Commited to a CPU Upgrade because of P3D V4

[Sethos 4,266]

Maybe you also need to understand how processing works before you go down this weird ranting path. The entire point is to process the data as quickly as possible, when it's able. That means when there's quite a lot of data, you'll be sitting at close to 100% if the CPU is allowed to. That'll happen in every single game on the planet if there's enough data. If you turn down settings, it'll raise your FPS but your core usage might be identical because the CPU is still processing a lot of data at its maximum capacity but there's less of it, thus it'll get done with the workloads faster, thus improving the performance of the game. That is what you want. Why on earth would you want your CPU sitting at 50% workload? That just means unused processing power. The only number that matters is your framerate and the frametimes. 

[OzWhitey 3,353]

- P3D v4 is not useless.

- Aerofly 2 is not just a 'glorified VR demo' (fly around Orbx LOWI for a bit if you don't believe me, some of those default planes are also pretty cool).

I think some people are exaggerating the negatives just a tad!

😊

Also, re: performance. Installed fsx:se today (needed it for a project). 72 fps on default settings with the trike. Also, program looks like something from the start of the millennium (it's a year or two since I've seen it). In P3D with a simple GA, I can easily get 200 FPS. Not scientific, but I think things have improved a lot with our new sim(s), particularly if you run them with decent hardware.

another also: I've been looking at upgrading too, previously thinking about the 7700K because everyone loves it around here but then looked at some benchmarks - I've been running some on Aida this week - and my old 5820K still crushes it. Six cores and quad memory, I guess. Yes, P3D favours single core speed, but I'm running at 4.6 Ghz at the moment, working pretty well with P3D. I wonder how this decent-speed hexa core actually compares to the 7700k - or the new equivalent quad core - in P3D (v 4.0...and also in 4.4 when it comes out!).

 

 

 

 

 

[mpw8679 428]

3 hours ago, SimonC said:

And I think the reason for that is leveraging texture loading (fibers). It is always pushing the Core0 to max, but you can limit how much goes into texture loading by using FFTF, for instance 0.01.

You might get blurries, so going up is advisable, but using 0.01 will give you nearly same max FPS as unlimited FPS do - a bit hard to explain in couple of sentances here, but take my word for it.

^This works.  I am using .05 and no blurries.  I set my 4K monitor to 30hz and set my internal frame limit to 35-40 fps.  A very stable 30FPS.  The only time I have frame rate issues is using dynamic lighting or being stupid with settings.  Your textures will take a lot longer to load when u first enter the sim or u change the view to another location.  My 7700K core usage rarely hits 100%.  Try it

[S_D 7]

10 hours ago, SimonC said:

Coffee Lake is rumored to be 30% faster than 6700K, so even if you achieve that, which I highly doubt, we are talking about theoretical boost from 15 -> 20 fps.

Wow.

 

Coffee Lake won't get anywhere near that unfortunately. That figure was quoted for low power parts operating under the same power limit as KL and in a specific benchmark. For the top end chip I'd be surprised if we see clock for clock IPC improvements of 10%. Sure, it'll bring 6C/12T to the mainstream for the first time, but it's on the same process as Broadwell/SkyLake/KabyLake so ultimate the amount of room for improvement will be limited.

I, like many I imagine, am trying to work out whether to upgrade to a 7820/7900 or wait for 6C/12T Coffee Lake.

[zmak 331]

15 hours ago, Piotr007 said:

Okay, true it runs nice on 6700K. But with what added to the P3D V4 standard flavour?

What addons do you use?

I have;

- ORBX

-PMDG (both)

-Ultimate traffic Live

-Flytampa Airports ALL

-FSDT Airports ALL

- some Aerosoft airports

-Activesky SP4

-ActiveSky Cloud Art.

--------------------------------

When having all those in the mix I get 100% cpu load. FPS are STILL nice, but I get 100% CPU sprints at land/heavy density airports.

