Should FS9 be running this slow?

[chickster25 153]

Hi,I have recently bought a new PC for FS9 and whilst my FS9 is fully loaded with add-ons and all the sliders are up to max, I did think I would having it running smoother than it is. Allhough there is no magical fix, it would be useful to hear from others with similar systems to see if I am gettnig what I should.My PC is a dual core running at 3.33Ghz, 4GB RAM & 896MB NVidia 260GTX. I also have FS9 installed on a seperate HDD to Windows XP Pro. I have triple screen so resolution is 3840x1024. I am running 182 version of nvidia drivers as they seem the most reliable for FS9, if I go higher I get issues with textures. I run in full view mode rather than windowed mode.FS9 runs with AS6, GE Pro, Flight Environment, Traffic 2005, Ultimate water, UK2000 scenery and I usually fly the 737 Experience plane.Now all that is a lot, but when sitting on the runway at Gatwick I am getting only 9FPS. Even if I turn off all the AI planes, I only get about 12 FPS!!! I thought I would be running a lot faster. When I leave the airport I can get up to about 20FPS but I really did think it would be better. I have applied all the extra settings for textures in fs9.cfg so cannot think what else there is to tweak? I use ENDItAll to kill all unwanted processes and have cleaned the registry & temp files.Is this performance about right for my rig or am I way off the expected mark?Thanks

[Guest belga1]

Hello,In the first place .. it will be interesting to know how was running FS2004 on your PC .. before you add these bunchs of addon's Methink it's a good way for beginning the investigations Regards.Gus.

[chickster25 153]

with the straight FS9 install and SP1 and nothing else I was getting between 50 - 60 FPS sitting on the runway at the default FS9 Gatwick

[out 769]

Hi, Chickster25!I have a similar equipment, maybe even a little lower. I'm also using alot of addons.Anyway I'm definitely getting higher FPS than you. So I guess something must be a bit wrong here.I'm not an expert but I could think of a possible reason here:

I have triple screen so resolution is 3840x1024

Maybe some other folks using such (multi-screen) configuration will tell you how fluent it should be.Just a thought.

[FLEX1978 373]

Unless your using Windows XP 64 bit your Graphics card and Memory is going to kill your System. Video ram past 512mb on a 32 bit system is just draining resources. But you have a very fast CPU so there are other factors involved. Could you post a screenshot of your Processes in task manager? Rob

[chickster25 153]

will grab a screenprint when im next in front of it tonight.thanksIve also increased the virtual memory to 5000 as the system said I did not have enough but I dont think that should affect the FPS.

[january 19]

Hi,I have recently bought a new PC for FS9 and whilst my FS9 is fully loaded with add-ons and all the sliders are up to max, I did think I would having it running smoother than it is. Allhough there is no magical fix, it would be useful to hear from others with similar systems to see if I am gettnig what I should.My PC is a dual core running at 3.33Ghz, 4GB RAM & 896MB NVidia 260GTX. I also have FS9 installed on a seperate HDD to Windows XP Pro. I have triple screen so resolution is 3840x1024. I am running 182 version of nvidia drivers as they seem the most reliable for FS9, if I go higher I get issues with textures. I run in full view mode rather than windowed mode.FS9 runs with AS6, GE Pro, Flight Environment, Traffic 2005, Ultimate water, UK2000 scenery and I usually fly the 737 Experience plane.Now all that is a lot, but when sitting on the runway at Gatwick I am getting only 9FPS. Even if I turn off all the AI planes, I only get about 12 FPS!!! I thought I would be running a lot faster. When I leave the airport I can get up to about 20FPS but I really did think it would be better. I have applied all the extra settings for textures in fs9.cfg so cannot think what else there is to tweak? I use ENDItAll to kill all unwanted processes and have cleaned the registry & temp files.Is this performance about right for my rig or am I way off the expected mark?Thanks

You don't indicate what you are displaying on those three monitors. If you display multiple VIEWS, indicated FPS will be considerably lower than single view- but depending on how accurately they are integrated they can be almost as smooth as with a single view. Because you run in Full Screen, I suspect that you do not display multiple views but rather use the the secondaries for popup panels or Nav info etc.Be aware that there are wide differences in frame rate caused by different popups being opened. Each plane seems to be different, so experimentation is in order. You might wish to keep some popups hidden- such as Overhead Panel, when not in use.And heavy duty scenery addons can really drop FPS.The ultimate question, of course, is- how smooth is the apparent motion? Alex Reid

[chickster25 153]

the FPS I have given have mainly been from the VC on the runway without any pop-up panels. I have tried a few other large planes with VC and its the same for all of them so not a VC issue.I did think it was an AI issue as I do have a lot of aircraft at gatwick for example, but when I set the traffic to 0%, the FPs only went up from 9 to about 20.I use UK2000 scenery as my benchmark as that is my default flight and if I get good FPS there then I know I will everywhere else. The UK2000 scenery is pretty good and although the worst FPS is when I can see the airport from the runway, I still think there must be a problem as I am never getting the 30-40 FPS that other users are reporting.

