Optimal settings for ATI users with FSX - Great Results!

[WotanUK 289]

I tested the ******* online tweak tool. I lost 10% performance in the FSXMARK11 benchmark. Went back to just himemfix, wideviewaspect and forcefullscreenvsync.

Can you tell me what your texture max load is mine below:

 

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096

[cvearl 60]

Can you tell me what your texture max load is mine below:

 

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096

I kept ending up at 1024. I got tired of setting it back. I have to guess thats what it is right now. And honestly when I'm busy flying I have never noticed that I had it on or off anyway. But apparently those with NGX can tell. I dont have that. I do have the JS41 but never noticed a change with it on or off.

 

C.

[WotanUK 289]

I keep ending up at 1024. I got tired of setting it back. I have to guess thats whatnit is right now. And honestly when I'm busy flying I have never noticed that I had it on our off anyway. But apparently those with NGX can tell. I dont have that. I do have the JS41 but never noticed a change with it on or off.

 

C.

 

I think that FSX resets it.  It can make a massive performance difference, i suggest that is why you noticed the drop after using ******* tweaks.  It's a visible difference on the NGX from 1024 to 4096, can't remember if the JS41 looks different, but even that aircraft has a difference between the lo and hi resolution textures.

[cvearl 60]

I think that FSX resets it.  It can make a massive performance difference, i suggest that is why you noticed the drop after using ******* tweaks.  It's a visible difference on the NGX from 1024 to 4096, can't remember if the JS41 looks different, but even that aircraft has a difference between the lo and hi resolution textures.

I'll have to check how the js41 looks with 4096.

 

C.

[cvearl 60]

I think that FSX resets it.  It can make a massive performance difference, i suggest that is why you noticed the drop after using ******* tweaks.  It's a visible difference on the NGX from 1024 to 4096, can't remember if the JS41 looks different, but even that aircraft has a difference between the lo and hi resolution textures.

 

Just ran his tool and it left it at 1024. All his other edits were there as well.

 

Charles.

[Q_flyer 766]

Hi Charles,

 

I use a ATI 7850 2GB card, so a little lower spec than the cards you mentioned, but still a good card for the money.

 

My problem has always been very bad shimmering, especially at add-on airports, and especially bad at the UK2000 'Xtreme Airports'   (EGGD Bristol being one of the worst).

 

I'd never been able to nail this problem, and having read your first post on this thread I noticed that I had "surface optimization" turned on.   I also had "Adaptive Multisampling" AA mode on, instead of your suggested "Supersampling" AA.

 

When I changed both of these settings;

 

FIXED!

 

All shimmering at the UK2000 add-on airports completely gone! ...... FSX just seems happier and more stable with your suggested settings too.    Menus and options process quicker.

 

The only thing I could not quite get away with on my system (with the 7850 card) was the 16x setting for AF.     I reduced mine to 8x and this gave me a considerable FPS boost.

 

One thing for me though;

 

When I used a fsx.cfg with just the [HIGHMEMFIX], and [WIDEASPECTVIEW] and Vsync tweaks applied, I saw a considerable drop in FPS.

 

I normally use a ******* tweaked fsx.cfg, and when I put [bUFFERPOOLS] (PoolSize=0) and [JOBSCHEDULER] (Affinity=84) [my HT is permanently on] back into the fsx.cfg I saw a massive FPS boost (around 10), but still with the far better visuals, smoothness and stableness that your settings have given.

 

So for me, ******* tweaks stay ..... but that aside, moving to your suggested ATI settings has quite considerably improved the visuals and performance of my PC.

 

Thanks :smile:

[cvearl 60]

Hi Charles,

 

I use a ATI 7850 2GB card, so a little lower spec than the cards you mentioned, but still a good card for the money.

 

My problem has always been very bad shimmering, especially at add-on airports, and especially bad at the UK2000 'Xtreme Airports'   (EGGD Bristol being one of the worst).

 

I'd never been able to nail this problem, and having read your first post on this thread I noticed that I had "surface optimization" turned on.   I also had "Adaptive Multisampling" AA mode on, instead of your suggested "Supersampling" AA.

 

When I changed both of these settings;

 

FIXED!

 

All shimmering at the UK2000 add-on airports completely gone! ...... FSX just seems happier and more stable with your suggested settings too.    Menus and options process quicker.

