This may sound a bit silly but I thought I'd post after recent problems I've been having with P3D performance/stuttering/CTDs etc.

 

It looks like the cloud.fx fix was not the only reason my P3D performance suddenly recovered so significantly.

 

I took a look at my GPU last week and noticed that the circuit board side was CAKED in dust. I'd been running with the PC case sides removed to help with airflow. Or so I thought. Actually it just allowed a load of dust to gather in the PC over a period of about a year.

 

After cleaning the GPU with a vacuum cleaner and removing all the caked dirt my PC performance shot up - especially in P3D!

 

A silly basic simple mistake. So thought I'd share my experience and urge you to give your PC and case a good vacuum as it can make a big difference.

 

Cheers

 

Adam

Thanks for heads up. Did you close your PC case now?

Spirit

I clear out the (Intel) air cooler on my CPU every few months as the tiny gaps between the vanes get clogged with dust quite quickly, resulting in spiralling CPU temps!!

 

GPU is slightly better, but the fans still benefit from attention with a small artists paintbrush at the same time.

 

Would love to go for a sealed, water cooled system, but that will have to wait for a while!!

Did you close your PC case now?

 

Yes  :wub:

 

 

 

I clear out the (Intel) air cooler on my CPU every few months as the tiny gaps between the vanes get clogged with dust quite quickly, resulting in spiralling CPU temps!!

 

Another excellent tip. The vanes on my CPU heatsink were full of rubbish as well. CPU temps have plummetted now. Also worth cleaning the CPU fan blades (gently!) with a small vacuum nozzle.

I have the new nvidia TX-AC (Autoclean). When the fan circuitry detects excessive current draw of the fan, which would occur if the air supply is blocked, it  turns on the vacuum tube above the vents and sucks the dust into a little bag which hangs out at the rear of the GPU. I just clean that bag every 6 months or so. Nice feature.

 

Bob

What an amazing feature Bob!

 

I want one

What an amazing feature Bob!

 

I want one

 

Yes it is. The only problem is that it causes stutters in P3D if the vacuum tube initiates.  It is just a split second though.  Unbelievable some of the incredible features we have today. And to think when I was 8 years old got the 1st transistor radio (made in Japan).

This is no joke.  Especially if you're overclocking.  I clean my PC about every 3 months, dust is terrible here in TX.  As it gets dirtier I am forced to lower my CPU OC in every so slightly steps from 4.8 to 4.5 (I tried 3 CPUs, on water, push/pull on radiator, PC is underneath AC vent).   If you're not able to OC as much as you'd like, clean.  It doesn't take but a fine layer to make the higher OC's untouchable.  Use 92% alcohol on a microfiber cloth to wipe heat exchange/radiator surfaces.  I need to clean mine now.

 

Sometimes a few percentages can actually push past the bottleneck speed.  I see much more stutters at 4.5 than I did at 4.6 or so.  There used to be a belief that FSX had to be above 4.5 in order to keep stutters away.   Regardless of a possible placebo in that, think of a highway that has no blockage, but has so much traffic that things are slowed because of the amount of vehicles trying to push themselves forward.  Everything goes smoothly until it all the sudden it's half speed with no blockage.  That's the threshold.  Sometimes just a small bit of speed increase on one side street or one more off ramp in a few miles clears up everything unintuitively, unless you've studied it.  I've worked on traffic simulators and systems and it's all about understanding flow.  And I see it every day living in Houston.  It also applies to parallel processing, which is essentially what you've got in a CPU/GPU system today.

 

Positive pressure in your PC can help.  Meaning having more fans take in air through case filters than fans blowing air out, leaving more pressure in the case, so air and dust does not come in through other spaces in the case.  I have a case I can do it with, but I don't think my fan speeds are set right just yet.  My old case I had it set just right and dust didn't accumulate half as fast.

I agree with all that's been said. After a couple years of FSX I was getting black screens, blue screens, CTD and gradual diminished FPS. I vacuumed everything out and at the same time took the heat sink off my CPU, cleaned both the CPU and heat sink with alcohol and reapplied fresh thermal paste ( gold). Noticed a 40% higher FPS on average as well as no more CTD and blue screens that were associated with high temps. Good idea to go in there every few months and clean it out. And perhaps apply fresh thermal paste once a year or so. It worked for me anyway.

 

 

And perhaps apply fresh thermal paste once a year or so

 

Great tip. Not for the faint-hearted though. Fiddly!

I am an enthusiastic pipe smoker.

It's amazing how much stuff I can clean out of my PC on a regular basis ... :smile:

If the computer case is somewhat good and not the cheapest rubbish, one should not remove the case side as case's air flow is designed so that it works as a "wind tunnel" some fans pushing the air in and some sucking it out. All this makes the airflow and cooling a lot better and dust is actually accumulating less inside the case as it is carried more efficiently out of the case. I for example get noticeably higher CPU and GPU temps case open and I need to clean it up very seldom and I mostly do it only when I have some other business inside.

Yes  :wub:

 

 

 

 

Another excellent tip. The vanes on my CPU heatsink were full of rubbish as well. CPU temps have plummetted now. Also worth cleaning the CPU fan blades (gently!) with a small vacuum nozzle.

That why Radio Shack is your friend....just buy the large air-pressurized cleaner for this purpose. They have a plastic tube nozzle that really can blast the crap out of the vanes...and fins.  It is designed for this purpose, and will not hurt or corrode the circuits.  Really does a great job...and it will gross you out what comes flying out the other side of your case......leaving everything inside, looking like prom night...lol. 

 

 

If the computer case is somewhat good and not the cheapest rubbish, one should not remove the case side as case's air flow is designed so that it works as a "wind tunnel" some fans pushing the air in and some sucking it out.

Can confirm this. Don't save money at some cheap PC case.

Spirit

I suggest getting yourself a good pc case with a lot of airflow in it.  and easy to clean dust filters I use a Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower.

 

Its just awesome and has great airflow and as i said the air filters and very easy to get to you don't even have to take the case apart.  Well the front section to get to the fount on but that just pops off.