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geolpilot

P3Dv4 MultiMonitor - Undock windows halves frame rate

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Not a complaint, but really a heads-up to those concerned about low frame rates in P3DV4, who may be baffled at times, as I was.

Running a 1070 GTX video card, attached to a 4K TV (main screen, set to 30Hz refresh), and a second 21", 60 hz (fixed) Acer 1K monitor. The second, smaller screen I use for monitoring hardware and tasks during tests (MSI Afterburner, ProcExplorer) and for ATC (PF3 or Pilot2ATC) when routine flying. PD3V4 is set internally to VSYNC ON, Triple Buffering ON, Frames Unlimited, and gives me a steady 30FPS with only slight occasional stutter. I run the 4K screen in Full Screen mode.

I was baffled on a recent flight (PMDG 777, VHHH-VTBS), when at about the stage that I requested clearance (PF3), my frame rates exactly halved to 16. I continued on hoping they would improve, but quit at TOC due to the stutterfest.

Restarting the same scenario and stepping through the startup routine again to try to understand at what stage the sudden halving in frame-rate happens, I noticed as soon as I got PF3 connected (open captions on), and undocked the green bar at top of the main screen (I like to have my main screen "clean"), the frames halved. Dock it back to the main screen and frame rates returned to 30.

I have since tested this (which anyone running a multimonitor setup could try) with the standard ATC window. Open it, undock it, and the frame rates will halve (you do not even have to move it across to the other monitor for this to happen). Same if you open a new view and undock it. Also happens in both full screen and windowed mode on the main sim screen.

There are ways to live with this (in PF3 close captions off), and never undock any windows from the main view. But this led me to also wonder if this is due to my setup in any way (mixed resolution and refresh rate setup, is it just a 4K TV "thing" as I am new to 4K), and if so, do the experts know of any work around (maybe some setting I am missing in NVidia Control Panel?). If others are seeing this, perhaps even on 1080TI cards, is it something LM could/should address that requires a support request to them?

Also to warn those with similar setups who may be tearing their hair out over halved frame rates; have you undocked any windows recently?

Rob


Robin Harris
 

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When I dragged pmdg instruments in fsx to a second screen I got the same hit as you. However in fsx se there is no hit at all. 

Watching this closely as not being able to undock could be a game changer for me. 


ZORAN

 

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Bump 

Can someone using v4 confirm there is an issue with undocking fps dropping 50 %? 

Would only take a few minutes to test 


ZORAN

 

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I got this hit in P3Dv3 but in P3Dv4 this problem went away.. I now have 6 monitors in two cards (GTX1070 and a GTX670) 3 monitors in each. I was so excited with v4 since I could now window the MFD of the 777 and the PMDGs 747 and move it to other monitors

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Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

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@Manny. You mention "6 monitors". Is any one of them a 4K TV. Maybe this problem is specific to using a 4K TV as main monitor? As far as I can recall, before I got the 4K TV this last Saturday, I was running two monitors off the same 1070 GTX card and I did not have this issue (sure I would have noticed it as the stutterfest is so obvious).

To be clear again, as soon as I undock any window on the 4K TV, without even moving it to the second "monitor", FPS halves. The strange thing I noted after my last post is that when doing this, MSI Afterburner shows a drop in both CPU and GPU usage. Its as if the "system" thinks that it has less work/rendering to do now, so time to slack off! Dock the window again and CPU/GPU usage steps back up, commensurate with FPS doubling again.

So could someone using a 4K TV see if they get same behavior (even if only single monitor). As Venturi says will only take a minute to test - open stock ATC window (tab), and undock. Keen to know if it is just my 4K TV (43" LG) or if others also have this.

Rob

 


Robin Harris
 

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3 hours ago, geolpilot said:

@Manny. You mention "6 monitors". Is any one of them a 4K TV. Maybe this problem is specific to using a 4K TV as main monitor? As far as I can recall, before I got the 4K TV this last Saturday, I was running two monitors off the same 1070 GTX card and I did not have this issue (sure I would have noticed it as the stutterfest is so obvious).

To be clear again, as soon as I undock any window on the 4K TV, without even moving it to the second "monitor", FPS halves. The strange thing I noted after my last post is that when doing this, MSI Afterburner shows a drop in both CPU and GPU usage. Its as if the "system" thinks that it has less work/rendering to do now, so time to slack off! Dock the window again and CPU/GPU usage steps back up, commensurate with FPS doubling again.

So could someone using a 4K TV see if they get same behavior (even if only single monitor). As Venturi says will only take a minute to test - open stock ATC window (tab), and undock. Keen to know if it is just my 4K TV (43" LG) or if others also have this.

Rob

 

I just checked this out. I have a 4K and a smaller monitor using 980TI and I do get the drop in FPS with an undocked window. I have not loaded the hotfix yet so do know if that changed things or not. I never noticed this problem with Ver3.


Sam

Prepar3D V5.3/12700K@5.1/EVGA 3080 TI/1000W PSU/Windows 10/40" 4K Samsung@3840x2160/ASP3D/ASCA/ORBX/
ChasePlane/General Aviation/Honeycomb Alpha+Bravo/MFG Rudder Pedals/

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A re you using an external frame rate limiter?

