Why am I getting such "good" framerates?

[turner112 52]

(Relatively speaking...)

I'm running V 2.3 but don't have a particularly good machine -

 

It's an "older" Dell Dimension XPS 8300, 16 gigs ram, Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

 

I realize 24fps isn't really super-fast compared to what some others get, but I just cranked autogen all the way up to see what happens and... the frame rate didn't drop noticeably! (If at all...)

Running Active Sky.

 

Is there  a way I can output all settings to show?

 

[jimcarrel 688]

Ha, if I were you I wouldn't touch a single item, just go with the flow.

[Raven9000 272]

Well, do you have any other add-on besides that? A vanilla install on a "good" machine will get over 100 fps, so the number you mention is not really good at all

[Slayer 190]

The devil is in the details.

 

It's more about where you get 23 FPS  If you are flying in a dense urban area that includes mountains with 23 FPS, then don't tinker with settings anymore, backup your configs and leave it alone. 

 

I get about that at FSDT KLAX until I clear the airport area.

[turner112 52]

Just to see where I was with my current settings, I set up to fly from KSNA up and over KLAX, and found that while it did "spike down" to 10-12 fps once in a while, most of the time it stayed in the 17-20 fps range.

 

That's with autogen fully right... hmmm..

Think I'll back up my config

 

The devil is in the details.

 

It's more about where you get 23 FPS  If you are flying in a dense urban area that includes mountains with 23 FPS, then don't tinker with settings anymore, backup your configs and leave it alone. 

 

I get about that at FSDT KLAX until I clear the airport area.

[Jimm 437]

Framewatchers at it again.  I stopped watching after v3 was released.  Now my cardiologist has said my blood pressure and EKG stats are returning to normal.

[turner112 52]

Framewatchers at it again.  I stopped watching after v3 was released.  Now my cardiologist has said my blood pressure and EKG stats are returning to normal.

 

?

 

Not sure why it bugs you... On a low end machine, 5 fps can make a big difference in the smoothness of the sim.

 

 

[Jimm 437]

?

 

Not sure why it bugs you... On a low end machine, 5 fps can make a big difference in the smoothness of the sim.

 

 

I personally never stated it bugged me.  It's the framewatching that I shake my head at and how people quibble about the frames, even if they get a smooth sim.

[turner112 52]

I personally never stated it bugged me.  It's the framewatching that I shake my head at and how people quibble about the frames, even if they get a smooth sim.

Hi Yashigashi -

 

Ok - Not sure why it concerns you...

 

It's not a sim running at 57fps and someone trying to get it to 62 that's the issue (at least, not in this case); it's that spot between choppy and smooth, which, in this case, is the issue - 14 fps vs. 24, or, even 18 vs. 24 - which makes a big difference.

 

 

[Jimm 437]

Hi Yashigashi -

 

Ok - Not sure why it concerns you...

 

It's not a sim running at 57fps and someone trying to get it to 62 that's the issue (at least, not in this case); it's that spot between choppy and smooth, which, in this case, is the issue - 14 fps vs. 24, or, even 18 vs. 24 - which makes a big difference.

 

 

I'm not sure why you are singling me out in this conversation.  The reason, or concern as you like to say now, is that people are sweating the details when it comes to having a smooth flight.  This is P3D, where frames aren't so much about fps anymore but having a smooth and stable sim.

 

This past weekend, I performed a 3 1/2 hour flight from YMML to YBCS, via ORBX's Australia scenery and both ORBX's airports with ASN weather.  My frames (when I actually felt the need to look at them as this was a recent reinstall of scenery I expected to have issues with) jumped around from mid 40's down to low 20's BUT the sim was smooth, with zero stutters.

 

Chasing frames is not really an issue now, it's stability and smoothness of the sim.

[turner112 52]

I'm not sure why you are singling me out in this conversation.  The reason, or concern as you like to say now, is that people are sweating the details when it comes to having a smooth flight.  This is P3D, where frames aren't so much about fps anymore but having a smooth and stable sim.

 

This past weekend, I performed a 3 1/2 hour flight from YMML to YBCS, via ORBX's Australia scenery and both ORBX's airports with ASN weather.  My frames (when I actually felt the need to look at them as this was a recent reinstall of scenery I expected to have issues with) jumped around from mid 40's down to low 20's BUT the sim was smooth, with zero stutters.

