Totally inconsistent test results: how to setup P3D?

[nathanpinard 0]

Are you overclocked on your card?

 

I get the feeling OC'ing causes microstutters and some lower FPS. After getting anywhere between 20-30fps in the city (KPDX) OC'ing my card may have made it worse.

 

The proper way to benchmark in my opinion, is to load a flight path (you can do that right?) and run the same one everytime. Do not use the ingame FPS, but fraps or whatever your graphics tweaking software has.

 

One thing about P3D is that I know I can get a lot of good framerates, but I'm trying to squeeze out every graphic feature I can. I've gotten it picture perfect, but it's still running at 20-30 fps. Trying to get that more consistent.

 

Also for those that say they are having no problems with ORBX or whatever. We need to see your settings please! If you are running it with default settings, it's no wonder you are getting good FPS (and not nearly as much ORBX on your terrain)

[LHookins 3,103]

Well Jeroen, it's been a week.  Did you try just flying without additional tweaks for a while, and if you did, what was your experience?

 

Hook

[Guest]

My experience is the sim still (micro)stutters more than it did on my old PC. For now I have no other option that to learn to live with it. Maybe 2.3 will improve things a little... I did spend all saturday testing things again to see what works and doesn't work (learned a lot from doing so!!!) but the microstutters remain, even when I use the best possible set of settings I could find.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I'm not saying this will help as it is one of those "when all else fails" kind of approaches, but it might be worth a try. First download Process Explorer (the MS Task Manager replacement):

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

Next run P3d as you always would, but before  taking off (but in VC mode), pause the sim and Alt-TAB out to the desktop and run Process Explorer. Right click on the Prepar3d.exe file and check the affinity mask. If you have core 0 enabled, disable it. Do this again, but now, enable core 0 for P3d. For some people with high end systems, toggling the AM for core 0 with P3d running fixes things like stutters and irregular frame rates.

[Cruachan 705]

True, however P3D doesn't run as smooth as it did on my old PC. I've got clear microstutters now. Even with the settings I used on my previous PC. I knew this could happen but it sucks now it does... you always have the hope that a new system won't reintroduce old problems. Obviously I can use higher settings and remain a nice fps but what's the use of 60 fps if it isn't smooth. I tried different kinds of AM, unlimited and limited, etc. etc. but I haven't find the sweet spot yet, as I did on my old PC. And the performance not being consistent but quite random doesn't help the troubleshooting!

Hi Jeroen,

 

I feel your pain. However, I see no mention of your having tried running with Adaptive VSync:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/443715-stutter-adaptive-vsync-could-offer-a-solution/

 

Worth a shot. It sure worked for me and, it seems, for many others as well.

 

That's the only 'tweak' I employ other than resisting the temptation to achieve over ambitious settings within the sim.

 

Good luck!

 

Regards,

Mike

[Guest]

 

 

For some people with high end systems, toggling the AM for core 0 with P3d running fixes things like stutters and irregular frame rates.

 

I will give that a try!

 

 

 

I see no mention of your having tried running with Adaptive VSync

 

I didn't mention it but I did try it, with and without Vsync enabled in P3D and with and without buffering etc. etc. No luck. Thanks for the heads up anyway!

 

I have to say that I am on the edge of giving up on P3D... Who would expect a high end system to perform worse than a almost 4 year old PC...? It's completely impossible to get smooth performance, even with low settings. If I hadn't paid 2000 euro's for my new PC, I would have given up already but after paying such an amount of money, you simply want to get it working well. It's very frustrating though. I'm already looking at other sims to pass the time with...

[Novation 534]

I'm already looking at other sims to pass the time with...

Have you tried FSX?

 

I would not give up just yet.. I think it takes time to find a balance of software/drivers and hardware with a new set-up and getting it to work well with P3D or FSX. My current PC is similar to your old one, and get superb performance and decent smoothness with P3D but I've had a few years to get this one honed to be the best it can.

 

I've said it a few times, but I think constant deleting of the Shaders folder can cause stutters as it seems to take ages to build, unlike FSX. The number of files slowly increases over weeks, so if you delete it it need to start again... I leave mine alone, unless I have a specific issues, and then I only rename, so I can revert to the old files.

 

Plus 2.3 can't be far off, and that will hopefully take a few steps forward... and maybe we'll get some nV driver support too :huh:

[Mazo 40]

Jeroen,

  If P3D worked OK on your older system but not so well on the new one, it isn't that there is something wrong with P3D but something not optimized on your new rig--yet. I haven't seen mention that you have tried HT on and if I missed that, my apologies. I have HT on with a AM of 255 to have all eight threads working. On my system, HT on is far better - smoother- than with HT off. I also run Game Booster 3.4 to shut down any program that does not need to be running while I am flying. It seems to help, again on my system as we are all keenly aware that what is gold on one system can be garbage on another system.

 

Anyway, just trying to help you get that powerhouse of yours to run smoothly.

 

Lyn

[Guest]

 

 

I've said it a few times, but I think constant deleting of the Shaders folder can cause stutters as it seems to take ages to build, unlike FSX. The number of files slowly increases over weeks, so if you delete it it need to start again... I leave mine alone, unless I have a specific issues, and then I only rename, so I can revert to the old files.

 

Yes, I am done testing (again) so I will leave that folder alone and see what happens over time.  ^_^

 

 

 

On my system, HT on is far better

 

I tried HT on with various AM settings but everything was worse with HT on on my PC. Yeah, computers........... :huh: Thanks for the tip anyway!  ^_^

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

  If P3D worked OK on your older system but not so well on the new one, it isn't that there is something wrong with P3D but something not optimized on your new rig--yet.

 

 

There are enough negative posts by P3d users with high end systems to warrant caution about that statement. My PC was "high end" three years ago and it runs P3d just fine, unless I go nuts and put every slider at Ultra. But there are people with a 780 TI GPU combined with an OCed top of the line Intel i7 who get stutters and erratic frame rates. To me that indicates that there are other explanations than "something not being optimized". It could be the nVidia drivers. It could be the way people are OCing their CPU. It could be some combination of 3rd party add-ons. But it's also possible that P3d just doesn't play well with certain combinations of hardware and add-ons. That's the drawback of running an open architecture (in the sense that there are a large possibility of 3rd party modifications) sim on various implementations of an OS with a variety of hardware possibilities.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Yes, I am done testing (again) so I will leave that folder alone and see what happens over time.  ^_^

 

 

 

 

I tried HT on with various AM settings but everything was worse with HT on on my PC. Yeah, computers........... :huh: Thanks for the tip anyway!  ^_^

 

Jeroen this seems to be the only way I have found to get rid of most of the stutters is to keep trying the fps slider move it one fps at a time everyone of those increments makes a difference and that includes each aircraft you are using at the time for instance 40 fps with Alabeo cardinal and unlimited for CS777 - takes some time to figure it out but it works also this scenario really comes apparent when using Orbx Euro LC - nice system by the way.