Momentary blank textures and flight sim hanging FS2004

[anthonyrm1 0]

My system specs are as follows:

 

E8500 @3.16GHz

4GB RAM

512MB 8800GT

Windows XP

 

I've recently installed REX for FS2004 and it has transformed it for me, amazing visually! I have my clouds at DXT3 512x512 and I'm really pleased with how they look. If I'm at an addon airport such as UK2000 Heathrow Xtreme with plenty of AI etc, I get frames in the region of 22-25. When cycling views I will often get a few seconds where the aircraft textures arent loading, they do eventually and it continues running as normal.

 

When I'm flying it will say I'm getting anywhere between 22-36 FPS (locked at 36) but every now and then it will 'hang' for a split second.

 

Which of my hardware would be the culprit for causing either or both of these problems if I were to consider an upgrade? I don't really want to change the settings I have for the worst, I'd sooner pay for upgraded hardware.

 

Hope you hardwear-smart guys out there can help!!

[anthonyrm1 0]

Nobody has any ideas at all?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

What you are seeing is normal for the amount of video RAM your graphics card has. You would need to replace your graphics card to address this. If you decide to do so, stay with Nvidia, and shoot for something in the GTX 460 or better range. Keep in mind that higher numbers don't always mean better, as the first number in the product name simply denotes the product generation, and is not a bearing on performance. For example, a GTX 550 is *not* faster than a GTX 460. The second digit is the most significant. A GTX 680 is pretty much the fastest card you can buy for flight sim right now, but is overkill for FS9. A GTX 560 would be a good sweet spot card, I would say.

[anthonyrm1 0]

Thats incredibly helpful of you, thank you TechguyMaxC. I'll have a look at getting a GTX 560. Could I expect to achieve much better results in-game by simply replacing the graphics card alone? Would it help to push up my FPS at major airports with full AI/scenery with higher cloud/graphic settings etc in FS9?

 

As my XP version is 32bit, does that mean an increase in RAM would be pointless?

 

Thanks so much for your advice, its very much appreciated!

[TechguyMaxC 516]

It's hard to say for sure whether or not you'll get a higher frame rate as well. It certainly won't hurt, but I don't know how much it will help since flight sim is mostly limited by CPU speed, not GPU. Not having enough video RAM can hurt performance though, so you'll probably get some kind of boost in those worst case scenarios like you described.

[anthonyrm1 0]

If I run the task manager whilst flying to see my CPU usage its averaging at 56% when really pushed. Is that an indication of whether its my GPU or RAM thats limiting performance in terms of FPS rather than the CPU?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Unfortunately CPU percentage utilization can't tell you if your CPU is holding you back. You would need to increase or decrease clock speed and measure FPS to see if you are limited by the CPU.

[anthonyrm1 0]

Unfortunately I haven't the first clue about overclocking, it sounds incredibly technical and potentially dangerous to me if you're a novice?! I've done a quick google search of it for the E8500 and couldn't even begin to get my head around what most forum topics were talking about.

 

In the meantime, would you (and any others please feel free to offer your opinions) recommend simply upgrading my GPU to a GTX 560 to improve the speed of texture loading? Would a GTX 560 Ti be overkill?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

The GTX 560 ti is an excellent card, you won't go wrong. Overclocking the CPU on your case would just be for testing purposes, to see how much the CPU is holding you back. For FS9 you probably have enough CPU power though, I had built an almost identical system for a customer to run FS9 on and it was great.

[anthonyrm1 0]

If I were to upgrade my GPU to the GTX 560ti would my Quiet Coolermaster 460Watt Dual 12V Rail PSU and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard be capable as they are of handling it?

 

A friend of mine would probably be capable of overclocking my CPU, I may ask him by how much I could overclock to remain safe with current cooling systems in place (not sure if I have any!)

 

Once again, thank you TechguyMaxC for taking the time to help me out with this one, its really appreciated!

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Do you have the exact model of your power supply? The important factor is the +12V rating. It looks like you need 2 6-pin connectors for a 560 ti. A 500W power supply is recommended, but given the actual power consumption of a 560 ti, that is overkill. A decent 400W unit could handle the job, so if you have at least a moderate quality 460W unit you're likely ok.

[anthonyrm1 0]

460Watt Dual 12V Rail PSU apparently

I'll investigate whether the 8800 gt that I currently have is 2 6 pin connectors.

 

Many thanks