P3D v4.2 low fps

[Robert3512 21]

I'm not sure if this should be posted here or not, but I'm running P3D v4.2 with the GTX 1070 and i7-8700, and when I load the PMDG 737 NGX, my frames drop to 10 to 15, even without autogen and with medium scenery complexity. I thought the GTX 1070 and i7-8700 should easily handle P3D and PMDG at 30 fps or more, why is this happening to me? I have no other programs running in the background, and am using default textures and airports. 

[simbol 5,819]

Post a screenshot of your P3D settings to see if we spot something.

Are you running your CPU using OC or stock speed? What screen resolution? Etc.

Simbol 

[Robert3512 21]

Stock speed of 3.2GHz, 1920x1080 widescreen, Gimme a minute or two for the settings.

My settings are:

FXAA: On

AA: 2xMSAA

Texture filter: Anistropic 2x

Resolution: High (2048x2048), with VSync and unlimited fps

Level of detail radius: Ultra

Tessellation: High

Mesh Reso: 5m

Texture Reso: 15cm

Scenery complexity: Xtreme dense

Autogen draw: Very high

Autogen veg: Dense

Autogen building: Dense

Water detail: high, with no bathymetry and all reflections on

Special effects are maxed out

HDR lighting is enabled, and dynamic reflections are set to high

Dynamic lighting and landing lights are on, without lens flare

Shadow quality: high, draw dist is medium

All casting and receiving are checked

Cloud draw is 70mi, coverage is medium, with detailed clouds, volumetric fog, detailed precip and windshield effects. 

Thermals are normal.

Turbulence effects are enabled and weather changes are set to medium,

I have no traffic of any sorts.

Addons are the PMDG 737 and 747, and ORBX NC. But I've spawned at KJFK because I thought that ORBX might be the issue.

Edited March 11, 2018 by Robert3512

[sfgiants13 83]

Drop autogen distance down a few notches and turn off dynamic lighting. Autogen on medium is the same as higher settings in previous versions and can have a big hit on FPS.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Try:

Display:
FXAA off   
AA:  4XSSAA
texture filtering: anisotropic  8X
texture resolution: high 2048x2048
Vsync  off
Target framerate: unlimited
Wideview aspect: off
mipmap VC panels off
Screen resolution:  1920X1080

World
LOD radius:  high
Tesselation factor: high
mesh resolution:  5m
texture resolution:  1m
high resolution terrain: on

Scenery complexity: extremely dense
autogen draw distance:  medium
autogen vegetation density: normal
autogen building density: dense
Dynamic vegetation: unticked

water detail:  medium
Reflections: user vehicle only
Special effects: medium/medium

Lighting
shadow quality:  high
draw distance: low
casting and receiving: Internal vehicle only

HDR on:
Brightness 0.85
Bloom 0.85
Saturation 0.80

Dynamic reflections: off

Dynamic lighting: off

 

 

[Robert3512 21]

Will do, but it's a pity to turn off the very thing (dynamic reflections and lighting) that convinced me to switch from FSX to P3D though...

[Matthew James de Bohun 55]

3 hours ago, Robert3512 said:

Stock speed of 3.2GHz, 1920x1080 widescreen, Gimme a minute or two for the settings.

My settings are:

FXAA: On

AA: 2xMSAA

Texture filter: Anistropic 2x

Resolution: High (2048x2048), with VSync and unlimited fps

Level of detail radius: Ultra

Tessellation: High

Mesh Reso: 5m

Texture Reso: 15cm

Scenery complexity: Xtreme dense

Autogen draw: Very high

Autogen veg: Dense

Autogen building: Dense

Water detail: high, with no bathymetry and all reflections on

Special effects are maxed out

HDR lighting is enabled, and dynamic reflections are set to high

Dynamic lighting and landing lights are on, without lens flare

Shadow quality: high, draw dist is medium

All casting and receiving are checked

Cloud draw is 70mi, coverage is medium, with detailed clouds, volumetric fog, detailed precip and windshield effects. 

Thermals are normal.

Turbulence effects are enabled and weather changes are set to medium,

I have no traffic of any sorts.

Addons are the PMDG 737 and 747, and ORBX NC. But I've spawned at KJFK because I thought that ORBX might be the issue.

Try reducing vegetation to normal and turn off casting shadows for it. Also turn off dynamic reflections. Reduce shadow quality to medium.