[january 19]

the FPS I have given have mainly been from the VC on the runway without any pop-up panels. I have tried a few other large planes with VC and its the same for all of them so not a VC issue.I did think it was an AI issue as I do have a lot of aircraft at gatwick for example, but when I set the traffic to 0%, the FPs only went up from 9 to about 20.I use UK2000 scenery as my benchmark as that is my default flight and if I get good FPS there then I know I will everywhere else. The UK2000 scenery is pretty good and although the worst FPS is when I can see the airport from the runway, I still think there must be a problem as I am never getting the 30-40 FPS that other users are reporting.

In your orig. post you noted triple moniitors and an effective resolution of 3840x1024. So depending on what you are displaying on the outer mons, one might expect frame rate to be as low as 1/3 of single monitor performance. There is only one CPU to compute all those pixels! The more pixels and the faster they are changing, the lower the FPS. With views/scenery on the outer mons, very rapid pixel changes occur as you take off or land. Objects at the outer edges move far faster than objects at the centre. For example- painted centre line dots versus runway edge lights. But the qestion remains- does the aircraft & scenery motion seem smooth regardless of the indicated FPS? With multiple monitors, frame rate is not a good indicator of visual satisfaction.Alex Reid

[chickster25 153]

I have uploaded my process lsit after booting the Pc and just before launching FS9. I would normally run ENDITALL but I have that set for just the default services that it stops, I have not modified it any more than that. in terms of the game, it does appear jerky, but the FPS does seem quite eratic and it definitely does spoil the experience. I have tested running in standard 1280x1024 and I get back between 5-10FPS, so not as much as I would have thought. With that in mind, if I was running at normal snigle screen resolution I would still onyl be getting an average of 25fps wich is less that I would have thought for the fastest Intel core 2 duo chips money can buy.I will also copy ni the main parts of my fs9.cfg in case that has a bearing[GRAPHICS]FULL_SCREEN=1PERFORMANCE_MODE=0DEF_PERF_MODE=7TEXT_SCROLL=1AUTO_LOD=0DETAIL_TEXTURE=1WATER_EFFECTS=2TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_MAP=1TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=1EFFECTS_QUALITY=2GROUND_SHADOWS=1SMOOTH_VIEW=1IMAGE_SMOOTHING=1TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1LANDING_LIGHTS=1IMAGE_QUALITY=0TEXTURE_BLDG=1TEXTURE_GND=1TEXTURE_WATER=1AIRCRAFT_TEXTURE=2SEE_SELF=1TEXTURE_QUALITY=3LOD_TARGET_FPS=17NUM_LIGHTS=8[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260.0]Mode=3840x1024x32TriLinear=1MipBias=8[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=800RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.50 RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.20 RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.50 RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.20[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=0.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=200.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=3.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1DYN_SCN_DENSITY=5DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1SUNGLARE=1LENSFLARE=0

[mebull 27]

In addition to all the excellent help so far. Have you done a defrag of the HD since you installed all of your add on stuff? If not, please do so, it won't solve your problem completely but it will help towards the end goal of increasing your FPS. Also you should lower 'TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=800' to somewhere from 400 to lower (400 is considered max I believe). Here is a example from my settings, although my other hardware spec are a bit different : QX9650 @ 3.83Ghz, 2G DDR3 ram - using 3G switch - , 1024Meg on the GPU. Windows XPPro 32bit. With AS6, UT, full traffic, and all slider to the right I average about 27FPS with the CS757 depending on how heavy the clouds are.[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280.0]Mode=1680x1050x32MipBias=8RenderToTexture=0PanelAsTexture=0TextureAGP=0TriLinear=1[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=360TEXTUREMAXLOAD=10Hope this helps,Mel

[january 19]

chickster25- performance depends on so many factors, it is almost impossible to compare systems. But for what it's worth-I'm running triple 2D views (LFwd,Fwd,RFwd) on an ancient AMD XP2200 1.8 Ghz 'puter with 2 GeForce FX5200 GPUs. With correction applied for bezel width, I get a "single" Field of View of about 145

[red1 0]

Just to add, the OP said he gets around 25fps in single monitor. I get very comparable results, and my CPU is a bit faster. With PMDG 737, sitting at a large add-on airport, with some clouds, using all main add-ons, i get around 25-30 fps until i take off, so your computer performance seems about right.

[Noncon 19]

When I installed my E8600 I had crappy framerate until I remembered to put a checkmark in Transform and Lighting. KJ

[Guest belga1]

Hello,Your MS Task Manager picture show AVG running .... ?Had you tested with AVG realtime scan stopped ? or maybe it's running cause you was online ?I see also Nhancer.exe running .. it's not necessary.I see also some other EXE's running (unknow from me) but normally not needed for run FS2004.Regards.Gus.