the installed hardware ability in FSX settings, but that can also be because of background activity forcing slow system responsee. Drivers may not be working well with the video adapter. Sometimes a different driver revision can work betterf. Corrupt FSX install or improper installation of the FSX DVD + the SP patchesBeing 3GB on i7 would suggest this system is probably using very cheap/slow memory. This issue can be one or a combination of items in the list above, nothing else.

I'm driving XP right now - when I built the system I didn't want to upgrade to Vista 64 with Windows 7 coming down the pipe. Will in November and upgrade memory to 6 gigs. I'll try lowering the density of the auto gen. I do have the 3gig switch installed. Thanks all.

Thanks for this info - all the stuff below Affinity Mask=3 is new to me. Can you give me a quick rundown - esp. about what and where I make entries? Thanks!

I use AffinityMask=15. This setting seems to run FSX better. Has no affect on graphics as far as I know.