After playing around with my rendering settings today, and zeroing in on that sweet spot, it was nice to finally hear my graphics card working hard for a change. Coming from FSX, my graphics card has had an easy life. Now its time for it to pay back what it cost. So far so good!Rob

+1 Make it rain! :(

So far, my graphics card stays asleep with Xplane10 (But then, it also stays asleep with Crysis on max settings!)I don't think Xplane10 is really pushing a good modern graphics card so much as it could. It seems to it still rely a lot on the CPU(s)It would be nice to see some independent tests, though.After playing around with it, and seeing how various settings affect things, my instinct is that Xplane10's big Achilles heel for now is going to be memory usage. I see some funky things here and there that practically scream memory exhaustion.Edit: Actually, switching back and forth I see some anomalies that hint strongly at graphics drivers, either on Nvidias part or from the other side, so looking out for the newest drivers seems smart, too.

Edited February 16, 201214 yr by HiFlyer'

You´re right about memory usage and about some driver issues. But with the latest version and the right driver there are almost no issues left with nvidia card. Look up the developers page for more information.But you're WRONG about the GPU load. Fire up xp10 with some clouds, HDR - SSAA rendering, some AF, global shadows and medium-high overall settings and tell me that your gpu is bored...My 1 GB 560 OC gets killed with much cheaper settings - no VRAM issue - whilst my i7 [email protected] works with an overall load of 50-%...Cheers

I haven't run any tests, But I can tell you that with FSX, I hardly hear my graphics card. WIth XP10 and Rise of Flight, My graphics card fan is off to a dull roar. So Im assuming it working a lot harder now.Rob

You´re right about memory usage and about some driver issues. But with the latest version and the right driver there are almost no issues left with nvidia card. Look up the developers page for more information.But you're WRONG about the GPU load. Fire up xp10 with some clouds, HDR - SSAA rendering, some AF, global shadows and medium-high overall settings and tell me that your gpu is bored...My 1 GB 560 OC gets killed with much cheaper settings - no VRAM issue - whilst my i7 [email protected] works with an overall load of 50- %...Cheers

I actually don't use the HDR and SSAA.I find the resulting fuzziness outweighs the marginal extra prettiness.Shadows are kind of funky, too, but even then, my graphics card does not appear to be stressed. The issues I see at that point still seem to be memory related. Maybe the extra cores (448) on my version of the card are giving me some extra headroom?What actually brings my system to its knees is adding extra planes. Otherwise, even the "melt your CPU" settings (except for heavy clouds) only cause marginal apparent frame-rate changes.EDIT: Gonna go play with it some more!

Edited February 16, 201214 yr by HiFlyer'

I don't think Xplane10 is really pushing a good modern graphics card so much as it could. It seems to it still rely a lot on the CPU(s)

My GTX 560 has 2GB VRAM, according to nVidia Inspector it usually loads up with 90% memory usage and the load is usually over 60%. The temperature at idle is around 42 C when X-Plane runs, temperature goes up to around 77 C. My CPU load according to task manager is usually around 50%, all foour cores are being used.My CPU is Core 2 Duo Q9650 at a stock 3.0 GHz.PS. I just loaded X-Plane 10 up as I was typing this, the video card memory usage was 97% GPU load was 70% Temperature went to 76 C.I don't have any extra AI planes just me. :(

Edited February 17, 201214 yr by wb5okj

My GTX 560 has 2GB VRAM, according to nVidia Inspector it usually loads up with 90% memory usage and the load is usually over 60%. The temperature at idle is around 42 C when X-Plane runs, temperature goes up to around 77 C. My CPU load according to task manager is usually around 50%, all foour cores are being used.My CPU is Core 2 Duo Q9650 at a stock 3.0 GHz.PS. I just loaded X-Plane 10 up as I was typing this, the video card memory usage was 97% GPU load was 70% Temperature went to 76 C.I don't have any extra AI planes just me. :(

