How to squeeze the last drop of life from my system

[duckbilled 310]

Hello,

 

As you can see from my specs, my system is pretty outdated. I plan to build a new Haswell system in the next few months, but for the time being, I still need to be able to fly.

 

Over the last few months, most flights result in a BSOD or a freeze. I'm assuming that my overclock is finally starting to reduce the life of my CPU. I expected this and I am grateful that I got 4 years of good performance from this set up. I used Nick's guide for set up and overclock and after 4 years, I am still using the same FSX install and the same overclock settings.

 

Now, I tried reducing the oc down to 3.8 and performance was terrible. Even now, FSX performs reasonably well - the problem is I cannot complete a flight.

 

I am going to refresh my sound and video drivers but I was wondering if maybe I should change the affinity mask settings. Maybe I have fried a core? I don't know.

 

Below are my current, relevant settings. Does anyone see some low hanging fruit? Something I can reduce to take a little load off the CPU? Thanks!

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=14

[bufferpools]

UsePools=1

[GRAPHICS]

SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=24

HIGHMEMFIX=1

STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=2147483647

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED_10=1693500696

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693500696

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024

NUM_LIGHTS=8

AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=0

AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1

COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1

LANDING_LIGHTS=1

AC_SELF_SHADOW=0

EFFECTS_QUALITY=2

GROUND_SHADOWS=0

TEXTURE_QUALITY=3

IMAGE_QUALITY=0

See_Self=1

Text_Scroll=1

D3D10=0

[sOUND]

AmbientUIMusicVolume=-6.000000

SOUND_FADER1=0.230000

SOUND_FADER2=0.760000

SOUND_FADER3=0.750000

SOUND_FADER4=0.750000

AmbientUIMusic=FSX01

PrimaryDevice={DEF00000-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}

VoiceDevice={DEF00002-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}

SOUND=1

SOUND_QUALITY=2

SOUND_LOD=0

UISound=1

AmbientUI=1

[Display]

MAX_TEXTURE_DATA=18432

ChangeTime=4.000000

TransitionTime=4.000000

ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255

ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64

NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255

NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64

InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0

InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0

InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255

InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128

InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255

InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128

InfoBrakesEnable=True

InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True

InfoPauseEnable=True

InfoSlewEnable=True

InfoStallEnable=True

InfoOverspeedEnable=True

BLOOM_EFFECTS=0

SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=70

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

WideViewAspect=True

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.9 //Runway Lights

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.9 // VASI Lights

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.9 // Approach Bars

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.9 // Strobes

[meshman 109]

I recently built a new system to replace my i7 930-era build. You'll like the difference.

 

Two things pop in my head. First, I would get a program that reads the SMART data on the HDs. I was surprised to see how many hours I had run the old box and wasn't surprised any more about some read/write questions on my boot drive. Since I plan to continue to use the old system as a GIS data cruncher, I ordered a separate new HD to serve as a boot drive. It will get installed shortly and when I do that I will (of course) reinstall Windows and all the assorted software I've come to know and love.

 

So the first question would be are your HDs near their end of life cycle? Realize a MTBF (mean time between failure) rating is an average, so some go longer and some don't. Now's a good time to get some more info on where the HDs stand as far as performance.

 

Second, if the HDs read out solid from the SMART data, I'd be looking at a clean format and reinstall. Changes in performance can be very subtle and not recognizable over the long term. Don't know if you ever did any performance testing, but if so then comparing the numbers would be interesting. Over time the "crap" can build up in an otherwise good system and start to slow things down, bit by bit. It might be time to give your system an enema and get all that crap out of there, so to speak...

[RWFeldman 159]

 

 

[bufferpools]
UsePools=1

 

I dont know for sure but I always thought if your going to use Usepools you need to have a PoolSize?

[ArjenVdv 190]

It is completely normal for your PC to degrade after a few years of use if you have an overclock. I for one built my system about two years ago. I started with a 4.7 GHz overclock back then which became unstable last year, so I increased my voltage by 0.005, hich became unstable again last month. Because I had already passed the 1.4V boundary I decided to reduce my overclock to 4.6 GHz on 1.38V. Runs rock solid and the difference is hardly noticeable. This should get me going for another year, ajd I recommend you do the same thing. Just increase your voltage until your overlock becomes stable or reduce the multiplier a notch. For another few months 1.45V shouldn't hurt, but don't go higher.

