Hi,

 

I know this is an age old question but here is my sitch. I am running heavy paywar like NGX with Orbx scenery, REX and 1024 clouds and during flights especially on approach and departure my video card fan sounds like a jet. Also with the Orbx stuff I am getting micro hitches and delayed scenery tile LOD increase at the same time. If I make a recording of GPU-z during these times this is occuring my GPU % is in the 90% area.

 

I know FSX is mostly CPU but it seems in my case upgrading to a 560ti or something or even a 570 or 580 may make a huge difference. The reason I am reluctant to oc my processor more is that I am allready at 1.375 vcore and temps in prime 95 are touching 72c. I am afraid I may be signifigantly shortening the life of my cpu my ocing it more. Although if it only last another 10 months it may be time to upgrade anyway.

 

I just think that the scenery drawing like this has to be a video card thing mostly even in FSX because my processor should be able to do better, right?

 

I am running Affinity Mask=14.

 

and 8SQ thru NVinspector.

 

Thanks!

 

Now I know why there are so many double and quadroople posts.

My 460 also struggled at 8xSQ. Try this:

Set Anisotropic filtering to application controlled in Inspector. Then set Filtering to Anisotropic in FSX

A new GPU like a 580 would provide a very large jump in performance when using high levels of AA. I came from a GTS450 to my 580 and the jump was just incredible.

I recommend doing both. As long as you don't go higher than 1.40V, you CPU will last for a long time. So just put your VCore on 1.40V, and see how far you can push the multiplier, in your case I estimate it will be 47, but it might make it to 48. Once you get it stable at 1.40V, try lowering the voltage as much as you can, but I don't believe you can drop it much.

 

For a graphics card, when using FSX's anisotropic filtering and AA, a GTX 560Ti - GTX 580 almost won't provide any improvement. However, if you run high AA and SGSS levels, then a GTX 580 will make a huge difference. It just depends on what you need.

So just put your VCore on 1.40V

 

He only has a Coolermaster 212. His temps are going to go quite high @ 1.4volts.

I just think that the scenery drawing like this has to be a video card thing mostly even in FSX because my processor should be able to do better, right?

 

4.6ghz is a nice OC for the i5. Asus' OC guru Juan Jose did a study of 100 i5 2500k's and found the following:

 

 

"1. Approximately 50% of CPUs can go up to 4.4~4.5 GHz

2. Approximately 40% of CPUs can go up to 4.6~4.7 GHz

3. Approximately 10% of CPUs can go up to 4.8~5 GHz (50+ multipliers are about 2% of this group)"

 

My buddies 2500k needs near 1.4 volts to cross 4.5 which is crazy in my opinion. Some CPU's just don't OC.

 

As for temp 70 degrees won't shorten your CPU life span by much. 70-80 is still considered safe but lower is always better. If you were crossing 80 or worse 90 then you need to worry.

 

For $20 just get the Intel Tuning Plan where they send you a new CPU if you are worried about frying your CPU. It is doubtful unless you start crossing 80/90 degrees or 1.425 volts.

 

You will need around 1.4 or more to cross 4.8 and as Ben said I don't think your cooler will be able to keep up without getting high in the 70's or low 80's.

 

Going from 4.6 to 4.7 or even 4.8 really won't buy you more than a couple of frames.

 

Biggest improvement would be getting a 580.

I am now at 4.7 / 1.4 volts and stable with prime 95 for a few hours and FSX for a few hours so far. Temps are 74 tops with prime 95 and 64 with fsx. Priime 95 like all other CPU tests are good for stability testing but FSX will never touch those numbers thankfully. I have noticed an improvement in peformance and will be trying higher soon. I am running 8sq AA in inspector and off in FSX and anistropic application controlled in inspector and on in FSX. The 460 performes very well except in Orbx scenery where I think it can lag a little. Especially over 250 knots as I decend to just above 10,000 feet with higher terrain. The tiles are slower to build in an I sometimes fly over them before they are done. The autogen pops in but the resolution is not quite there yet. I wonder if that is a GPU thing or a CPU thing but with my moderate level of AA it may be quite a bit of GPU but I am not sure. I know it is some combination of both but the only way to really know for sure is just take the plunge and upgrade the video card as well.

 

I also wonder how much the video card has to do with LOD radius tweaks as well since I went from 4.5 to 6.5 and noticed an increadable increase in detail but a definate hit on performace. It is hard to go back after you find out how good it can look. Which makes one spend more money. :Thinking:

 

And, any less than 1.4 volts and i cant boot or get a Bsod. I also had to turn on Internal PLL overvoltage to be able to boot as well, took me a while to figure that one out. So my "wall" for PLL overvoltage is 4.6. That probably means I am close to my upper limit with this cpu but hopefully I will be able to get 4.9. The way I figure it if my cpu lasts another 6 months before I fry it it's worth it since it will be time to upgrade it anyway and the newer cpu's will be what I paid for this one.

