New Rig P3D V4 Poor Performance

[lodestar 186]

4 hours ago, harryh146 said:

as soon as a load up P3D the CPU is running at 100%

Have you checked in Task Manager, the P3D is using the 100% of CPU or there is a maybe other process with high CPU usage too? Try to set windows update service to manual mode, and turn off automatic updates(you'll have to check / download them manually). There was a problem with windows update service some time ago, it was causing high CPU usage all the time. It could be the other process, this is why i said to check which services are using your CPU. This is a great tool for that purpose https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

 

[newtie 533]

9 minutes ago, tooting said:

So let me get this right, your flying from EGLL (the worst optimised area in the whole of the flightsim world) with Orbx UK, also quite possibly the second most resource heavy scenery addon after orbx socal, in the pmdg 737 the second most resource heavy aircraft after the FSL320 and your having issues.

There are limits. Throwing money at it usually won't fix it.

If you can reasonably match how data flows through your computer to how you want to fly, it's doable. If not, well, keep buyin' and keep posting 😀

[fluffyflops 1,858]

25 minutes ago, newtie said:

There are limits. Throwing money at it usually won't fix it.

If you can reasonably match how data flows through your computer to how you want to fly, it's doable. If not, well, keep buyin' and keep posting 😀

People think v4 is some magic pill that has fixed all the really bad things from fsx. They fixed one bad thing which was ooms and improved alot of normal things such as visuals but you still can't fly that pmdg 737 into lhr with the settings on max with a ton of eye candy, some ai and orbx uk. No matter how much you overclock, no matter how many tweaks and graphs you use.  But youll never ever ever get anyone from LM saying it's anything but brilliant.. That effects sales

[him225 51]

mistakenly posted the suggestion in another thread: If slight reduction in panel display quality is not an issue, try disabling cockpit high lod and panel mipmaps in p3d cfg, also reduce panel refresh rate to like 10 in the addon aircraft settings to get some more performance when using resource heavy aircraft. Not sure why LM omitted the first option in their settings in p3d from FSX, as it is one of the CPU intensive ones. It also confuses me why the panel graphics are not rendered on gpu such that panel display resolution takes toll on the already busy cpu.

Edited May 3, 2018 by him225

[Cruachan 705]

On 4/27/2018 at 12:09 PM, lodestar said:

You don't need to do that, if stable and temps are ok, leave it a 4.8GHz, CPU overclocking is important for FS in my opinion. I would investigate background processes, you have 187 processes running in above screenshot. I have 39 right now, after my PC was up for a couple of hours - just to compare. Take a look here https://www.tweakhound.com/  See his tweaking guides for windows, i would highly recommend all of his guides, i'm using them for years. See his recommendations on how to manage what will startup with windows and which processes can be disabled or set to manual mode. The best thing would be to spend some time and follow all of his advice.

Also, your CPU is runing at 100%, check what is using it most in task manager. It could be due to unlimited FPS, but this causes my GPU to have a very high usage, not CPU. It could be becouse of P3D settings, but check what uses your CPU so much

Hi Harry,

I am still on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and have never felt the need to disable any background processes (currently 124). This advice used to be relevant in the days of Windows XP but can be safely ignored nowadays with Win 7/10. The only time this is relevant is at startup of your operating system. I usually open Windows Task Manager and, before doing anything else, wait until the System Idle Process settles at 99% and everything else is at 0%. During this time there may be some activity from your anti-virus product as it updates its definitions and some apps may open windows inviting you to update. Usually I go ahead and allow this to happen as it doesn't take long. The only one I tend to ignore is the Windows Update nag as I prefer to spend time choosing what to update, apply them at a time of my choosing and only after creating a backup of my C drive. 

Nowadays Windows is best left to its own devices. Microsoft knew what they were doing with W7 and, despite some reports to the contrary, I have to assume that the same still applies to W10. I built my rig >2years ago and have enjoyed absolute stability and great performance from W7 throughout this period without any BSODS or misguided compulsions to reinstall.

Regarding your performance issues with Prepar3D I would add the suggestion that you try the effect of reducing the refresh rate of your monitor to 120Hz and lock your frame rate in-sim to 30 without VSync or TB. I don’t use G-Sync with Prepar3D as it is ineffective while frame rates dip below 30.

Delete Prepar3D.cfg (after creating a backup). Note you can also save your current settings under a unique name in the Display Settings Window. These can be reapplied later, if you wish to compare before and after testing scenarios.

If you have been using NVidia Inspector then return the settings to the Prepar3D defaults and apply the changes before exiting.

Download and install Notepad++ 

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

It’s highly recommended that you use this very useful and capable App while editing P3D v4.2 config and xml file’s to avoid destroying the file content encoding.

Load the default P3D flight at KVPS and then exit the sim. A fresh Prepar3D.cfg will have been created. Load this file into Notepad++ and substitute these lines under the [TextInfo.2] section:

FrameRate=1,1

AverageFrameRate=1,3

LockedFrameRate=1,2

//GForce=1,3  (personal choice but not needed)

FuelPercentage=1,4

//HealthPoints=1,5 (personal choice but not needed - there are 3 other entries in Prepar3D.cfg and these can be treated in the same way)

Save the file.

