P3D v4 graphic settings for best overall performance/visuals

[vgbaron 3,650]

I've split the support discussion out of this thread. If you wish to continue THAT thread, it can be found here:

Vic

[DragonAsh 3]

Just to add another data point to the discussion, I have a GTX1070 running three 27" monitors in a 5853 x 1080 setup.
I have a number of Orbx products installed (FTX Global Base & Vector, openLC Europe and North America, FTX Global Trees, EU England) and a handful of Flightbeam airports.
I use Active Sky for P3DV4 and also use Ezdok, FSUPIC and Spad.next. I fly almost exclusively PMDG (737, 777 and planning on getting the 747...)

With one exception - more on this below - my FPS is consistently in the high teens/low 20's with most of the settings in P3D maxed out.

And everything looks fantastic. Even flying at dawn / dusk no problems. 
Someone mentioned something a long these lines already, but: P3D v4 with FPS in the high teens looks much better than FSX or even P3D V3 looked with double the FPS. 
Everything looks and feels very smooth, to the point that I don't feel the need to obsess over squeezing out a few more FPS. 

The exception, however is if AS for P3DV4 gives me heavy clouds or rain. When that happens, if my view includes a significant view of the sky/clouds etc, FPS falls like a stone to low single digits. 
Basically it's a slide show. I've tried turning down some of the settings in Active Sky, but so far haven't found any group of settings that will give back some FPS. 
 

[charliewards 11]

I have a lowly GTX970 and an i7 3770 oc'd to 4500, and recently made a couple changes that really helped eliminate/minimize pauses, stutters and poor frame rates:

1. Enabled DSR 2.25x=3840x2160 @60hz, FXAA=off. 4xMSAA, Vsync and triple buffer=on, unlimited frames.

2. Added AffinityMask=85 (sim runs on 0,2,4,6) and used Process Lasso to move my addon programs to 1,3,5,7.

3. Most settings are dense/very dense except texture rez=1m (thanks Bert!) and sceney complexity=normal.

4. I'm running UT2 (50%), ActiveSky, ORBX Evntex, Ezdok2, Ultimate Terrain and Freemesh. That's a lot and pushes my CPU, but I'm getting frames between 20-30 (even with A2A planes). Before changing #1 and #2 above, I was in the teens with pauses lasting seconds. 

 

[sidfadc 1,344]

22 hours ago, charliewards said:

I have a lowly GTX970 and an i7 3770 oc'd to 4500, and recently made a couple changes that really helped eliminate/minimize pauses, stutters and poor frame rates:

1. Enabled DSR 2.25x=3840x2160 @60hz, FXAA=off. 4xMSAA, Vsync and triple buffer=on, unlimited frames.

2. Added AffinityMask=85 (sim runs on 0,2,4,6) and used Process Lasso to move my addon programs to 1,3,5,7.

3. Most settings are dense/very dense except texture rez=1m (thanks Bert!) and sceney complexity=normal.

4. I'm running UT2 (50%), ActiveSky, ORBX Evntex, Ezdok2, Ultimate Terrain and Freemesh. That's a lot and pushes my CPU, but I'm getting frames between 20-30 (even with A2A planes). Before changing #1 and #2 above, I was in the teens with pauses lasting seconds. 

 

Does DSR only work in full screen mode though?  This used to be the case on FSX.  I only have one screen so have to run windowed.

[AnkH 2,268]

23 hours ago, charliewards said:

2. Added AffinityMask=85 (sim runs on 0,2,4,6) and used Process Lasso to move my addon programs to 1,3,5,7.

4. I'm running UT2 (50%), ActiveSky, ORBX Evntex, Ezdok2, Ultimate Terrain and Freemesh.

Means you use process lasso to run UT2, AS, Ezdock etc. on the spare threads? Is there a freeware program capable of telling e.g. UT2 to run on Thread 1 only?

 

[charliewards 11]

On 11/6/2017 at 8:46 AM, AnkH said:

Means you use process lasso to run UT2, AS, Ezdock etc. on the spare threads? Is there a freeware program capable of telling e.g. UT2 to run on Thread 1 only?

 

Yes - I assign all extra programs affinities with process lasso (but not P3D... I do that in config). No idea about other programs.

[charliewards 11]

On 11/6/2017 at 7:10 AM, sidfadc said:

Does DSR only work in full screen mode though?  This used to be the case on FSX.  I only have one screen so have to run windowed.

Yes fullscreen only. 

[Bob Scott 7,721]

On 11/6/2017 at 7:46 AM, AnkH said:

Means you use process lasso to run UT2, AS, Ezdock etc. on the spare threads? Is there a freeware program capable of telling e.g. UT2 to run on Thread 1 only?

FSUIPC can also do this...you could remove UT2 from where it is currently invoked (the exe.xml or its add-ons.xml entry), and run it from FSUIPC with a [Programs] section and RunX line in FSUIPC.ini, with AM=x?? specified to control the CPU affinity for that program.

