If this is in the wrong area, mods can you please move it?

 

So I can say for a fact that a lot of have tried to run FSX on a laptop at some point and gave up with the idea due to the underwhelming performance you got from it. No matter how powerful the laptop may be for current games, FSX still somehow owned your machine, leading to a rage uninstall. Well this might be a possible fix for running FSX on your laptops with a bit more performance.

 

**DISCLAIMER** I take no responsibility for ANY damages that may occur and this is done at YOUR OWN RISK!

 

Now with that said, I'll tell you guys about this application called ThrottleStop. I've been using it since it's first incarnation a few years ago on the NotebookReview Forum. I'm actually shocked that more people don't know about it, especially here. In any case case, what it does is prevent your CPU from throttling when using intensive apps like FSX. Stuff like FSX will push your processor to it's power limits and it's temperature limits, causing your system to throttle and make it under-perform. With some motherboards, it's coded in bios to throttle the CPU once these conditions are met to prevent hardware damage (And with a lot of laptops, you can't overide this in bios). *Now that this is clear, it is VERY important to be vigilant about the temps of your hardware, especially on a laptop. I recommend HwMonitor*

 

So why use ThrottleStop? ThrottleStop helps to overcome your system's throttling issues by force your system to run at it's full clock speed. It works with most CPUs (desktop or laptop), so anyone can try it. It also has features to change the power limits on your CPUs (i3, i5 and i7s ONLY) as well as overclocking features for extreme and unlocked CPUs.

 

You can download it here: http://www.techinferno.com/downloads/?did=41

 

And you can follow the guide to learn more about the features here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

 

Now this post was really made for laptops but also applies to desktops. Don't expect your system to run FSX with everything maxed! No matter how good you think your hardware may be, you WILL have to make some compromise and accept the limits of what your system can and cannot do. Don't expect to run maxed autogen with light bloom on and expect a solid 30fps throughout your flight. It won't ever happen! Adjust settings for an all round performance and smooth flight.

 

Now the naming scheme Nvidia has used for their mobile cards is a little misleading. Meaning my card is a GTX 280M, and some will think it's close to the performance of the desktop version GTX 280, WRONG. The performance of my card actually translates to the performance of a desktop 9800GT. So the current GTX 560M-GTX 580M and GTX 660M-GTX 660M mobile cards translate to the performance of roughly a GTS 450-GTX 470 desktop card. So also keep that in mind too when thinking about setting things up.

 

Here's how I have ThrottleStop set up:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2661/1pb8.png

 

**IMPORTANT** Anyone using the i series CPUs (i3, i5 and i7) PLEASE DO NOT adjust your TDC value unless you know what you are doing, otherwise you can potentially fry your motherboard that way from the extra current to the chip. I do not recommend TDP values to exceed more than 20 of it's default value. If you increase it anymore, your PSU won't have enough juice to give the CPU and your GPU power.

 

I commented in another thread saying this:

 

"You don't want to have C1E checked in throttlestop. That's for the processor sleep states, you don't want the cpu to sleep when fsx is running. BD PROCHOT is THE main culprit for throttling. Essentially that triggers the cpu to throttle when it gets too hot to protect the cpu and gpu. When this happens your fps fall to a crawl. By unchecking it, your cpu will try to keep up the turbo boost, ignoring temperatures, BUT once it reaches critical temp (between 95*C-100*C) it WILL throttle. That's hard coded and you cannot get around it. Any temps beyond that can potentially cause long term damage to your hardware. That's why I said to monitor your temps very closely."

 

Hope this helps you guys out there!

Isn't this the same as what you can simply do with the power options in Windows...? Select the high performance preset and check that the CPU is always used at 100%...?

