Try *******'s Shader Model 3.0 mods too - those are supposed to help with the cloud issue because ATI cards aren't very good with the older shader model that the clouds normally use.

15 July 10-Uninstalled AS6.5-Installed ASE, rebooted.-Added *******' shader mod and only the following lines to fsx.cfg so far[bufferPools]UsePools=0 // Setting this to 1 will turn the BufferPools ON (stability), setting it to 0 disables them (Performance).[GRAPHICS]SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=9872430ALLOW_SHADER_30=1HIGHMEMFIX=1(and the assorted .dll permissions for the PMDG JS41)Using the fix_aero.bat and an external FPS limiter, FPS_Limiter_0.2, set to 35 (while FSX FPS set to unlimited)...Not much of a noticeable difference for 3d clouds, maybe 1-2 FPS on average. I'm able to look inside the cockpit of the PMDG JS41 at a consistent 30-35 FPS with all sliders except water effects maxed out (and AI traffic disabled). With simple clouds, I can look outside from the JS41 at about 22-28 FPS even at KJFK. With 3d clouds, this falls to about 9-14 and stutters hard. I may consider using NickN's display settings to start as opposed to *******'.May consider trying next:[JOBSCHEDULER]AffinityMask=14

HiSorry not much time - too much work.The problemFSX and FS9 use a lot of textures - the tiles of ground image and the tiles that make up the sky. Thesetextures have different qualities (the mips setting) and are used at different resolutions for closeand far scenery. the problem with flying is that you can see a long way and so see lots of textures.The textures are originally on your disk - they get loaded on start up (the long load cycle) and moreget loaded from disk as you fly. So now they are in RAM memory.To get drawn they need to be sent to the video card. Look and *******'s posts - this is an excellantdescription of texture use on different graphics card and their architecture - buffer pools andthe use of non-buffered use of teh GPU. The problem is thatwith so many textures you need to send a very large number to the graphics card, they can bebuffered, or delt with immediately (the second is "dangerous" as the GPU (invida) may not deal with them quick enough.The congestion is caused by too many textures trying to get along the "bus" and this is dependenton the bus speed, the RAM clocks speed and the GPU's ability to render them on the screen. Italso depends on the program's ability (CPU related) to work out which textures to render too. If you have a fast CPU with slower memory and bus speed then you cannot get past the weak link - the slow bus. You get blurries (in FS9) and mirco-stutters. This is MORE of a problem with people with the really fast CPU (i7 for example), since the weak link is the data moving tothe GPU. So - if you have a powerful CPU - then you might have to back off on the quality because of this. For an I7 you certainly need 1333Mhz or better bus, and high clocked properlymatched memory. Ie - always make a balanced system - the CPU is not the magic thing.

Sorry to hijack this thread but I would like to ask what is a bus speed or bus memory and how does it cause congestion?Hope this can be useful to others out thereRegardsAlex

Not much of a noticeable difference for 3d clouds, maybe 1-2 FPS on average. I'm able to look inside the cockpit of the PMDG JS41 at a consistent 30-35 FPS with all sliders except water effects maxed out (and AI traffic disabled). With simple clouds, I can look outside from the JS41 at about 22-28 FPS even at KJFK. With 3d clouds, this falls to about 9-14 and stutters hard. I may consider using NickN's display settings to start as opposed to *******'.

Reading thru your posts I have noticed that the clouds seem to be causing some problems.Have you considered trying the DXT clouds that REX or FEX offer, rather than the default 32 bit clouds? This may be of some benefit to you.

Hello Mr. Weber,We haven't crossed paths before, so it is nice to meet you. Considering how long you have been an AVSIM member and the efforts you have put in to make your system work, you have showed yourself to be most serious and persistent concerning your FS hobby. Therefore, I don't want to beat around the bush as if we were new kids on the block. As you no doubt know, good advice around here might be had for free, but it cost those giving it a fortune to possess it.You have had some of the best and most knowledgeable flight simmers currently in the world offer you advice that is, for the most part, in unanimous agreement on the basics. I will underline what most have already told you and add a bit of my own.Here we go:1. You will need to over clock your CPU, or you will never achieve the smoothness and performance you are looking for in FS. This is a bottom line, cast iron truth. Your i975 chip is built for it, but cannot and therefore will not do what you need it to do otherwise. That is a fact, not just an opinion. It takes 15 minutes and a couple of restarts to set up an OC of at least 4GHZ or better on your computer. There are lots of experts here that might even phone you on their dime to walk you through the bios settings. If you need a better CPU heat sink, which is likely, it takes somewhere around 50 bucks and a half hour of someone's hands-on time, if that. 2. You cannot achieve really fast and smooth performance with your Radeon HD 4870 X2 crossfire setup. You need either an ATI 5870 or preferably (IMHO) a high-end Nvidia Card such as the 470 GTX or 480 GTX. Even a single new 465 GTX with a high over clock would work much better, far, far in access with what you now have. You might just scrape by with the 4870's in FS9, but in FSX you haven't a chance to achieve the smooth high-end experience you want with the video cards you have...not a chance. This too is a fact and not just an opinion.3. You do need to ditch Norton, follow Nick's advice and use some of Bojote's tweaks. There are some here that have a really good idea about the best combinations of these things and how they may interact on your machine. As you found out by seeking advice in this forum, many are willing to give of their own time and skill to help you. You could not afford to pay for what their knowledge has personally cost them to acquire.There you have it. The very best advice I can offer is for you to follow what these guys have said, and if you tend to disagree with them, then I suggest you change your mind. Otherwise, it seems to me you are simply documenting your steps to another FS disappointment. Wishing you the best,Stephen