So you VCore in 1.40 V, see how far, you can put the multiplier, in the example I estimate it will 47 years old, but it will probably make it to 48.

Especially over 250 knots as I decend to just above 10,000 feet with higher terrain. The tiles are slower to build in an I sometimes fly over them before they are done. The autogen pops in but the resolution is not quite there yet. I wonder if that is a GPU thing or a CPU thing but with my moderate level of AA it may be quite a bit of GPU but I am not sure.

Texture loading is getting reduced in these cases. The GPU is restricting FPS or you have the FPS locked within FSX but you can't maintain the locked value and FFTF is less than 0.67

Ahh well my question was answered. Been running the PNY 580 I just got 3 weeks ago and yes my bottleneck was that GPU. Huge increase in performance and with 8xSQ with 4xSGSS. I could never run 4xSGSS before even with the much worse performance. For those wondering, go with the 580 or even the 680 now. I would have got a 680 but tMicrocenter was all out of them for a while and I do not like ordering these things on the internet.

I found with my CPU when I tried pushing it past 4.6 that I needed an exponential jump in Vcore. 4.7 I needed 1.42 and 4.8 I really needed over 1.45 to some degree. Even though my temps were only 78 at 1.45 I never put it above there and brought my multi back down because after BSOD'S in FSX and none in any stress testing software I just decided that 4.6 was really fine. And you know what let me to this decision. Well ladies and gentelmen, it was 2 things. A real graphics card because I am sensitive to shimmers(don't laugh) and A proper install of an OS and FSX. Doing everything again from scratch the correct and painstakingly slow way I notice many weird issues I had before go away and have not had any crashes so far. Also the biggest thing really is that the GTX 580 allows me to use BP=0 and this gives me an almost 100% increase in fps and almost no stutters and I am doing it with unlimited frames everywhere. Although some occasional pauses and graphics hiccups but these graphic hiccups rarely occure in the cockpit of an airliner due to the fact that most scenery is covered by the cockpit, so it works in the NGX which is all I care about. The ultralight getts pretty crazy but I only use that to test things. But no crashes.

 

The 460 just could not handle no bufferpool.

 

So thanks for the advise, this really inspired me to do the right thing, because I have STS disease (Sensitivity to Shimmers).

 

BTW- All that stuff NickN talks about with a "balanced system" is so brought home to me now. My system was unbalanced with the blind tweaks and choked video card with fast processor. The key is a carefull installation, understanding and using only the minimal tweaks with carefull testing after each one, and balancing the video card with the clockspeed of the processor. Among other things. :Nerd:

Also the biggest thing really is that the GTX 580 allows me to use BP=0 and this gives me an almost 100% increase in fps and almost no stutters and I am doing it with unlimited frames everywhere.

if you are running unlimited, try locking those frames to 30FPS within FSX and set V-sync to half refresh rate in nvidia inspector and enjoy the smoothest thing ever.

Thats never worked for me. Cuts my fps in half to lock the fps w/n fsx. The nvidia insp 30 works w/o the hit though bt I find everything is better w/ unlimited. The fsx frame lock problem is a bug I think. I could never understand why people use it and then claim better performance. If I lock my frames at 30 I get 12 and if I go to unlimited in the same scenario I get 22.

Thats never worked for me. Cuts my fps in half to lock the fps w/n fsx. The nvidia insp 30 works w/o the hit though bt I find everything is better w/ unlimited. The fsx frame lock problem is a bug I think. I could never understand why people use it and then claim better performance. If I lock my frames at 30 I get 12 and if I go to unlimited in the same scenario I get 22.

Sorry, I thought you were able to maintain 30FPS most of the time. You won't get the smooth stutter free experience if you can't maintain the locked value.

 

You could try locking at 20 and set 1/3rd refresh rate V-sync and get stutter free flight but you'll probably see the slideshow feeling a stutter free 20FPS gives you.

 

You are correct that locking FPS within FSX gives you less FPS than Unlimited. How much lower depends on the set FFTF value. The default FFTF of 0.33 gives you around 75-80% of the FPS of unlimited, but as a return better texture loading and slightly less microstuttering. But the slideshow feeling of the lower FPS might overshadow these benefits if you are using settings that barely gives you 20FPS.

Thanks forthat. What FFTF would I need to regain all of my fps back from the lock? Or is this possible? I find the best thing I could have ever done to relieve stuttering and low fps is upgrade my video card, man what a huge difference. And reinstall windows and FSX the very slow and methodical but correct way like reboots and enetering the sim after every installation and loading the default flight. I am not sure the latter had much responsibility for this but I think allot of my weird issues before was from not following the proper protocols with installation.

 

Disable virus scanner, rclick admin, install, load fsx and default flight, exit, reboot, rinse and repeat. Takes forever but I think this is neccesary especially in windows 7 with old 32bit programs like FSX.

 

The new card also allowed me to enable bp=0 w/o issues and this gave me a huge increase in performance beyond what I could have imagined. It is amazing how that bufferpool drains the cpu of resorces.