Optimal settings for ATI users with FSX - Great Results!

[dazz 69]

Thanks to you Charles, it's always fun to test new parts and discuss the results with fellow simmers

[cvearl 60]

 

 

Thanks to you Charles, it's always fun to test new parts and discuss the results with fellow simmers

So I keep this 660 Ti and return the 7950. And of course I am now feeling like ughhh... How do I get rid of these shimmer issues in the water. Since I do fly the cost alot, it's killing me. I need to find a water theme in REX where this is less obvious than the SPARKLING water theme which I so dearly love. Damn.

Also. I go to take the Duke from KHIO to KPDX with OPUS real time weather this morning. It was not really cloudy. Just looked like 20 mile vis with a few clouds here and there and some stratus. Same settings I have been rocking since day 1 and cloud density maxed.

It had a hard time staying much above 20 fps and was not entirely smooth. Murphy's law I guess. :(

I will have to double check my settins but on the 7950, it never went below mid 20's and was always smooth. Well. Until i tried 8xSSAA with max cloud sensity. Damn you DAzz! LOL

When you get your 660 Ti setup, share up your settled on settings. I would like to try them out.

C.

[ingcarlos26 0]

Two questions for Charles:

 

I understand you recommend Radeon Pro, what are your concluding remarks about radeon pro suggested settings?

 

 Do you have to delete the CCC profile when using radeon pro?

[cvearl 60]

Two questions for Charles:

 

I understand you recommend Radeon Pro, what are your concluding remarks about radeon pro suggested settings?

 

 Do you have to delete the CCC profile when using radeon pro?

 

Radeon Pro is like NVidia's Inspector. You create a profile for it. And set it as per my screenshots. I still do not know what the magic ingredient was but I got slightly higher framerates and smoother as well with it than setting the same settings in the CCC.

 

All it is doing is turning CCC stuff on and off for you based on detecting that FSX has started. That said. I think it might have to do with the Affinity Mask using all 8 cores (I have a quad with HT enabled) and externally limiting the framerates with DFC (Dynamic Framerate Control) with FSX set to unlimited. I got stutter free performance in all kinds of situations even when I loaded FSX in such a way that I would have low to mid 20's like heavy clouds. Still I could smoothly pan my view with my trackIR.

 

RadeonPro is a big YES for me. See my screenshots for my settings.

 

I had a CCC profile for FSX. I deleted it. Not sure if I had to. Just made sense that I did.

 

C.

[gizmosellsbunnys 106]

Thanks for the comparison really interesting to see.  Its comes down too you get what you pay for. 

[cvearl 60]

Thanks for the comparison really interesting to see.  Its comes down too you get what you pay for.

 

Ya. No matter what brand you gotta pay a few bucks with FSX. Several flights into this GTX 660 ti and I miss the 7950. I liked the colors, Ansio and water textures better. But if I go back to ATI, I lose a little AA. Cant tell the difference in the VC but some scenery objects look a little better with 8xS 2xSGSS like bridges. But not much. Damned if I do. Damned if I don't. Hahaha.

 

C.

[red_october 0]

I've been experimenting with RadeonPro and done some tweaks to see how much I can improve on my fps. I've also got EZDok and GSX running with ORBX FTX and REX.

 

What I've found is that if you make the RadeonPro start up with Windows (I'm running WIN7 64bit), GSX's Couatl will crash and keep crashing. But if I start my PC up normally without RadeonPro, start up REX then FSX, then fire up RadeonPro, it's all sweet.

 

Anybody who's got GSX find this as well, or is it just me?   :rolleyes:

[WotanUK 289]

I've been experimenting with RadeonPro and done some tweaks to see how much I can improve on my fps. I've also got EZDok and GSX running with ORBX FTX and REX.

 

What I've found is that if you make the RadeonPro start up with Windows (I'm running WIN7 64bit), GSX's Couatl will crash and keep crashing. But if I start my PC up normally without RadeonPro, start up REX then FSX, then fire up RadeonPro, it's all sweet.