 

Chasing frames is not really an issue now, it's stability and smoothness of the sim.

Hi again-

 

No offense intented; it was only because you mentioned "framewatchers at it again" as if that's a negative thing - in your case, it apparently was a source of stress.

 

With 40 fps and smooth performance, there isn't as much of a compelling reason to watch framerates. However, I don't have as powerful a machine, and have (seemingly) found something that's working - but don't know what it is. (And this is with an addon aircraft which on its own seems to take 5-10 fps away vs. stock aircraft.)

 

As noted, even small performance changes on an older, relatively slow machine can be significant. I'm trying to understand what benefits my set up the most.

[Jimm 437]

Hi again-

 

No offense intented; it was only because you mentioned "framewatchers at it again" as if that's a negative thing - in your case, it apparently was a source of stress.

 

With 40 fps and smooth performance, there isn't as much of a compelling reason to watch framerates. However, I don't have as powerful a machine, and have (seemingly) found something that's working - but don't know what it is. (And this is with an addon aircraft which on its own seems to take 5-10 fps away vs. stock aircraft.)

 

As noted, even small performance changes on an older, relatively slow machine can be significant. I'm trying to understand what benefits my set up the most.

I always lived by something said to me about "not looking a gift horse in the mouth" and that could hold true with this.  I run P3D on a laptop, and despite my rather current hardware, it's still a laptop, and the throughput and frequencies are still lower than a desktop BUT I too get wonderful performance despite the lower fps readings I can see on my screen.  I was also told not long ago that the fps counter isn't as reliable as it used to be, if ever.  I am sure there are other P3D users who would concur that if your sim is smooth, then good, leave it be and enjoy.  I know that despite all the tugs and pulls of past incarnations of sims, we put forth a great amount of effort to make whatever adjustments were needed to get the sim working and to our level of personal satisfaction.  The devs at LM have done a wonderful job stabilizing P3D now and with whatever "black magic" they incorporated into the sim, it works now, and in my situation, much better than before.

[Guest]

Really depends on the add-ons being used.  I do a lot of testing of P3D and as such have a test configuration that has no add-ons, even on a relatively moderate system 3960X - 970GTX (my test PC) I can run close to all the settings (tree shadows and a few reflections disabled) max out and still sustain 60 FPS (2560 x 1440).

 

BUT, as soon as I start to add certain add-ons my FPS takes a 50% or more hit.

 

So it really depends on:

1.  Location

2.  Add-ons active at that location

 

P3D "itself" performs exceptionally well.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[vgbaron 3,491]

?

 

Not sure why it bugs you... On a low end machine, 5 fps can make a big difference in the smoothness of the sim.

 

 

I think what jumps out at me is the idea that "5 fps can make a big difference in the smoothness of the sim." -  FPS has little relationship to the smoothness of the sim.

 

You can have smooth at 20 and stutters at 60 and vice versa.  The idea is to tune P3D for SMOOTH operation and then look at the FPS, if you feel the need to get more FPS fine but *IF* the sim is SMOOTH - excess FPS is wasted processing power. Each system will be different, and as Rob says, the add ons running play a BIG part. 

 

Vic

[turner112 52]

Hi Vic,

 

I agree, but only to a point: Smoothness is absolutely important. But below a certain framerate (and my machine is sometimes right on that border) there isn't going to be much that helps make, say, a 10 fps framerate acceptable, smooth or otherwise.

 

I'll probably back off the autogen a little bit to see what happens, but I don't have enough knowledge of the sim to know what's really going to make a big impact.

 

I don't have too much in the way of add-ons; a few aircraft and Active Sky, but AS actually seems to increase framerates.

 

Planning on adding the Flight1 Tech 530, but have found very little on it.
 

I think what jumps out at me is the idea that "5 fps can make a big difference in the smoothness of the sim." -  FPS has little relationship to the smoothness of the sim.

 

You can have smooth at 20 and stutters at 60 and vice versa.  The idea is to tune P3D for SMOOTH operation and then look at the FPS, if you feel the need to get more FPS fine but *IF* the sim is SMOOTH - excess FPS is wasted processing power. Each system will be different, and as Rob says, the add ons running play a BIG part. 

 

Vic