P3D A bit Slow

[Dimka 2]

Hello again-

I just finished my first week with P3D and it is amazing. I have done a long haul with no problems and many short VFR flights and it is beautiful. But my frames aren't the best. 

 

I know FSX and P3D are different, but as a comparison, a flight in FSX that I would get 40+FPS, I only get 15-20FPS in P3D. Settings on default, and it looks plain and ugly. I bought P3D for cool shadows with the clouds and terrain and I can't have that is I want good FPS. I am running with an i7 4790K @ 4.0 default clock speed, 16 GB of RAM, and a GTX 650.   I know the 650 is low, so what should I upgrade it to if I want the cool features of P3D as well as good FPS? Maybe not a Titian, but if there is a $200-$250 GPU that I can upgrade to to give me better FPS in P3D, I would love to upgrade. 

 

I have added all tweaks to my config and reset the display to default and my FPS did get better, but still not what I think I should get. 

 

If you know a medium-priced GPU that can run P3D well, I would love to know-

THanks . 

[vgbaron 3,486]

The gtx970 is your best bang for the buck. Try to get your cpu up around 4.2 - 4.4 or more if possible.

 

I don't know what you mean by ALL the tweaks but P3D needs maybe one or two depending on setup so if you've added a lot of the FSX tweaks, remove them - they will slow you down.

 

Traffic and autogen will affect your fps most.

 

Good  luck,

 

Vic

[Dimka 2]

Thanks. I have added about 3 or 4 tweaks. I'm bad at exaggerating XD. 

[Flying Penguin 44]

I don't know what you mean by ALL the tweaks but P3D needs maybe one or two depending on setup so if you've added a lot of the FSX tweaks, remove them - they will slow you down.

 

This.  If you're heavily tweaking, you're doing it wrong.  I've just got OPTIMIZE_PARTS = 1 set and that's it, and I'm running a GPU not that much more capable (it's newer, but it's an Nvidia laptop card).

[brianbash 26]

This.  If you're heavily tweaking, you're doing it wrong.  I've just got OPTIMIZE_PARTS = 1 set and that's it, and I'm running a GPU not that much more capable (it's newer, but it's an Nvidia laptop card).

True. I'm having a blast with it. Just dove in a couple of days ago when I got my new laptop. Faders are high and I'm pulling 30-40 in rural areas and 16 at busy  airports. Granted, its a beast of a laptop (GTX970, i7 4790K, 16GB of ram) but the immersion that P3D provides was enough to bring me...how you say...back down to earth.. I'm not overly angry that PMDG is charging $100 bucks for their 737. It can wait

[kand 205]

P3d is optimised for todays VGA cards, this is most likely to be your issue 

 

get a gtx970, you wont regret it

[Kuragiman 227]

I run an i7 3930k@4.6ghz with 32gigs of RAM (kind of useless in the 32 bit world) and a GTX980.    I agree with others;  get a GTX 970 in your machine and get your CPU speed up a little and you should be good to go in most scenarios.

 

I rock the PMDG 737NGX with pretty high settings and moderate AI traffic and rarely drop below 25 FPS in the Virtual Cockpit even in thunder storm weather and more importantly I don't have stutters.  I stay pegged at 33 FPS (my locked frame rate) on exterior views even at busy payware airports.  IT's smooth sailing.    My biggest demon is VAS usage which I am getting under control finally now that I understand how and why.   Autogen and high AI traffic will eat your lunch quickly.

 

When I fly with MegaSceneryEarth products and completely shutoff autogen and crank the AI traffic up to 75% the experience is magical.   I stay at 33 FPS even in the VC most of the time.   I've come to the conclusion that autogen is just raw murdering punishment for some reason on my system.   When I do fly with FTX Global and Autogen I keep my sliders at Normal for both trees and buildings.  Anything over that and I am just asking for trouble.

[vgbaron 3,486]

I think the days of set it and forget it are long gone for flight simming. We've pushed this poor old 32 bit app to the wall through the years ands she's held up very well. I agree that adjusting your settings according to type of flight is critical now to getting the best performance out of your system.

 

Vic

[Kuragiman 227]

I think the days of set it and forget it are long gone for flight simming. We've pushed this poor old 32 bit app to the wall through the years ands she's held up very well. I agree that adjusting your settings according to type of flight is critical now to getting the best performance out of your system.

 

Vic

 

Oh absolutely.    P3D and even FSX, on Default with Default planes, works fantastic.   You pile on 50 add-ons though.. neither platform is going to love you very much without moving sliders around to the correct place and putting in tweaks that are needed in FSX and to a minor extent, P3D.    SIMSTARTER is a vital tool for me as it quickly let's me pick the scenario I am about to go into and it will setup all my sliders as needed.   I also went in and punched all those 2k-4k textures in the face at my payware airports and put them down at 1k with Mipmaps.   Airports still look incredible without the VAS shattering madness or the sudden loss in FPS or black loading textures.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Oh absolutely. 

 

 

 I also went in and punched all those 2k-4k textures in the face at my payware airports  

[Kuragiman 227]

 I also went in and punched all those 2k-4k textures in the face at my payware airports  

 

It really is necessary.   They are GREAT for screenshots but for flying long flights with tons of AI traffic it is SO not necessary to have 4k airport textures, not even 2k airport textures!   You are really never going to get close enough to the buildings to notice or care with 1k textures running the show.  The performance boost and VAS savings are well worth a little maintenance of the payware products before going out on flights.

[Pease_W 6]

 I also went in and punched all those 2k-4k textures in the face at my payware airports  

 

The nature of the large texture sheet should be understood before adjusting. If a sheet is 4096x, but set up to replace 16 1024x sheets, then you are seriously hindering proper display qualities.

 

If the 4096x sheet is just a larger version of a 1024x sheet you won't lose too much. But I believe FSDT is a proponent of 4096x sheets to reduce the number of file calls for displaying an airport. One 4096x sheet replaces 16 1024x sheets and 16 file calls.