Working & Effective P3D V2.4 performance tweaks?

[chris6273 1]

Hi guys,

 

Recently I've upgraded my PC to a GTX 970 FTW and therefore reinstalled windows.

 

So a few days ago I installed P3D V2.4 on my PC with FTX England, Orbx Global and Global Vector and so I'm wondering whether there are any working performance tweaks that will work with 2.4?

 

Running P3D V2.4 I get around 30-40FPS on Ultra settings but my GPU is only seeing around 30% load and around 2.45GB of VRAM used (Out of 4GB) so there's a lot of horsepower in the beast to spare.

 

CPU - 4790K OC @ 4.4GHz (4.6GHz Turbo) and sees around 67% load when in-game. 

 

 

Are there any tweaks that will allow me to use more resources and get more detail and/or just use more resources to get more FPS?

 

I know RAM is limited due to 32-bit but how about GPU resources?

 

Searching around it's very confusing as to what actually works with 2.4 so I'd like to simply ask in a new thread.

 

Many thanks for your answers,

Chris

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Running P3D V2.4 I get around 30-40FPS on Ultra settings but my GPU is only seeing around 30% load and around 2.45GB of VRAM used (Out of 4GB) so there's a lot of horsepower in the beast to spare.

 

CPU - 4790K OC @ 4.4GHz (4.6GHz Turbo) and sees around 67% load when in-game. 

 

 

That's normal, because the main thread of P3d has pinned one core to 100%. There are no tweaks that will help everyone overcome this. In fact, there are very few "tweaks" that do much at all in P3d. Try setting FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to 0.10 and work your way down to 0.01, until you start to lose autogen and high definition ground textures ("the blurries"):

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/454792-fiber-frame-time-fraction/

 

You also should see what else is running while P3d is active as other apps may be stealing CPU resources. Basically, your only hope is to turn down "CPU-heavy"  IQ settings with P3d's UI. Some settings, like AI Air Traffic, road traffic and autogen  tax the CPU more than the GPU. The good news is that you can increase all GPU-heavy IQ settings to the max and it probably won't degrade performance any further.

[Kuragiman 227]

Wait... you state that you get around 30-40 FPS (I assume in complex aircraft) when flying in 2.4.   So... what more do you need?   You honestly truly only need 28+ FPS to have a visually smooth experience to the human eye.   What is more important is that your flight experience is stutter free.    At some incredibly detailed airports with AI traffic on and in complex aircraft my FPS can drop to around 18 FPS which use to drive me insane.   But then I learned to accept and ignore that FPS number because it is not important.   Even at 18 FPS my panning around the cockpit and watching the scenery scroll by outside is still 'smooth'.

 

But.. if you really want to get under the hood  I recommend what Jabloo said and play with your Fiber Frame setting.  I have mine at .01 and it works great on my setup. Also be sure to move any other programs away from the cores you are using.  I use a program called Process Lasso to push all other apps and background processes off the 4 cores I have dedicated to P3D.  I also turned off ALL anti aliasing in the game and in Nvidia Inspector and let SweetFX handle my sharpness and AA settings.   

 

The end result for me is mostly maxed out settings with Autogen on Normal and Trees Autogen on Very Dense.   I have my weather engine pumping 8 layers of clouds with enhanced overcast out to 70 miles with AI traffic at around 20% in VoxATC which generates the equivalent of about 40% on the traffic slider in-game.

 

In most scenarios I never drop below 25 FPS and remain blur free and stutter from and that is with a 3930k @ 4.6ghz with an older GTX770 driving it all.

[greggerm 312]

 

 

You honestly truly only need 28+ FPS to have a visually smooth experience to the human eye.

 

Not that old chestnut again...

[johnman 7]

Gentelmen - Remember - the Rules Are - NO Enrtertainment ! - and the Fastest FPS - WINNN;s - START - YOUR - ENGINES !!

