Tweaking, Can anyone help me?

[Rekyht 0]

Hi guys, Recently, I've been looking high and low for guides on tweaking my FS9 setup to give me the ultimate frames. The main reason for this is, with my brand new PC, (Intel i7 @4.0GHz, ATI HD5570, etc) I expect to be able to get more than 8fps at FlyTampa Seattle with the default cessna. Something is holding my PC back, but I have no idea what it is, and after endless hours of following threads that tell me just to tweak my Bufferpools, or Affinity mask settings, I could really just do with someone who's willing to chat me with on MSN, or help me tweak my setup via Teamviewer. I'm on GMT+1 atm. (BST) But I'm usually up late enough that talking to anybody on EDT or MDT as well! If anyone is willing to help me out here, I'd really appreciate it! ThanksTom

[scottb613 1,188]

Morn'n Tom, 8FPS on an I7 using FS9 ??? That's not a tweak - it sounds like you have something seriously wrong... My Conroe Dual Core with a GTX 8800 will get 30FPS (Locked on 30FPS) or better in the same area... FlyTampa usually goes the extra mile for frame rate friendly sceneries... I would suggest downloading this package: http://download.cnet.com/PC-Wizard-2010/3000-2094_4-10793737.html It's a pretty nice piece of freeware that let's you analyze all aspects of your systems performance... Test your system and see what happens outside of FS9... That will help isolate this to a system or FS9 issue... I don't have Win7 - but - if you go into whatever they use for the "Device Manager" - do you see any errors ??? Correct drivers on the Video card ??? Does your PC have any noticable issues outside of FS9 ???Regards,Scott

[MPL 53]

i'm think either your system software/FS9 is screw'd someway, i7 should give you nice performance and in FS9 there isn't so much to tweak about as there is in FSX.

[Rekyht 0]

Hey Scott, I can't find anything obvious, and just to triple check, I've updated my video card drivers, as there normally the most problematic ones! I also checked the Device Manager, and it appears all other drivers are up to date, Although I'm not sure how well Windows is at finding drivers that need to be updated.Unfortunately, my PC also performs fine in many other games such as Company of Heroes, and the brilliant bench-mark tester that is Crysis.Update: Just Reinstalled FS9, It is on it's own Drive along with FSX (as in there on the same drive) and I have defragged and restarted. Both Fraps and the ingame FPS meter are telling me I'm getting around 15fps, Which still seems no where near high enough for my rig.

[Rekyht 0]

Hey Scott, I can't find anything obvious, and just to triple check, I've updated my video card drivers, as there normally the most problematic ones! I also checked the Device Manager, and it appears all other drivers are up to date, Although I'm not sure how well Windows is at finding drivers that need to be updated.Unfortunately, my PC also performs fine in many other games such as Company of Heroes, and the brilliant bench-mark tester that is Crysis.Update: Just Reinstalled FS9, It is on it's own Drive along with FSX (as in there on the same drive) and I have defragged and restarted. Both Fraps and the ingame FPS meter are telling me I'm getting around 15fps, Which still seems no where near high enough for my rig.

In another update, I was wondering whether it was something to do with the fact that the monitor I was using is actually a TV. So using a smaller 1280 x 1024 Monitor that my brother normally uses, All I can seem to deduce is that:1. If I run the 2 monitors together, But put Flightsim on the smaller screen, and run in fullscreen mode, I can get up to 50fps or more.2. If I run each monitor seperately, It seems to depend in window mode, on the size of the window, not the resoloution. Using a similar sized window on each screen, I could get 60fps on both, even though the resoloutions in the sim and the monitors were different.This confuses the hell outa me, So If anyone wants to pitch in and explain all the madness, please do!

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi... Yeah - I didn't know you were running two monitors and in windowed mode... Sorry - at least we know it is specifically FS related and not your machine... I've been running FS since the monochrome days but I don't use windowed mode or dual monitors... Sorry - can't think of anything else off the top of my head - but - if I do I'll shout... Good luck...Regards,Scott

[Rekyht 0]

Thanks Scott, Just to clarify, I was only running Dual Monitors to test! Normally I do only use the 1920x1080 Monitor. Hopefully someone will be able to come in and help though, Because I'm completely stuck on this.

[Rekyht 0]

Okay, Final problem seems to be, That no matter what monitor or resolution needed, the window size is all that effects my FPS. Full screen mode changes nothing, But I can easily get 100FPS with a very small window. By very small, I'm talking smaller than your average MSN window. If I stretch the window to full screen though, the larger monitor has very little effect, with a smaller 1280 x 1024 giving me 14fps with the screen covered, and my normal 1920 x 1080 monitor giving me 11fps. Now, for an Intel i7 930 @ 4GHz, an ATI Radeon HD5570 1GB, 6GB of Ram and Windows 7 Home 64 Bit. This cannot be the sort of frames I should be seeing for this setup on a default Cessna at Default Seattle with a fresh install. Please can someone help, I refuse to believe that no-one out there knows anything on this!

[WhiteKnight77 0]

Have you tried older drivers? Sometimes, newer drivers will inadvertently cap the FPS. I see this with another game though it is capped at 60 though I know I have gotten over 400FPS in game in the past with an older card and drivers.

[Rekyht 0]

I would try older drivers, But i'm not sure there are any known issues with my current ones, and I wouldn't know where to go back to!

[WhiteKnight77 0]

That is the problem, and it is a trial and error type of thing to find the drivers that work best with one game. This hurts if you also like to play newer games. I haven't even updated my video card drivers since I first bought this PC last year. I don't see a need to as I don't really play any newer games. I guess the newest games I do play are Portal and Company of Hero's.Try some older drivers and see if you get an increase, you may have to go back a year or so, but it can be done. Make sure you use CCleaner or DriverCleaner to get rid of all the drivers for your card before installing new ones.

[Rekyht 0]

I have finally sorted the issue!it turns out, ATI Cards with Super Sampling set to on, and FS9, Don't mix too well!All I had to do was use the Catalyst Control Center to turn the Sampling down to Adaptive Multi Sampling and my frames shot through the roof!

[scottb613 1,188]

CONGRATS - now - can you spare a few frames for those less fortunate than you ??? :( Regards,Scott

[Rekyht 0]

I would, but unfortunately my frames still aren't amazing, there good now, and smooth, in most situations, but a sky full of REX clouds and it quickly dwindles back to 11fps, even though I'm only using 8% CPU power. Is there anyway to make FS9 use more?

[pgaudet 0]

Rekyht:Post your FS9.CFG file and I'll take a look at it for you.Also are you using nhancer from nhancer.com?Thanks.Paul.