 

The only thing I could not quite get away with on my system (with the 7850 card) was the 16x setting for AF.     I reduced mine to 8x and this gave me a considerable FPS boost.

 

One thing for me though;

 

When I used a fsx.cfg with just the [HIGHMEMFIX], and [WIDEASPECTVIEW] and Vsync tweaks applied, I saw a considerable drop in FPS.

 

I normally use a ******* tweaked fsx.cfg, and when I put [bUFFERPOOLS] (PoolSize=0) and [JOBSCHEDULER] (Affinity=84) [my HT is permanently on] back into the fsx.cfg I saw a massive FPS boost (around 10), but still with the far better visuals, smoothness and stableness that your settings have given.

 

So for me, ******* tweaks stay ..... but that aside, moving to your suggested ATI settings has quite considerably improved the visuals and performance of my PC.

 

Thanks :smile:

 

Glad it worked out well for you. The vsync option is optional. If you were not bothered before leave it off. No worries. BUFFERPOOLS and JOBSCHEDULER are fine. I am still experimenting with those. Might try them again down the road.

 

But in CCC - Twinkling autogen, shimmer and all that jazz are killed with turning off surface format optimization. And using SSAA makes the gauges and some of the more troublesome Autogen sharp. It's really that simple.

 

Spread the word brother!

 

C.

[WotanUK 289]

It's edge detect AA that kills performance, it only allows 12x - 24x  While just about usable on 12x, anything with EQ on the end turns FSX into a slideshow.

[cvearl 60]

I also noticed the Q based AA makes edges shimmer in the cockpit as well. In non overcast weather, the 7950 can maintain 30fps at 12x SSAA (4xSSAA with edge detect enabled). If I had a 7970, I think that I could get away with leaving it there for all weather. Wife might kill me. $320 for the 7950 was hard to slip by her. $420 would a been harder.

 

Because I fly real world weather with Opus and I keep my cloud density bumped to High and at least 70 nm radius, I found 4xSSAA was a safe all weather AA mode.

 

C.

[WotanUK 289]

Yep 4xSSAA does appear to occupy a sweet spot

[cvearl 60]

Hi Charles,

 

I use a ATI 7850 2GB card, so a little lower spec than the cards you mentioned, but still a good card for the money.

 

My problem has always been very bad shimmering, especially at add-on airports, and especially bad at the UK2000 'Xtreme Airports' (EGGD Bristol being one of the worst).

 

I'd never been able to nail this problem, and having read your first post on this thread I noticed that I had "surface optimization" turned on. I also had "Adaptive Multisampling" AA mode on, instead of your suggested "Supersampling" AA.

 

When I changed both of these settings;

 

FIXED!

 

All shimmering at the UK2000 add-on airports completely gone! ...... FSX just seems happier and more stable with your suggested settings too. Menus and options process quicker.

 

The only thing I could not quite get away with on my system (with the 7850 card) was the 16x setting for AF. I reduced mine to 8x and this gave me a considerable FPS boost.

 

One thing for me though;

 

When I used a fsx.cfg with just the [HIGHMEMFIX], and [WIDEASPECTVIEW] and Vsync tweaks applied, I saw a considerable drop in FPS.

 

I normally use a ******* tweaked fsx.cfg, and when I put [bUFFERPOOLS] (PoolSize=0) and [JOBSCHEDULER] (Affinity=84) [my HT is permanently on] back into the fsx.cfg I saw a massive FPS boost (around 10), but still with the far better visuals, smoothness and stableness that your settings have given.

 

So for me, ******* tweaks stay ..... but that aside, moving to your suggested ATI settings has quite considerably improved the visuals and performance of my PC.

 

Thanks :smile:

Holy canoli! I just tried Poolsize=0 and man what a difference! I thought locked at 30 was simply good enough. Now I am tearing around ORBX KSFF which previously dumped me into low 20 high teen territory and I'll be damned if I'm not in high 20's if not locked 30 doing point turns directly over the airport. Are you kidding me? Wooooo. This was like flying in an arcade game it was that damn smooth. I sure hope this is not a fluke. Please let it be real. I gotta do some PMDG flights like this and see how it goes long term.

 

Thanks man. Seriously. Add that to the ATI guide! ATI likes USEPOOLS=0. Someone also told me the shader mod 3.0 was an ATI thing too. Might test that if its a safe one.

 

C.