 

Anybody who's got GSX find this as well, or is it just me?   :rolleyes:

 

Now that is interesting, yep i got the exact same thing...unlike Charles i also didn't notice any difference with running Radeon Pro.

Within FSX i also didn't get a picture at all, simply a black box.  Without RP everything was fine.

I didn't figure out that the problem was with the application starting with Windows.  I removed it pretty much the same day.

[cvearl 60]

Now that is interesting, yep i got the exact same thing...unlike Charles i also didn't notice any difference with running Radeon Pro.

Within FSX i also didn't get a picture at all, simply a black box. Without RP everything was fine.

I didn't figure out that the problem was with the application starting with Windows. I removed it pretty much the same day.

#1. I have.not started radeonpro with windows. I start it when I am going to fly.

 

#2. Blackbox only happens to me when I try to force tripple buffering for DX9. It.does not work with fsx and ATI.

 

#3. I did not necessarily get a boost in framerates. Just smoother flight for me in certain more difficult situations. I have since tested without the tool to replicate this. I believe what the tool was doing that I was not was not was setting affinity mask. Without the tool running, I had to add affinitymask 84 to my cfg to get the same result.

 

Radeonpro is not a magic bullet. Just a profiler for fsx like nvidia inspector. Without the tool, I have to add fullscreenvsync and affinitymask to the fsx.cfg file and lock fsx internally to 30.

 

I guess two ways of accomplishing the same thing. although the radeonpro method was slightly smoother for me running unlimited Within fsx and asking the tool to hold 30 with dynamic framerate control.

 

Whatever works best for people. Everyone's miliage will vary depending on other tweaks and other BS.

 

C.

[WotanUK 289]

#1. I have.not started radeonpro with windows. I start it when I am going to fly.

 

#2. Blackbox only happens to me when I try to force tripple buffering for DX9. It.does not work with fsx and ATI.

 

#3. I did not necessarily get a boost in framerates. Just smoother flight for me in certain more difficult situations. I have since tested without the tool to replicate this. I believe what the tool was doing that I was not was not was setting affinity mask. Without the tool running, I had to add affinitymask 84 to my cfg to get the same result.

 

Radeonpro is not a magic bullet. Just a profiler for fsx like nvidia inspector. Without the tool, I have to add fullscreenvsync and affinitymask to the fsx.cfg file and lock fsx internally to 30.

 

I guess two ways of accomplishing the same thing. although the radeonpro method was slightly smoother for me running unlimited Within fsx and asking the tool to hold 30 with dynamic framerate control.

 

Whatever works best for people. Everyone's miliage will vary depending on other tweaks and other BS.

 

C.

 

Yes we were talking about triple buffering making a difference within FSX, it certainly did for me. 

 

I was running with Windows startup, and had the issue above.  

 

I already had the "affinitymask" and "vsync" within fsx.cfg.  Like you say different ways of doing the same thing.  Still can't say i noticed a difference Charles.  I removed it from the machine, actually due to other problems; i formatted the machine.  :angry:

 

Did you go with nVidia in the end?

[Morph 9]

So many people tweaking so many different settings and parameters outside FSX,it just makes me cringe.

I am using TONS of add-on scenery, GEX, UTX, ORBX, about every single aerosoft airport there is, flytampa, you name it, also flying the NGX a lot and I have no issues at all, and here's how I did it:

First of all, I dont think it matters if you re-install FSX or remove anything, In fact messing around with registry entries tends to do more harm than good in most cases, just tweak on the go, even if your FSX runs like total crap right now just follow me on this,

Start by deleting your fsx.cfg and forget it, clearly its not working properly. Go to your settings and use these parameters to start out with:

GRAPHICS TAB:

- Resolution (Highest set possible at 32-bit, I run 1920x1080x32)
- Framerate UNLIMITED
- Anti-Aliasing ON
- Anisotropic Filtering SELECTED

- Global Texture Resolution Very High
- Preview DX10 OFF
- Lens Flare OFF
- Bloom OFF
- Advanced Animations ON



AIRCRAFT TAB:

Not much to change here, however, I tend to keep "Aircraft casts shadows on itself" OFF, because it looks terrible. (Keep aircrafts casts shadows on ground on! Looks nicer!)