This is the big question. I don't see the benefit in losing ooms only to create stuttering. Personally would prefer what I have now being the very occasional oom that fsuipc saves  and smooth flight at high settings on a moderate machine. 

Watching this closely as lots of high end machines in the same boat 

[Jiri Kocman 20]

For stuttering, external frame limiter helps. Even I can set 30Hz on my TV, it looks really bad no matter what I do, but set external frame limiter to 35, set vsync, triple buffering and keep 60Hz refresh gives me great experience mostly no stutters.

[Piotr007 163]

I need more time to test and tweak. But it seems the sim is far too heavy for today's CPU's on the market. Until there's no revolution/breakthrough in CPU-world in terms of single core performance I guess we are limited by the CPU-ceiling of 5,0ghz (if we are lucky with a chip). I am steadily moving away from the octo/deca core option as an upgrade. Clocked at 3,5ghz those are FAR too slow on single core performance terms. Even with a decent OC.

A coffee lake 6-core will be my best bet! But it should be overclockable to 5,0ghz as well. Then I would go 100% all-in for that CPU. If it's going to be a 3,5ghz 6-core downgraded CPU than it will be another smudge on Intel's rep. Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for a cattle full of gold at the other side of the rainbow!

[KenG 492]

18 hours ago, Chapstick said:

Where did LM state this? 

 

18 hours ago, Sethos1988 said:

Would also like to know 

On their own forums, someone mentioned the 100% core 0 issue and LM rep came back stating they were looking into this for the next update. I assume that will be 4.1 versus 4.0.whatever...

 

P3DV4 is the most scalable version of the FSX/ESP line I have seen in a long time. I had more that acceptable fps using a little i7 4770K OC to 4.3Ghz and a GTX 770. Of course, I did not push all sliders to max, load up the sim with unverified add-ons, or try to ask physically more than my system was capable. I found the bottleneck in my system, the GPU running at 100% and upgraded to a GTX1070. That unloaded the GPU and allowed me to push the setting some, but I am doing so in a careful manner looking at how each setting affects overall system performance (fps and stutters.) Overall the sim is very stable and producing very good results.

I think the number one problem is people who assume they have a supercomputer that can do everything, immediately push every slider to the right, turn on every setting, and load down the sim then expecting triple digit fps and silky smooth performance. Simply not going to happen. You can max out settings right off the scale of any setup on the planet. Delete your .cfg file and let the sim rebuild it with more realistic settings for your hardware and turn down AI or manage it with FSUIPC. Personally, I am going to wait on AI until AI is built for P3DV4 as opposed to shoehorning in AI designed around FSX  and DX9. If that does not do the trick then look at your OS and what may be in the background stealing processes. Compare your setup with a synthetic benchmark such as 3DMark and look for bottlenecks in performance. 

If I can get silky smooth and constant 30-40 fps (60+ fps in flight) on my rather mundane system there is no reason a more powerful system is not as capable with the right tuning. 

[Piotr007 163]

1 hour ago, KenG said:

 

On their own forums, someone mentioned the 100% core 0 issue and LM rep came back stating they were looking into this for the next update. I assume that will be 4.1 versus 4.0.whatever...

 

P3DV4 is the most scalable version of the FSX/ESP line I have seen in a long time. I had more that acceptable fps using a little i7 4770K OC to 4.3Ghz and a GTX 770. Of course, I did not push all sliders to max, load up the sim with unverified add-ons, or try to ask physically more than my system was capable. I found the bottleneck in my system, the GPU running at 100% and upgraded to a GTX1070. That unloaded the GPU and allowed me to push the setting some, but I am doing so in a careful manner looking at how each setting affects overall system performance (fps and stutters.) Overall the sim is very stable and producing very good results.