Startup Prepar3D and note the frame rate with the slider at 30. Look at the % value after the ‘V’ (variation). Ideally this should be as low as possible, say around 0.2 - 0.3%. There will be fluctuations during a flight but you will be tuning your settings with the aim of maintaining that lower value as much as possible. Now, move the slider to Unlimited and note the difference in frame rate. With the newly created default Prepar3D.cfg  an Unlimited setting should be achieving anything between 60 to >100 FPS. 

Report your results.

Regards,

Mike

[harryh146 0]

On 5/3/2018 at 7:34 PM, Cruachan said:

Startup Prepar3D and note the frame rate with the slider at 30. Look at the % value after the ‘V’ (variation). Ideally this should be as low as possible, say around 0.2 - 0.3%. There will be fluctuations during a flight but you will be tuning your settings with the aim of maintaining that lower value as much as possible. Now, move the slider to Unlimited and note the difference in frame rate. With the newly created default Prepar3D.cfg  an Unlimited setting should be achieving anything between 60 to >100 FPS. 

Good Afternoon Mike, Thank you for your reply. I have carried out the CFG edits and i can see with unlimited frames I am getting around 80 - 123 FPS with a variation of around 10 - 16%. Flying around in the default scenario, however at locked at 30 FPS im getting 29.8 - 30 FPS with a variation of 0.3 - 2.0%.

Kind Regards Harry

On 5/2/2018 at 1:13 PM, lodestar said:

Have you checked in Task Manager, the P3D is using the 100% of CPU or there is a maybe other process with high CPU usage too? Try to set windows update service to manual mode, and turn off automatic updates(you'll have to check / download them manually). There was a problem with windows update service some time ago, it was causing high CPU usage all the time. It could be the other process, this is why i said to check which services are using your CPU. This is a great tool for that purpose https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

 

Afternoon Lodestar, thank you for your reply! Just a quick update after my absence from the topic I have now reformatted to Windows 7 Ultimate and the difference in background processes is much better and P3D seems to peek at 90% at times much better compared to the 100% CPU usage of windows 10, literally all the time. As you mentioned limiting the frame's reduced the CPU load drastically ! :) However today i decided to fly the FSL Airbus from Aberdeen to London, this time when i installed V4 i only installed FTX Global Mesh 2018, ORBX Global Base, Open LC Europe & Rex Skyforce testing my sim 1 by one. There did not seem to be an issue. However after taking off from Aberdeen things became obvious very quickly that frames were dropping badly down to around 11 fps and i just decided I'd had enough and abandoned the flight 😞.

 

I then rebooted the FSUIPC auto save from departure and did a quick test with the RR i managed to go into display setting and lower my RR to 30 Hz, this made the stuttering worse. I then tried 144 Hz and things were better however the drop in frames is definitely still there i know the FSL was probably not the best a/c to test things but ill definitely do some more testing ans see what happens. The weird thing is once id reformatted i installed P3D V3 so i can fly Concorde and I've done multiple flights at reasonably high settings without any frame drops! My frames are locked at 30 and its just silky. Something with V4 is incorrectly configured or not correct or more than likely I've doing something wrong but considering the reformat P3D V4 should be performing at reasonable settings i just hope we can get to the bottom of it !  Thank you again for your continued support. Kind Regards Harry

[lodestar 186]

13 hours ago, harryh146 said:

Afternoon Lodestar, thank you for your reply! Just a quick update after my absence from the topic I have now reformatted to Windows 7 Ultimate and the difference in background processes is much better and P3D seems to peek at 90% at times much better compared to the 100% CPU usage of windows 10, literally all the time. As you mentioned limiting the frame's reduced the CPU load drastically ! :) However today i decided to fly the FSL Airbus from Aberdeen to London, this time when i installed V4 i only installed FTX Global Mesh 2018, ORBX Global Base, Open LC Europe & Rex Skyforce testing my sim 1 by one. There did not seem to be an issue. However after taking off from Aberdeen things became obvious very quickly that frames were dropping badly down to around 11 fps and i just decided I'd had enough and abandoned the flight 😞.

 

I then rebooted the FSUIPC auto save from departure and did a quick test with the RR i managed to go into display setting and lower my RR to 30 Hz, this made the stuttering worse. I then tried 144 Hz and things were better however the drop in frames is definitely still there i know the FSL was probably not the best a/c to test things but ill definitely do some more testing ans see what happens. The weird thing is once id reformatted i installed P3D V3 so i can fly Concorde and I've done multiple flights at reasonably high settings without any frame drops! My frames are locked at 30 and its just silky. Something with V4 is incorrectly configured or not correct or more than likely I've doing something wrong but considering the reformat P3D V4 should be performing at reasonable settings i just hope we can get to the bottom of it !  Thank you again for your continued support. Kind Regards Harry

1. Try this - with RR to 30 Hz, set unlimited FPS. Also Vsync and triple buffering checked in P3D settings. This should be the best.

or

2. With FPS limited to 30, add this line in your Prepar3D.cfg:

under [MAIN] section
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.01

This is the default value when you set FPS to unlimited, but it's changed to 0.33 when you limit your FPS, and there is a big FPS hit with complex addons. By default, with limited FPS, framerate is sacrificed for scenery loading and vice versa. The more CPU time is allocated for scenery loading. This is just a workaround for monitors which can't do 30Hz, like mine. The first option should perform better, in my opinion.

