1 Monitor - 2 Computers

[cnobleNYC01 0]

Hi all - in reading through this forum and others, I've become decidedly more confused about what you can and cannot do with a second (or third) computer... particularly as most multi computer setups discuss multi-monitor as the main reasons.  I get that .... my wife does not.  I even explain that without any addons, I get 40+ FPS and with them it drops to 20ish; like talking to a brick wall.  :-)

 

Soooo .... my question(s) are - how can one utilize a second (less powerful) computer to off-load process to improve FPS?  I do NOT have many addons as yet (so many and they all claim to be the best... so I'm in the process of learning) and none of those seem to be "SimConnect" certified (I do understand the purpose of FSUIPC and Simmconnect in general).  I use "My Traffic" and "MilViz F-15E" and some scenery addons. 

 

Can a second computer be used to run scenery or AI traffic?  Instead of having a second commuter that only runs the addon app; could it run a running copy of FSX and "feed" the main computer with that info?  In other words: a private multi-player setup where the multiplayer is just scenery and/or AI??

 

I'm really looking to make the flight as smooth (graphically) as possible.  Any pointers, suggestions, advise, laughing, jeers, etc. are all welcome. 

 

Thanks All!!

[newish1 3]

im afraid, this is not possible!  you can of course offload things like weather, flightplanning, some atc-addons via simconnect  but that won´t gain you any fps..

 

all the framerate-hogs like traffic and scenery have to be run from one system

[cnobleNYC01 0]

Thanks .. this is becoming frustrating.  So many opinions on how to configure FSX and nothing authoritative.... seemingly.  And now it just crashes every other flight.

 

How could one design a system to maintain ~20 FPS with traffic, scenery, etc????

[Jim Young 2,356]

Thanks .. this is becoming frustrating.  So many opinions on how to configure FSX and nothing authoritative.... seemingly.  And now it just crashes every other flight.

 

How could one design a system to maintain ~20 FPS with traffic, scenery, etc????

In order to be helped, you should post your system specs and tell us what type of Windows you have installed (Windows 7 64 bit or 32 bit).  Is your system overclocked?  If you have an old system (more than 3 years old), you're going to have issues no matter what you do.  There are several FSX guides out there that provide excellent performance for many.  Yes, some of the guides do not work for everyone; or a tweak that might be employed works for some but not for others.  You should start off with your system settings set at default (with changes to your monitor resolution and enabling AA/AF - don't know why these are never maxed in default on many systems).  AVSIM has a guide under the Forums tab in the Menu above.  There's another excellent guide here - http://www.simforums.com/forums/drivers-nv-inspector-fsxcfg-complete-guide_topic36586.html.  If you are looking for a tweak to enhance your flight simming, most likely they will do more harm than good unless you know exactly what you are doing.  I employ no fsx tweaks but I have a very powerful system.  I still cannot have all of my sliders moved to the right or I will have occasional issues with one of my flights. 

 

If you are receiving crashes, you need to visit our CTD Forum and review some of the topics there.  There's a lot of good suggestions for setting up various systems in that forum.  FSX is an old program and I'm afraid we are not going to see any further enhancements.  Good luck! 

 

Best regards,

Jim

[cnobleNYC01 0]

Jim - Thanks!  I just bought a new PC solely for the purpose of FSX.  It's an Alienware X51.  i7-4770, 8GB, 1.5gb NVidia GTX660, Win8x64.  Not the best, but vastly superior to the old quad core I was using before.

 

Stock FSX+Accel - in the KJFK area - I easily get 40+ FPS on average; rarely dropping below 30.  Once I add scenery, AI traffic, and some add-ons for scenery realism, it drops down to averaging in the 15s and sinking as low as 5. 

 

I don't get CTD's often - usually only when in certain areas ... the KADW add-on scenery seems to be an issue so I disabled it with no further issues.

 

What is considered a "powerful" system ... I'm open to spending money on whatever (hardware, software, etc...) but predicated on this experience; I'm a little hesitant.  I did find a "turn-key" system for a mere $55,000 or so; but that is far beyond what is realistic. 