SCENERY TAB:

This is perhaps the most important tab of them all, the changes here drastically impact FPS.

ALL SLIDERS MAXED OUT, EXCEPT THESE:

Water Effects: Pull back one notch from max setting
Autogen Density: Normal
Ground shadows: OFF



WEATHER TAB:

Cloud draw distance: 0% you can fine tune this later, just leave it at zero for now.
Detailed Clouds selected and Cloud coverage density: Maximum




TRAFFIC TAB:

All at zero, yes 0%, no AI Traffic for your poor CPU. This can be increased later, the key of this "guide" is to start small.

Now hit OK and shut down FSX.


Great! You've come this far, before we start up FSX, make sure you are running your DEFAULT settings on your nvidia/catalyst control center, also disable all forms of forced settings (like AA), if you are running more than one card please disable the SLI/CROSSFIRE now.


OK, now fire up FSX load up a default flight, default aircraft with clear skies during daytime and fly around for a minute or so and take a note of your FPS.

Now, end your flight, exit the game completely and go to: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

Follow the instructions and upload your FSX.CFG to the site, let it tweak it for you and then download the tweaked version and replace your original FSX.CFG, make sure it overwrites it properly.

When all of this is done, fire up FSX and load up the exact same default flight that you did before the tweak with clear skies and a default FSX aircraft, fly around for a minute or two and look at your fps.

If you still are not happy, go back to your settings and lower the autogen density to zero, also roll back one notch on the scenery complexity. Now repeat your "test flight", still with clear skies and a default aircraft.

Going from Full screen to windowed mode (ALT+ENTER) can also be worth trying, use whatever gives you the better fps.


My current computer specifications, built in the spring of 2011.

Windows 7 64bit
2600k running at 4.4 Ghz
16 GB of some cheap RAM
Two XFX Radeon 6950 cards (crossfire not enabled when playing FSX)
Also im running FSX from my 500GB cheap slow WD drive while my OS runs from a 120GB SSD, surprisingly there was almost no difference from running FSX from my SSD.



In my opinion, the key of getting your FSX to run smooth is CPU speed and violent abuse of your .cfg file, if you're not happy - delete it and start from scratch. Re-installing FSX is the last thing you want to do as it is time consuming and frustrating because it's often not the source of the bad performance.


I hope this helps out a bit, dont make it too complicated just mess around with the sliders and you will find your own settings, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

[cvearl 60]

 

So many people tweaking so many different settings and parameters outside FSX,it just makes me cringe.

 

I am using TONS of add-on scenery, GEX, UTX, ORBX, about every single aerosoft airport there is, flytampa, you name it, also flying the NGX a lot and I have no issues at all, and here's how I did it:

 

First of all, I dont think it matters if you re-install FSX or remove anything, In fact messing around with registry entries tends to do more harm than good in most cases, just tweak on the go, even if your FSX runs like total crap right now just follow me on this,

 

Start by deleting your fsx.cfg and forget it, clearly its not working properly. Go to your settings and use these parameters to start out with:

 

GRAPHICS TAB:

 

- Resolution (Highest set possible at 32-bit, I run 1920x1080x32)

- Framerate UNLIMITED

- Anti-Aliasing ON

- Anisotropic Filtering SELECTED

 

- Global Texture Resolution Very High

- Preview DX10 OFF

- Lens Flare OFF

- Bloom OFF

- Advanced Animations ON

 

 

 

AIRCRAFT TAB:

 

Not much to change here, however, I tend to keep "Aircraft casts shadows on itself" OFF, because it looks terrible. (Keep aircrafts casts shadows on ground on! Looks nicer!)