Regards

 

[Dirk98 354]

On 02.10.2017 at 2:07 PM, Cruachan said:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

While this chart may not be wholly representative of what is possible in P3D it does lay out the relative capabilities of each high-end GPU using standardised benchmarking software. Currently, if you take pricing into account, the 1080Ti is, without a doubt, king of the hill.

Mike

 

Thanks, for the chart. I have a GM200-A (Maxwell) based 12Gb GeForce GTX TITAN X so I don't know where exactly my card falls in the chart. It is not a GTX 980Ti but it's not a TITAN X (Pascal based). Do I need a 1080Ti for noticeable performance gain for my pending P3Dv4 install? My screen resolution is 2560 x 1440

Dirk.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Dirk98

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

56 minutes ago, Dirk98 said:

 

Thanks, for the chart. I have a GM200-A (Maxwell) based 12Gb GeForce GTX TITAN X so I don't know where exactly my card falls in the chart. It is not a GTX 980Ti but it's not a TITAN X (Pascal based). Do I need a 1080Ti for noticeable performance gain for my pending P3Dv4 install? My screen resolution is 2560 x 1440

Dirk.

I would start with what you have got. 

[AnkH 2,268]

8 hours ago, Dirk98 said:

I have a GM200-A (Maxwell) based 12Gb GeForce GTX TITAN X so I don't know where exactly my card falls in the chart. It is not a GTX 980Ti but it's not a TITAN X (Pascal based).

The Pascal-based TITAN X is called "TITAN Xp" in the chart. So, your Maxwell-based TITAN X is as "TITAN X" in the chart. Just below a GTX-1070. No need to upgrade such a graphics card, as Bert already has written.

[Dirk98 354]

3 hours ago, AnkH said:

The Pascal-based TITAN X is called "TITAN Xp" in the chart. So, your Maxwell-based TITAN X is as "TITAN X" in the chart. Just below a GTX-1070. No need to upgrade such a graphics card, as Bert already has written.

That's the problem. If you click on TITAN X it says in the specs "Other names:  NVIDIA TITAN X (Pascal)", but if you click on TITAN Xp it says in the other names just TITAN Xp. As to other specs my current EVGA GTX TITAN X 12GB Hybrid (Maxwell) shows:  Base Clock: 1152 MHz / ; CUDA Cores: 3072; Memory Detail: 12288MB GDDR5 Memory Bandwidth: 336.5 GB/s

So I'm lost, is it an older one, or a decent one comparable to the best top ones?

Thanks.

PS: How to compare:

GTX 1080Ti Core Clock(s): 1480 MHz, Memory Clock(s): 2750 

GTX TITAN X: Boost Clock: 1241 MHz Memory Clock: 7010 MHz

??

For me it seems from the specs my TITAN X is 30% inferior to GTX 1080Ti, time to upgrade for P3Dv4?

Edited November 15, 2017 by Dirk98

[AnkH 2,268]

Well, don't take those numbers and names for granted. The two TITAN cards on the top of the list ar Pascal based, the one below the 1070 is Maxwell based. That's it. All other things would not make sense at all, if you compare with other benchmarks.

[Dirk98 354]

3 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Well, don't take those numbers and names for granted. The two TITAN cards on the top of the list ar Pascal based, the one below the 1070 is Maxwell based. That's it. All other things would not make sense at all, if you compare with other benchmarks.

Thanks, I've finally found my current one, it's in the middle of the list, time to upgrade.

Indeed 30% inferior

Edited November 15, 2017 by Dirk98

[Gilson 2]

Hello !

I just got to make my flying much better this weekend following the suggestions above. So, I would like to make this public to help somebody else get good results from Prepard3d 4.5.

My system is composed of a Main Board ASUS B450 processor Rayzen 2700X 16 cores and a video board NVIDIA GTX 1070, 16 GB main memory, four monitors connected, one of them with VC, and other with external plane view. The other two monitors run with auxiliary 2D screens. Resoluiton 4k on the main monitor.

I was even used to fly with 8~10 fps in very difficult way, having to turn everything off when departing and landing.

Then I read the considerations above and had a wonderful progress. Using affinity mask of 65535 and FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.1, everything else made minor minor changes. I more than doubled FPS as a result and now can play freely with the other settings, putting the cursors to the right for all settings, having even Airbus 319x and 320X from FlightSim Labs running smooth with no shaking in approach and depart any more. I also limited FPS to 24 to free CPU power for use at around 90% on core 0. This caused the Video Board to present to work more effectively, now loaded with more than 70%. No problems with cooling, air in my case, with the boards raising to around 70 degree Celsius. I understand that for flight simulation you do not need more than 24 FPS. 

Before this changes, the boards seemed quite lazy, with 20~30 percent load.

Hope this helps somebody. I was tired of having inefficient advices from the Internet, and people saying "my system runs at 65 FPS steadily, I made this and this and this". I do not believe that !