Another FPS Query

[Guest Bud]

Whilst I like FS9, it has not been kind to me. I'm a multi-mon user, and the provision made in the sim for this use has caused no end of problems. Most I've been able to solve, but this latest has me scratching mi' head. I have a reasonable system - Pent 4, 3.2; run my main mons with a nVid 6600GT and the sec. monitor with an FX5200. I've got a gig of DDRAM, fast HD etc etc. and, by and large, can run at around 20/25 fps in most conditions with all monitors on and populated altho' I didn't often check the fps. If the sim is running smoothly, that's fine by me, whatever the fps are.That's changed lately when I noticed that when I reach my destination airport, things have been a bit jerky - the odd little stutter. When I began to check with the frame counter on I found that I did get 18/25 for most of the flight. This dropped a very small amount on approach, but only 2/3 frames. When I hit the ground, however, the frames halved. On taxi in to gates, I was getting around 11 fps, dropping as low as 7 from time to time.The destination I next tried was a small default airport with no enhancement - same thing happened. AI traffic seems to make no difference - there is still a significant dip without any traffic at all.I then tried a flight with the Task Manager displayed. Actually this was quite interesting. What I found was that the CPU usage was fairly constant at around 55%, with the occasional high spike - bags of physical memory remained available throughout the flight. On approach/landing, the CPU usage went to the low 60s - plenty of memory - but I still got the huge dip in frame rates.Can anyone shed any light on what might be happening here. I'm on the verge of giving up.Bud

[JimmiG 244]

Some Force Feedback controllers have been known to cause stutters on the ground.BTW CPU usage should be 100% when running realtime apps. With only 50% usage it means the CPU is not being utilized fully and sits idle 50% of the time. Are you using the framerate limiter?

[Guest Bud]

I don't use force feedback controllers. I usually limit the f/r to 25. Have to say I didn't realise that 50% CPU usage was a bad thing. To be honest I thought it was rather a good thing. Just shows what I know eh!!Bud

[Guest danowat]

"With only 50% usage it means the CPU is not being utilized fully and sits idle 50% of the time."Not neccessarily, a HT P4 will only ever show FS running at 50%, as it is only running on 1 "virtual" CPU.Dan.

[JimmiG 244]

Thanks for pointing that out. Having never used such a CPU I had no idea about that.However non-HT P4's as well as AMD's should show close to 100% CPU usage when running FS9 or other games. When in Windows doing nothing, CPU usage should be close to 0% however, indicating that no background services or programs are hogging CPU resources.

[Guest mmcevilley]

>Whilst I like FS9, it has not been kind to me. I'm a>multi-mon user, and the provision made in the sim for this use>has caused no end of problems. Most I've been able to solve,>but this latest has me scratching mi' head. I have a>reasonable system - Pent 4, 3.2; run my main mons with a nVid>6600GT and the sec. monitor with an FX5200. I've got a gig of>DDRAM, fast HD etc etc. and, by and large, can run at around>20/25 fps in most conditions with all monitors on and>populated altho' I didn't often check the fps. If the sim is>running smoothly, that's fine by me, whatever the fps are.>>That's changed lately when I noticed that when I reach my>destination airport, things have been a bit jerky - the odd>little stutter. When I began to check with the frame counter>on I found that I did get 18/25 for most of the flight. This>dropped a very small amount on approach, but only 2/3 frames. >When I hit the ground, however, the frames halved. On taxi in>to gates, I was getting around 11 fps, dropping as low as 7>from time to time.>>The destination I next tried was a small default airport with>no enhancement - same thing happened. AI traffic seems to>make no difference - there is still a significant dip without>any traffic at all.>>I then tried a flight with the Task Manager displayed. >Actually this was quite interesting. What I found was that>the CPU usage was fairly constant at around 55%, with the>occasional high spike - bags of physical memory remained>available throughout the flight. On approach/landing, the CPU>usage went to the low 60s - plenty of memory - but I still got>the huge dip in frame rates.>>Can anyone shed any light on what might be happening here. >I'm on the verge of giving up.>>BudBud,I'm running an NVid 6800U, 2 x MX-440. I'm seeing exactly the same symptoms as you. Let me know if you stumble across something and I'll do the same. Keep in touch - mcevilley@earthlink.net-michael