Major FPS problem

[philbrown 9]

My system is as follows:Intel P4 3.2GHz CPU1.25GB DDR RAMATI Radeon X800XT Platinum 256MBAs far as I can tell, this is a pretty good system (it cost enough to upgrade after all!), and should run FS extreamly well.However, I seem to have a problem somewhere.Using the default 737 at the default KJFK, with all the settings set to "ultra high", i only get about 20 fps around the terminal buildings. I was expecting to get quite a bit higher than that, considering the CPU and card cost over

[Noel 4,486]

Hi Phil, what kind of mainboard do you have? I know my board requires equal number of DDR dimms to allow it to run in Dual Channel mode, so 1.25GB on my particular board would reduce FSB bandwith in half, so I run 2 x 512MB dimms for 1GB total. You should def be getting much better perf than what you are getting. There are a host of potential problems, besides the mem issue, that could be the problem(s).Noel

[Guest firehawk44]

I have to reply since I have the same video card. Something must be seriously wrong as I get between 17-30 FPS using the PMDG 737 and the Simflyers KJFK. I have all sliders set to max except Autogen which is set around 70%. Clouds are maxed out too. What I found to get better FPS is turning off vertical sync on your card. I have AA set at 6x and AF set at 16x at the Display settings. For me, turning off vertical sync was like going from night to day. Just awesome. The second thing I would look at is your display drivers. It seems that whenever I upgrade my ATI drivers to the latest version, I get a lot of stuttering and my FPS drastically drop until FS9 "sees" the changes to my video drivers (usually after starting FS9 a couple of times and turning off and restarting my system a couple of times). Even though my drivers appear to be properly installed with no problems, I have, on occasion manually installed the drivers (i.e., going into Device Manager, opening the properties for my video card, and updating the drivers. I point to the location where the ATI drivers are located on my hard drive). Everytime I do this, the wizard goes through the install procedure and doesn't come back telling me I have the latest drivers already installed. After I do this, FS9 appears to wake up dramatically and I have great FPS. I normally get 49 FPS flying from Simflyer's KLAX to FlyTampa's KSFO. So you should expect much higher FPS with your system. I hope this helps you. Good luck!Jim

[philbrown 9]

I tested my system with PC Pitstop, and it concluded that I have unusally low disk speeds. My hard drive disk speed is about 17 MBs per second, compared to 47MB/sec on systems similar to mine. I'm wondering if it could be due to this? It's one of the few things yet to be changed in my system.-Phil

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Whatever is causing your framerate impact... disk drive speed is not going to be it. If you had pauses loading scenery etc, a fast disk drive might help, but frame rates are determined by the interplay of your processor, motherboard, memory, and video card.

[AWACS 12]

Hi, I have the X-800 Pro, should have waited for the XT, but I was wondering, where can I find the Vertical sync option in the catalyst control panel?Thanks in advance,Jeff USAF

[Guest firehawk44]

Hi Jeff,I don't have the CCC installed at this time but had it installed on previous occasions. If I remember right it's where it states view all options then go down to wait for vertical sync and switch it to Always Off. I believe the CCC has a help button too and you can search for vertical sync. Turning it off (not the default) really increased the FPS for me.Jim

[AWACS 12]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately there is no vertical sync option, I even did a search for it and all i got was a monitor adjustment page where you could change the vertical position of the monitor. Can I ask what drivers you are using. Also, I used powerstrip to disable V-sync so hopefully that will do the trick, but i'd rather use my ati control panel to disable it.Jeff USAF

[philbrown 9]

Turned off vertical sync, but frame rates are still crappy. I'm resigned to the fact that I have a major problem somewhere, just a case of nailing it down.Thanks for all the help though.For Jeff, the vertical sync is listed as "Wait for display refresh". On the Catalyst Control Panel, go to the 'No Preview' bit on the left hand side, and then scroll down on the bottom half of the main screen (I missed the scroll button when I first looked).-Phil

[AWACS 12]

Yeah I just figured it out, thanks. Also, I turned mine off and have gained a noticable amount of FPS. Have you tried any power tools, like Powerstrip, you can ultra edit your settings, a lot of people on these forums suggest you turn your PCI latency down and you will be amazed, I did, but I don't know how much of a difference it made, but I will keepp my PCI latency at 64 regardless. Also, I would try turning your target frame rate to unlimited and then fly around and hit shift Z to check your frames, I've been doing that and have gotten 99 fps, I was shocked, I never get less than 20 unless I'm using my simflyers scenery.I too have had problems getting a good frame rate, but with all the posts on the forums concerning the subject, I have been able to improve significantly. I'm running a P4 2.8 800 FSB 1 gig DDR and the x-800 pro 256 megs. (not overclocked).Jeff USAF

[Guest firehawk44]

I'm glad to see you gained some FPS by turning off vertical sync. It definitely has a major impact to gamers. This tweak guide may be of interest to you (and others) in regard to the latest ATI drivers: http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html. Page 6, I believe has a nice blurb/explanation on vertical sync and the troubleshooting section talks about fixes for "Stuttering/Intermittently Freezing Graphics". It's an excellent guide and updated as soon as new ATI drivers are released.Jim

[Noel 4,486]

No Phil, it's not your drive, IMO.