A Question about limiting FPS

[JughedJones 197]

Hey there,

 

I have my FPS limited to 30 through Nvidia Inspector and set to unlimited in FSX. When I made that change I saw a massive increase in smoothness

throughout my experience. However, more often than not I see my fps going through wild swings like 30 to 45 down to 20 back to 40 etc...

 

It looks like it's trying to keep it around 30, but is this a normal issue that people see? Shouldn't it just 'peg' at 30 and if it fluctuates at all be 'limited'

to >30?  

 

I just want to know if I've done something wrong or if everyone sees this. 

 

Thanks!

[scianoir 610]

Hey there,

 

I have my FPS limited to 30 through Nvidia Inspector and set to unlimited in FSX. When I made that change I saw a massive increase in smoothness

throughout my experience. However, more often than not I see my fps going through wild swings like 30 to 45 down to 20 back to 40 etc...

 

It looks like it's trying to keep it around 30, but is this a normal issue that people see? Shouldn't it just 'peg' at 30 and if it fluctuates at all be 'limited'

to >30?  

 

I just want to know if I've done something wrong or if everyone sees this. 

 

Thanks!

 

Hi

 

I have my system set up similarly to yours and I too would occasionally notice swings to above 30 if I was monitoring FPS. Many people would say however that you should try to completely ignore FPS because it doesn't really matter providing you have a smooth system. At one stage I got into the habit of frequently watching the FPS, which can become a bit of a distraction from the joy of 'flying' but now I only turn on the FPS monitor if I need to for test purposes (for example evaluating an addon scenery/aircraft combination where the performance seemed suboptimal). As you say your system is smooth however, my advice to you would be to turn it off and just enjoy!

 

Bill

[JughedJones 197]

Right on, Bill.

 

I completely understand the idea of not concentrating on your FPS, and I try to adhere to that myself. However, I do tend to look when I notice things getting 

sluggish or not behaving optimally. Almost every time I look when things are slowing down, I see those massive jumps and dips.

Just a quick example, I'm flying into KDEN in my Q400 right now.  Pretty clear skies and I just looked at my FPS. It's sitting at around 45-55 FPS and fluttering down to 30 every once in a while. 

 

Am I doing something wrong with the limiter?

[Sportsfan23 2]

I saw a massive decrease in FPS when using a limiter so it's good that you're seeing an increase. If you're seeing the sim get sluggish that could be the issue I was running into where the SIM was running slowly when being FPS limited. Have you tried your sim running unlimited FPS and no limiter? 

[JughedJones 197]

I haven't tried that.  I'll give it a go. 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

1. If you don't have stuttering, then stay with unlimited. The frame limiter adds overhead.
2. If you don't see screen tearing, then run with VSync off. Vsync adds overhead.

An ounce of prevention is only worth a pound of cure if you can potentially catch the "disease".

[JughedJones 197]

I wanted to come back in and thank you all for your advice. I had a limiter going only because from what I had read, it was the common 

wisdom. 

 

I'm getting Incredible performance now with everything unlimited!  Thanks so much to you guys! 

[spesimen 135]

 I had a limiter going only because from what I had read, it was the common wisdom. 

 

 

i think it's sort of a legacy from a few years ago when systems weren't as powerful as more recent ones....i'm still surprised at how many people run it this way still... i'm in the same position, things are so much faster and smoother with unlimited. well if anything it is illustrative of fsx's finicky nature lol

 

cheers

-andy crosby

[SteveW 1,792]

External limiters simply cap the fps. When the FSX internal limiter is used, this forces look ahead frames to be prepared, and so an apparent drop in performance is noted. However, when a frame rate is fixed in this way, the prepared work goes some way to avoid the drops in frame rate. You need a powerful system to run this method but that's how DX is designed to work. Unlimited is kind of a test mode of DX.