 

 

SCENERY TAB:

 

This is perhaps the most important tab of them all, the changes here drastically impact FPS.

 

ALL SLIDERS MAXED OUT, EXCEPT THESE:

 

Water Effects: Pull back one notch from max setting

Autogen Density: Normal

Ground shadows: OFF

 

 

 

WEATHER TAB:

 

Cloud draw distance: 0% you can fine tune this later, just leave it at zero for now.

Detailed Clouds selected and Cloud coverage density: Maximum

 

 

 

 

TRAFFIC TAB:

 

All at zero, yes 0%, no AI Traffic for your poor CPU. This can be increased later, the key of this "guide" is to start small.

 

Now hit OK and shut down FSX.

 

 

Great! You've come this far, before we start up FSX, make sure you are running your DEFAULT settings on your nvidia/catalyst control center, also disable all forms of forced settings (like AA), if you are running more than one card please disable the SLI/CROSSFIRE now.

 

 

OK, now fire up FSX load up a default flight, default aircraft with clear skies during daytime and fly around for a minute or so and take a note of your FPS.

 

Now, end your flight, exit the game completely and go to: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

 

Follow the instructions and upload your FSX.CFG to the site, let it tweak it for you and then download the tweaked version and replace your original FSX.CFG, make sure it overwrites it properly.

 

When all of this is done, fire up FSX and load up the exact same default flight that you did before the tweak with clear skies and a default FSX aircraft, fly around for a minute or two and look at your fps.

 

If you still are not happy, go back to your settings and lower the autogen density to zero, also roll back one notch on the scenery complexity. Now repeat your "test flight", still with clear skies and a default aircraft.

 

Going from Full screen to windowed mode (ALT+ENTER) can also be worth trying, use whatever gives you the better fps.

 

 

My current computer specifications, built in the spring of 2011.

 

Windows 7 64bit

2600k running at 4.4 Ghz

16 GB of some cheap RAM

Two XFX Radeon 6950 cards (crossfire not enabled when playing FSX)

Also im running FSX from my 500GB cheap slow WD drive while my OS runs from a 120GB SSD, surprisingly there was almost no difference from running FSX from my SSD.

 

 

 

In my opinion, the key of getting your FSX to run smooth is CPU speed and violent abuse of your .cfg file, if you're not happy - delete it and start from scratch. Re-installing FSX is the last thing you want to do as it is time consuming and frustrating because it's often not the source of the bad performance.

 

 

I hope this helps out a bit, dont make it too complicated just mess around with the sliders and you will find your own settings, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

 

I appreciate what you are on about here but I fear you are missing the point. Most of us know about and have used the venetubo site for auto mod of the cfg. Works good for some people. Others not so much. Look. The early part of the post is advising people of settings that cause stutter with ATI. Also best balance AA mode (4xSSAA) to look good and eliminate shimmer causing aliasing in autogen and making the gauges sharp in the VC. Tried tested and true with 3 other ATI users as well as me with ATI in FSX for over 2 years and 2 cards later. Also complete elimination of AF shimmer with 16xAF set in the driver. The same "things" we have been doing with nVidia and Inspector for years. This last part of the discussion was about Radeonpro which is NOT tweaks. Not in the slightest.

 

The ******* (venetubo) tweaks in that online tool do all the same things we are dicussing here plus some that dont work the same for everyone. That and the bufferpools settings behave differently with ATI than they seem to with nvidia. So they are not really neccessary with ATI. ATI rarely if ever OOM's and all that crap and blurries are often a minu=imum with ATI (at least compared to my nVidia build). And I agree with you. Less tweaks = better. But the ******* tweaks is ALL OF THEM.

