I had always limited my frames to 30 using Inspector. Everything else I tweaked to death until I had things pretty much optimized. I forget why, but not long ago I tried unlimited frames and it has made a huge difference. I hadn't touched my system since and things are smooth as butter. Everyone is different but for me taking the frame limit off make a huge positive difference. 

Yep, for those of us that can run at unlimited, it's a real revelation.

Try a PRE-RENDER setting of 1 if you are seeing big fluctuations in framerate. For me it help tremendously with that as well as eliminating autogen spikes.

I am still wondering about this fact and I did not find yet the sweet spot for my system. Supposedly, my sim runs with remarkably higher FPS when setting unlimited within FSX, but somehow, the stutters return and it seems that my PC get problems with loading the ground textures fast enough when using unlimited FPS. This is, as far as I understand the engine, exactly what to expect: as unlimited FPS basically tells FSX to invest ALL available resources at any time, "spare" CPU performance will be wasted as well, resulting in a higher risk of blurries. So, only if I turn down the LOD_RADIUS option again to the standard 4.5, my PC can manage the ground texture reloading without blurries when flying high speed on low altitudes. But LOD_RADIUS=4.5 is a no go for me. I need at least 6.5 to have acceptable visuals, and with this, I get blurries faster on unlimited FPS compared to limited FPS. Maybe something inbetween would do it for me, like setting the FPS internally to 60 instead of 30. I have to test this.

 

Anyway, just keep in mind that also some other FSX.cfg tweaks depend on the internal FPS limiter. As far as I know, FSX.cfg lines such as TextureMaxLoad=xxx, texture_bandwith_mult=xxx and others are useless if running on unlimited, as FSX wil ignore those lines as soon as the FPS are not limited within FSX. So, one of the positive effects for some of the configs could simply be because of bad tweaked FSX.cfg lines which are basically "deactivated" as soon as the FPS are set to unlimited within FSX. Think about it...

That's the advantage of sticking with a standard 1280x1024 LCD monitor. A LOD radius setting of 4.5 looks perfectly fine at that resolution on my monitor, and I am a fussy sod when it comes to visuals :smile:

Ankh forestalled me...

I also have doubt if unlimited setting doesn't cause ground textures blurries (slow time of sharpening textures in external view)

...and... what about OOM? -> I remember that in DX9 there was a bigger chance to get OOM with unlimited frames, but how it looks in DX10?

 

Personally, I have limit 30fps in Inspector...after many tests I decided to set external limit, because I have about 5-6 fps more then in internal limit. I have EZdok camera and changing VC views is much smoother... but time of ground textures sharpenning would be faster...

 

I have a questions to people who has external frame limit or unlimited frames: do you have any issues related to time of ground texture sharpenning? How long do you wait to textures below your aircraft become sharp (in external view)?

No issues with blurriness or OOMS.  Kinda pointless anyway, blurry textures & OOMS can be caused by thousands of factors... Definitely not as simple as locked vs unlimited 

Personally, I have limit 30fps in Inspector...after many tests I decided to set external limit, because I have about 5-6 fps more then in internal limit. I have EZdok camera and changing VC views is much smoother... but time of ground textures sharpenning would be faster...

 

You are aware about the fact that limiting FPS externally has the same effect on FSX like unlimited FPS? It is all about this line in the FSX.cfg, if there is a "0" (which stands for unlimited), the facts I mentioned start to kick in. In your case, you could try to limit to 40, 50 or even 60 FPS inside FSX and 30 via Inspector. Like that, you should be able to get your 5-6 FPS back eventually...

Should I limit frames in two ways? Hm, I have never heard soultion like that...

Maybe better way is limit frames to 50-60 only within FSX and leave Inspector limiter off?

I personally run with Frames set to unlimited in the Sim and no frame lock in NI. I have Vsync enabled in NI and use the Aero restart trick and Puesdo full screen auto hotkey command and get very good performance it almost all situations. I will see a drop in heavy clouds but that is to be expected. I really do not care what the counter says as long as I am getting smooth fluid visuals, and with this setup I am. 

I too get terrible blurries in unlimited when travelling @ over 200kts. I suspect though, that those with more processing power won't see this happen as often. With limited I can travel up to ~600kts close to ground and still not see blurries. This plus the increased fluidity makes it a must have.

 

I tried an external limiter plus pre-rendered frames set from 1-5 but nothing could match the internal limiter for smoothness and clarity. It was however better using an external limiter + unlimited than it was using nothing but unlimited, so some may find that a good trade-off if they want to keep those extra frames.

I made some short tests yestarday: PMDG777 on apron at LSZH (freeware scenery from avsim library), time of day: dusk. Each test in the same situation and the same weather condition (ASN running).

a. only internal limiter set to 60

b. internal limiter set on 60 and Inspector limit set on 30

c. only Inspector limiter set on 30.

While testing I made some "head" movements in VC (EZDok Cam.) and panning in external view.

 

For me, option c. is the best. Frames in external view almost still 30 and in VC averages 23-24, rather not less then 20. While flight - time of textures sharpening is acceptable.

 

Although I have stutters sometimes and I don't know how to get rid it of :( (when limit frames in FSX on 30 also have these stutters). Ps. I also use Windowed vsync (Aero on) and "pseudo full screen" mode).

I notice you didn't try totally unlimited. Why not, have you done so before?

I tried totally unlimited - fps and smoothness was ok but I didn't check what about ground textures blurries (I have to try...)

 

...and I'm afraid OOM's (perhaps unnecessarily)

I can't edit previous post, so...

I made flight with unlimited frames (PMDG JS41) - generally fps and smoothness of camera movements were good, but stutters (generally in external view) still exist (with frames limiter also exist, both internal or external). Time of textures sharpening is a bit better with frames limit set.