I know in the FS2004 days, we used Alacrity PC to stop services and unload extraneous apps that put themselves in msconfig and start during boot. Is there something similar for Windows 7?

 

I've been starting task manager while FSX is starting and stopping services I won't need and unload Yahoo Messenger, Adobe, Java VNC Server etc..

With the amount of RAM you have, do you notice any difference in FSX when you stop those other services? I doubt they're using up many CPU cycles. I could understand that if you had 1GB of RAM, but with 6 and a 64 bit OS, I doubt it.

 

Is it me, or is this like deleting text files to make space in a 500GB hard drive.

Read Mathijs Kok's opinion.

Tried it both ways - notice no difference either. Main thing to look out for are programs that phone home or check for and possibly auto download updates. If this happens while you are flying, you may experience stutters and skips. So each system will be a little different. Personally, I turn off all auto updaters for this reason.

 

Vic

Well, I still use Ken Salter's AlacrityPC. I may be naive and out of date, with Nick Needham and now Mathijs Kok in the "no need to kill processes" camp... but Mathijis also says that he has no problem getting 50 frames a second on his rig, but when you look at the settings - everything is turned way down..

 

Personally, it seems pretty dumb to wring every single Hertz - even out of an i7 - by overclocking, by using 1024 x 1024 instead of 2048 x 2048, by pushing "other processes" onto other cores, by turning back road traffic to ten, by dropping water down to that 2.x Low (Ugh!), or Trilinear instead of Aniso.. AG at Dense.. Shadows off.. and so on.. and then allowing Norton's A / V, Acronis Nonstop Backup, Google UpDater, Adobe Flash Player, Cryptographic Services, Fax, Function Discovery, iPod, IpSec, HomeGroup, Iscsi Initiator, and.. and... and...

 

Every process running on that pc needs cpu cycles.. any time Google looks at the web - cpu cycles.. Every part of every flight is different, and very often the best feedback we get is only a "feeling" that it's struggling to make 30 frames.

Given the enormous number of variables involved, to get an empirical measurement would take ?????

Too much for me to think of.

 

It takes me one dble-click to launch Alacrity, and that launches TrackIR. Another dble-click and FSX is running....

 

:lol:

Well, I still use Ken Salter's AlacrityPC. I may be naive and out of date, with Nick Needham and now Mathijs Kok in the "no need to kill processes" camp... but Mathijis also says that he has no problem getting 50 frames a second on his rig, but when you look at the settings - everything is turned way down..

 

Personally, it seems pretty dumb to wring every single Hertz - even out of an i7 - by overclocking, by using 1024 x 1024 instead of 2048 x 2048, by pushing "other processes" onto other cores, by turning back road traffic to ten, by dropping water down to that 2.x Low (Ugh!), or Trilinear instead of Aniso.. AG at Dense.. Shadows off.. and so on.. and then allowing Norton's A / V, Acronis Nonstop Backup, Google UpDater, Adobe Flash Player, Cryptographic Services, Fax, Function Discovery, iPod, IpSec, HomeGroup, Iscsi Initiator, and.. and... and...

 

Every process running on that pc needs cpu cycles.. any time Google looks at the web - cpu cycles.. Every part of every flight is different, and very often the best feedback we get is only a "feeling" that it's struggling to make 30 frames.

Given the enormous number of variables involved, to get an empirical measurement would take ?????

Too much for me to think of.

 

It takes me one dble-click to launch Alacrity, and that launches TrackIR. Another dble-click and FSX is running....

 

:lol:

 

Overclocking will certainly make a difference to fps, disabling shadows will too...but disabling all those processes won't do a thing. Even when when they do use CPU cycles, that's what you got 4 cores for. (though i would exclude your fsx folders from your anti virus). Taking 10mb of ram when you got 6gigs is also of no concern.

 

It's also worth mentioning: I notice no improvement whatsoever when I use all the misc apps (as2012, sqwackbox, fsbuild) on a network machine vs using the same computer. I'm overclocking to 4.6 MHz though.