Upgrade video card or increase oc?

[SAAB340 28]

Thanks forthat. What FFTF would I need to regain all of my fps back from the lock? Or is this possible?

 

FSX works a bit different in Locked vs Unlimited. In unlimited it will allow Fibers to use up to the FFTF value of CPU time, while in locked it will always reserve CPU time set by the FFTF value for fibers. The terrain engine is what is running on fibers. The amount of fiber jobs are not constant, it's constantly changing. So in unlimited we get micro stuttering as individual frames all of a sudden takes longer to display when we have a lot of fiber jobs entering. In locked mode we get a more constant delivery of frames as the delay for fibers is always there whether or not we actually have fiber jobs to complete.

 

The FPS penalty for having locked fps is roughly 1/(1+FFTF). I say roughly as there is CPU time used for fibers in unlimited as well, but not all the time. So obviously a FFTF of 0 would give you no penalty at all. But also blurry textures as you don't have any CPU time for the terrain engine when you can't maintain the locked FPS.

 

You could try FFTF=0.18 or even 0.15. That should give you back most of the FPS you loose by locking the frames but still give you some texture loading when you can't maintain the locked value.

[denver69 0]

I'll have to read that about 30 more times but that was very helpfull info. So far I am not having any issues with the new card but do have occaisonal pauses of up to 2 seconds. No microstuttering but if I am using the ultralight for scenery testing in slew mode sometimes I can get a rythmatic stutter wich is more like one of those golf coarse sprinkler heads where everything slows down and then runs normal once every 1 second. If that makes any sense. In an airliner since most of the view is blocked I never have that issue.

 

So is it like .33 per second or per frame? As far as the default FFTF. So if I understand this correctly .33 of the time it takes to make a frame the cpu is dedicated to creating terrain in the fiber.

 

So basically we bump the FFTF down as low as we can untill we get blurry tiles. I get it by rote and I will have to experament with this.

 

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.

 

Yes this is exactly it. I cant live w/o my autogen, traffic and jetways and approaches with my wingtips skimming peoples dirty laundry. I also cant live w/o good AA and I am happy with what I get which is mostly above 30 but allways between 20 and 30 in the heavy areas like SF and Seatle, etc. I only have to reduce settings in KLGA from imaginesim before I go there in order to keep it above 17 and at that point in becomes noticable but doable. I would not want to lock at 20 since I would be missing out on most of the time when I got above 20 and that is also noticable. Especially since I may be getting Track IR soon. This is all good advise but with the new card I no longer have a problem with microstuttering, just the occaisonal pause. I am not sure if this is the way to go for me since my issue is plain old low fps in those few areas like KLGA that I can live w/o going to.

 

 

Thanks allot

[SAAB340 28]

You can read a lot more about the effect of locking frames and FFTF here

 

Basically, you only get worse texture loading with a low FFTF when you cant maintain the loacked value. Locked frames that you cant maintain with an FFTF=0.20 gives pretty much the same texture loading as Unlimited with the default 0.33 value.

 

So far I am not having any issues with the new card but do have occaisonal pauses of up to 2 seconds.

 

May I ask what harddisks you use Marc? Is it green blue or black and is one for the OS and another one for FSX?

[denver69 0]

Yes I have 2 and they are blacks, the OS in on 1 and FSX is on 2.