So this seems to be a common problem but from all the posts I've read it seems to happen differently to the individual.  I've finally seemed to have P3D tweaked where in VC in a populated airport, I am at 15-18fps locked at 20.  However I seem to have this interesting studdering issue.  I can reproduce it at any stage of flight.  For instance cruising I am locked at a nice 20fps.  every few seconds or so I have a dip that lasts 1 to 5 seconds where frame rates plummet to 1-6fps.  Almost as if the whole sim freezes.  Some recent changes I've made are found on http://forum.avsim.net/topic/466562-p3d-in-sli/?p=3218468.  I've also added the optimize parts to 1 option which seems to be magical in and of itself.  Not really sure that that guy does as all I gained was about 3-5fps in VC and pretty much nailed up 20 on external views no matter what the situation - all while visuals look the same.

 

Ill keep playing with my settings but if anyone is aware of what could cause such a thing and save me the trouble would be fantastic.    Happy flying all.

False alarm - when in doubt - reboot!  After a nice power off and on of the PC everything is buttery smooth.

Glad you fixed it Chris. And some apps / background processes might only do it after a while of being powered on. Just had that yesterday where my VPN app installed a new version, and then decided to change it's config to load with windows (spiking CPU usage when I least expected it).

 

Cleaned up all the auto-loads, and the taskbar is lovely and bare...as it should be  B)

Yea, I'm thinking some app went rogue as my PC as a whole was what was freezing.  I'm very impressed with the SLI capabilities of P3d now.  Both GPUs are between 50-80%.  I might even be able to crank up the AI traffic some now.  True test Ill have to fire up JFK...  Thats usually my benchmark for anything.  If you can muscle through the NY Tri-state area everything else should be good!