MSFX turning my smokin' new laptop into a BRICK

[CTBlankenship 36]

I just purchased a new CyberPowerPC Fangbook Evo HX7-200 Gaming Notebook (see specs there) and my frame rates, after about 20 minutes into the flight the framerates change from approx. 20-25 fps to 5-6 fps (worse than my E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz Dual Core 3 year old processor).

 

I've performed the ******* Tweak, modified the registry as directed, increased the size of the page file, reduced the UAC to the least limiting, performed the NVidia Inspector changes, defragged the HDD, minimized settings in MSFX, got rid of all scenery and McPhat repaints, stopped running DirectX 10, Set the video to Triliner with no anti-aliasing ... blah ... blah ... blah, the list goes on.   

 

The reason for this problem is obvious however, when viewing performance monitor, MSFX is only using 10 to 14 percent of the available processing power.  I've tried increasing the priority of the thread but that does nothing.

 

What is turning my smokin' new laptop into a BRICK?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Charles T. Blankenship

[BilboBaggins 82]

You've probably over tweaked.

 

I'd rename FSX.cfg to FSX.old, delete all the Nvidia inspector settings and just use default for FSX from the Nvidia Control Panel, restart FSX, let it create a fresh FSX.cfg, then just add Highmemfix=1 under [Graphics], change Texture_Max_Load=4096, set Wideviewaspect=True, and leave it at that.

 

Set resolution to max for your screen, AA to Anisotrophic, then tweak _slowly_ up from there.

 

Traffic should be way down to 12 for cars, Minimum at airports, 20 for GA and Commercial aircraft, ditto boats (or less for boats if you don't care).

 

One step at a time. You'll have to reset Texture_Max_Load as you change settings, as it returns to default 1024 every time you save a settings change.

 

Get rid of bloom, shadows, all that crap.

 

See what happens from there.

 

Above all, discover if you have the patience to deal with FSX; you might not.

 

Oh! Also, very important: set your swap file to default (let Windows figure it out) defrag the hard drive (laptop hard drives tend to be slower, unless yours is an SSD?), and then reboot.

 

[megs8888 20]

Follow the software guide which can be found on avsim library I think it's great.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Aharon 606]

you are right that you have awesome laptop. I also have laptop with much less power that has no problem running FSX.  Look for my screenshots under my screenname.

 

My guess is bad settings of FSX.

 

With this kind of power from laptop, you should not have problems with FSX.  Did you use it on 7,200 rpm hard drive or SSD?

 

Aharon

[CTBlankenship 36]

Hey all:

 

I did what FleetingThought suggested and blew everything away and started from scratch, only entering in the most basic of tweaks ... just the ones specified in the thread.

 

I've followed many a software guides ... this is not a tweaking issue.

 

This is a machine / OS issue.  I now have MSFX limited to 20 fps (which is plenty smooth for me) and the "fsx.exe *32" is only using steady 13% of the processing power.  This becomes an issue during the flight when the framerates drop into the single digits and fsx.exe *32 is still only using 13% or lower ... in the words of General Anthony Clement "Nuts" McAuliffe ... "NUTS".  I will not surrender.

 

Something is going at a low level that is interpreting that the need of MSFX for CPU processing cycles is not that great ... and limiting it.

 

I've never run into anything like this before.  As stated previously, I've tweaked my E8400 Wolfdale Duo Core 2 3.0 Ghz processor until I'm getting a solid 17 fps running PMDG's 737-800 NGX (I have to do a clean boot but that isn't a big deal).

 

Also, I've been working with FSFX for about three years now ... patience is not an issue.

 

However, as soon as PMDG either supports XPlane 1x or Prepar3d ... good bye MSFX.

 

Any other thoughts guys?

 

C. T. Blankenship

[RiceySpicey 586]

Hi CT

 

There are two things you can try to get FSX/Windows to use all your available processing power.

 

Try this first. Google "Unparking processors windows 7 (or 8)"

 

If this does not help then you can add this line into the FSX.cfg:

 

Taken from Word Not Allowed:

"

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=14

This tweak, on a quad core, moves the FSX onto the Core1 (2nd core), to basically split fibers and main thread. It is good because Windows is usually having its processes on the Core0, so moving to Core1 is giving FSX more breathing space. It is also sacrificing one texture thread, since all that comes after Main Thread are Texture Threads. This means FSX is running with Core0 – Fibers, Core1 – Main Thread, Core2+3 – Texture Threads. That’s OK like that.

For a quad core running HT off, this should be 14.
For a quad core running HT on, this should be 84."

[CTBlankenship 36]

Well gentlemen:

 

All of your suggestions were a success ... I downloaded a utility that unparked my CPUs, wiped out my old .CFG for the new one, applied only the tweaks suggested and added the [JOBSCHEDUDULER] to boot.  Tentatively, as I have yet to test it out on a complete flight, FPS was steady at 29 ... and it is limited in FSX to 30 ... nice work gentlemen!!! 

 

I really appreciate it!

 

C. T. Blankenship

[RiceySpicey 586]

Glad its helped if you want to lower power consumption (especially on a laptop) then parking cores is handy. You might be able to park them and then just use the Affinity mask tweak in fsx (this may unpark them for fsx only?) Not too sure on this, but worth a look?

[Tabs 2,790]

Please be careful with unparking cores on a laptop. That can cause major heat issues - laptops in general don't have the heat dissipation capabilities that desktop machines with big heatpipe or water coolers do.

 

In fact my suspicion on where your performance loss is coming from is that it's the system's thermal protection stuff underclocking the CPU cores...

[honanhal 1,420]

 

In fact my suspicion on where your performance loss is coming from is that it's the system's thermal protection stuff underclocking the CPU cores...

 

Based on my own experience with using a laptop for FSX this is my very strong suspicion as well.

 

James

[jwk737 1]

Just as a side note, using the laptop on ac or batteries can make a big difference ...

 

HTH,

Johan

[BilboBaggins 82]

.... whereas using it without either batteries or ac is going to get you nowhere fast......

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

This sounds a lot like throttling. My old laptop would do that after 20 minutes of gameplay.

 

So if you run into the issue again, then try a utility that will stop your CPU from throttling. However, do know that core unparking and throttling will make your laptop hotter, so do those at your own risk.

[CTBlankenship 36]

I use Core Temp 0.99.8 and monitor it all the time ... TJ Max for each core is 100C, the average value is 46C on each of the four Coors (I like that beer) ... the High, during the game, went to an average of 56C. 

 

However, that being said, I appreciate the concerns, even though I monitor heat currently, I'm going to make sure to monitor it with added vigor now.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

C. T. Blankenship

[cavaricooper 2,615]

I too believe your problem was heat, particularly when reading your initial post about things slowing down 20 minutes in. If you are going to keep this up, I'd suggest a LARGE under laptop cooler. Please remember its not just TJ.... Memory, chipsets and EVERYTHING ELSE get hotter under OC.