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Solved! Stuttering/Freezes/Sync issues XPlane 10 w Nvidia GPUs


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Until recently, I never really had any serious issues with stutters (even small ones) and only very occasionally had very brief "freezing" on my triple-screen triple-pc XP10 setup.  A friend had begun having issues and mentioned them to me, and sure enough, when I looked at MY setup, I was having the same problems but on a smaller scale.  Happily, after a lot of experimentation, we discovered the 'solution' and are now enjoying the butter-smooth graphics our systems were built to deliver.  So I share our 'solution' for the benefit of those who may be in a similar situation.


 


Heart and Soul of our fix is simple:


  • ROLL DRIVERS BACK to nVidia 337.88 WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab Certified driver) May 26, 2014 available here.  This step is VERY important.  You do NOT have to uninstall your current nVidia drivers to install this older driver.  Just download the file and run it.  Tech explanation: Nvidia has been optimizing for Direct X, NOT OpenGL in their most-recent driver releases, the 377.88 driver appears to be the one best-suited to OpenGL which is what drives XPlane 10.  Some folks in this thread have said that the newer 9-series cards from NVidia will require a NEWER driver than this one.  The nVidia website will ask you to select your gpu series, then model, and 'search' and you will be presented with a list of compatible drivers.  If you're having issues as described here, try selecting the oldest COMPATIBLE WHQL driver in the list for your specific graphics card.  DO NOT select a 'beta' driver.
  • Right click on any empty spot on your desktop and then left-click on nVidia CONTROL PANEL.
  • Click on the left side of the nVidia control panel 3-D Settings
  • Under the GLOBAL SETTINGS tab, there is a setting "Multi-Display/mixed GPU acceleration".  If you use only ONE monitor for EACH PC, select Single PC performance mode.
  • The very next setting is Power management mode, change to Prefer Maximum Performance.
  • Near the bottom of the Global Settings window is Vertical Refresh Rate, select Adaptive (use half refresh rate).  This will lock your frames at 30fps.  Even though your video card (in our case nVidia GTX 770 and nVidia Titan) is capable of much much higher rates, because we both are using triple computers to drive 3 separate monitors, the goal is to have all three screens in perfect sync with no 'break apart' of the image.  Setting frames to 30 on all 3 PCs results in optimal smoothness and synchronization between all three monitors.
  • Finally:  REPEAT these steps on each PC that is driving a monitor in your xPlane setup.

Please rate this post if you found it helpful.  This post is aimed at nVidia 7-series (and older) owners.


 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

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Another member also suggested turning off Threaded Optimization (also located in the Nvidia Control Panel).  I didn't need that to stop the issues - so I did not alter that setting, but it might be worth a try if all of the above steps don't solve it for you.

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

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Thanks so much for posting this!  I was flying last night and was experiencing some freezing about every 30 seconds - very disconcerting when on base and final!

 

You're welcome.  Hope you had a great outcome trying this fix.

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

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Robert.

I can't thank you enough for the tip to turn off Threaded Optimization. I have been having a horible time with X=Plane since I got it a couple of weeks ago. No matter what my settings in X Plane were set to, when I got to my destination,the airport would be nothing more than a field, no runway at all,and the surrounding scenery was totally devoid of any features   It was always fine when I took off,but on landing there was nothing there. I was just about to give up on X Plane when I saw your tip in the Video cards and drivers section of the forum and I gave it a try. Wow! what a difference! Airports are now displaying as they should,and silky smooth performance and the frame rate is very good now too.

I am using the latest drivers (347.25) and they are just fine now with Threaded Optimization turned off,but I have taken note of the 337.88 drivers recomendation just in case.

All the best and thank you.

Dennis

Dennis Elliott
 

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Great news one and all!  Happy it gave you some improvement!

 

I personally think the power management in nvidia control panel should be "maximum performance"

and you should select how many monitors you are driving.  I have 1 monitor per PC, so I set  to "Single Monitor Performance" as I mentioned in the first post in this thread.

 

Running very high definition graphics across 3 screens with Skymax 2.x weather and complex aftermarket airports.

 

Locking frames at 30 is a no-brainer for me.  Seeing frames at 100+ is meaningless.  What matters is silky smooth edge to edge across 3 screens with no break-apart between the monitors.  30 frames locked made that a reality.


Robert.

I can't thank you enough for the tip to turn off Threaded Optimization. I have been having a horible time with X=Plane since I got it a couple of weeks ago. No matter what my settings in X Plane were set to, when I got to my destination,the airport would be nothing more than a field, no runway at all,and the surrounding scenery was totally devoid of any features   It was always fine when I took off,but on landing there was nothing there. I was just about to give up on X Plane when I saw your tip in the Video cards and drivers section of the forum and I gave it a try. Wow! what a difference! Airports are now displaying as they should,and silky smooth performance and the frame rate is very good now too.

