FSX-MS Please help me finding the right Affinity Mask setting!

[TomEDDW 1]

Hey community!

 

I'm in need of a little help...

 

I'm fiddling with my fsx.cfg for quite a time now and it seems im stuck right now...

 

The major problem is not the FPS but the stutters i get with the different Affinity Mask settings.

 

First of all my System:

 

i7-3820 OC'd to 4.5 Ghz

GTX970

16mb RAM

FSX running on a separate SSD.

Win 7

Hyperthreading is OFF

 

Only Highmenfix, Bufferpools/Reject Threshold and Affinity Mask tweaks applied.

 

I am currently running FSX at 60 FPS (No Autogen/3rd party Scenery), only Majestics Q400 and FTX Global and Active Sky installed.

 

I think i have tested every AM setting that is mentioned on the Net...starting at 14, 16, 63, 64, 80, 82, 84....252, 254 and so on....

80 seemed to be a good deal but giving me stutters after some time.

The rest gave me stutters right from the start.

 

Removing the AM tweak completely seemed to work quite well but with the last update of ASN it's asking me to add AM to my fsx.cfg on every startup.

In addition to that FSX starts to stutter again as soon as ASN is running.

 

Using different FPS Limiter didn't change anything...

 

So please...maybe anyone of the techfreaks out there has a clue how to get rid of those terrible stutters?

 

Best regards,

 

Tom

[Dumont 9]

Try, maybe solve

 

http://www.gatwick-fsg.org.uk/affinitymask.aspx?SubMenuItem=hardware

 

 

João Alfredo

[minimums retard 0]

You probably already know all or most of this and have read it all before, but in case you haven't, you need to calculate it for your CPU and preference, it's a very specific value.

AM maps the FSX process threads to your CPU cores by using a binary number (eg. 12 = 0000 0110, So cores 1 and 2 are running the FSX process) . If you have hyperthreading off I have found the best results come from AM = 14 with allocates the FSX process to cores 0,1,2 and leaves core 3 for other processes; 14 = 0000 1110 i.e. HT is off so all the virtual cores are deactivated and the fsx process is assigned to cores 0,1 and 2. I don't understand how 80 could work for your system as 80 is 0101 0000 and therefore it is sending fsx to only 2 virtual cores that you don't have enabled via HT. It's probably just resetting to default once it loads or something.

I would also suggest if your card has 2GB of RAM or more to replace the rejectthreshold and poolsize with bufferpools=0 or usepools=0 (they do the same thing). Either that or set usepools=1 and try leaving the poolsize at default (don't set it in the cfg at all) and setting a small reject threshold of about 256KB, however your system should be powerful enough to handle bufferpools=0. I wouldn't be surprised if the stutters are more to do with how your graphics card and CPU are communicating/managing resources rather than the CPU behaviour itself.

I've found ASN can affect frames a bit (which is understandable, the detail is incredible, it's just less obvious when you can't see half of what it's doing lol) and tbh I think 60 is pretty good, however what conditions is that under? Are you flying, on the ground, is it stormy, what are your traffic settings etc. Are you using FSX Gold, Acceleration or Steam Edition? And also, small detail, but I believe you mean 16GB* of RAM lol.

Anyway good luck, hope you get it sorted, and remember to not to expect too much from FSX. It's an old program and from what I can tell even with a system like yours it's still going to need some leeway and a bit of love to get running smooth.

For the record I have i5 3570K stock, GTX 660 OC, 16GB 1333 RAM and Win 7 x64 and FSX:A on seperate SSDs, in cruise I'll get up to 60fps (limited in NvI), on the ground I'll get 18-20 in a dense area, and my traffic is only on 16% and GA on 2%, road vehicles ~10%. I had to bring my settings right down to get it smooth but I've found a balance where visually it looks appealing and realistic enough for me to be happy and also performs well enough so that my short final isn't a slide show. IMO it's about finding which settings you can lower while still maintaining the same level of illusion/immersion.

Try, maybe solve

 

http://www.gatwick-fsg.org.uk/affinitymask.aspx?SubMenuItem=hardware

 

 

João Alfredo

That is awesome! I'll be keeping that handy, what a time saver. Thanks!

[TomEDDW 1]

First, thanks very much for your replies!

 

The AM 80 setting was with HT enabled...i should have mentioned that. sorry!

 

I used to get 60 FPS in all kind of flight stages with all kinds of weather! Thats why im so shocked to have stutters again after it was running smooth for weeks.

As far as i know i didn't change anything to my system.

 

Traffic and Autogen is set to zero at the moment.

 

FSX Professional Edition.

 

And it was 16 GB of RAM indeed...

 

Thanks so far!

The testing goes on!

 

Tom

 

Ps.: Its very strange/annoying how FSX can run butter smooth for quite a long time and then all of a sudden it starts to stutter again without

changes being made.... :mad:

[ANA2527 2]

Wow!!!  I went to the website Dumont referenced above and used their calculator to figure out my affinity mask and it made a big difference.  I never understood AM, and still don't, but I plugged in their recommedation to my FSX Config file and my frame rates shot up.  For example, flying over UK2000's Heathrow in the default ultralight, with default weather, my frame rates were 25-77 depending on location.  Normally, it's between 13-25 and sluggish.

 

I think I'll keep this link and recommendation.  Thanks for the tip! 

 

Mike

[minimums retard 0]

 

 

Ps.: Its very strange/annoying how FSX can run butter smooth for quite a long time and then all of a sudden it starts to stutter again without
changes being made....

I recently had this problem! Was trying out DX10 and it was great first time - clearer picture and 20-22 fps in the same situation. then the next time I booted up the sim it dropped to 9 fps lol. so I reverted back to DX9, making explicitly sure that every single setting was exactly the same before I switched to DX10 (I'd backed up my cgfs etc), and then I was still getting 9 fps. Then I accidentally hit the window title bar which very quikcly resized the screen and I saw the FPS jump up to a more normal level. It has happened again since then and same thing, resizing the window a few times seems to make it go away, and this time i hasnt come back. I think I read somewhere it refreshes your shader cache or something. Anyway, might not have an effect, but worth a shot.

No worries at all btw, after having gained so much knowledge and expertise from this forum and other places on the web, it's my absolute pleasure to be able to help someone else with their FSX troubles. I just hope I'm not actually just a noob and sending you on a wild goose chase haha.

[TomEDDW 1]

thanks minimums!

 

FSX never fails to surprise me!

 

But i feel like spending more time fiddling around with its odd behaviours than actually be flying the sim.

[minimums retard 0]

 

 

But i feel like spending more time fiddling around with its odd behaviours than actually be flying the sim.

Hahaha I know the feeling toooo well. Did that fix it for you?

[TomEDDW 1]

@retard ( )

 

That didn't help at all   But thanks anyway!

 

I settled down with AM=84, Usepools=1, Poolsize=0 and RejectThreshold=102400 and for some

reason all problems are gone...

 

I'm pretty sure i had that configuration before without any success...

 

But i will do as Confucius said:

"As long as it's stutter free, enjoy as long as you can!"

 

Lets see how long it lasts this time!

 

Tom

[minimums retard 0]

Haha nice! Reminds me of my new motto: "if it's not broken... don't fix it!" I've learnt that one the hard way.... lol

Happy flying!