 

As for the radeonpro discussion, it is not a tweak of any kind. You know CCC right? Um ok. Well this is a tool that allows you to set the 3D settings you normally would in CCC like AA and AF from within the tool instead. It just so happens that it also allows the ATI driver to force fullscreen vSynvc without doing it in the cfg file (Like venotube does) and also locks your framerate with a DYNAMIC FRAMERATE CONTROL (locking at 30) like the venotube tool does.

 

In essence. All the same tweaks as venetubo (*******) less the Bufferpools and Small part reject radius and all that. With the Radeonpro, all you had to set in the cfg is wideviewaspect=true and highmemfix. Period. The Radeonpro tool takes care of vsync, setting to locked at 30fps and affinitymask to match your CPU (Again all things done by the venetubo site) with the addition of settings normally done in CCC. It's an all in 1 solution. That is all I am pointing out.

 

Lastly, I fly all manor of payware FSX planes (including PMDG) in ORBX scenery into and out of payware airports and my framerates are 90% of the time locked solid at 30 with occasional dips to mid twenties but smooth regardless with WAY higher settings than you are suggesting here. But your suggesttions are great for people with budget cards (under $200).

 

Charles.

[cvearl 60]

 

 

Yes we were talking about triple buffering making a difference within FSX, it certainly did for me.

I was running with Windows startup, and had the issue above.

I already had the "affinitymask" and "vsync" within fsx.cfg. Like you say different ways of doing the same thing. Still can't say i noticed a difference Charles. I removed it from the machine, actually due to other problems; i formatted the machine. :angry:

Did you go with nVidia in the end?

One thing I can tell you is that if you start the tool followed by starting FSX and not the other way around, setting tripple buffering in the TWEAKS TAB in the screenshot shown in this post from me... http://forum.avsim.net/topic/404430-optimal-settings-for-ati-users-with-fsx-great-results/?p=2656246 resulted in black screen FSX all day long.

It would never work. If however I started FSX and THEN ALT TABBED out or minimized FSX and set that setting in the tool, it was not loaded and would not blackscreen when you did it. Leaving the tool running though (same as "start with windows") and shut down FSX and sarted FSX again, even the aircraft selection screen in the free flight menu would go blackscreen. Start FSX and full screen black screen. I could not use that setting on ANY of the builds I was playing with.

Just what would happen to me. I cannot really say that's how it was for you. Just me and my two builds and another guys 2 builds.

As for which card I went with. I sold the 7950. Went to buy the 7970. They had none. Bought and kept for now and to test a 660Ti so that I could truely know the difference (ATI better AF and less Ansio Shimmer and nVidia slightly better AA at same framerate tollerance) and I am putting the 660Ti up for sale to get the 7970. Some of my personal tourture tests actually worked better on ATI. Like flying the new Airdrie scenery from ORBX in the Baytower Vans RV or Duke with medium clouds. My 660Ti (Tweaked per Word Not Allowed's and AVSIMS guide) renders high teens. This is due to the enourmous ammount of Static Scenery Objects and photoreal ground layer combined with using 16xAF Quality mode in the nVidia inspector with 8xS+2xSGSS AA with vSync on. She cannot take it. 18 fps on take off. Low twenties circling the airport. My 7950 was in the low to mid 20's on take off and smoother but this is because I believe 4xSSAA is lighter to render than 8xS cmbined 2xSGSS.

Charles.

[Morph 9]

I appreciate what you are on about here but I fear you are missing the point. Most of us know about and have used the venetubo site for auto mod of the cfg. Works good for some people. Others not so much. Look. The early part of the post is advising people of settings that cause stutter with ATI. Also best balance AA mode (4xSSAA) to look good and eliminate shimmer causing aliasing in autogen and making the gauges sharp in the VC. Tried tested and true with 3 other ATI users as well as me with ATI in FSX for over 2 years and 2 cards later. Also complete elimination of AF shimmer with 16xAF set in the driver. The same "things" we have been doing with nVidia and Inspector for years. This last part of the discussion was about Radeonpro which is NOT tweaks. Not in the slightest.

