Am losing my sanity...

 

I was running FSX with a 955BE CPU (not overclocked), GTX460, and 8G DDR2 RAM....never had any stutters, just some shimmering that I could live with, using NVIDIA INSPECTOR.

 

I upgraded to an i53470 with 8G DDR3 RAM and the same GPU, but my FSX has been slowly getting worse, not better!

 

I noticed the microstutters a lot of people were talking about....I always run with the Bojote tweaks, so I did nothing different in that respect, except install Air Display.

 

Last night I did a Vatsim flight, stock FSX airports, and ngiht scenery, and the whole thing was a slide show!!! FPS in the cruise would go from 30 down to 9 and back up again constrantly.

 

This morning I deleted the FSX.CFG and let it rebuild itself....performance was WORSE!!! even in the cessna on stock scenery, it was a slideshow!

 

I reinstalled my NVIDIA drivers and then could not get into FSX, got a message that my card did not have the shaders needed. I uninstalled Air Display and this fixed it.

 

I applied the old FSX.CFG and moved AFFINITY MASK down from 14 to 7 and the stutters seem to have reduced significantly....but I am not sure this is fixed.....any ideas please? I only reinstalled FSX (and my entire system) just over a month ago, really really dont want to go through that again!! :Cry:

You could try another reinstall of your video drivers,and see if that helps.

If not, we can look at other avenues.

 

Cheers.

I always use NickN's guides over at Simforums.

My hardware is similar to what you had Will; i7 950 3.07GHz, 8GB DDR3, and a GTX 465.

 

I just reinstalled FSX 4 days ago and finally got everything ready to go tonight. Tried a test flight, and I was getting 25-30 frames in both the PMDG NGX & 747 at FSDT KLAX connected to Vatsim with moderate traffic over FSINN.

 

There seems to be two groups of FSX tweakers that I can tell. One swears by the "*******" tweaks, and the other goes by NickN from Flight 1.

I use NickN's guides, and the performance I have now is the best I've ever seen on the hardware I have.

 

You may groan and grit your teeth, but a full reinstall and applying the CORRECT tweaks and system tuning will go a lot further in the long run then trying to band aid fix problems you can't even narrow down or identify.

There seems to be two groups of FSX tweakers that I can tell. One swears by the "*******" tweaks, and the other goes by NickN from Flight 1.

 

There are three groups nowadays: one Bojote ('*******') group, one NickN group and Word Not Allowed group! :wink:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/370594-read-before-posting-software-hardware-guide-for-fsx/

 

Bojote's automated tweaker is a bad idea imho (you should always tweak manually, tweak by tweak!) and though he did a great job on various tweaks (bufferpools!), he also posted stuff you should be very carefull with (all that shader stuff). NickN's guides have changed so often that no one knows anymore which one is current: some are really too old and way too long and over the top, which leaves us with Word Not Allowed's guide. Comprehensive, clear, just a few tweaks (really) and it works like a charm. Obviously ymmv. :wink:

 

a full reinstall and applying the CORRECT tweaks and system tuning

 

A full reinstall isn't necessary. Simply removing the fsx.cfg is enough to get a clean install back again. I would advice the OP to remove the cfg, create a new one, apply Word Not Allowed's software guide and then see what happens.

A full reinstall isn't necessary. Simply removing the fsx.cfg is enough to get a clean install back again. I would advice the OP to remove the cfg, create a new one, apply Word Not Allowed's software guide and then see what happens.

 

For me it was. I had installed things the first time around in one bunch and then activated everything at once.

I doubt everyone installs addons one at a time, runs FSX, then reboots the computer after each install.

 

And no offense to Word Not Allowed, but I used his guide in my last install, and this time around I'm getting at least 50% better performance using NickN's guide, which not only includes tweaks but a full system cleaning and tuning of the OS to make it play nice with FSX.

 

People are free to choose which guide they want, but my money is on NickN, and I've tried all three methods.

Thanks everyone but my performance was terrible when i deleted fsx.crg and the system created a new one.

 

So i am back with my old cfg file and most of the stutters have gone by lowerig affinity mask.

 

One thing i did notice is that my cpu usage was hitting 100% before i modified affinity mask, i cant understand why?

For me it was. I had installed things the first time around in one bunch and then activated everything at once.

I doubt everyone installs addons one at a time, runs FSX, then reboots the computer after each install.

 

And no offense to Word Not Allowed, but I used his guide in my last install, and this time around I'm getting at least 50% better performance using NickN's guide, which not only includes tweaks but a full system cleaning and tuning of the OS to make it play nice with FSX.

 

People are free to choose which guide they want, but my money is on NickN, and I've tried all three methods.

Word Not Allowed has stated in his intro to his guide, that his guide is written with Sandy Bridge CPU's in mind. As NickN does not have a SB system, I am sure his guide is more for pre SB systems like yours. Which is good. Means different systems are covered.

Using AM=7 turns on the first three cores (0, 1, 2) and turns core 4 off. AM=14 turns off core 0 and turns on 1, 2, and 3. Task Manager should show about 10% on core 0, about 50% on core 1, and 100% on cores 2 and 3. You might us AM=15, rather than 7, to turn on all 4 cores to 100%.

 

Check AHCI mode in BIOS, RAM timing, and overclock settings.

 

A new cfg should help FSX, if not I would look at the computer.

 

Dave

I'm getting at least 50% better

50% is a LOT...! Is this a figure of speech indicating performance is a lot better or did you actually get a 50% improvement in fps (?).

Which NickN guide did you follow? The old (and very long) one? Or the newer shorter one (in which he also uses FFTF)?

 

Anyway, it is indeed (as I said) a YMMV thing. It all depends on the hardware and how clean you keep your system. It's not that the various guides use completely different tweaks either.