I remember reading, some time ago, that rebooting the computer and then starting your FSX flight  "cleared the memory" and allowed FSX to run smoother with less frequent, or no stuttering, assuming the computer has been used for other activities prior to loading FSX.

 

I have, by today's standards, a modest  system: Intel Core i5-750, Nvidia GTS-450 video card and 8GB DRAM.

 

Rebooting before flying does "seem" to improve performance but maybe some of this perception is a result of  the "power of suggestion" and not empirical evidence.

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has any thoughts about this.

 

Thanks.

It is a fact that rebooting does purge the memory of your machine, and that purging can greatly speed up the operations of your computer. However, it all depends on what you have loaded on your machine as well, so really your mileage will vary. I myself keep a clean and tidy system, so I do notice a difference (especially when I go a couple weeks without rebooting...lol!)

Sticking my foot into what will inevitably prove to be hot water, the only time I've heard of rebooting being greatly beneficial is after the install of major programming (think something a Gb or two in size).  I've long since taken the position of rebooting after even moderate size installs (something like a new airplane).  It might help, it can't hurt (here we go!!).

 

I am fortunate in that my flight sim computer is a dedicated unit and it is only started up when I'm working with flight sim, planning, installing, and even occasionally flying..  My WalMart special Dell does this kind of work, so rebooting before starting my flight sim is a non-issue.

With today's OS and hardware combinations, especially if it's 64bit OS, there is little benefit from a reboot. At least from a memory standpoint.

 

You might gain a few clock cycles as a result of not having processes running, that were running before the reboot.

 

Impact from that would be minimal, I believe.

 

A reboot can't hurt anything.

 

Memory problems with FSX are almost always VAS related which has nothing to do with physical RAM.

 

regards,

Joe

The only time I reboot is if there has been any changes to the registry. Like installing, uninstalling, or making a manual change.

I've found weirdness in FSX that can be cleared by a reboot. I wouldn't advise it as a pre-flight every flight necessity, on the contrary, Windows can get quite busy for awhile after a reboot doing "housekeeping," which can introduce all sorts of odd latencies for awhile after a reboot.

 

But if nothing else is helping and you have an issue or a slowdown, sometimes a reboot can be a cure.