I was wondering if anyone out there was using a laptop for FSX besides me...thanks for the info.  As for performance, I have an Alienware M14 (built last year so it has the Ivy Bridge processor) as well as an nVidia GT650M, maxed out ram and an SSD.  For the most part, FSX runs just fine but recently started having issues with high-demand add-ons, but that's my fault, not the laptop.  I am pushing the laptop's limits so I guess I deserve what i get.  I have it overclocked at about midway, so it belts out pretty decent performance.  Oddly enough, J van E mentioned about power options and it didn't even occur to me that I am running a "balanced" power option instead of high performance.  That alone could contribute to some of my throttling so i thank you sir for that point taken.

 

Heat is always an issue with laptops, no matter what, so while monitoring may help, it really only takes some intuition from the user to notice if performance is lagging and just save where they are and come back to it later.  In all honesty, just scale back the graphics settings in the fsx.cfg and everything should work just fine.  Funny, although I love to fly, it usually turns out that I am also testing at the same time, just to see how far I can get before my laptop calls a time out.

J van E, on 05 Jul 2013 - 03:32 AM, said:

Isn't this the same as what you can simply do with the power options in Windows...? Select the high performance preset and check that the CPU is always used at 100%...?

No it isn't. Even though the high performance profile is selected, some motherboards still throttle the cpu earlier than it should, regardless of the high profile setting. Throttlestop aims to override those issues with each particular system to keep the system clocks at full speed. I've always run fsx on high performance, but it would still throttle at 85*C, because that was coded in bios to do that. Using it, I now throttle at 95*C. So the throttling issue is independent of the high performance profile in windows. You can check out the guide to find out more info.

There is a good reason why some Laptops "THROTTLE" back their speed, to reduce heat ...

 

 

 

No it isn't. Even though the high performance profile is selected, some motherboards still throttle the cpu earlier than it should, regardless of the high profile setting. Throttlestop aims to override those issues with each particular system to keep the system clocks at full speed. I've always run fsx on high performance, but it would still throttle at 85*C, because that was coded in bios to do that. Using it, I now throttle at 95*C. So the throttling issue is independent of the high performance profile in windows. You can check out the guide to find out more info.

While I understand what you are stating about what this program will do, it is a big sacrifice to allow the cpu to run hotter than it's safety limits.  I love fsx, but personally, not enough to sacrifice my system...just my two cents.

There is a good reason why some Laptops "THROTTLE" back their speed, to reduce heat ...

Indeed. I get that but some systems have adequate cooling to handle it, some don't but in the end it's up to the user.

 

Another neat trick is with affinitymask using only 2 cores. Gives turbo boost a few more mhz and reduces the load on the cpu to reduce temps.

There is a good reason why some Laptops "THROTTLE" back their speed, to reduce heat ...

 

Whoa, fsx cause of laptop fire lololol

I always thought that laptops were not the best for FSX due to the reduced size of their graphics hardware, not because of the CPU.

Yes  because many laptops are not equipped for software like FSX..

 

Here is the OP's GPU:

 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+280M

Yes  because many laptops are not equipped for software like FSX..

 

Here is the OP's GPU:

 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+280M

For the months I've been running FSX with it, I've been getting decent performance from it (22-30 fps). But wow I knew my card was dated lol, but seeing the numbers makes it look even more ancient. Makes upgrade to the GTX 470M more appealing now. I could go for the HD 7970M but I know ATI cards aren't the best for FSX so the 470M is my only alternative. The newer Nvidia cards (GTX 5xx series onward) won't play well with my laptop's mobo due to vbios issues.

 

Here's the passmark for the GTX 470M Jim:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+470M

That is a much better card!!

There is a good reason why some Laptops "THROTTLE" back their speed, to reduce heat ...

 

 

LOL

An old post I know but tried throttle stop and WOW, although it's a laptop (Asus G74S) which I've been running fsx on for three years now with pretty good performance with all the addons I could never rid the system of a rythmic stutter and some lag, now with throttle stop it's a completely different experience very smooth and completely stutter free with throttle stop set up as per the image by JordanChin, even with it set to high performance and with TStop active temp's have not risen above 80c, for me anyway, I'm happy now.

 

Cheers Rod.