 

As a side note for shadows I know this doesn't help FPS  but I have the draw distance to ultra otherwise you see an ugly cut off line on the cloud shadows.

[ARCO 245]

I have a similar setup (i7 8700K + GTX 1070), full ORBX, AS4 + ASCA + ENVTEX, UTLive, FSDT sceneries, FlyTampa, PMDG 737, 777, 744, FSLabs A320, Maddog and most of my P3Dv4.2 settings are to maximum, my frames will change significantly from one location to another depending on the complexity of the scenery but would remain fluid/smooth at all times, so there is no reason - hardware wise - to be in your situation with stock textures and sceneries, no traffic and weather.

Bert's settings suggestions above are very good, but I would keep DL ON, your system can/should take it even if we know that some older sceneries can be harder to run.

Do you have any problem overclocking your i7 8700K up to 4.4 at least? What are the specs of your RAM?

Do you have HT ON? (Mine is)

Edited March 11, 2018 by Jean-Claude

[Robert3512 21]

I'm not using the -8700K, just the -8700. So no OC to speak of. My RAM is a DDR4 2x8GB 2666MHz. 

What's HT? 

[Cruachan 705]

1 hour ago, Robert3512 said:

I'm not using the -8700K, just the -8700. So no OC to speak of. My RAM is a DDR4 2x8GB 2666MHz. 

What's HT? 

Hi Robert,

HT = Hyperthreading

Your processor has 6 physical cores and each of these cores has 2 Logical processors.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-threading

http://m.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-8700+%40+3.20GHz&id

It is likely that Hyperthreading will be enabled by default in your Motherboard’s System BIOS. Most modern Boards will allow you to disable HT so it’s worth trying if only to see whether you get smoother performance in Prepar3D. Also, this can be helpful when overclocking a processor as HT = ON generates more heat and  a watercooling solution will probably be necessary to keep everything stable. However, in your case I see that this is not relevant.

Single-threaded performance is very good for the i7-8700. This is important for Prepar3D. I have a i7-5960X and, as you will see in my signature, I have overclocked to 4.7GHz to achieve optimal results in Prepar3D.

http://m.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Regards,

Mike

[ARCO 245]

 

1 hour ago, Robert3512 said:

I'm not using the -8700K, just the -8700

OK, wrong assumption on my part!

HyperThreading (HT) is available on the 8700 and I would suggest you use it for a trial run to see if it does make a difference to the smoothness of your P3D. Is the Turbo Boost 3 enabled in your BIOS?

Your RAM is just OK.

Regarding FPS, I personally never use that benchmark (I dont even know what they are on my PC) since it fluctuates so much and is subject to too many variables (airplane used, weather, scenery, etc...). I rely on what I see, if what is on my screen is comfortable for my eyes (no stutter in particular), then my settings are right, it does not make any difference whether I am at 20, 30, 60 or 120 FPS, your screen should be easy (smooth image) for your vision, nothing else matters, so dont get obsessed by the numbers, trust your eyes, if you mentally set your minimum expectation on 30 FPS, anything below that will frustrate you.

[ryanbatc 12,854]

I thought DL was broken with the 737?  Broken meaning low fps

[mpw8679 428]

22 hours ago, Robert3512 said:

I'm not sure if this should be posted here or not, but I'm running P3D v4.2 with the GTX 1070 and i7-8700, and when I load the PMDG 737 NGX, my frames drop to 10 to 15, even without autogen and with medium scenery complexity. I thought the GTX 1070 and i7-8700 should easily handle P3D and PMDG at 30 fps or more, why is this happening to me? I have no other programs running in the background, and am using default textures and airports. 

Sounds like to me your video card is being overloaded.  If u have all your shadow boxes checked that will give u problems.  Get rid of building and vegetation shadows for sure.  Even with my 1080ti I can not run max shadow settings along with dynamic lighting.

[Robert3512 21]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

3 hours ago, Jean-Claude said:

your screen should be easy (smooth image) for your vision

Yeah, that's the problem. The worst I've gotten was a 6 or 7 fps. At that rate I can't even fly the plane, much less enjoy some eye candy. 

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

12 hours ago, Robert3512 said:

Will do, but it's a pity to turn off the very thing (dynamic reflections and lighting) that convinced me to switch from FSX to P3D though...

Once you've got it working nicely, you can selectively try turning individual features on (as a test)..

Right now, you appear to be overloading your system.. so time time to back off until you have a smooth flying experience