OK, so another post about stuttering.Stuttering is most obvious when flying fast aircraft... not really dependat on scenery.I noticed that my stuttering has nothing to do with HDD reading/loading textures. When stuttering occurs, HDD leds are off.So, with my high end system, what could be cause to this? I guess somewhere the textures are not passing quickly enough, but I don't know where...Any ideas you could have would be appreciated and most certainly helpful!Btw...TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=600Tried 0, 40, 80, 90, 120, 400... didn't change really.

Turn off AI...Any difference in the stuttering?And try this entry after my AI suggestion:TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=16776704Obviously you wouldn't want to fly without AI, but it may isolate the source of your stutters.-John

Well, we know for sure your stutters have little to do with having a subpar system that is for sure, at least you have the absolute top end available, basically.Presumably you have the classic lean boot with minimal processes running, right, using FS Autostart, right?Hopefully your video drivers were a clean install, right?What weather program? How much cloud density? You machine IS NOT potent enough to handle PMDG & PSS products with maxed out weather, at least I don't believe for one second that it is.Do you have DirectX9 installed, maybe repeat installed after your last driver upgrade for your ATI card? If not, do it.Provide some more information please--specifics, exactly what do you mean by stutters, in what situations, with what aircraft, weather, etc.Noel

>Turn off AI...>>Any difference in the stuttering?>>And try this entry after my AI suggestion:>>TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=16776704>>Obviously you wouldn't want to fly without AI, but it may>isolate the source of your stutters.>>-John>>I'm not using any AI, I even deleted Traffic...bgl file. Also turned off everything in FS9 concerning AI.Also 2nd suggestion wasn't any different than right now tested 200.

JohnI read your reply to the problem here, and tried your suggestion to set to TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=16776704, as I was also experiencing stutters, mostly when flying curves. I didn't change ANYTHING at all apart from the tex-bandwidth_mult setting, and was amazed to find that IT WORKS!I don't know how, but I just know it does. Question is: Why? How did you arrive at this setting? I have tried everything between the default of 40 up to 600, no change. Why should entering 16776704 make such a difference? It would interst me, and thanks for the tip!BestGrahame (EDHL)

>Presumably you have the classic lean boot with minimal>processes running, right, using FS Autostart, right?Yes. My windows are booting normally, but I'm running FSAutoStart basically to get rid of everything unnecessary. So no, I don't think it's the problem outside FS. Only thing I've been suspecting is my joystick, which I know it has pretty old driver, but still got some checking to do on that part.>Hopefully your video drivers were a clean install, right?Yes. As clean as it gets. Uninstall, reboot, safe mode + Driver Cleaner 2.>What weather program? How much cloud density? You machine IS>NOT potent enough to handle PMDG & PSS products with maxed out>weather, at least I don't believe for one second that it is.No weather for test purposes. Been testing with some aircraft models which are just light on the FPS. None have proven to be a framerate problem...>Do you have DirectX9 installed, maybe repeat installed after>your last driver upgrade for your ATI card? If not, do it.If I attempt that, it says I got it installed proberly.Last test went with the Spitfire in spot view. I used it for testing because of it's turn rate. It's very obvious if it stutters, and I see no HDD leds burning in that moment. What I call stutter is a pause in time between shortest of around 50-100ms and longest what I guess are around 1s.Thanks for all the help!Word Not Allowed

>>Do you have DirectX9 installed, maybe repeat installed after>>your last driver upgrade for your ATI card? If not, do it.>>If I attempt that, it says I got it installed proberly.K wonder if that is an XP issue. I am using Win2K and I can reinstall DX9 overtop of itself indefinitely, and it has made a huge change at times when I've done this reintall of DX9.You def have a problem. My machine is as smooth as liquid mercury, and only suffers when the overall load is just beyond my specs and settings. But then it's just lower frames. How many precesses running?What driver release are you using?Noel

>You def have a problem.No, XP won't allow rewriting of DX if the latest is installed. This is by design I think. I install my PC relatively often fresh, and I know this is by design, and my puter is 100% clean concerning the garbage floating on the net etc.>How many precesses running?Around 12 with the boot, + remote administrator program + MX1000 driver (which get shut down when FS runs).>What driver release are you using?Right now I installed the "latest", the one we all FF2 owners got on our CDs, and there is to my knowledge no newer driver.

how do you set your frame lock, ie, by what procedure, or do you run at unlimited?

It's set to 40 fps in FS, never unlimited. If I set to unlimited, I get micro-stutters. And when testing, it was pulling 39.9 fps constantly...

When the stutters happen, can you guess how long a pause you see? And do they happen in clear weather, or only when clouds are present? Reason why I ask is if you fly rapidly through the scenery when clouds are present, MSFS will "build" clouds around the edges of the cloud field defined by your cloud draw distance. I've seen framerates nearly halved by this process on my old system, and I imagine even a fast one could get a stutter from that.Another item causing a regular stutter on some systems--any type of keyboard manager. If you have a keyboard with "hot" buttons that can be programmed to pull up email, or adjust the volume, etc, a keyboard manager is probably loaded to manage the keyboard. Some of these tools can cause a pronounced stutter, but it is a pretty regular stutter.-John

>When the stutters happen, can you guess how long a pause you>see? As I said, they are mostly feeling like HDD loading scenery. I don't have problems with micro-stutters. They last for about 1/2 to one second, that's my guess... And do they happen in clear weather, or only when clouds>are present?Clear weather or clouds, doesn't matter. If push the clouds to the limits, I get FPS drop, but that's normal...>Another item causing a regular stutter on some systems--any>type of keyboard manager. If you have a keyboard with "hot">buttons that can be programmed to pull up email, or adjust the>volume, etc, a keyboard manager is probably loaded to manage>the keyboard. Some of these tools can cause a pronounced>stutter, but it is a pretty regular stutter.I have only driver from Logitech loaded for my MX1000 mouse, to manage the buttons. But I've tried quitting it, and also running with all programs quitted (even explorer), only services necessary to hold XP... and still I experienced the same problem.

Have you tried running DiskMon v2.01 to see if in fact the disk accesses are too brief to show up with your case light? Sounds very much like HD access.Also, are you using your mAudio for DX audio for FS? If so, have you tried disabling your mAudio to see if there is something related to that card? Not exactly a DX gamers card I don't believe.Any spyware operating?

>Have you tried running DiskMon v2.01 to see if in fact the>disk accesses are too brief to show up with your case light? >Sounds very much like HD access.Yes, I tested today with DiskMon, though it's kinda hard to see if it's HDD or not with it, cuz there are other things being written and accessed all the time, which DiskMon is reporting, though I get no red led... so it might be what you say...>>Also, are you using your mAudio for DX audio for FS? If so,>have you tried disabling your mAudio to see if there is>something related to that card? Not exactly a DX gamers card>I don't believe.>Tested without sound, both cards disabled. No difference.>Any spyware operating?Spybot S&D and Adaware.>

If you haven't already, set up TaskManager and look for CPU time, I/O read/write operations, memory use etc and click the top of each column you set up to "sort" for whatever you are evaluating, so that the process with the most activity, by column, is at the top.Do you have Indexing Service enabled?Also, have you dropped the frame lock down to 22-24? Especially with the very complex birds.If all of the above turns out irrelevant, you might try a sqirt of two of WD-40--better yet just spray liberally all through your open case, slathering your CPU and memory modules liberally and until these annoying stutters, or hangs, stop permanently. Guaranteed :()