 

I guess what I don't understand is - what is the point of multi computer (other than to push more monitors) if you cannot offload other things (I do know there are some ATC and weather apps that can be)?  And if I did go multicomputer ... am I going to experience the same FPS across them as they are slaved to the one I'm actually flying on?

 

Thanks for the help ... and please excuse the frustration; it's aimed only at my FSX issues.

 

Incidentally - when you say we are not going to see further enhancements... is that indicative MS will not be coming out with a new/updated version???

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

What is considered a "powerful" system ...

 

Your computer system is not considered a very powerful computer system IMHO.  You have a nice locked i7 4770 CPU and that's about it.  You can only overclock it to 3.9GHz.  A very powerful system is like mine (see My PC in the sidebar).

 

Your power supply is not great (240 Watt Standard PSU) and that can cause your system to crash.  It all depends on how much of a load you put on your system.  If that is the wattage you have installed, then I would not overclock to 3.9GHz.

 

You have a very decent video card and the 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory is great too.  So far, the power supply is the killer.

 

I would be very cautious with your sliders.  Use the guide I referenced above as the author has an i7 4770K system too.  He does not employ many tweaks.  I do not employ any.  I would be very careful with changing the LOD_Radius setting in the Fsx.cfg above 4.5 and would not raise the Texture_Max_Load setting above 1024.  Of course you can try raising the Texture_Max_Load to 2048 (that's HD) but nothing higher than that.  I would not employ any tweaks. 

 

 

 

Stock FSX+Accel - in the KJFK area - I easily get 40+ FPS on average; rarely dropping below 30. Once I add scenery, AI traffic, and some add-ons for scenery realism, it drops down to averaging in the 15s and sinking as low as 5.

 

With stock FSX+Accel in the JFK area you should be getting 200 to 300 FPS so there is something major wrong with your system setup.

 

 

 

I guess what I don't understand is - what is the point of multi computer (other than to push more monitors)

 

Never heard of a multi-computer.  I know there are computers linked together by computer experts to make  the fastest computer in the world but that's out of the scope of us mere mortals.  You can run multiple monitors with just one computer system.

 

 

 

Incidentally - when you say we are not going to see further enhancements... is that indicative MS will not be coming out with a new/updated version???

 

This is correct.  Microsoft is out of the flight simming business.  The only enhancements you will see are from addon developers.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[cnobleNYC01 0]

Your computer system is not considered a very powerful computer system IMHO.  You have a nice locked i7 4770 CPU and that's about it.  You can only overclock it to 3.9GHz.  A very powerful system is like mine (see My PC in the sidebar).

See below - but I'm calling Dell first thing tomorrow as I'm not past the 30 day return time ... will be upgrading. :-) The Aurora seems closer to the specs you have.

 

Your power supply is not great (240 Watt Standard PSU) and that can cause your system to crash.  It all depends on how much of a load you put on your system.  If that is the wattage you have installed, then I would not overclock to 3.9GHz.

 

You have a very decent video card and the 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory is great too.  So far, the power supply is the killer.

 

I would be very cautious with your sliders.  Use the guide I referenced above as the author has an i7 4770K system too.  He does not employ many tweaks.  I do not employ any.  I would be very careful with changing the LOD_Radius setting in the Fsx.cfg above 4.5 and would not raise the Texture_Max_Load setting above 1024.  Of course you can try raising the Texture_Max_Load to 2048 (that's HD) but nothing higher than that.  I would not employ any tweaks. 

 

 

 

 

With stock FSX+Accel in the JFK area you should be getting 200 to 300 FPS so there is something major wrong with your system setup.

So based on this comment - I rebuilt the PC (and I mean down to formatting the partitions, only took an hour - once one goes SSD, one never goes back). Installed Win8 x64, latest drivers, updates, and FSX+Acc.

 

And the NVidia inspector settings as recommended! (these are awesome .. thanks!!)

