I've been tweaking my settings in Prepar3D v3.4 specifically to get rid of stutters when using the Aerosoft Airbus range of aircraft. This is the only aircraft it happens with, Over to the Aerosoft forums and there are some posts relating to the ND display that can be made, then to the Nividia Inspector forums to install modified profile for Prepar3D, then to youtube to make setting adjustments within Prepar3D. After all this I still have stutters. It then occurred to me that my i7-4790K @4.4 might be causing a bottleneck with my Gainward GTX960 graphics card. Is there anyway to check this or is this a known issue with this combo?

I would be grateful for some advice on this.

steve

I would be surprised if your CPU is causing a bottleneck with that card. To check how much CPU/GPU performance is being used, try downloading MSI Afterburner - https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner. Although it's produced by MSI it works with other graphics cards as well. It's advertised as an overclocking utility but it's just as useful for monitoring system performance. It's safe to assume that any single item running continuously at 100% is causing a bottleneck. Once installed, go into Settings and on the Monitoring tab select the items you want to show in the scrollable graphs at the bottom. The graph for CPU usage tends to show an average across all cores so it's worth also setting monitoring for CPU1 as this tends to be were most of the work is done.

5 hours ago, vortex681 said:

I would be surprised if your CPU is causing a bottleneck with that card. To check how much CPU/GPU performance is being used, try downloading MSI Afterburner - https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner. Although it's produced by MSI it works with other graphics cards as well. It's advertised as an overclocking utility but it's just as useful for monitoring system performance. It's safe to assume that any single item running continuously at 100% is causing a bottleneck. Once installed, go into Settings and on the Monitoring tab select the items you want to show in the scrollable graphs at the bottom. The graph for CPU usage tends to show an average across all cores so it's worth also setting monitoring for CPU1 as this tends to be were most of the work is done.

Thanks Mate, I'll give it a go

Your CPU is very fast, while your GPU is kind of on the lower end. I believe the GTX 960 is the bottleneck in your case.

I agree, it's likely the video card.  The 960 cards are entry level gaming cards.  Cards with model numbers ending in 70 and 80 are better performing cards.

Thanks Jeff and Stans, I've been considering and upgrade to the Asus OC GTX 1060, will this card be suitable?

 

steve

I agree with Stans post above yours. GTX 1070 minimum or a 1080 if you want to match the capabilities of your CPU. Your current GPU is the weak link in your system. That being said, your current GPU may not be the cause of your stutters.

Ted

Thanks Ted, I'll look into the GTX1080...your advice appreciated.

 

steve

Steve, did you check the actual performance of your CPU/GPU whilst running FSX? Also, whilst the 1080 is a great card, unless you're running a 4K display the additional cost over a 1070 is wasted IMHO.

The 4790k is great for single thread performance, still one of the best, specially if overclocked.

I use 4970k @ 4.7Ghz and just got a GTX 1080Ti. The performance increase when flying in VR compared with my 1070 was significant! I could not use maximum cloud layers in P3D before. Now I can!

 

1 hour ago, tgcbraun said:

The 4790k is great for single thread performance, still one of the best, specially if overclocked.

I use 4970k @ 4.7Ghz and just got a GTX 1080Ti. The performance increase when flying in VR compared with my 1070 was significant! I could not use maximum cloud layers in P3D before. Now I can!

 

Good to know! I just purchased my 1080ti and am upgrading from a 1070. I have the same processor too. Hows the cooling?

2 hours ago, 19dcavscout said:

Good to know! I just purchased my 1080ti and am upgrading from a 1070. I have the same processor too. Hows the cooling?

Cooling is fine! I'm using a Noctua NH-D14 Air Cooler. It isually stays between 50-70c at 1.286v when flying.

 

 

11 hours ago, vortex681 said:

Steve, did you check the actual performance of your CPU/GPU whilst running FSX? Also, whilst the 1080 is a great card, unless you're running a 4K display the additional cost over a 1070 is wasted IMHO.

I'm running the combo in Prepar3D v3.4 and no 4K display, no I haven't bench marked the setup other than run it in Unigine which gave an average framerate of 44fps and the max GPU temp reached was 71 deg C (I'm using cooler master air on the CPU)