Well, using that as a guideline I went back and checked things in more detail rather than letting my instincts be the judge.Conclusion: Still seems my card is not getting pushed very much. The max GPU usage was a spike of 65% and average was about 40% acording to the Nvidia monitor tool. :wub:GPU Temps "Idle": 33cCPU Temps "Idle": 43cMemory Load "Idle": 1.74gigCPU Usage "Idle" Fluctuating between 1% & 18%Now turning on Xplane10! (settings taken while flying)GPU Max: 48c fans at 40% (fans never even bothered kicking in, as far as I could tell)CPU Max: 58c (water cooled)Memory load 4.74gigCPU usage: approx 45% to 50% (Intermittent very quick spikes to 74% for never more than a second)XPlane 10 settingsExtreme resolutionCompress textures to save Vram (resolution can really hurt in Xp10 if other things are not balanced. Another sign of memory issues?)Full screen 1920 x 1200V-sync onDraw high res textures from orbitRunways follow terrain contoursDraw forest fires and balloonsDraw birds/deersDraw aircraft carriers.frigatesNumber of trees; Tree huggerNumber of objects: Totally insaneNumber of roads: Totally insaneNumber of cars: Kansas ResidentialWorld detail: Very HighAirport detail: High ( I think the airports are not optimized enough, yet)Shadow detail: Global (melt your GPU)Water reflection detail: None (I hate the water. Hate hate hate!!) :lol:3D Bump mapsGritty detail texturesDraw volumetric FogDraw per pixel lightingAnti-aliasing 4xAnisotropic 4x or 16x if I think about it. (I play around with the settings, a lot.)No clouds. (I like to look around, and turning them on tends to obscure things. Plus they can eat frames depending on how heavy theyare)HDR off (leaving it on is kinda pretty, but can also introduce weirdness and fuzziness)Average is 20 to 30fps (Vsync is locked at 30)i7 920 @ 4ghz Corsair H80 Cpu Cooler Asus P6T DeluxeSound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1tyNvidia 560Ti 448-Core Gpu 6 Gigs Corsair Ram 7-7-7-20 1N Windows7 Ultimate 64Bit

Edited February 17, 201214 yr by HiFlyer'

Just to add to the post....See signature for system specs. Don't know why the AMD system monitor shows CPU's at 3.4ghz, there running at 4.7ghz per CPUZ. Anyways, Rendering Options are quite high, resolution is higher at 3840x1024. Don't know if system usage is normal, perhaps it looks a bit low (?). Real weather, overcast conditions, over urban area.CPU's at 26% - One core looks to be about 50%, the monitor must be averaging to read 26%......GPU at 86% - pretty good I would think......RAM at 5827mb free out of 8168mb - Roughly 26% of Ram being used - high - low ? don't know what it should be??Edit: FPS were 26.With the latest, 10.04 Beta4, it seems to be running a fair bit smoother, clouds don't seem to be as hard a hit (?), it is getting better. :smile:Glen

Edited February 17, 201214 yr by Muskoka

Hi HiFlyer!it's a bit paradoxical, you ask you GPU not to limit frames to 30fps with vsync, and then you wonder why it's not working 100% ! :huh:For any tests, you should desactivate Vsync.I think Ben said to use it only if we are sure of what we do, and only when all other parameters have been tuned.I had a boss who was like that: he send me to a post where there was absolutely nothing to do, then got mad because I didn't do anything (even though I tried hard to find something) :(

XPlane 10 settingsExtreme resolutionCompress textures to save Vram (resolution can really hurt in Xp10 if other things are not balanced. Another sign of memory issues?)Full screen 1920 x 1200V-sync onDraw high res textures from orbitRunways follow terrain contoursDraw forest fires and balloonsDraw birds/deersDraw aircraft carriers.frigatesNumber of trees; Tree huggerNumber of objects: Totally insaneNumber of roads: Totally insaneNumber of cars: Kansas ResidentialWorld detail: Very HighAirport detail: High ( I think the airports are not optimized enough, yet)Shadow detail: Global (melt your GPU)Water reflection detail: None (I hate the water. Hate hate hate!!) :lol:3D Bump mapsGritty detail texturesDraw volumetric FogDraw per pixel lightingAnti-aliasing 4xAnisotropic 4x or 16x if I think about it. (I play around with the settings, a lot.)No clouds. (I like to look around, and turning them on tends to obscure things. Plus they can eat frames depending on how heavy theyare)HDR off (leaving it on is kinda pretty, but can also introduce weirdness and fuzziness)Average is 20 to 30fps (Vsync is locked at 30)i7 920 @ 4ghz Corsair H80 Cpu Cooler Asus P6T DeluxeSound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1tyNvidia 560Ti 448-Core Gpu 6 Gigs Corsair Ram 7-7-7-20 1N Windows7 Ultimate 64Bit

Hi HiFlyer!it's a bit paradoxical, you ask you GPU not to limit frames to 30fps with vsync, and then you wonder why it's not working 100% ! :huh:For any tests, you should desactivate Vsync.I think Ben said to use it only if we are sure of what we do, and only when all other parameters have been tuned.I had a boss who was like that: he send me to a post where there was absolutely nothing to do, then got mad because I didn't do anything (even though I tried hard to find something) :(

Hmmmmm? If you look at the settings, there is not much more for the system to do.............Your point would seem much more valid if I was using low settings, but I am already near the max on most of them...........Upping the vsync might indeed add slightly more load, but only because the frame-rates would be higher, and I am quite satisfied at 30fps.I am not sure of your overall point, since what you are thinking of (as far as i can remember) was for those whose systems were struggling, and was intended to allow said systems to reach their maximum frame-rate. My system is not struggling.However I have done as you ask, with no significant changes on the above noted readings. In fact, after an initial spike, My Gpu usage lowered. (which is likely why it was originally suggested)

Edited February 17, 201214 yr by HiFlyer'