I have a relatively beefy rig for FSX, and yet whenever I try to record with Fraps, my FPS goes down the tubes. For example - I tried recording a takeoff video from FlyTampa's KBUF with the CLS MD-80, and the best I was able to get was a mere 15 FPS. Is there something I'm not doing right or a way I can improve this? I see tons of YouTube videos by people with slower systems than mine that somehow have a much higher (and smoother) FPS in the recordings.My specs:I5 2500k @ 4.5 GhzNVidia GTX 465 (stock speeds...should I look into overclocking this thing?)4 GB ram7200 rpm drive (don't remember the brand)Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)FSX Settings: (see attachments)I have Fraps set to record full-res at 24 FPS.Help please?

Download and use FSRecorder instead of default FSX replay. It uses a lot less resources and will improve your performance when recording with FRAPS. http://www.fs-recorder.net/

On top of what CXA001 said...FSrecorder also allows you to "record" in game footage (like how fraps does in .wmv files), so that is a real alternative to using fraps. But by using FSrecorder to film in-game footage...you won't be able to record sound from FSX which is a negative. But I still recommend that you try it out.

I sometimes wonder whether Fraps is displaying the correct framerates. I started recording a landing approach yesterday, and the framerate counter stated "13". This was clearly incorrect, because the framerate was super smooth at the time (no evidence of jerking or stutters whatsoever).

On top of what CXA001 said...FSrecorder also allows you to "record" in game footage (like how fraps does in .wmv files), so that is a real alternative to using fraps. But by using FSrecorder to film in-game footage...you won't be able to record sound from FSX which is a negative. But I still recommend that you try it out.

FS Recoder's rendering feature can be used to create Windows Media Video (WMV) files from recorded flights. It does not create videos by capturing the screen in real time like e.g. Fraps, GameCam, etc. Instead it manipulates FS so that it no longer runs as a real time simulation, but behaves more like a video rendering application. http://www.fs-recorder.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=564

Actually, I'm already using FSRecorder, but I refuse to use the rendering feature because it's so much of a hassle to get the sound right when I edit in post production. And the FPS isn't stuttery, it just looks really low. It's crap.

Are you playing a recorded flight through FS Recorder and capturing with FRAPS? This is much less taxing on your system than capturing in realtime from FSX.Regards,Bob

Yep. I record the flight with FS Recorder, then play it back (with FS Recorder), and record with Fraps. Yet my FPS drops by at least half with it.

This is why I don't use FRAPs, I use GameCam, which is much less taxing on the system. With Fraps the only thing you can do to improve performance is record half size. Quality will suffer though!

Capture a video on a different hard drive (set it in FRAPS)... not the one you have FSX on. You'll get a few extra frames.

...Guess I need to buy another hard drive then :

I also have a problem when recording a video using fraps.No problem captioning screen-shots but when I press the hot key to record a video I experience jerkiness  and FSX runs along smoothly when its turned off.Any other game recorder? :huh:

I sometimes wonder whether Fraps is displaying the correct framerates. I started recording a landing approach yesterday, and the framerate counter stated "13". This was clearly incorrect, because the framerate was super smooth at the time (no evidence of jerking or stutters whatsoever).

 

FSX is not about FPS, it is about smoothness. You can very easily get low FPS and smooth animation. This is called, "Correctly Set Up FSX". FPS does not mean anything to FSX, so ignore the numbers, you'll just go nuts chasing your tail to raise them.

Record onto a SSD. Almost no FPS hit on my rig.