 

Johnman

[Kuragiman 227]

Actually the smoothest flight experience wins.  FPS is not as important as you have been led to believe.   I use to be the guy screaming 'I'm not getting 200 FPS like I was before I added add-ons!  WHY!?  WHY!?  I paid 185715818 dollars for my PC and it should be able to do my taxes while I fly at 500+ FPS!'   I groaned at people who kept saying 'ignore the FPS, look at how the FPS you got is moving across the screen'.  After writing witty comments like the ones above and fighting logic with all my might I finally understand what they were talking about.  My blood pressure dropped and my risk for heart failure while tweaking and loading add-ons decreased greatly.

 

Tweak less.  Fly more.   Don't let Frame Passion Syndrome (FPS) get you.

[chris6273 1]

That's normal, because the main thread of P3d has pinned one core to 100%. There are no tweaks that will help everyone overcome this. In fact, there are very few "tweaks" that do much at all in P3d. Try setting FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to 0.10 and work your way down to 0.01, until you start to lose autogen and high definition ground textures ("the blurries"):

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/454792-fiber-frame-time-fraction/

 

You also should see what else is running while P3d is active as other apps may be stealing CPU resources. Basically, your only hope is to turn down "CPU-heavy"  IQ settings with P3d's UI. Some settings, like AI Air Traffic, road traffic and autogen  tax the CPU more than the GPU. The good news is that you can increase all GPU-heavy IQ settings to the max and it probably won't degrade performance any further.

 

Looking at the CPU cores when running, it looks like you're right.

 

I'll give the Fiber Frame tweak a try, thanks!

 

 

Wait... you state that you get around 30-40 FPS (I assume in complex aircraft) when flying in 2.4.   So... what more do you need?   You honestly truly only need 28+ FPS to have a visually smooth experience to the human eye.   What is more important is that your flight experience is stutter free.    At some incredibly detailed airports with AI traffic on and in complex aircraft my FPS can drop to around 18 FPS which use to drive me insane.   But then I learned to accept and ignore that FPS number because it is not important.   Even at 18 FPS my panning around the cockpit and watching the scenery scroll by outside is still 'smooth'.

 

 

Actually the human eye can see far in excess of 60FPS and can definitely tell the difference - Try watching a 30fps video and a 60fps video on a monitor. It's a myth that the human eye can't see FPS more than around the 25-30fps mark.

 

The details I gave were when flying around Bristol with UK2000 scenery (I didn't specify this) but I wanted to see whether there is a way to get P3D to utilize the spare resources and gain some more FPS (As well as stability) instead of having the resources just sitting doing nothing in the form of tweaks.

 

I'll also give Process Lasso a go as-well - Cheers!

[sejannasch 1]

@Kuragiman

 

im very interested in the SweeFX thing. I have only used it for colour settings so far. Maybe you can post your Settings.

 

Sven

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

Looking at the CPU cores when running, it looks like you're right.

 

I'll give the Fiber Frame tweak a try, thanks!

 

 

 

 

Actually the human eye can see far in excess of 60FPS and can definitely tell the difference - Try watching a 30fps video and a 60fps video on a monitor. It's a myth that the human eye can't see FPS more than around the 25-30fps mark.

 

The details I gave were when flying around Bristol with UK2000 scenery (I didn't specify this) but I wanted to see whether there is a way to get P3D to utilize the spare resources and gain some more FPS (As well as stability) instead of having the resources just sitting doing nothing in the form of tweaks.

 

I'll also give Process Lasso a go as-well - Cheers!

 

The problem is not with the human eye but with the monitor we used. Most monitor run at 60 cycle per second. That's why when you run a videogame at 60fps, it seems smoother. AMD is coming with g-sync monitor that synchronize the screen with the game FPS and its makes a world of difference.