 

P.S. There is no point of setting UsePools=1 if you don't set a PoolSize. FSX has bufferpools enabled by default so just adding a UsePools=1 will do nothing. But, in DX9 mode you don't wanna use bufferpools becase all you're doing is just limiting your performance. Just set PoolSize=0 and nothing else (no UsePools=1), you should be getting much better performance now.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

 

[tf51d 284]

[Display]

MAX_TEXTURE_DATA=18432

 

You think your systems outdated, look at mine :lol:

 

Still I get pretty good performance with it, and the only 2 aircraft I have to really manage to complete a flight are the PMDG NGX and LRX. Using the ManualLoad to True in the dll.xml file for my optional DLL's, I can usually complete most flights with the NGX. The LRX is a little more iffy, I can usually get to my destination, but with the low VAS alert in FSUIPC dinging. Especially at my addon airports like UK2000. Most other airports I use Free AFCADS, many for Ray Smith, and Glenn Johnson. Usually I can get away with extremely dense scenery and dense autogen, but I usually lower AG to Sparse or Normal for performance. I also run 100% UT2 traffic, ASN, GSX. Bear in mind I run this all with 32 bit Vista OS which is not a supported OS for the LRX, so I think I'm doing ok for the circumstances. I hope someday I'll be able to upgrade, but for now this will have to do.

 

Now what is this line in your Display section? I've never seen it before?

[SolRayz 392]

It is completely normal for your PC to degrade after a few years of use if you have an overclock. I for one built my system about two years ago. I started with a 4.7 GHz overclock back then which became unstable last year, so I increased my voltage by 0.005, hich became unstable again last month. Because I had already passed the 1.4V boundary I decided to reduce my overclock to 4.6 GHz on 1.38V. Runs rock solid and the difference is hardly noticeable. This should get me going for another year, ajd I recommend you do the same thing. Just increase your voltage until your overlock becomes stable or reduce the multiplier a notch. For another few months 1.45V shouldn't hurt, but don't go higher.

 

P.S. There is no point of setting UsePools=1 if you don't set a PoolSize. FSX has bufferpools enabled by default so just adding a UsePools=1 will do nothing. But, in DX9 mode you don't wanna use bufferpools becase all you're doing is just limiting your performance. Just set PoolSize=0 and nothing else (no UsePools=1), you should be getting much better performance now.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

You more or less have the same chip that I have and I also recently dropped my OC down to 46x from a years worth of 48x. I really haven't noticed any degraded performance, but just got sick of the sleep/wake issues at such a high OC. 4.6Ghz is already a decent boost, and I can't really make out any difference in FSX to be all honest.

[duckbilled 310]

Thanks for all of the advice. I did try dropping down to 3.8 but the performance hit was very noticeable. I was suprised that this was the case, but I ended up bumping it back up to 4. I have, however, gone through all of my settings and lowered them where possible. I did complete a short flight yesterday using ASN and the default 737, but I need to be able to at least run the QW757 - I'll have to keep testing. One setting that always hurt my system is mesh resolution so I dropped it back to 10. I think I set it 5 to comply with some scenery add on. Also, I dropped AA to 8xS (it was at 16xS). Furthermore, I updated my sound and video drivers (I was also getting occasional freezes while running random things like youtube videos so I thought it was a good option).

 

I'll check on the SMART data. I have never done that before. Can someone please recommend a good freeware option to read it? In the end, I doubt I will do a reinstall. It is too much of a pain and if I do reinstall, it will be on a new system.

 

Now what is this line in your Display section? I've never seen it before?

Not sure where it came from. Just like the use pools setting, I made my .cfg edits a while ago and I left it as is. I'll remove both lines.

[ryanbatc 12,813]

I would just get rid of the bufferpools stuff.  Just use highmemfix=1

[duckbilled 310]

I would just get rid of the bufferpools stuff.  Just use highmemfix=1

Done.

 

I did just complete a flight from Xaimen to Phuket in the 757, so that is positive. The airports don't have a lot of traffic and weather was pretty clear so I will have to test things with something more challenging. Still, the flight was smooth as silk.