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Skyseek

X-Plane 11 - Video Card Upgrade

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I am upgrading from a GTX 670 with 2GB VRAM to GTX 1060 with 6GB of VRAM.  I have a i5-6800, 32 GB RAM, and m2 SSD drive.  Watching the task manager, while flying, my CPU will sometimes spike to 60% but only in very short spurts. Memory is 10 - 15% and disk I/O is below 1%.  The same with network. GPU is probably at 39%, spikes when rendering clouds, maybe higher.  The same with network.  Currently the only FPS killer in my initial testing is the standard XP clouds...  I am looking at SkyMaxx Pro or xEnviro.  I haven't started down the AI Traffic path yet. 

Based on the above specs, what kind of performance boost could I expect with the GTX 1060?

 

Thanks!

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23 hours ago, Skyseek said:

I am upgrading from a GTX 670 with 2GB VRAM to GTX 1060 with 6GB of VRAM.  I have a i5-6800, 32 GB RAM, and m2 SSD drive.  Watching the task manager, while flying, my CPU will sometimes spike to 60% but only in very short spurts. Memory is 10 - 15% and disk I/O is below 1%.  The same with network. GPU is probably at 39%, spikes when rendering clouds, maybe higher.  The same with network.  Currently the only FPS killer in my initial testing is the standard XP clouds...  I am looking at SkyMaxx Pro or xEnviro.  I haven't started down the AI Traffic path yet. 

Based on the above specs, what kind of performance boost could I expect with the GTX 1060?

 

Thanks!

If you want to have XP11 pretty much slider 'right', you will truly need a card with a minimum of 8GB's of on-board vid Ram.  I have seen load in's over 7GB's in some of my airport locations, with XP11 bending the sliders.

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I purchased a 1070 8GB card.  It is great, except for rendering the XP stock clouds.  Has everybody just given up and are using SkyMaxx Pro or xEnviro? Overcast seems to be the biggest FPS killer. 

I think I just paid $40 for each frame increase performance wise.  I am hoping to discover more optimization tweaks.

I wrote Austin Meyer about this issue.  Just wondering how this got by the beta testers???  Or to get it to RTM did they just rubber stamp it?  Even with the 1070 with 8GB struggles with the clouds.  As I mentioned to Austin, clouds and weather are a core component for flying. Granted I did use Active Sky on the FSX side.  They were able to figure out  an efficient way to render the clouds.

 

Other than this critical issue, X-Plane has been great.  I am afraid to turn on AI Traffic....  Baby steps :)

 

Thanks!

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13 minutes ago, Skyseek said:

I purchased a 1070 8GB card.  It is great, except for rendering the XP stock clouds.  Has everybody just given up and are using SkyMaxx Pro or xEnviro?  I think I just paid $40 for each frame increase performance wise.  I am hoping to discover more optimization tweaks.

I wrote Austin Meyer about this issue.  Just wondering how this got by the beta testers???  Or to get it to RTM did they just rubber stamp it?  Even with the 1070 with 8GB struggles with the clouds.  As I mentioned to Austin, clouds and weather are a core component for flying. Granted I did use Active Sky on the FSX side.  They were able to figure out  an efficient way to render the clouds.

 

Other than this critical issue, X-Plane has been great.  I am afraid to turn on AI Traffic....  Baby steps :)

 

Thanks!

Congrat's, you will do fine with a whatever 1070, and, you should have no trouble with the new default clouds, none whatsoever. I get the same or higher FPS with the new stock clouds, as I do with xEnviro, but as a baseline to my comments, I run an EVGA  FTW 1070, at stock default timings. It handles everything I throw at it, on a 21:9 Dell Ultra Sharp U3415 set to native (just under full 4K) resolution.

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With the GTX-1070 8GB, I am still having problems with the broken and overcast clouds..  The FPS drops to the single digits.  Should I delete my configuration file and let X-Plane rebuild it.  It is in the X-Plane root folder, correct? I am using 1920x1080.

 

I have been corresponding with the folks at xEnviro to see if their environment would help. When I was flying through some overcast clouds, it appeared to be blending the clouds, this was causing the drop in FPS.  Then when it went into whiteout mode, the FPS jumped by about 400% into the mid 30's.  I would just be happy with the whiteout and not all the blending of the overcast clouds which is killing FPS. LR needs to look at this one!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

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20 hours ago, Skyseek said:

With the GTX-1070 8GB, I am still having problems with the broken and overcast clouds..  The FPS drops to the single digits.  Should I delete my configuration file and let X-Plane rebuild it.  It is in the X-Plane root folder, correct? I am using 1920x1080.

 

I have been corresponding with the folks at xEnviro to see if their environment would help. When I was flying through some overcast clouds, it appeared to be blending the clouds, this was causing the drop in FPS.  Then when it went into whiteout mode, the FPS jumped by about 400% into the mid 30's.  I would just be happy with the whiteout and not all the blending of the overcast clouds which is killing FPS. LR needs to look at this one!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

Hi, first off, with you running at 1920x1080, that card of yours should be BLASTING through any kind of cloud formation. You should also be able to run all the xEnviro v1.6 sky rendering sliders to as high as you like. There is something wrong here, and I believe that it is a driver issue in communication between the driver layer, and your card.  The first thing I would do, is to download the latest driver, and then use a driver-cleaner/scrubber program (can be found on the Net for free Guru3D Driver Scrubber) first before installing the new driver. Also, you ONLY need the actual graphics driver, and HD audio, if you have speakers on your monitor, if not...you don't need it (the HD Audio driver), and don't click the box of anything else. ONLY the driver. Don't check off any of that other crap/bloat that comes with the driver suite.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

 

Once the new nVidia driver is initialized by you rebooting your system....if you are using Hyper Threading Mode with your CPU through the BIOS, go into your BIOS, and disable it. Reboot your system. Go into the driver mask by right clicking your Desktop, and then left click the nVidia icon bar.  On the Manage 3D tab, open up the right side window tab, and ADD a .exe program....find XP11.exe and press OK.  When you have done that, make sure that Thread Optimization is set to: ON (not Auto, or OFF) for XP11.exe setup.  Press Apply, and exit out of the entire nVidia driver mask.

