hi, im running fsx and was wondering if its best to lock the framerate or set it to unlimited.thanks

It depends on the situation. I believe it is bet to leave it unlocked, unless you are getting stutters that are >25% of your total frame rate or something like that. Mathijs Kok over at Aerosoft put out a wonderful guide to tweaking FSX to get the best performance: http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=30796

thank you a very useful article

I'm not nearly the expert as some, but from personal experience I know that I got 16-18 FPS when I locked FPS at 25 and I get 25-30 FPS (both using complex payware aircraft, scenaries and AI) when I set FPS to unlimited.So definitely at least check on the unlimited setting, as performance may actually be better.

Unlocked with an external FPS limiter is the clear way to go in my experience.

I have no problem getting FPS up in the 80-120 range... (40-60 in the PMDG) and I would get intermittent stutters cause something would slow it down to about 10FPS for a split second, then shoot back up to a higher number.Putting the Frame rate lock to 60FPS fixed that issue for me... YMMV

whats the best external fps limiteR?

whats the best external fps limiteR?

FPS Limiter 0.2

I have no problem getting FPS up in the 80-120 range... (40-60 in the PMDG) and I would get intermittent stutters cause something would slow it down to about 10FPS for a split second, then shoot back up to a higher number.Putting the Frame rate lock to 60FPS fixed that issue for me... YMMV

When you start messing around with usepools, big spikes in the framerates tend to crash the sim in my experience. In my previous FSX installation in Win XP x64, I had the frames unlocked and no external limiter and got about 60 fps and it was nice. But had to lower some sliders, such as cloud distance and other things.Now in my new FSX installation in Windows 7, I use usepools=0 (among other cfg tweaks), unlocked frames and FPS Limiter 0.2 locked at 30 FPS, and I have all siders up to the max and get 30 FPS with no stutters (Except for when UT2 inserts AI aircraft, but that is a full second freeze, not really a stutter). And I really cant say the 30 FPS is any less smooth than 60. Heck, on my old AMD Athlon X2 build, I thought 15 FPS was smooth, so living in 30 FPS is quite nice to me. I can even have light bloom on if I want and only get about a 5-7 FPS drop, which is still above 20 FPS, which for me seems to be the magic number on smooth to crappy.

is this freeware available here, or do you have a link to this frame limiter software?Thanks, Bruce.

is this freeware available here, or do you have a link to this frame limiter software?Thanks, Bruce.

It might be available here, but I found it using FilesTube.com and found a rapidshare download. Scanned it with ESET and it showed up safe and it was legit. Then make sure you have Java installed on your machine, run the GUI file, search for your FSX.exe, set the frames you want it limited too, make sure you have Direct X 9 set, then click create executable. Then LEAVE that newly created file where it is, if you move it, it will break and no longer work. Just create a shortcut to it on your desktop.

I have no problem getting FPS up in the 80-120 range... (40-60 in the PMDG) and I would get intermittent stutters cause something would slow it down to about 10FPS for a split second, then shoot back up to a higher number.Putting the Frame rate lock to 60FPS fixed that issue for me... YMMV

Where are you getting these FPS? Is it during cruise? I've certainly heard of numbers like that in cruise, but am unaware of any computer that can get those type of FPS with a complex aircraft, add-on airport and decent amount of AI. Just curious.

I have a top o' the line system and I will get 30-60 fps at cruise, and that is with unlimited frames. TO/GA I am lucky to get 25 fps. This is with frames unlocked in dense urban areas with intl airports. Keep in mind these values are with bp=0, and reduced frames, 2048 clouds in REX. Complex addons take a bite out of even the best processor.I find it highly unlikely someone can max out all sliders and get high fps in all situations.

I have a top o' the line system and I will get 30-60 fps at cruise, and that is with unlimited frames. TO/GA I am lucky to get 25 fps. This is with frames unlocked in dense urban areas with intl airports. Keep in mind these values are with bp=0, and reduced frames, 2048 clouds in REX. Complex addons take a bite out of even the best processor.I find it highly unlikely someone can max out all sliders and get high fps in all situations.

Was just flying the Maddog MD80 from FSDT KORD to KPSP, w/ REX 4k clouds, UTX w/ both night lighting options, w/ GEX, ASE w/ 10 cloud layers, and UT2 running, and never drop below 25 fps. A lot of that I think has to do with the UT2 feature that you can set a target framerate, and so it will remove so AI planes if you are taking a FPS hit.bp=0, with affinity mask =14 is the key I believe to a good setup. FIBER_FRAME_RATE=0.33 also will help a TON on getting steady high framerates, currently I have disabled that.

Where are you getting these FPS? Is it during cruise? I've certainly heard of numbers like that in cruise, but am unaware of any computer that can get those type of FPS with a complex aircraft, add-on airport and decent amount of AI. Just curious.

My machine is an i7 920@ 3.8GHz, 6GB Mushkin Ram, 300GB VelociRaptor Main Drive, and an NVIDIA GTX 285.Most of my sliders are almost maxed out, if they are not, they are one or two ticks left of max. I run at 1920x1200x32, AA set per Ryan's Thread (with Nvidia 2xx.xx drivers). NO DirectX 10 or Light Bloom. In addition I am running FSX Acceleration, REX2 4k clouds, and GEX. All three of my Traffic sliders are at 30%.I fly a lot of short GA flights using mainly Carenado prop planes. I use the "Fly Tampa - St. Maarten" scenery as my testbed.If i load up a Carenado 172/182/Archer, sitting on the runway in the default "Fair Weather" I get about 60-80FPS. That same scenario in the PMDG 747 i will get about 30-50FPS. Once I takeoff and am in cruise, regardless of airplane i fly i will *generally* get at least 60-80FPS.If I am at an airport (non addon, in the sticks KMCD/KBAX/KAPV) I will see about 120-160FPS in the Carenado planes, and about 60-80FPS in the PMDG.

Was just flying the Maddog MD80 from FSDT KORD to KPSP, w/ REX 4k clouds, UTX w/ both night lighting options, w/ GEX, ASE w/ 10 cloud layers, and UT2 running, and never drop below 25 fps. A lot of that I think has to do with the UT2 feature that you can set a target framerate, and so it will remove so AI planes if you are taking a FPS hit.bp=0, with affinity mask =14 is the key I believe to a good setup. FIBER_FRAME_RATE=0.33 also will help a TON on getting steady high framerates, currently I have disabled that.

I will have to mess around with this and see if i can get some improvements!