Low Frame Rates and stuttering

[flyguycaa 0]

I have a question for everyone.  Is there a possibility that an add-on aircraft could cause across the board low frame rates in FSX(regardless of what a/c I am operating)?  My install averages about 36FPS, but when flying complex aircraft close to the ground it will fall into the teens, making landing very difficult, not to mention annoying.

 

In an experiment I installed Win7 Pro to a new SSD, and did a fresh install of FSX Gold, and before adding all my add on aircraft and scenery my FPS is about 82.  This is all measured using FSXMark07, running 3 runs, then averaging them.

 

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if the issue is my add ons or all the other crap that is installed in Windows.  My specs are:

 

i7 3700K oc'd to 4.2 Ghz

ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB

16GB Corsair Vengeance memory

(2) GTX 760 video cards (NOT running in SLI when FSX is running)

Audigy 2 ZS sound card

FSX is installed on a drive labeled Z, which is a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO

Win7 Pro 64bit

 

This is driving me nuts.  If you need to know what add-on aircraft I have installed I will be more than happy to provide the list.  I don't believe it is the scenery, because I have un-checked every scenery add on I have in the scenery library and there is no change.

 

Thanks in advance!

[cat 2]

Try lowering water & traffic settings!

Peter  Sydney  Australia

[flyguycaa 0]

My water is set at 1x high and all my traffic sliders are set to zero.

[nickpap89 2]

My water is set at 1x high and all my traffic sliders are set to zero.

Set water to Low 2X and disable aircraft shadows on ground as well as set bloom to off. Also set autogen density to dense.

[alexjameshardy 0]

How much tweaking to your config? If you have and you've gone all out, that'll explain it. A great phrase I've seen around is "balance tweaking." Tweak for nice graphics and great performance. I'm running a laptop with an i5-4220u, Intel HD4400 Graphics and 8GB RAM, I can still get 15+ frames on the NGX in VC flying into addon airports. Take something like the Majestic Dash 8 and I'm getting about 30, although I lock it at 25, personal preference/good medium. 

 

If you've not tweaked before, there's guides available, I personally use Kostas' guide, google it. To test it, load up something like the NGX and get it established on the localiser for an addon airport and everything configured for a CAT3 landing. Then load up this flight and use something like fraps to benchmark it, keep doing that, adding tweak by tweak, messing with settings, and then hopefully you'll get it so that it's running at around 30fps stable on approach, it may not be as pretty, but it'll be a lot more fun to fly.

 

Good luck, Alexander

[Forkboy2 27]

 

 

You have more powerful system than I do and I get 20+ even with

PMDG 737

Payware airport

90% UT2 AI traffic (50% GA)

50% airport/road vehicle traffic

FS Genesis terrain

Active Sky Next

 

I do turn water effects off completely and use DX10

I also use the AutogenDescriptions_min.spb, Materials_min.spb, and RoofDescriptions_min.spb from Prepare3d, which reduces variety of trees and roofs, etc.

I also removed all specular and bump map texture from default scenery textures

I also tweaked UT2 to reduce texture/polygon load

  -  One night texture per model instead of individual night texture for every livery

  -  Mip mapped all the UT2 aircraft textures

  -  Combined similar aircraft models.  Same # of AI aircraft, just a bit less variety.

Set framerate lock to unlimited

Most other scenery settings set to max

 

Not saying this will work for everyone's taste, but works well for me.  My minimum standard is 20 fps while landing at FS Dream Team LAX with 90% UT2 AI traffic.

 

You might give this a try.

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

 

 

 

[flyguycaa 0]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

I think I finally got it figured out, at least for the most part.  I disabled about 75% of my startup items in MSCONFIG and immediately picked up 24FPS (from 36 average to 60+ average).  Yesterday I finally had the opportunity to test the biggest problem that I have been having, which was my Leonardo MD-80 on or close to the ground at any large airport.  In this situation I would consistently drop to less that 10FPS, making it almost impossible to perform a decent landing.  After disabling the startup items I am getting about 45FPS, and the only time it tanks is when I switch from the outside view to the inside view, in which case it drops to 5FPS for about 1 second, then recovers to 40+.

 

I really appreciate the suggestions and tips from everyone that offered!  Thanks again.

 

flyguycaa