Run XP11, and your FPS chase the clouds problem should vanish.  Again, I believe that you have 'driver clutter' issues, and that your card is not being properly driven.

I'm running just under 4K resolutions on my 21:9 wide curve screen, and have all xEnviro sliders cranked...and am getting in dense clouds with an FPS sucking glass-cockpit plane, 27-44 FPS at any given moment, on my GTX1070 FTW. This is with cloud-scapes that could choke a mule!

 

Post Edit. If you also fly either P3D and/or FSX, and no longer in H.T. mode, you need to remove your Job Scheduler/Affinity Mask config in both P3D and FSX. You will get better performance when NOT in H.T. mode, without those entries in your .cfg file.  If you DO wish to keep HyperThreading on...then you DO NEED the aforementioned, in your .cfg file for both flight simulators. 

Regarding XP11 though, with H.T. disabled, and Thread Optimization set to ON, my system is now kicking (you-know-what) running XP11 for FPS generation, in light of the way I have it cranked right up, and as well, the max settings within xEnviro v1.6.

Cheers,

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I'm not quite sure what brightens my mornings the most Mitch..... That first cup of coffee or just reading your posts! :biggrin:

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8 minutes ago, J.L.Seagull said:

I'm not quite sure what brightens my mornings the most Mitch..... That first cup of coffee or just reading your posts! :biggrin:

LOL, most of my morning posts ARE fulled by at least three cups of Java, David....LOL!

Salute!

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XP11 default clouds are really, really fast. Maybe you're too optimistic about the screen resolution you're trying to achieve.


-

Belligerent X-Plane 12 enthusiast on Apple M1 Max 64GB

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I read through the responses here and no where has anyone mentioned what they are flying in.  This past weekend, while testing out a new paint for the Aerobask Eclipse, I loaded up XP11 at KBLH (new release from Greg).  I played around with the sliders, trying to achieve magazine photoshoot quality screenshots, and as I was making adjustments, I saw some drastic changes to FPS, both on the ground and in the air, but with the Eclipse.  Using default aircraft is key to establishing a baseline fps measurement, whereby my rig will pump out upper 30's to mid 40's with the default C172SP, but will decline with other payware aircraft.  After factoring that in, as well as scenery and then weather, the combined processing will pump out your numbers.

Flying the Eclipse around the NYC metro area, will give me low 20's, whereas a casual flight over eastern Texas in the same aircraft, will give me low 40's.  To get a good baseline, you need to test with default and then work your way up.  A 1070 and 1080 card are more than capable of providing a smooth and stable experience in X-Plane, so with regards to settings in XP, don't keep the sliders to the far right, unless you want a slideshow.  I tried it out on my screenshots, this past weekend, and I got a whopping 4fps...good thing I was on the ground.

For the record, my nvidia drivers haven't been updated since I got my new rig and I haven't found a need to update them.  Everything in XP11 was migrated from my old rig, and I only refreshed the scenery_packs.ini and that's it.


Engage, research, inform and make your posts count! -Jim Morvay

Origin EON-17SLX - Under the hood: Intel Core i7 7700K at 4.2GHz (Base) 4.6GHz (overclock), nVidia GeForce GTX-1080 Pascal w/8gb vram, 32gb (2x16) Crucial 2400mhz RAM, 3840 x 2160 17.3" IPS w/G-SYNC, Samsung 950 EVO 256GB PCIe m.2 SSD (Primary), Samsung 850 EVO 500gb M.2 (Sim Drive), MS Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

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3 hours ago, Jimm said:

I read through the responses here and no where has anyone mentioned what they are flying in.

(snip)

Using default aircraft is key to establishing a baseline fps measurement, whereby my rig will pump out upper 30's to mid 40's with the default C172SP, but will decline with other payware aircraft.  After factoring that in, as well as scenery and then weather, the combined processing will pump out your numbers.

That's a good point. We need a common baseline when comparing frame rates, and individual models can make a huge difference.

I can get 40 fps on my rig with the default C172 on the runway at KSEA with default weather set to broken clouds. That's my baseline. If I load the Carenado PC-12 instead, my frame rate is instantly reduced to 30 fps. Probably due to the additional plugins loaded and the more complex cockpit. It actually isn't that much more complex than the default C172... I suspect the plugins may not be as efficient as they could be. The equally (if not more) complex X-Trident Bell 412 comes in about halfway between the default C172 and Carenado PC-12 in frame rate hit.

Anyway, it's essential to report the frame rate you're getting with the default C172, so we can compare results with a fixed baseline. Report monitor resolution you're running too, because that's the other thing people often leave out of their system specs.


X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Windows 10 
i7 6700 4.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, GTX 1660 ti, 1920x1200 monitor

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