I’ve been using FSX for a couple of years now ever since I updated to my current system: nvidia 560ti i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5. My RAM specs have escaped me at the moment. Admittedly, I had been one of those people who spent the same amount of time - if not more – tweaking, as I did actual flying. In that time I experimented with dozens of settings, configurations, tweaks and combinations; everything from *******, Nick N, Word Not Allowed and many other helpful contributors here on Avsim in an attempt to minimize stutters and maximize performance. I always tried one thing at a time or started with a fresh fsx.cfg before making any changes, and I only have fsx running on my computer and I run it VERY clean.

 

Thanks to Word Not Allowed, frames locked internally at 30 and the ½ refresh vsync selection in Inspector, I’m doing more flying and I’m generally much happier with the way fsx runs now, and I have very few tweaks installed (I used to believe more was better). In most situations with modest settings I can maintain 30fps with payware aircraft in Orbx regions, and it is buttery smooth and overall a joy to fly in. The only frustration remaining now is what happens when the fps dip below 30. As usual this happens around areas of heavy autogen, payware airports and medium to heavy weather settings. But if they drop down even a few to 27, it stutters and struggles atrociously bad. Throw in the NGX and flytampa’s cyul, suddenly I'm down to 10-20 fps, and it’s struggling so bad that it’s virtually un-flyable.

 

How can being even 3fps below the locked setting result in that kind of a difference? It goes from smooth to slideshow and back if I taxi by a hanger. I read all kinds of posts on here about guys who have an acceptable smooth sim with frame rates in the 20’s. I just can’t figure it out. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the cheap HD I have, my nearly 8 year old monitor, or some kind of cfg setting I haven’t tried yet, but it’s annoying. It’s not just fsx either; I have this problem in fs9 too. It’s like my computer can’t load things fast enough below the refresh rate and it results in poor performance. Performance which I believe is not normal.

 

Please help me understand why.

 

Sincerely,

 

A frustrated pilot

I'm going to bump this one time

I think what you are seeing with that 3 FPS drop (and the disproportionate effect it has on smoothness) is micro stutters which are micro drops in FPS to very low values - the big drop may be for examples down to 9 FPS but for only a fraction of a second, so it can be hard to see them on FSX's FPS display.

 

I've been tortured with microstutters before, and in my case, it was two things causing them;

• FPS being unlocked or locked too high,
  
• Too low or high a value in the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULTI= value in the FSX.cfg
  

It does not appear that either of those things apply to you, so I'm not sure I can offer any practical help beyond pointing out that a situation where 30 FPS is perfect, but 27 FPS seems awful, is usually down to microstutters.

 

Have a look what your TBM value is, worth a look!

Thanks Raul, I'll have a look at the TBM settings I have

The purpose of the frame lock is to lock frames just below max load on your system. Default flight, max sliders, I get 60 FPS. Locking at 70, I get artifacts and stuttering. Locked at 50, no artifacts and no stuttering. At KLGA (NYC) I get 28 FPS so I need to lock frames at 24 to lose the stuttering. Phil Taylor said most systems would need to be locked below 45, so 30 was the best compromise.

 

Dave

I have my screen refresh set to 1/2 which helped greatly in reducing stutters, so my fps never exceed 30. What you're saying is I should try my lock at 26?

What you can also do is set your monitor refresh rate to 54 instead of 60, so that with FSX, you set your max frames to 27 which is half of 54. I do exactly this, but I actually set max fps to 28 with 54 Hz and 1/2 vsync, it gives me the best results. There is no noticable difference between 27 and 30 fps, IF you can always maintain the target.

 

Alex

Word Not Allowed's Guide will give you the best setup of FSX. If you cannot hold 30 FPS, then you need to turn down sliders, I get 30 everywhere I nomally fly. The lower FPS at NYC does not cause stutters so I don't adjust it. You need to put your computer specs in your profile.

 

Dave