 

JFK with ALL sliders to the left I get:

Low: 110 Ave: 160 High: 180

 

With default, I get:

Low: 30 Ave: 50 High: 110 (Certainly livable - fairly smooth)

 

With Default settings and "My Traffic 5.4c"

Low: 16 Ave: 22 High: 40 (Not really livable and jerky on the scenery)

 

So clearly the bottle neck; however, the world seems boring without decent scenery and other traffic to shot down (you know, the planes that might be carrying Snowden...)

 

Never heard of a multi-computer.  I know there are computers linked together by computer experts to make  the fastest computer in the world but that's out of the scope of us mere mortals.  You can run multiple monitors with just one computer system.

I see it all the time - people with several computers to drive 3-5+ monitors using FSUIPC / WideFS etc... What I really was hoping to see was the ability to set up a "multi-player" sim where the multi-player was an AI. In other words, set up a private sim network. How do the simmers that run with the ability to fly with others in the same "world" do it??

 

This is correct.  Microsoft is out of the flight simming business.  The only enhancements you will see are from addon developers.

So what's next in this space? Does X-Plane or Prepar3D have a future with simmers?

 

Best regards,

Jim

Seriously - I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to get me up to speed; it's been invaluable and certainly has set me in some good directions.

 

Best,

 

Chris

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

With Default settings and "My Traffic 5.4c"
Low: 16 Ave: 22 High: 40 (Not really livable and jerky on the scenery)

 

Glad things are working better for you.  Those frames over NY are the ones I was talking about!  Glad you were able to finally achieve that with the default scenery.  In regards to MyTrafficX, I have the same program/version and do not see this problem; however, anything at or over 30 are great fps.  It's hard for me to believe you get an average of 22 fps with MyTrafficX installed.  Remember (and this is in the manual somewhere) you don't need to set your AI slider higher than 30.  Anything higher is just wasting time and space.  I have the HD aircraft installed but you can go into the Communicator and open up the Configure My Aircraft and select less enhanced textures.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[cnobleNYC01 0]

It's hard for me to believe you get an average of 22 fps with MyTrafficX installed.  Remember (and this is in the manual somewhere) you don't need to set your AI slider higher than 30.  Anything higher is just wasting time and space.  I have the HD aircraft installed but you can go into the Communicator and open up the Configure My Aircraft and select less enhanced textures.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Believable as in that is too high or too low?? lol

 

I am ordering the replacement computer this weekend and wanted your opinion: (I'm figuring 6 cores will have a major boost even under 4Ghz)

 

Alienware Aurora

i7-4820K (6 cores @ 3.9Ghz)

16GB DD3 (1600Mhz)

NVIDIA GTX 760 with 1.5GB GDDR5

(I can add a second card later if need be)

475 watt pwr supply

512 SSD +2 TB HDD (7200 rpm)

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Believable as in that is too high or too low?? lol

 

Apologize for the confusion.  Yes, I think it is too low.  I just did a flight from Wash Dulles to Chicago in nasty AS2012 weather and MyTrafficX and averaged 36 fps (that is my lowest avg fps I think).  AS2012 is a fps killer too (as in any real weather program) so I'm happy with the 36 avg.

 

Looks like a great system you have ordered.  I'm wondering why the power supply is only 475 watts though.  Everyone I know who wants to overclock their computer and maybe add another video card in SLI mode, has at least 800 watts.  They really aren't that much more expensive.  So, if you can try to at least increase the PSU to 650 watts or higher.  It's called preparing for the future.  Next year you might want to add another video card (can't see why though) or overclock to 4.8GHz.  You will need the extra power. 

 

Best regards,

Jim

[cnobleNYC01 0]

AS2012 is a fps killer too (as in any real weather program) so I'm happy with the 36 avg.

AS2012 is one of those add-ons I know can be off-loaded to another machine. Check out this vid - he uses AS2012 as an example near the end of the vid. I am planning on getting AS2012 and run it on my old machine.

 

 

Next year you might want to add another video card (can't see why though) or overclock to 4.8GHz.  You will need the extra power.

Next year I'll have budget to replace the whole thing; besides, in a year, 8 core will be standard most likely. But your point is well taken.