 


Cheers

Steve Hall

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1 hour ago, cowpatz said:

A re you using an external frame rate limiter?

Not for me.


Sam

Prepar3D V5.3/12700K@5.1/EVGA 3080 TI/1000W PSU/Windows 10/40" 4K Samsung@3840x2160/ASP3D/ASCA/ORBX/
ChasePlane/General Aviation/Honeycomb Alpha+Bravo/MFG Rudder Pedals/

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I am not using 4K monitor.


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

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I have a 4K monitor and a smaller second monitor. Flying the Aerosoft Twotter,  I undocked the GPS and moved to second monitor. I lock my fps as 20 and it stayed there. I moved back and forth with no change.

 

Vic


 

RIG#1 - 7700K 5.0g ROG X270F 3600 15-15-15 - EVGA RTX 3090 1000W PSU 1- 850G EVO SSD, 2-256G OCZ SSD, 1TB,HAF942-H100 Water W1064Pro
40" 4K Monitor 3840x2160 - AS16, ASCA, GEP3D, UTX, Toposim, ORBX Regions, TrackIR
RIG#2 - 3770K 4.7g Asus Z77 1600 7-8-7 GTX1080ti DH14 850W 2-1TB WD HDD,1tb VRap, Armor+ W10 Pro 2 - HannsG 28" Monitors
 

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18 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

I have a 4K monitor and a smaller second monitor. Flying the Aerosoft Twotter,  I undocked the GPS and moved to second monitor. I lock my fps as 20 and it stayed there. I moved back and forth with no change.

 

Vic

Vic, you don't use FPS unlimited and Vsync On in P3D's UI and 20Hz H. refresh in your monitor, do you? Any specific reason for that?

Thanks,

Dirk.

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Dirk -  Nope - lock at 20fps, no vsync no trilinear. Have most settings pretty high or maxed. I find that if I set unlimited/Vsync I get stutters. Only changed settings I have is TBM at 80 and FFTF 0.15 - all else is default.

Vic


 

RIG#1 - 7700K 5.0g ROG X270F 3600 15-15-15 - EVGA RTX 3090 1000W PSU 1- 850G EVO SSD, 2-256G OCZ SSD, 1TB,HAF942-H100 Water W1064Pro
40" 4K Monitor 3840x2160 - AS16, ASCA, GEP3D, UTX, Toposim, ORBX Regions, TrackIR
RIG#2 - 3770K 4.7g Asus Z77 1600 7-8-7 GTX1080ti DH14 850W 2-1TB WD HDD,1tb VRap, Armor+ W10 Pro 2 - HannsG 28" Monitors
 

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8 hours ago, cowpatz said:

A re you using an external frame rate limiter?

 

5 hours ago, vgbaron said:

I have a 4K monitor and a smaller second monitor. Flying the Aerosoft Twotter,  I undocked the GPS and moved to second monitor. I lock my fps as 20 and it stayed there. I moved back and forth with no change.

Thanks to @cowaptz for the link to Joe's post, and to Vic for highlighting that he did not have the problem despite having a 4K + second monitor setup. All got me thinking!

No I am not currently using an external frame rate limiter - but I was using NVI up until Monday when the P3D4 HF came out. NVI caused my P3D4 HF install to fail on load ("bad stub error" message - something like that). So I deleted the NVI directory, rebooted and got going with P3DV4 using only Nvidia Control Panel settings, with internal VSYNC, triple buffering and unlimited frames set. But before the HF installation I had set unlimited frames internally, no VSYNC, no triple buffering, and limited frames externally to 30 with NVI! Joe's post linked by cowaptz and Vic not seeing this problem led me to think that the NVI external frame rate limiter was "lurking" somewhere - probably written into the Nvidia Control Panel settings, but not listed under Nvidia Control Panel Prepar3D profile. In hindsight I "took out" NVI the wrong way!

So I opened up Nvidia Control Panel, and in 3D settings I reset the Prepar3D profile to factory. Then I only changed the Prepard3D profile performance to "Prefer Maximum Performance", saved and exited. Start up P3D and problem solved! Can now open any window and undock without halving frame rates! Tried undocking default ATC, a "new view" window, and the PMDG 747 FMC. Pretty solid at around 30fps in all cases even if the undocked window was moved to the smaller monitor.

So thanks to all who responded! To Shivers9, though not using an external frame rate limiter, did you use/try it in the past and maybe not reset the Nividia Prepar3D profile? Maybe give it a try.

Of course the downside is it seems this problem may well surface for those who do use an external frame rate limiter (Vic's experience seems to suggest internal frame rate limiter is OK). May want to keep this in mind if you suddenly get an otherwise inexplicable halving of frame rate.

Rob

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Robin Harris
 

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On 28.6.2017 at 6:46 PM, Manny said:

I was so excited with v4 since I could now window the MFD of the 777 and the PMDGs 747 and move it to other monitors

Is there any way to save the position of those undocked windows so they come up at any flight with the 777?

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Undocked instruments are saved with the flight resp. as scenerio. There ist no other way unfortunatly, would love to see when the could be saved with the plane itself.


System: i9 9900k@4.9 - 32 GB RAM - Aorus 1080ti --- Sim/Addons: P3D v5 + ProSim737
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