Hi -

 

I'm experiencing some significant drops in frames when flying under layers of cloud cover.  I'm thinking my graphics card might be the issue.  I currently run FSX on a laptop, as I travel quite often.  I have a GT640M with 1GB VRAM.  Is this the bottleneck for me?  I use HDEv2 clouds.  If anymore info is needed please let me know and I will be more than willing to provide it.  I would also like to note that when using DX9 I rarely drop below 20fps even with complete overcast/thunderstorms.

 

Thanks,

 

John

I get the drops sometimes in very heavy clouded conditions. Mine is a Toshiba Satellite L755 1GB 525M. And even I use HDE v2. try using the 512 textures from HDE V2. Before HDE V2 I was Using Oscar's clouds.

 

You may need to tweak fsx if you haven't.

IronMaiden -

 

Maybe I should have been more specific.  I start out with a solid 30 fps in heavy clouds.  After a few minutes my GPU goes right to 99% load, and the clock speed drops to 125Mhz from 500 Mhz.  I believe this is what causes my drop in FPS.  Again, its never a problem with DX9.  I'm thinking if you're not experiencing this with a 525M I must have a bad setting somewhere.

 

I only use the following tweaks.

 

HighMemFix = 1

Disable Preload =1

 

Would you be able to share your Inspector settings?  I'm thinking it may have to do with setting 4X SGAA.

you need this too :

 

 [bUFFERPOOLS]

Poolsize=0 or UsePools=0

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=14 (i think this is for the i5 with HT) I either use 14 or 84.

 

I think the Bufferpools balances the load between the GPU and CPU. NOT SURE THOUGH.

 

Are you using Nvidia Inspector ? if you are than lower AA and Anistropic.

 

The reason your GPU clock is throttling is because of the load and probably heat .I get that on my laptop when the CPU temp reaches 99-100 when in FSX and the clock from 3.0 goes down to 0.8 for a few seconds so I leave my clock @2.2 but she flies well.

 

Try the above tweaks , all fsx guys use it.

Thanks.  I've experimented with those tweaks before, and never really noticed much of a difference, but that was when using DX9.  Gave it another shot and still got the throttling with the GPU.  I'll keeping trying different settings.  But, I have attached my Inspector and CFG setting below.  I'm up for trying anything at this point.

 

  fsx.CFG.txt

I think i don;t use AA Transparency and transparency supersampling. 

 

HOW THE HELL DO I ATTACH AN IMAGE ?

 

AA Mode 2x or 4x and override application setting

 

 

Anistropic filtering should be Override application setting.

Click on more reply options.  I was just able to right click on the image, copy image and paste in though.

 

I use this and the AA looks nice and not bad at all.

 

If you are using DX10 then I think you need to enable AA from FSX. I would suggest also lower your CPU clock a bit and try as if it reaches 100c expect it to throttle down but maybe different in your case just saying . In the air I am getting 29.9 locked at 30. But If I am near Rotterdam (NL2000 Airport) fps drops below 22 and that is ok it is still smooth does not hurt the eyes. Also check if there any non-fsx apps running in the background as on that i5 the load will be terrible.

Thanks I'll give it a try and see how it looks.

My guess is it might be the '4x Sparse Grid Super Sampling'. This is VERY taxing on the system, even more so in DX10 (I think). I had to go from using 2x in DX9 to switching it off in DX10 because the frames penalty was just too severe. My card is a GTX660Ti. I would dial this setting back to 2x, or switch it off completely to see i the solves the problem.

super-sampling and clouds are a big big no-no. I'd say the basis for a smooth running sim, even before applying tweaks of any sort to fsx.cfg, is to steer away from super-sampling and 4096 textures. I think this should be stressed in any serious FSX tweak-guide.

 

 

I think this should be stressed in any serious FSX tweak-guide.

 

............ so you're saying the DX10 "How-To" guide is not a "Serious" guide?

OK... I've made it more serious....  B)  by adding:-

 

 

 

. This is tied to Transparency SuperSampling (SGSS), and should be the same number as that set in NI, otherwise FSX will take the lower of the two numbers. You can use 2x, 4x or 8x - but beware - this is a heavy load, and will have a large impact on frame rate.

 

Better?  :lol: 

 

(All tongue in cheek, Lurk. You have a valid point.) Thanks!

 

All the Best,

 

pj

Hi Jambo -

 

Do you get some jaggies with SGSS turned off?  I seem to get it with my Milviz B55 and C310R (images attached), as well as the Duke v2, while the textures seem very smooth with the default C172 and the Turbine Duke.

 

I currently have AA checked in FSX, with Anisotropic filtering.  The Inspector settings used in my screenshots are below.

 

 

With SGSS turned if my sim is still quite smooth looking.

I'll have a look at my Inspector settings a bit later to compare but I can see one thing standing out:

 

'Antialiasing - Mode' should be set to 'Application Controlled' or something along those lines. Next setting down should be the same. At least thats how I have Inspector set I'm sure and my image quality is fairly good. I'm sure I got these settings from the Avsim Hardware and Software guide.

 

Just out of curiosity, what setting for AA do you have set in the DX10 fixer?

 

Also, there is a new build out, Build 29, and on Steve's wordpress site it claims to have better SGSS performance in clouds.