Improving FSX via windows

[jewel77 6]

Having only one drive you need to make it at least 2048 MB (2gig).

 

Forget the 100 MB - that's only used if you're putting the main paging file on another drive.

 

The standard has always followed the 1.5 times the system's memory, but given that one can now install 64 GB of ram on many/most retail motherboards - that would be ridiculous to suggest following that methodology. You're running a single, 32-bit app on a 64-bit system, plus some weather, a few airports, some addon AI, an NGX and some 4096 clouds: you will "nibble" that 2 GB swap space. If you're in doubt - make it 3072 -3GB! - and yes - it goes on the "C" drive, as you have no other drive - ok!  :wink:  

 

All the Best,

I put in both boxes 3072, I did a restart but it keeps showing 8172 :mellow:  Maybe with ssd you can't change this number :unsure:

[Paul J 349]

Hi Jewel:

 

You didn't press the "Set" button before you exited the Virtual Memory screen - that all!  :smile:

[pinlifter 502]

Paul thanks a bunch for this great info!  I ran the Microsoft Fix it tool, adjusted my heap size and made the color management adjustments and I'm noticing a smoother performance plus a good 3-5 average FPS increase.  For a test, I launched the Aerosoft Airbus from a busy, cloudy Detroit last night and the difference was there.

 

I don't know how you do what you do, but keep on doing what you're doing :smile:

[Paul J 349]

:LMAO:   

 

No secrets, Chris - just a big notebook!

[jewel77 6]

Hi Jewel:

 

You didn't press the "Set" button before you exited the Virtual Memory screen - that all!  :smile:

Oops! :blush:​ I'm an OK button fan :biggrin:

[jewel77 6]

Does anyone know the default color settings?

 

I've experienced blue shaded mountains instead of black in DX9 mode :(

 

I'm not sure if this happens because of the fix but I want to be sure.

[Paul J 349]

Nuttin' to do with DX10, Jewel:

 

The only files that gets touched are the General10.fx file, maybe the *10.fxh file in the General folder, the Rain.fx/fxh files in the Misc folder - of ShadersHLSL. Anything which doesn't have *10.fx* or .40.fx* is DX9.

 

Can you post a pic of these blue mountains?

[cvearl 60]

Ok I have lurked this subject long enough and I need to ask a question.

 

I understand how an adjusted Desktop Heap Size fix could potentially prevent a specific type of OOM error (due to exceeding the number of concurrently open apps/services). Great tip.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947246

 

But how on earth does forcing your swap file to adopt a fixed size instead of a dynamic one provide better framerates? Logic dictates that it cannot effect performance in this manner. Especialy Windows 7 64 and users with 8GB RAM or more.

http://lifehacker.com/5426041/understanding-the-windows-pagefile-and-why-you-shouldnt-disable-it

 

He has a great link in the middle of that article to an article that has the REAL method for picking page file size written by the Windows guru. 

 

Unless someone can point out for me a tech sheet explaining how the swap file adjustment actually boosts computer speed. I can see if perhaps we are talking about prevention of the occasional stutter when one of the background services are activated like a weather app that suddenly wakes up to inject weather and it somehow had been swapped to the virtual memory file at some point in your flight and had to be loaded back into RAM. 

 

Charles.

[Paul J 349]

I don't think that having a fixed size for the swap space will make one iota of difference to performance, Charles.

 

What will make a difference (to actual performance - but only when it is being used) is having the swap file on a separate drive from either OS or FSX. This way it can read and write 'till the cows come home.

 

The reason for making it one size - i.e. 4-gig, 3-gig, 2-gig or 1-1/2 x ram, whatever you choose (on the FTX site one guy is promoting something like 25-GB for a swap space!!   :huh:  ) is so that one always has that size available - the OS doesn't have to search for "contiguous blocks" all aver the OS drive (which is what Windows has to do when it manages the file).

 

Lastly - when using a 64-bit OS, there's barely any usage of that swap space, period, and so one can probably just configure 1024 in each box and forget about it. I do use 2048 in each, personally, and 100MB on the C: drive. The OS must have (about 40MB) this, but 100 is a nice round figure.....

 

My setup:

 

C: drive - a WD Black 200GB, for the OS - W7-64bit, with a Custom 100MB swap file.

E: drive - a WD Black 1TB, File storage, with a Custom 2GB swap file.

F: drive - a Samsung 256 GB 840 Pro SSD - FSX only.

G: drive - an WD external USB drive - Backups.

J: - drive - a WD Black 500GB other Gaming.

[malibu43 2]

I saw a 30% - 50% increase in FPS when I followed the instructions and set mine to 25GB.  Everything just on one hard drive (not SSD).

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

The desk heap size registry hack, only works in 32 bit Windows. There have been posts and threads here at AVSim attempting to correct this misunderstanding before, but because all the so-called tweaking guides do not clearly state this limitation, this suggestion continues to propagated via the Internet.

[lodestar 186]

Modifying heap size is actually for both versions. It's highly recommended for windows 7 / 64bit too, and it works. Go and see microsoft explanation, they would mention it http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947246  

 

3gb swich was for 32bit version, but that is something else.

 

About paging file, best thing you can do for Windows 7 / 64bit is to don't touch it  ^_^ 

Leave it to system managed, a lot of things are changed in Windows 7 / 64bit regarding this. After reading a lot about this, the best is to leave that to system managed. There is no universal settings which will work for every system. It depends on maximum load on each system and ammount of RAM installed. You can spent some time reading about this and trying to find best settings for your system. But after lot of reading, you will probably find that system managed is better 

[gbogeaus 0]

If one didn't like the result, how would one undo the changes made by the Heap Config Device?

[lodestar 186]

If one didn't like the result, how would one undo the changes made by the Heap Config Device?

 

open registry editor - go to start(windows)and type "regedit". Here go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems".

 

By default SharedSection=1024,20480,768 

 

the last number after comma is important. If you have used "fixit" from microsoft website, that would change 768 to 1024. Just change it to default 768. 

 

But i can't see the reason for that, what can happen for someone to "not like the result"? 

[Paul J 349]

 

 

If one didn't like the result,

 

How would you tell? If there were OOM's that were the result of this number being too small before the change, and there were still OOM's after the change - then the problem wasn't Desktop Heap-related! The higher setting should not be reversed back down!! This is a fix to ensure adequate space so that DH OOM's don't happen.