[chris6273 1]

The problem is not with the human eye but with the monitor we used. Most monitor run at 60 cycle per second. That's why when you run a videogame at 60fps, it seems smoother. AMD is coming with g-sync monitor that synchronize the screen with the game FPS and its makes a world of difference.

 

I know - I have the PG278Q (As listed on my profile) which can run at 144Hz and has G-SYNC but that's irrelevant (Refresh rate wise) when the most I can get out of P3D is ~30FPS.

[vgbaron 3,714]

Actually the smoothest flight experience wins. FPS is not as important as you have been led to believe.

I've been preaching that for quite a while. FPS is for bragging rights, smoothness is for enjoyment. I haven't looked at my FPS in a long while - as long as the sim is smooth, I really don't care. Actually, the lower the better because it allows more processing to be used for textures, etc.

 

I REALLY believe that if more people would just flat ignore FPS and tweak for perfectly smooth operation, they'd be a lot less frustrated.

 

Vic

[Appliance 51]

 

 

AMD is coming with g-sync monitor

 

For sake of good order AMD's solution is referred to as Free Sync.  G-Sync is nVidia's technology.

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

For sake of good order AMD's solution is referred to as Free Sync.  G-Sync is nVidia's technology.

oops you are correct. Consider me corrected :-)

[Kuragiman 227]

Looking at the CPU cores when running, it looks like you're right.

 

I'll give the Fiber Frame tweak a try, thanks!

 

 

 

 

Actually the human eye can see far in excess of 60FPS and can definitely tell the difference - Try watching a 30fps video and a 60fps video on a monitor. It's a myth that the human eye can't see FPS more than around the 25-30fps mark.

 

The details I gave were when flying around Bristol with UK2000 scenery (I didn't specify this) but I wanted to see whether there is a way to get P3D to utilize the spare resources and gain some more FPS (As well as stability) instead of having the resources just sitting doing nothing in the form of tweaks.

 

I'll also give Process Lasso a go as-well - Cheers!

 

I am not arguing that 60FPS has a different look than 30.   But is it necessary in this kind of simulation platform to push 200 FPS with no add-ons and everything off?   120 FPS is awesome in first person shooters but I am of the opinion that those extra 30+ frames over 30 could be put to better use than just make my eye see extra fluidness.  I'd rather have 10 cloud layers at 80 miles with 250 AI airplanes around me at a busy airport with a complex airplane running at 28FPS and smooth then running with nothing and graphics toned down and stuttering through the sky.

 

I have gone through the very loop you are going through right now, trying to figure out how to get my video card to use more then 40-50% of its power and wondering why my 6 cores are only outputting 20% of their total power.   You will come the same conclusion I did.   It's just the way the simulator runs and be happy with 30 FPS and lots of add-ons shoved into the sim with a smooth and crash free environment to give you hours and hours of fun before your PC even thinks about OOMing on you.  Cheers and good luck!   If you find the secret let me know.  I am about to upgrade to a GTX 980 myself.   I have no dellusions that at best I am going to get maybe an extra 5 FPS out of this upgrade but what I will get is the ability to push all my texture resolutions past 1024 with little or no hit.   Can't wait!  

@Kuragiman

 

im very interested in the SweeFX thing. I have only used it for colour settings so far. Maybe you can post your Settings.

 

Sven

 

Follow this guide.   I use Prepar3D obviously since this thread is P3D.  But it works for FSX users too.  I love the end results for me.

 

http://simtweak.com/   <-  SweetFX working like a champ.

[sejannasch 1]

 

 

Follow this guide.   I use Prepar3D obviously since this thread is P3D.  But it works for FSX users too.  I love the end results for me

 

Oh yes the results are great. But the guide assumes that you use the corresponding Nvidia Inspector settings to import. And this one uses "Antialiasing - Transparent Multisampling - 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling" and "4x MSAA" in Game. And this settings overload my Graphiccard when it comes to a higher cloud coverage. Did you follow the guide without using the Nvidia Inspector Profile?

 

Regards Sven