Looking for technical reasons why choose FPS 30 vs. FPS Unlimited. It seems to me that if you set 30 then it will limit data going to either the CPU and/or GPU? Unlimited would not do the check for a limit and perhaps send more data (faster) to the CPU/GPU? What other factors need to be considered in choosing one over the other? ALL comments, ideas, suggestions or advice appreciated.

 

 

Simply put. Over 30 waste CPU resources.

_{Best frame rate limiter?}

There's no "best". It depends on your system. Personally I'm getting the best results using FSX's built in limiter. I know other people prefer the limiter that is in nVidia's drivers. Try out the various alternatives and see what works best for you and your system

Thanks for the info so far. Just to clarify I was referring to the FSX built in limiter, not any associated directly with the video card. I am an ATI user and not even sure if there is an equivalent setting to the nVidia's. Is there a general belief that setting the FSX limit to 30 will reduce the amount of stutters?

I disagree that anything higher than 30 is wasted resources. Sure, if you have a computer that is incapable of even sustaining 30 then that is understandable. I generally run fsx internally locked at 40 versus 30. And I know this goes against orthodoxy, but I see no benefits to 1/2 refresh rate in NI. I simply set Forced V-Sync and forget it. For me it is a much smoother experience with trackIR with a higher frame rate.

 

I've also found that, depending on the situation, scenery, weather, and host of other factors, keeping the sim set to unlimited yields an even smoother stutter free flight than setting a set frame rate. This topic used to get beaten to death in the past, but it still holds true. Why stay set at 30 if your rig can handle 50 and their are no ills associated with it. I like to spoil myself with 50-60 fps and it is simply incredible how smooth and immersive that is.

 

Test it out...go fly over the midwest and set unlimited. Its hard to look back.

 

Edit: I should say that I am running only one monitor...so for those running multi monitor setups and higher resolution than 1920x1080 may never benefit.

I've been experimenting with this setting recently and found that setting the internal limit to 30 FPS caused MAJOR performance issues. I would get severe stuttering and really inconsistent frame rates around airports and densely populated areas. For a while I was fiddling around with all sorts of tweaks in the FSX.cfg file with some causing FSX to become unstable and ultimately CTD, I then had a look at this setting and moved the slider all the way to right to 'unlimited' and immediately noticed a massive improvement.

 

I now get around 30-40fps on average whereas previously with the 30 FPS limit I would only get between 10-15fps. This had me really stumped for a while too as I couldn't understand how I would be getting such bad performance running a Core i7 2600K and 2GB nVidia graphics card.

 

I also added the following tweak last night to FSX.cfg and get even better performance which remains consistent even at airports.

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=14

 

 

 

I've also found that, depending on the situation, scenery, weather, and host of other factors, keeping the sim set to unlimited yields an even smoother stutter free flight than setting a set frame rate. This topic used to get beaten to death in the past, but it still holds true. Why stay set at 30 if your rig can handle 50 and their are no ills associated with it. I like to spoil myself with 50-60 fps and it is simply incredible how smooth and immersive that is.

 

Agreed.

I keep mine at 30 FPS and it stays there for the most part. IT never drops below 25 though no matter what happens.

 

I've tried setting it to unlimited and it hurt stability of the sim.

At least on my system external limiter set to 30 is the best option, I'm using ATI too.

 

Internal limited set to 30 caused FPS to drop by 5 and very slow texture loading. 

I agree FSCamp, the internal frame rate limiter causes me a very noticeable performance hit, whereas some form of external frame limiting is all for the best for smoothness.  I use the external fps_limiter_02, set to 30, even after all these years in preference over the Nvidia driver limiter.

I am using internal limiter. If i don't use it, i suffer fps lag, especially over large water.

Biggest YMMV issue for this sim.  Everyone has a different experience.  Mine is set to unlimited internally, less stutters for me.  I myself have seen no benefit to external limiters.

It depends what computer you use, what tweaks you apply and if you use NI and at what settings.

 

A good reference can be found here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/drivers-nv-inspector-fsxcfg-complete-guide_topic36586.html

I have the internal limiter set to 30. In comparison to unlimited, that might give me slightly lower average FPS, but it avoids extreme differences: With FPS set to unlimited I get FPS between as low as 3 and more than 50 within short periods, so I accept that FPS don't exceed 30, but they stay more or less consistent.

I disagree that anything higher than 30 is wasted resources. Sure, if you have a computer that is incapable of even sustaining 30 then that is understandable. I generally run fsx internally locked at 40 versus 30. And I know this goes against orthodoxy, but I see no benefits to 1/2 refresh rate in NI. I simply set Forced V-Sync and forget it. For me it is a much smoother experience with trackIR with a higher frame rate.

 

I've also found that, depending on the situation, scenery, weather, and host of other factors, keeping the sim set to unlimited yields an even smoother stutter free flight than setting a set frame rate. This topic used to get beaten to death in the past, but it still holds true. Why stay set at 30 if your rig can handle 50 and their are no ills associated with it. I like to spoil myself with 50-60 fps and it is simply incredible how smooth and immersive that is.

 

Test it out...go fly over the midwest and set unlimited. Its hard to look back.

 

Edit: I should say that I am running only one monitor...so for those running multi monitor setups and higher resolution than 1920x1080 may never benefit.

 

 

Absolutely. Totally agree.

 

My frame rate used to be locked at 60. Great performance minimal stutters.

 

Now with my 3770K at 4.4 GHz, I lock it at 50, to avoid BP=0 artefacts. Result = smooth, no stutters.

 

It's a case of trying it and see. "conventional wisdom" isn't something we should be slaves to. All systems are different.