Will do gb. I probably have tried some of these in the past.  Sometimes I think I tweak more than fly, by trying to squeeze every ounce of frames out of this old computer. 

Thanks all for the tips on HT.  I have gone into my BIOS and CMOS but never saw any hint where the HT could be disabled or enabled. 

 

Carl,

I also have a Gateway gaming system and the BIOS they provide absolutely does not allow any control over HT.  In my system HT is on, period.  Just one of those things some off the shelf systems brands incorporate into their marketing policies. I do not believe I can overclock either.   I can only guess that it is to "optimize" their end user product support.  That is only a guess.  

 

Also, on another note, but somewhat related, my Gateway system also came with an ATI Radeon card in a similar class to your 5770.  Mine may have been a 6770 or such.  I had FSX performance problems, especially in clouds, and especially with REX E+ textures, and even in areas far away from high density scenery.  I did some research here around January 2013, and swapped the ATI out for a nVidia EVGA GTX560TI 2GB, which was the most cost effective solution ($200) for a system that was already two years old at the time.  Anyway, it made more of a difference than any of the configuration tweaking I tried.  I've been smiling ear to ear since.

 

 

Paul J does not recommend it either in his guide.

 

I guess Paul has a different opinion on the matter now?

 

 

but... following a number of test sessions a couple of months ago, I found that - and became quite convinced - that HT on narrows the average frame fluctuation percentage by several points: i.e. HT Off gave a FR Av. of 6%, whereas with HT on it dropped to between 3 and 4%. It made the sim feel smoother.

 

 

 

Hopefully no one here will follow your guidance

 

Jim, I'm not sure why you had to post that little nugget at the end of your post. Granted, the title of the thread is a rather bold statement but again, why the dig?
 

Fppilot,

I thought I was the only one that still had a Gateway.  I considered adding a new video card but several folks said with my system I would probably be wasting my money.  It is good to know you have had success in replacing ATI.  I wouldn't expect much since I know I need more horse power.  I am limited with a 500w PS.  May give it another shot if I could find a good NVidia card with more memory and DX11 that would not over tax my PS.

 

Appreciate you sharing,

 

 

  May give it another shot if I could find a good NVidia card with more memory

 

Carl,

With the scores of members here who first upgraded from 560's to 660-680's and then later to 770-780's there should be a good number of affordable used nVidias around here.

 

 

Strangely i have found that limiting the FPS within NI works much better than inside FSX . Did not see that coming

 

Old post but I was reading this thread today with the recent activity and decided to revisit this setting. Michael, some of your other setting suggestions have worked very well for me, but in this one does not. On my system, setting the frame rate limit in FSX provides very obvious smoothness improvements versus limiting it in NI. Offered up simply as a data point.

FPS limiting inside or outside FSX depends on many things. Full screen or windoved mode? Vsync applied and how ?

 

So far with AF tweaks I have tested all configs with my 4770K @ 4,2 with HT on and it seem to run best with no AF tweak at all. LOL.

Using MSI Afterburner you can monitor all your cpu cores while FSX is running and then compare the results. I did 2 test with the NGX at the new EDDB with ASN running the weather. First pic is with AF set to 255 and second pic is with NO AF.

 

In my case the best result is NO AF. More stable frames, less heat and better texture loading.

 

AF set at 255:

 

 

No AF set:

 

Sounds right, because it's not just FSX but the OS needs to run efficient highly threaded core systems like networking, otherwise HT wouldn't exist.

There are quite a few combinations you can try after 85.

 

 

 

Try 84, 249, 252 and 255.

 

 

 

I saw this thread and thought I'd try these on my sim.  Seemed to me that 14, 84 and 85 might have been best (surprised!).  254 and 255 didn't seem any better for smoothness.  The only question I had when I ran out of time was whether or not popping was reduced by using more cores.  Might try that tomorrow.  BTW, 252 was downright horrible!

 

BTW, I haven't tried turning off HT ever.  Is there a benefit to doing that?  I see what people say about being able to overclock higher.  If you haven't overclocked is there any benefit?  (Still haven't crossed that line.)

 

Gregg

Hey Gregg,

 

This afternoon I turned HT back on in my BIOS and removed the affinity mask line from my FSX.cfg and so far so good. FSX is running nice and smooth and I haven't done a scientific test to see if/what I may have gained but I've added this to my ever changing "change log" so if I start to see a negative affect, I'll turn HT back off and see but for now, I'm not seeing anything to make me think this won't be a longer term change.

 

Turning HT off may help in keeping your cores running cooler if you're going to overclock but to be quite honest, if you're conservative in your settings and have good cooling (liquid with a radiator) you should be fine. I have my system overclocked and even after I re-enabled HT, the temps didn't move so the cooling is doing its job and my settings are giving me the perfect performance for FSX so I'm not going to push it.

 

M

Hi Mike,

 

I tried what you tried...removed the Affinity Mask with Hyperthreading enabled.  Basically, it seemed to get the same performance as the best Affinity Mask settings (14, 84, 85).  When I watched the cores it looked like core 0,2,4,6 were all busy...so, basically, the same as 85.  

 

I also turned Hyperthreading off.  I only did a short test but it did look like I was getting i more FPS than with it on.  Also, however, FSX was taking 2 to 3 times longer to load.  

 

Bottom line, I've removed Affinity Mask from my settings and am leaving Hyperthreading on.

 

Gregg