Please let me know about the results, since i'm still investigating this 

Also, check my post, it took my FS experience to the next level with my HD monitor, and you are probably using HDMI:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/536191-nvidia-control-panel-and-hdmi-heads-up/?tab=comments#comment-3847385

[GSalden 4,657]

1 start with No tweaks

2 uncheck all addons

3 use a default aircraft to test with

4 No Vsync at this point

5 use CpuID + RealTemp to check If your cpu is not throttling down because of heat issues when P3D is running

6 try a free benchmark trial to check If both cpu , gpu , drive and memory keep working correctly under load

7 start with Safe settings in the Bios

 

Edited May 10, 2018 by GSalden

[Cruachan 705]

On 5/9/2018 at 8:08 PM, harryh146 said:

 I can see with unlimited frames I am getting around 80 - 123 FPS with a variation of around 10 - 16%. Flying around in the default scenario, however at locked at 30 FPS im getting 29.8 - 30 FPS with a variation of 0.3 - 2.0%.

Hi Harry,

Those findings should be telling you something about which way to go. In your case locking at 30 (VSync and TB unchecked) should deliver much greater fluidity with less noticeable long frame stuttering. You might try reducing your monitor refresh rate to 120Hz. I doubt you will notice any difference dropping from 144Hz and, more importantly, 30 = 120/4 so each P3D frame rendered will coincide with 4 monitor refresh cycles.

Regards,

Mike

[harryh146 0]

On 5/9/2018 at 9:44 PM, lodestar said:

1. Try this - with RR to 30 Hz, set unlimited FPS. Also Vsync and triple buffering checked in P3D settings. This should be the best.

or

2. With FPS limited to 30, add this line in your Prepar3D.cfg:

under [MAIN] section
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.01

Good Evening Lodestar, thank you for your reply, I tried this and reduced my RR to 59Hz as this is the minimum my monitor will run, I found V4 ran a bit smoother however i did a quick flight into Amsterdam and on approach, I had dips down to 7FPS 😞 however around Aberdeen i was locked nicely at 30, it seems to be as soon as i go near anywhere thats densely populated my frames pack up and go on holiday. I have checked my CPU useage and everything is normal it does rev up to the high 70's % during the approach but certainly better than Windows 10.

Just for reference i'm using a display port

Kind Regards Harry

Edited May 18, 2018 by harryh146

[harryh146 0]

On 5/10/2018 at 9:14 PM, Cruachan said:

Those findings should be telling you something about which way to go. In your case locking at 30 (VSync and TB unchecked) should deliver much greater fluidity with less noticeable long frame stuttering. You might try reducing your monitor refresh rate to 120Hz. I doubt you will notice any difference dropping from 144Hz and, more importantly, 30 = 120/4 so each P3D frame rendered will coincide with 4 monitor refresh cycles.

Hi Mike, Thank you for your reply, you are absolutely right locking my frames is definitely the best way to go and 120 Hz made a very small difference however i'm still having large FPS drops in highly populated area's. My old rig with a 6700K & 1060 was running P3D a mile better into lets say Amsterdam / New York however this new machine not to much 😞 Kind Regards Harry

[Cruachan 705]

14 hours ago, harryh146 said:

Hi Mike, Thank you for your reply, you are absolutely right locking my frames is definitely the best way to go and 120 Hz made a very small difference however i'm still having large FPS drops in highly populated area's. My old rig with a 6700K & 1060 was running P3D a mile better into lets say Amsterdam / New York however this new machine not to much 😞 Kind Regards Harry

Hi Harry,

Cheer up, believe me you are not alone!

It’s a while since I read through this thread so not sure whether what follows has been mentioned before. Many of us, myself included, have found that by purchasing and installing the recently released and updated FSPS : FFTF DYNAMIC P3Dv4 utility, performance issues have been alleviated to the extent that such situations have now become flyable. The beauty of this Addon is that apart from the intended automatic dynamic feature, which will change FFTF values according to your preferred in-App settings, it also allows you to change the FFTF manually while the sim is running. There are occasions when this capability can prove to be very helpful.

There is a long thread about this in the forum so I encourage you to check it out.

Regards,

Mike

[harryh146 0]

On 5/19/2018 at 1:49 PM, Cruachan said:

It’s a while since I read through this thread so not sure whether what follows has been mentioned before. Many of us, myself included, have found that by purchasing and installing the recently released and updated FSPS : FFTF DYNAMIC P3Dv4 utility, performance issues have been alleviated to the extent that such situations have now become flyable.

Good Evening Cruachan, thank you for your reply! It's funny you should mention the FFTF utility i was just reading you post about it the other day i will give it a try and let you know how it goes :) 

Kind Regards Harry