[PigsInSpace 21]

Your computer system is not considered a very powerful computer system IMHO.  You have a nice locked i7 4770 CPU and that's about it.

 

With all due respect his CPU is as powerful as yours, albeit 300hz just shy of yours, and his ram is running at the same speed.

 

Just turn traffic down or OFF, learn to set it up in a balanced way will go a long way. You can upgrade to a 670, there is a smaller PSB version that will fit your nice small enclosure.

 

And Yes if you are going to upgrade with the thought of overclocking, yes you need a good PSU and you might want to reconsider that 6 cores for FSX dont get you more than the same good 4 clocked a bit higher and the 4 core Hsawell 4770K on average will clock higher than the 6 core and for the $ you save to put into other things is a win, but if money is no object and you like to do other things like PS work or video editing then by all means go for the hexacore.

 

Just some food for thought. Good luck.

[airernie 263]

Jim - Thanks!  I just bought a new PC solely for the purpose of FSX.  It's an Alienware X51.  i7-4770, 8GB, 1.5gb NVidia GTX660, Win8x64.  Not the best, but vastly superior to the old quad core I was using before.

 

Stock FSX+Accel - in the KJFK area - I easily get 40+ FPS on average; rarely dropping below 30.  Once I add scenery, AI traffic, and some add-ons for scenery realism, it drops down to averaging in the 15s and sinking as low as 5. 

 

I don't get CTD's often - usually only when in certain areas ... the KADW add-on scenery seems to be an issue so I disabled it with no further issues.

 

What is considered a "powerful" system ... I'm open to spending money on whatever (hardware, software, etc...) but predicated on this experience; I'm a little hesitant.  I did find a "turn-key" system for a mere $55,000 or so; but that is far beyond what is realistic. 

 

I guess what I don't understand is - what is the point of multi computer (other than to push more monitors) if you cannot offload other things (I do know there are some ATC and weather apps that can be)?  And if I did go multicomputer ... am I going to experience the same FPS across them as they are slaved to the one I'm actually flying on?

 

Thanks for the help ... and please excuse the frustration; it's aimed only at my FSX issues.

 

Incidentally - when you say we are not going to see further enhancements... is that indicative MS will not be coming out with a new/updated version???

 

The main benefit of multiple computers is organization.  Being able to view things like Plan-G, REX, REX Latitude, FSGRW, etc without having to toggle between the app and FSX.  Some of that can be accomplished by just having multiple monitors on the FSX machine, but it's a bit more of a hassle.  The second computer doesn't need to be very powerful.

 

Also, there are apps such as FSWidges EFB that would run as a DLL if ran on the same machine as FSX.  Running a DLL from within FSX means using up some of FSX's virtual address space, thereby reducing the amount available to FSX.  There are likely more, that do the same thing.. I just haven't looked into it.

 

Ernie

[zmak 331]

With all due respect his CPU is as powerful as yours, albeit 300hz just shy of yours, and his ram is running at the same speed.

 

Just turn traffic down or OFF, learn to set it up in a balanced way will go a long way. You can upgrade to a 670, there is a smaller PSB version that will fit your nice small enclosure.

 

And Yes if you are going to upgrade with the thought of overclocking, yes you need a good PSU and you might want to reconsider that 6 cores for FSX dont get you more than the same good 4 clocked a bit higher and the 4 core Hsawell 4770K on average will clock higher than the 6 core and for the $ you save to put into other things is a win, but if money is no object and you like to do other things like PS work or video editing then by all means go for the hexacore.

 

Just some food for thought. Good luck.

With all due respect his CPU is as powerful as yours, albeit 300hz just shy of yours, and his ram is running at the same speed."

 

​They can be the same but the Haswell will still be a much much bigger performer. Google it

[PigsInSpace 21]

With all due respect his CPU is as powerful as yours, albeit 300hz just shy of yours, and his ram is running at the same speed."

 

​They can be the same but the Haswell will still be a much much bigger performer. Google it

 

They are both Haswell 4770, one is just running at 300hz more.

 

????