I think the number one problem is people who assume they have a supercomputer that can do everything, immediately push every slider to the right, turn on every setting, and load down the sim then expecting triple digit fps and silky smooth performance. Simply not going to happen. You can max out settings right off the scale of any setup on the planet. Delete your .cfg file and let the sim rebuild it with more realistic settings for your hardware and turn down AI or manage it with FSUIPC. Personally, I am going to wait on AI until AI is built for P3DV4 as opposed to shoehorning in AI designed around FSX  and DX9. If that does not do the trick then look at your OS and what may be in the background stealing processes. Compare your setup with a synthetic benchmark such as 3DMark and look for bottlenecks in performance. 

If I can get silky smooth and constant 30-40 fps (60+ fps in flight) on my rather mundane system there is no reason a more powerful system is not as capable with the right tuning. 

I really should post my settings here. MY SLIDERS ARE NOT ALL THE WAY TO THE RIGHT. Sorry for the capitals...

Every sane person knows that is not workable, but with settings at medium that cause issues is no fun at all anymore. My CPU is going nuts from 55% to 100% usage. On the tarmac I get steady 55% usage. But as soon as I am airborne and the entire region becomes visible the usage goes to 100% with heavy pulses. This causes enormous stutters, I am trying everything to overcome this problem. My best guess is the CPU is going bad. The thing is crazy on the load, how can it go from one second to 100% and then quickly to 45 ot 50%? And then back up again to 100% for no reason! I mean, there aren't 100's of hurricanes generated in a few seconds and then desolve in few seconds... just as traffic. Does not generate 5K aircraft, causing CPU 100% and then go back to 100 aircraft and CPU at 50%? 

That said, I see no reason for my CPU to start bashin the ceiling. I have turned settings down and I am still getting (stinking) rewarded with stutter and lag graces on approach, something must be bad with the CPU. 

[zmak 331]

"My best guess is the CPU is going bad" 

There is plenty of benchmark cpu testing software for free on the web 

Won't take long to find your answer 

[Piotr007 163]

3 hours ago, Venturi said:

"My best guess is the CPU is going bad" 

There is plenty of benchmark cpu testing software for free on the web 

Won't take long to find your answer 

I retested all addons I have.

Ultimate Traffic Live is the true CPU hog. And what a hog, like a 1000% hog.

[vgbaron 3,482]

As has been said over and over again - the secret to smooth experience is to balance *your* settings with *your* hardware. Just because you have a 7700@ 5ghz and1070's in SLI like me doesn't mean my settings will work for you. 

What I do with a new install -  crank all the settings to the max, lock my FPS at 20 and go fly. Chances are under certain circumstances I'll get stutters and/or slow loading. Then start adjusting and reflying. Repeat as necessary. There are times when turning a setting UP will make it smoother. Each system is different. My core 0 runs at 100% most of the time - so what?  That's what it's supposed to do! My gpu's rarely get over 60%.

Vic

[Piotr007 163]

31 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

As has been said over and over again - the secret to smooth experience is to balance *your* settings with *your* hardware. Just because you have a 7700@ 5ghz and1070's in SLI like me doesn't mean my settings will work for you. 

What I do with a new install -  crank all the settings to the max, lock my FPS at 20 and go fly. Chances are under certain circumstances I'll get stutters and/or slow loading. Then start adjusting and reflying. Repeat as necessary. There are times when turning a setting UP will make it smoother. Each system is different. My core 0 runs at 100% most of the time - so what?  That's what it's supposed to do! My gpu's rarely get over 60%.

Vic

Okay,

I went for a ride in the F-22 around KJFK with all the things running... I get 45 fps and no stutters, perhaps a few but hey it happens, KJFK is a good benchmark for me. If it runs here well then it runs everywhere okay.

 

I toned down all the settings. More importantly I also took Ulitmate Live traffic way down.

 

[oscarduran10 3]

I think a 6 core at 4.5ghz+ is going to be the sweet spot for this new generation thats starting 

[vgbaron 3,482]

1 hour ago, oscarduran10 said:

I think a 6 core at 4.5ghz+ is going to be the sweet spot for this new generation thats starting 

ONLY if the software is designed to utilize them. Without that there will be little difference.

 

Vic