FRAME RATE BREAKTHRU!!!! (Long, but worth the read)

[shermank 170]

Ok, I understand there will be skeptics who read this, but it works for me. And, I have seen almost 300% improvement in some scenarios. First, the background:I have a Tyan 1854S mother board with a P3 1gig Intel processor. My video card is a GeForce Ti 4200 and I have 512 megs of ram. It is, in short, a fairly conventional, and by today's standards an outdated machine. I had been getting in the upper single digits, mid teens in most cases. Some aircraft, notably, Geoffa's Debonair were simply unflyable with an exterior view frame rate of about 4 to 5. The new version of the Stratocruiser was also difficult, especially in exterior view, and at a busy airport, impossible.Earlier today, while scanning around, I came across a web site that was discussing viatech chip sets. I have tried in the past to upgrade, usually to face a lockup which I think was related to the agp driver. Let me add that I am no techie, by any stretch. I am merely familiar with the terms, but do not have a whole lot of background and am not sure what much of the alphabet soup of initials used in computering even means.Anyway, I decided to try again, so I downloaded the latest drivers from the viatech web page...1448 is part of the designation. I rebooted, did a dxdiag test, and the whirling cubes were wild, with somewhat mixed imagery. Realizing the something was clearly different, I booted up fs2002. When I picked a plane, my computer locked up. I did a cold reboot, but went into setup on a hunch and completely disable agp x 4 in the chipset section. Then, I saved the setting to cmos( more arcane initials) and rebooted. Then, it was on to fs2002...and what a shocker. I was getting frame rates in the upper teens, even low to mid 20s depending upon aircraft and view. The Stratocruiser was like a brand new baby, flyable, viewable, lovable...if you have a taste for whales that fly. True, with all sliders maxed, I was back to the low teens from exterior view, but, there were no hesitations, no stutters, and no blurries. After a test flight that was completely satisfying, I loaded up the Debonair, another craft that for all its bells and whistles, was beyond the capabilities of my computer. Bingo! I had complete control, exterior views went from 4+fps to the low teens. I have not tested any of the stock aircraft yet, which have always given me decent frame rates. But, I will do so and expect some great results.One more note...just to experiment, I went back into dxdiag, and disabled agp. FS images remained sharp, but it seemed as if frames lagged a little bit. I reopened dx diag and renabled agp, and was completely satisfied.So, I don't know if this will work for you, but if you want to experiment, disable agp in setup, but leave it live in dxdiag. Maybe you'll be as pleased as I was. I invite your comments and responses.Thanks for reading through my mini white paper.Sherm

[Arklight1 140]

This has been known for a LONG time. lolAnd it doesn't work for everybody. ;)But thanks for the tests and info...some may not have seen the posts from a long time ago.:)

[shermank 170]

FWIW, I have now tested several of the stock aircraft and a couple of add ons. I boosted my fps to 40, and in exterior views of the Baron 58 I got 38 fps. I have never, ever had this with fs2002 before. Maybe it's old news to some, as Shane points out, but, this is new, and great news to me. In fact, I am no longer tempted to upgrade, though when fs2004 finally comes out, I may have to. We shall see!Sherm

[Arklight1 140]

Great that it works for you!!!I know some had said they had very good experiences as you did...it's always nice not having to upgrade.I heard that FS2K4 runsd even better then FS2002 so you might not have to upgrade for that either, I'd be inclined to wait and see.....so far performance reports have been quite favorable!!:)

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

Where do you disbale this, is it in the Bios?

[shermank 170]

With my tyan 1854 S on bootup, I hit the delete key, which takes me to set up. Depending upon your computer and its configuration, this may do the same for you. When I saw the line that reads AGP x 4 I switched it from enabled, to disabled. But,after experimenting, I left AGP enabled in the dx dialog. I really do not understand enough about computer operation to get into the reasons as to why this works for me, especially since my video card is and agp card, plugged into the agp slot on my mother board.Sherm

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

I will have to look again, but I don't have any line like that, I do know that my board is only 2x time though, from what I remember last time I was there, the only options, where if it was AGP or PCI, and it was set to AGP, the other one was "aperature size" I think, it was set at 64 MB before, but when I got the new card, I wanted to change that 128MB, my only options were, 64 & 256, so I set it on 256, I will go look later and let you know what other opetions there is.

[Guest]

Hi Sherm, Well I read your posting and started looking for a similar line in my bios but no luck. I have a P3 800mhz with 512 ram, a 32mb ddr geforce agp-v7700 deluxe, even more outdated then yours haha, But it really runs this sim well except for the very detailed planes. The vid card is a nvida chipset so I guess I wont have the same line in my bios. But Im always looking for that magic setting Ive been missing for the last few years. I tell ya Sherm my brother is running a p4 at 1.7 ghz with a 64 meg video card and I notice very little difference compared to mine in fs2002. So i will also waite and see how 2004 runs before I take the big plunge and upgrade. Have fun!! Brian

[shermank 170]

Mu vid card is nvidea also, but that has nothing to do with the bios setup. You would have to get into setup, which is accessed on bootup of the computer. Mine happens to be accessed with the delete key. Yours might use some other way.If you have your manual, it could give a clue...good luck. And, I know there are people who say this is nothing new, but, it sure is new to me, and has made enough of a difference that I am all but forgetting about spending $$$ for an upgrade, depending upon on the FSCOF manages to run.Sherm

[Guest]

Roger the delete key Sherm, Ive messed with the bios before, i looked and looked for that line but nothing there , Anyways enjoy your now faster sim !!!!!!! :D Brian

[Guest]

Ok, i have no idea what Viatech is or what these drivers or what any terms you guys are talking about mean...can someone help me b/c i am DYING to get my frames up in FS! please! Thanx for any help!~BrentBrentbefine79@aol.com

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

Yeah, I tried many different things with my Bios, but my computer is probably just too old for this to work! Good luck to the people who can get this to work for them!

[shermank 170]

Viatech, which is now called Viahyperion, writes drivers for its chipset hardware that are part of the inner workings of many motherboards. You need to determine whether via is in fact part of you motherboard set up. You can often do this by checking the mobo manual, or going to the website of the company which built your mobo. If it is a via chipset, then it can be upgraded with a self executing program file. Here is a basic description of what the via chip set and its drivers do as I found posted on a tweaker's forum:"VIA Hyperion drivers are suitable for any VIA chipset and all Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Win95/98/98SE users, see **Note below). If you are looking for VIA 4in1 drivers, these are the drivers you are looking for. The "Hyperion" name was added to the 4in1 driver set name in December 2002. This is the fourth release with the Hyperion name."Here is a link to download the latest update...but, please do not mess with any of this if you are in the least bit uncertain. At the same time, the viatech drivers can easily be uninstalled through a built in routine which would set your drivers back to the original version. But, again, I stress, do not fix it if it's not broken. Otherwise, good luck...Sherm