I am using the latest drivers (347.25) and they are just fine now with Threaded Optimization turned off,but I have taken note of the 337.88 drivers recomendation just in case.

All the best and thank you.

Dennis

 

Hi Dennis,

 

FYI 'by default' many airports in XPlane are still "only runways"  There are many free as well as payware airports available to you on X-Plane ORG.

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

RQbrZCm.jpg

KqRTzMZ.jpg

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Until recently, I never really had any serious issues with stutters (even small ones) and only very occasionally had very brief "freezing" on my triple-screen triple-pc XP10 setup.  A friend had begun having issues and mentioned them to me, and sure enough, when I looked at MY setup, I was having the same problems but on a smaller scale.  Happily, after a lot of experimentation, we discovered the 'solution' and are now enjoying the butter-smooth graphics our systems were built to deliver.  So I share our 'solution' for the benefit of those who may be in a similar situation.

 

Heart and Soul of our fix is simple:

  • ROLL DRIVERS BACK to nVidia 337.88 WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab Certified driver) May 26, 2014 available here.  This step is VERY important.  You do NOT have to uninstall your current nVidia drivers to install this older driver.  Just download the file and run it.  Tech explanation: Nvidia has been optimizing for Direct X, NOT OpenGL in their most-recent driver releases, the 377.88 driver appears to be the one best-suited to OpenGL which is what drives XPlane 10.  Some folks in this thread have said that the newer 9-series cards from NVidia will require a NEWER driver than this one.  The nVidia website will ask you to select your gpu series, then model, and 'search' and you will be presented with a list of compatible drivers.  If you're having issues as described here, try selecting the oldest COMPATIBLE WHQL driver in the list for your specific graphics card.  DO NOT select a 'beta' driver.
  • Right click on any empty spot on your desktop and then left-click on nVidia CONTROL PANEL.
  • Click on the left side of the nVidia control panel 3-D Settings
  • Under the GLOBAL SETTINGS tab, there is a setting "Multi-Display/mixed GPU acceleration".  If you use only ONE monitor for EACH PC, select Single PC performance mode.
  • The very next setting is Power management mode, change to Prefer Maximum Performance.
  • Near the bottom of the Global Settings window is Vertical Refresh Rate, select Adaptive (use half refresh rate).  This will lock your frames at 30fps.  Even though your video card (in our case nVidia GTX 770 and nVidia Titan) is capable of much much higher rates, because we both are using triple computers to drive 3 separate monitors, the goal is to have all three screens in perfect sync with no 'break apart' of the image.  Setting frames to 30 on all 3 PCs results in optimal smoothness and synchronization between all three monitors.
  • Finally:  REPEAT these steps on each PC that is driving a monitor in your xPlane setup.

Please rate this post if you found it helpful.  This post is aimed at nVidia 7-series (and older) owners.

 

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

RQbrZCm.jpg

KqRTzMZ.jpg

Click here for my YouTube channel

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Guest Patriot3810

fixed my problem as well turning off threaded optimization, i have 16 gigs of ram and bought 8 more and thought it was causing the problem on my z97 board with a 4790k, gonna try and put it back now.

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Glad to hear it.  I tried to get this 'fix' put up as a sticky, but the board admins are trying to hold the stickies to a minimum.  

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

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This fixed it for me too. I had all but given up on X-Plane 10 due to the stuttering and freezing. It made it completely unplayable. Now I have smoothness again!

 

Perhaps it should be made a sticky.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

Proposed it be made a sticky.  Senior management declined.

Glad it helped some of our members.

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

RQbrZCm.jpg

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Click here for my YouTube channel

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337.88 doesn't support GTX 970 !!! (no hardware detection)

So what next? Wait a new driver!!

Cut and pasted from my post:

 

Some folks in this thread have said that the newer 9-series cards from NVidia will require a NEWER driver than this one.  The nVidia website will ask you to select your gpu series, then model, and 'search' and you will be presented with a list of compatible drivers.  If you're having issues as described here, try selecting the oldest COMPATIBLE WHQL driver in the list for your specific graphics card.  DO NOT select a 'beta' driver.

 R. Scott McDonald  B738/L   Information is anecdotal only-without guarantee & user assumes all risks of use thereof.                                               

RQbrZCm.jpg

KqRTzMZ.jpg

Click here for my YouTube channel

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