Reading thru your posts I have noticed that the clouds seem to be causing some problems.Have you considered trying the DXT clouds that REX or FEX offer, rather than the default 32 bit clouds? This may be of some benefit to you.

Indeed clouds are a big problem area for me (well, AI too, of course, but I'm not as worried about it). If I could minimize the impact of 3d clouds, I could be farther along with being content with FSX than ever. I'm hesitant to buy REX (as good as it looks) in case it doesn't help. Is there another set of DXT clouds, or a way to easily convert them otherwise to "test the water"?Thanks.

HiAs a bench mark I had the chance to try an i7 720QM - lower spec CPU than yours, 4G memory 1333Mhz RAM and a ATI 5650 GPU. Nice machine - but nothing out of the ordinary.With very basic tweaking I was very quickly able to far exceed your performance. Somethingis clearly wrong. I had REX2.0 , phtographic scenery and normal scenery and had set all thesliders to the maximum recommended by others (ie traffic, water NOT at max .... etc)1) Review your computer - what is in the startup (get yourself ccleaner)2) What processes are running, got any viruses3) turn off the internet and turn off the norton.4) Defrag the disk5) defrag the disk6) defrag the disk again7) Did you install and restart after each install.8) read the threads here - don't max everything. Water is a killer it causes a double pass render9) put the graphics AF and AA at a low level - increase the sliders till you find your CPU limit (ie you are not limiting with the quality of your GPU10) now increase AA to x4 and increase AF until the fps gets a hit. You are now GPU limiting. back off your GPU one step - now you have balanced CPU and GPU. 11) Look for microstutters - ie now you have to adjust things to match your bus speed and the ability of the GPU(s) to process textures - you may need to play with buffer pools and afinity masks to get rid of these. If you can't with tweaks then you will have to reduce texture qualiry. REX2.0 clouds are heavy - reduce to lower 1024 quality ones.11) Are you sure your 2 GPU are set up properly.

HiAs a bench mark I had the chance to try an i7 720QM - lower spec CPU than yours, 4G memory 1333Mhz RAM and a ATI 5650 GPU. Nice machine - but nothing out of the ordinary.With very basic tweaking I was very quickly able to far exceed your performance. Somethingis clearly wrong. I had REX2.0 , phtographic scenery and normal scenery and had set all thesliders to the maximum recommended by others (ie traffic, water NOT at max .... etc)1) Review your computer - what is in the startup (get yourself ccleaner)2) What processes are running, got any viruses3) turn off the internet and turn off the norton.4) Defrag the disk5) defrag the disk6) defrag the disk again7) Did you install and restart after each install.8) read the threads here - don't max everything. Water is a killer it causes a double pass render9) put the graphics AF and AA at a low level - increase the sliders till you find your CPU limit (ie you are not limiting with the quality of your GPU10) now increase AA to x4 and increase AF until the fps gets a hit. You are now GPU limiting. back off your GPU one step - now you have balanced CPU and GPU. 11) Look for microstutters - ie now you have to adjust things to match your bus speed and the ability of the GPU(s) to process textures - you may need to play with buffer pools and afinity masks to get rid of these. If you can't with tweaks then you will have to reduce texture qualiry. REX2.0 clouds are heavy - reduce to lower 1024 quality ones.11) Are you sure your 2 GPU are set up properly.

Thanks for the post. Please read some of my install posts. I rebooted and defraggred quite a bit. I will be disabling Norton as my next variable test. I'll also post my FSX settings soon; currently, they are almost identical to NickN's settingNot really any microstutters just regular slowdowns. And just to clarify, I don't have 2 physical graphics cards.