[cvearl 60]

It does look a little better (in my opinion) but Super Sampling kills my system at 5760x1080, not just in FSX but in everything. I haven't tried Morphological Filtering within FSX, it has issues with other software making the text kind of blury, i might try it again.

I'm going to guess that at that res, you will need a 7970 for smooth flights with SSAA. 4x Super sample AA at that res on a 6970 is like a GTX560ti trying the same with 8xS+4xSGSS. In an HD plane and Payware ORBX airport with some clouds, its tail would go between it's legs.

 

I have a friend that had a GTX570 OC and three 24" screens who used 8xS+2xSGSS religiously and those scenarios would dump him into the mid teens fps zone.

 

Required now? Probably 660ti or greater or ATI 7870 or 7950 and up.

 

Have you tried Usepools=0 yet. Not sure how well that works on 6000 series but on my new 7950 it gives me another 25% fps it seems. Smooth in places where I wasn't. So far no crashes or artifacts. I thought there would be some but nnot so far and testing continues.

 

7870's are a steal right now under $250. 7950's are just hitting the $300 zone themselves as are 660ti's.

 

C.

[dazz 69]

Charles, what's performance like in GPUMark2 at 2xSSAA please? Also how does it look? I'm guessing not too bad since it's like 2xSGSS

[cvearl 60]

dazz, on 22 Apr 2013 - 09:27 AM, said:

Charles, what's performance like in GPUMark2 at 2xSSAA please? Also how does it look? I'm guessing not too bad since it's like 2xSGSS

Ill try it but what I understand is that in nVidia land with Inspector, the "go to" settings people use are 8xS+2xSGSS which translates to ...

 

8xS = General 3D edges getting 1.5xSSAA added to 4xMSAA (If ATI had an equiavlent it might be 6xMSAA? but we don't). We go 4, 8 16. But even though 8xMSAA is almost free with ATI and will look really sharp along edges, the guages don't benefit as they are transparent textures and need SSAA to be sharp as well and not have AA shimmer when you pan you view in the VC. Because I want sharp avionics, I am forced to go SSAA.

 

2xSGSS applied to Transparent textures (in FSX = Gauge textures and clouds and external model paint textures) This is like using 2xSSAA with ATI as far as I understand it.

 

OFF TOPIC -> Just dreaming here... So if ATI had a tool where we could enable 4xMSAA to polygons and then 2xSSAA to Transparent textures, we would be good to go like nvidia owners. In fact I think 8xMSAA is almost free so we would do 8xMSAA+2xTSSAA but sadly we cannot. We are forced to do FULL SCENE modes of one or the other. Grrrr.... And in FSX, clouds with SSAA get too heavy beyond 4x. On a clearish day (scattered layers or less) over medium density AG areas, I can go as high as 12xSSAA without leaving 30 fps. Stupid clouds!!!! This is like using 12xSSAA+12xSGSS on nVidia. Try that in Broken or worse cloud layers. Can you say TANK? LOL.

 

I am going to guess that 2xSSAA is going to look ok-ish on the gauges but craptastical on the 3D model edges. But I will screenshot it and do that GPUMARK thing for you and report back. I am not holding out much hope.

 

This was the long way of saying, in FSX, ATI 2xSSAA will not look as good as 8xS+2xSGSS.

 

Oh and the miracle USEPOOLS=0 setting is great until I try to do the ILS 21R into ORBX's KSFF in a storm in PMDG planes. Doable but back on down to mid to low twenties with some microstutter happening even with USEPOOLS=0. It's unpossible? Maybe I need a 5Ghz CPU with a GTX Titan. LOL.

 

I might send the saved flight and weather theme I am using to a friend that has the JS41+KSFF and see how his GTX680+4.4Ghz behaves.

 

C.

[dazz 69]

Thanks Charles. Just run the tests for a few seconds and let me know what kind of FPS you see, and how things look.

Been taking a look at RadeonPro to see if there's a way to combine MSAA & SSAA and it doesn't seem possible, but I don't think it's that big of a deal, probably MSAA is expendable and won't make that much of a difference visually.

 

I'm seriously considering getting a 7950 to replace my 580 (now gone). If it can do 25 plus FPS in GPUMark2 at 4xSSAA once overclocked, that would be great value

 

Also, have you played with the Aniso Filtering settings (Box, Narrow Tent, Wide Tent & Edge Detect) combined with 2x & 4x SSAA?