 

The ******* (venetubo) tweaks in that online tool do all the same things we are dicussing here plus some that dont work the same for everyone. That and the bufferpools settings behave differently with ATI than they seem to with nvidia. So they are not really neccessary with ATI. ATI rarely if ever OOM's and all that crap and blurries are often a minu=imum with ATI (at least compared to my nVidia build). And I agree with you. Less tweaks = better. But the ******* tweaks is ALL OF THEM.

 

As for the radeonpro discussion, it is not a tweak of any kind. You know CCC right? Um ok. Well this is a tool that allows you to set the 3D settings you normally would in CCC like AA and AF from within the tool instead. It just so happens that it also allows the ATI driver to force fullscreen vSynvc without doing it in the cfg file (Like venotube does) and also locks your framerate with a DYNAMIC FRAMERATE CONTROL (locking at 30) like the venotube tool does.

 

In essence. All the same tweaks as venetubo (*******) less the Bufferpools and Small part reject radius and all that. With the Radeonpro, all you had to set in the cfg is wideviewaspect=true and highmemfix. Period. The Radeonpro tool takes care of vsync, setting to locked at 30fps and affinitymask to match your CPU (Again all things done by the venetubo site) with the addition of settings normally done in CCC. It's an all in 1 solution. That is all I am pointing out.

 

Lastly, I fly all manor of payware FSX planes (including PMDG) in ORBX scenery into and out of payware airports and my framerates are 90% of the time locked solid at 30 with occasional dips to mid twenties but smooth regardless with WAY higher settings than you are suggesting here. But your suggesttions are great for people with budget cards (under $200).

 

Charles.

 

This was not really directed to (your) the most recent discussion in this thread, I've just been skimming through tons of similar threads where I read the same thing all over again and watching people tweak really weird stuff without getting any result. 

 

The settings I proposed in my last post were intended to be like a "neutral" starting point in terms of effects vs performance.

My computer setup turned out to work great which means I can have that dense autogen scenery slider all the way up, and the cloud distance maxed out, (which I dont use since its useless when using REX because of the fog "DOF" like effect it has.) I also tend to stay away from bloom since it makes my current ENB series config look unrealistic.

 

Those were the only settings that were "mid-low" except for the bloom and lens flare, so I'm not quite sure what you mean by "WAY HIGHER SETTINGS". This game is 7 years old, newer graphic cards wont help imo, a gtx200 series can do the job just as well as the newer 690 series and above, personally I believe that it's all about getting that 4Ghz clock stable.

 

 

[cvearl 60]

This was not really directed to (your) the most recent discussion in this thread, I've just been skimming through tons of similar threads where I read the same thing all over again and watching people tweak really weird stuff without getting ay result. 

The settings I proposed in my last post were intended to be like a "neutral" starting point in terms of effects vs performance.

My computer setup turned out to work great which means I can have that dense autogen scenery slider all the way up, and the cloud distance maxed out, (which I dont use since its useless when using REX because of the fog "DOF" like effect it has.) I also tend to stay away from bloom since it makes my current ENB series config look unrealistic.

Those were the only settings that were "mid-low" except for the bloom and lens flare, so I'm not quite sure what you mean by "WAY HIGHER SETTINGS". This game is 7 years old, newer graphic cards wont help imo, a gtx200 series can do the job just as well as the newer 690 series and above, personally I believe that it's all about getting that 4Ghz clock stable.

 

High AA settings effect performance in clouds. I had the 6950. Great card. I was able to push my weather harder when I went to 7950 while maintaining higher overall fps. So the card helps in some areas. But your right. The vast majority of FSX is CPU. You can drop the fps bringing that NGX into KLAX in a bad overcast situation. All the card in the world does not seem to fix those. Well. The 1000 dollar titan but that's it.

 

C.