Hello Mr. Weber,We haven't crossed paths before, so it is nice to meet you. Considering how long you have been an AVSIM member and the efforts you have put in to make your system work, you have showed yourself to be most serious and persistent concerning your FS hobby. Therefore, I don't want to beat around the bush as if we were new kids on the block. As you no doubt know, good advice around here might be had for free, but it cost those giving it a fortune to possess it.You have had some of the best and most knowledgeable flight simmers currently in the world offer you advice that is, for the most part, in unanimous agreement on the basics. I will underline what most have already told you and add a bit of my own.Here we go:1. You will need to over clock your CPU, or you will never achieve the smoothness and performance you are looking for in FS. This is a bottom line, cast iron truth. Your i975 chip is built for it, but cannot and therefore will not do what you need it to do otherwise. That is a fact, not just an opinion. It takes 15 minutes and a couple of restarts to set up an OC of at least 4GHZ or better on your computer. There are lots of experts here that might even phone you on their dime to walk you through the bios settings. If you need a better CPU heat sink, which is likely, it takes somewhere around 50 bucks and a half hour of someone's hands-on time, if that. 2. You cannot achieve really fast and smooth performance with your Radeon HD 4870 X2 crossfire setup. You need either an ATI 5870 or preferably (IMHO) a high-end Nvidia Card such as the 470 GTX or 480 GTX. Even a single new 465 GTX with a high over clock would work much better, far, far in access with what you now have. You might just scrape by with the 4870's in FS9, but in FSX you haven't a chance to achieve the smooth high-end experience you want with the video cards you have...not a chance. This too is a fact and not just an opinion.3. You do need to ditch Norton, follow Nick's advice and use some of Bojote's tweaks. There are some here that have a really good idea about the best combinations of these things and how they may interact on your machine. As you found out by seeking advice in this forum, many are willing to give of their own time and skill to help you. You could not afford to pay for what their knowledge has personally cost them to acquire.There you have it. The very best advice I can offer is for you to follow what these guys have said, and if you tend to disagree with them, then I suggest you change your mind. Otherwise, it seems to me you are simply documenting your steps to another FS disappointment. Wishing you the best,Stephen

Thank you for the post. I am following *******' and NickN's tweaks systematically, my next test variable will also be involving disabling Norton. For now, I would like to avoid overclocking to maintain warranty and avoid having to spend more money (e.g. cooling). I would rather put that money toward a newer graphics card, which will probably my longer term upgrade. Since I use this computer for programs other than FS, I would initially lean toward ATI, but of course I need to do some homework when the day comes.I like the idea of finding DXT clouds somewhere, I think that is a good test to perform short term.Again, thanks everyone.

The best clouds IMHO are FEX clouds.Have you considered the the BP=0 tweak. This will help your performance in clouds dramatically.

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The best clouds IMHO are FEX clouds.Have you considered the the BP=0 tweak. This will help your performance in clouds dramatically.

I thought UsePools=0 was the same thing. (See my above fsx.cfg tweaks)

6 Aug 2010:-Installed Win7 critical updates-Defragged computer-Ran RegCure and repaired-Installed FSDT DFW for FS9

28 Aug 2010:-Installed Win7 critical updates-Installed BluePrintSim CYUL for FS9, launched FS9, rebooted-Installed BluePrintSim CYUL for FSX, launched FSX, rebooted-Ran CleanMyPC registry cleaner-Defragged system-I'm now experimenting with GameBooster software that supposedly cleans up some of those background processes

Be careful with that cleaning, Captain.Lots of fun when trying to rebuild why something doesn't work as expected and the performance gain of all those cleaning actions is more myth than fact in my eyes.Of course you shouldn't have your FAX software waiting for incoming data when flying across the ocean :) Somebody around suggested the *******-tweak. That's a gain in performance in 90% of all cases and really worth a try.

Problem with the clouds is definitely in your GPU. You gotta replace it.My 5870 hated clouds. Had to set the distance all the way to the left, and even then I stuttered and had horrible frame rates. Then I put in my 480 and things changed drastically. Between the left and the right on the clouds slider, I get a 1-2 FPS drop off max. Has no problem running clouds in stormy conditions with REX clouds and weather conditions generated from ASE. Two of the best addons I've bought right there. And overclock that baby, too.Download and install Prime95. Reboot and load into your BIOS. Head down and set all your voltages to their stock settings (There will be a number on the left, normally, those being the default values). On the right it probably says something like AUTO (just change auto to the default voltages although your RAM probably needs 1.6-1.65 volts to function at their stock settings).Once that is all set, save and reboot, make sure windows loads up and you're probably okay. You can run Prime95 at the default settings to be sure. Nothing should go wrong.Reboot back into your bios and start increasing your multiplier by 1 at a time, or your BCLK by 5. Boot back into windows and run Prime95 for 10 - 15 minutes. Keep doing this until you get a BSOD. Turn back your settings in the BIOS that worked for you before you got a BSOD, then run Prime95 for a few hours. You can run it for 24+ hours if you want to be sure its 100% stable. The i7 975 and 980x are both from the Extreme processors line, packaged almost exclusively for computer enthusiasts and overclockers. The likely hood of it degrading on stock voltages, or voltages within standard limits, is unlikely (I've pushed my voltages well outside of what Intel says I should, and haven't had issues with my chip yet). Even so, they come with a 3 year standard warranty (mine did at least), so you shouldn't have any issues getting an RMA if needed. There is very little that can go wrong if you read about OC'ing for 1 hour. Don't be afraid to do something that chip is built to do and handle very well.