P3D v4.2 - Clean install questions

[Thomasso 224]

Hello everybody,

something happened to my computer. Everything got really laggy, even browsing in Chrome, let alone P3D. I have no idea why, GPU doesn't go to performance mode, I'm installing ORBX region for 40 minutes and so on. Therefore I decided to format the drives and perform a complete reinstall of everything. 

I want to do it just right, so I would like you ask some questions. I want to have it as smooth and efficient as possible.

1) I have 2 drives, one SSD 256 GB and HDD 1 TB. I know that the ideal thing to do would be to get a 512 GB or 1 TB SSD, but that's not an option for me at the moment. Windows 10 will definitely go on the SSD because it's much faster. But my question is, where should I install P3D? With all the add-ons, it's impossible to squeeze it into the SSD in my experience. But currently, it's loading pretty slowly (even before these issues). So is it possible to install P3D itself to the SSD, along with some add-ons, and install the rest on the HDD? If so, which ones? Will it get me better loading times?

2) Add-on management - I own a tool from Aerosoft - SimStarter NG, which I really like. But it cannot manage add-ons properly in my opinion. So, how do I manage add-ons so they are well-arranged? I mean that they are not installed throughout all the folders in the P3D root folder, but, say that I will have folders: E:/P3D/P3D_Root_Folder and E:/P3D/Add-ons. All the add-ons (aircraft, scenery, software, utilities...) would be in the second one. The idea is like this:
E:/P3D/Add-ons/Aircraft/PMDG 737
E:/P3D/Add-ons/Scenery/ORBX/ORBX Global Base
E:/P3D/Add-ons/Software/Active Sky
And so on....

3) Which utilities are trending now? I mean especially those that help manage system performance. I currently use MSI Afterburner, Corsair Link, was using Process Lasso but had issues with it, so I uninstalled it. You know what kind of programs I mean.

4) I've recently heard about creating .bat files for assigning cores to add-ons. Is that better than Process Lasso? How does it work? Is it good?

I can't think of any other questions at this time, but if you know some other good tips for clean install, please do tell me. Thanks very much! And see you up there 🙂

[speedyTC 195]

Could it be possible that the slowdowns are a hardware issue (e.g. overheating)? I don't run P3Dv.* (yet) so cannot offer any advice/opinions on your software queries.

Just a thought.

[Thomasso 224]

6 hours ago, speedyTC said:

Could it be possible that the slowdowns are a hardware issue (e.g. overheating)? I don't run P3Dv.* (yet) so cannot offer any advice/opinions on your software queries.

Just a thought.

Not really, I was playing with OC settings recently, but the temps are fine 🙂

[newtie 533]

Before you spend a cent, you need to find out why your computer is "laggy".

[vgbaron 3,614]

It's possible that a complete reinstall of the OS will help performance but, I agree, it would be best to first thoroughly check your hardware to find out what is causing your slowdown or you could wind up with the same problem after reinstall.

Once that's done, you could install the main P3D on the SSD and, for the most part, direct your addons to a folder on the HDD. You have to give it some thought though, an addon that does continual read writes as you fly might be better on the SSD, if it's something that just gets loaded at run time, won't make much of a difference.

You can use SimstarterNG to do this or search for the Lorby Addon tool -http://www.lorby-si.com/downloads.html

Wherever you can, install the addon into your "Addon" folder off the ssd.

BUT FIRST - find out what's wrong with your hardware.

Vic

[Nemo 1,305]

You could do some benchmark testing first and compare your results with published benchmarks of related system configurations. I suggest cinebench,  sisoft sandra, .... If your results differ too much than you have most likely a hardware problem.

Edited May 1, 2018 by Nemo

[downscc 1,327]

21 hours ago, Thomasso said:

 Everything got really laggy, even browsing in Chrome, let alone P3D.

I'm with Vic here... don't burn down the house because the floor is dirty.  I ran into something with Defender that was doing exactly what you describe.  A little digging with Google and I found a simple solution that involved excluding the defender files and folders from defender scanning. I'm not saying this is the source of your problem but it is one of many possibilities.  You'd be much better off spending the time to figure it out.

[curt1 79]

It sounds like a memory issue.  I'd shut down your pc, unplug it, wait 10 minutes or so, then plug it in and boot up.  If still laggy, check your resource monitor for items highlighted in red.