P3Dv4.3 : my observations

[JoeFackel 760]

Then there is no memory leak as that would have filled up your memory until there is none free left. The 3,x GB memory barrier fell with v4.

[Guest]

Memory leaks wouldn’t cause a significant drop in FPS unless you ran out of VRAM and the video card had to use regular RAM.

Is your CPU and GPU load increasing when FPS starts to drop?

Cheers Rob

[GSalden 4,657]

Hi Rob,

Only extra load on CPU and GPU’s when the airport is insight. 

With the “Pause” test I doublechecked all sensor values and loads.

I checked both GPU’s and CPU load. GPU’s load below 30%. CPU load below 50%. Internal memory used 20% ( 32 Gb ).

LOD radius at High ( before Ultra ). AG trees Normal / AG buildings Dense / AG radius Low . Scenery Complexity  Normal.

 

Edited August 28, 2018 by GSalden

[Guest]

I was hoping you had a graph of CPU/GPU load over time relative to FPS ... if the FPS is dropping and the CPU/GPU load remains constant, then I would have to point the finger at the FPS measuring tool (be it internal or external tools).

I'm assuming you're NOT using a weather engine, and no AI traffic, and no Ship and Auto traffic, and no dynamic FFTF in this test?

Cheers, Rob.

[GSalden 4,657]

10 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

I was hoping you had a graph of CPU/GPU load over time relative to FPS ... if the FPS is dropping and the CPU/GPU load remains constant, then I would have to point the finger at the FPS measuring tool (be it internal or external tools).

I'm assuming you're NOT using a weather engine, and no AI traffic, and no Ship and Auto traffic, and no dynamic FFTF in this test?

Cheers, Rob.

Can you recommend a good testing software for cpu/gpu load which will produce a graph over time ?

I was using ASP4 in the test. No car/boat traffic and no AI traffic with the "pause" test.

One thing I am going to do is going back to the Orbx AG as I had my own made AG set ( 3x less big in size which caused higher fps  ) and then set the AG lower. To be sure that the AG set is not to blame. After that again Frankfurt to Amsterdam and I will pause the sim a couple of minutes before landing. Then I will leave it that way for 1 hour.

 

 

[kiek 1,215]

Hi Gerard,

Are you aware of the fact that PSXseeconTraffic continues while you're P3Dv4 is paused? Or did you not run with AI...?

PSXseeconTraffic only halts and stops injecting/updating AI traffic if you are navigating through some menu items like View - Graphics, or Load - Scenery, and so on.

Cheers,

Nico

Edited August 29, 2018 by kiek

[GSalden 4,657]

No AI Traffic program Active. No other Traffic and no weather program running.

Just placed the aircraft on approach to 18L.

 

One minute after startup : 46- 47 fps

 

After exactly 1 hour : 35-37 fps

 

GPU loads : 49% / GPU temps : 68 Celcius

CPU load : main thread 95-99% / Main thread temp : 48 Celcius

[GSalden 4,657]

Correction : the last tests were done in Slew mode. Not in Pause mode.

In Pause mode there is also a framerate drop but less. A 1 hour test showed a drop from 122 to 104.

Edited August 29, 2018 by GSalden

[Guest]

12 hours ago, GSalden said:

Can you recommend a good testing software for cpu/gpu load which will produce a graph over time ?

Per my post earlier in this thread, MSI Afterburner ... allows you to log to file

From my post here is the output file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OTYlbY8-hoYshIw2QXmiTYs4V4MfXwAo/view?usp=sharing

The hml extension is really just a text file or csv with all the data.  But like I said, when testing with it you'll need to disable anything that is "dynamic" like AS4 weather, AI traffic, AI road/boats, and Dynamic FFTF.  If you want to go further, disable as many entries in your DLL.XML and/or EXE.XML files are you can (like RAAS Professional).  Again, just for diagnostics to isolate.

Cheers, Rob.

[GSalden 4,657]

By accident I discovered something that brings back up the framerate when I was trying different settings and nothing seemed to help :

I was using 4x SSAA and I set it to 8x SSAA...   Immediately the framerate was back up by 14-16 fps... 

Tried the same flight again with 4x SSAA. After landing I changed it to 4x SSAA and again the framerate went up.

 

Load on the graphics cards was max 60-70% at Schiphol and in the air around 30%. Temps are max 72 Celcius at the airport and around 66-67 Celcius in the air. Clockspeed and memory speed do not drop at all.

 

[Cruachan 705]

2 hours ago, GSalden said:

I was using 4x SSAA and I set it to 8x SSAA...   Immediately the framerate was back up by 14-16 fps...

Hi Gerard,

To clarify, did you mean the move from 8xSSAA to 4xSSAA gave you that frame rate boost? Unless I am misreading your original statement, you seem to be implying that the reverse is true which, to me, is defying all known logic.....in which case you may have stumbled on something which is pretty significant!

Regards,

Mike

Edited August 30, 2018 by Cruachan

[JoeFackel 760]

Switching AA-settings does reload objects, does it?

Have you ever tried that also on an different airport like EDDF itself? Maybe its a problem in the textures, objects etc. from the addon airport itself.

[GSalden 4,657]

20 minutes ago, Cruachan said:

Hi Gerard,

To clarify, did you mean the move from 8xSSAA to 4xSSAA gave you that frame rate boost? Unless I am misreading your original statement, you seem to be implying that the reverse is true which, to me, is defying all known logic.....in which case you may have stumbled on something which is pretty significant!

Regards,

Mike

Don’t know either what it causes but 4X —> 8x or 8x —> 4X brings back up the framerate.

[GSalden 4,657]

24 minutes ago, JoeFackel said:

Switching AA-settings does reload objects, does it?

Have you ever tried that also on an different airport like EDDF itself? Maybe its a problem in the textures, objects etc. from the addon airport itself.

Switching AA settings does not show a load message. The scenery is back within half a second , but with the higher framerate .

Reloading the scenery by Refresh Scenery has no impact.

I will try a flight from Nice to Frankfurt.

Flying from Amsterdam to any other airport has never given any issues. But maybe the lowest framerate stayed above my vsynced framerate ...

TrueEart Netherlands is very hard on the system as also FT Amsterdam ( 6 runways and therefore more taxing than an airport with 2-3 runways )

 

[Cruachan 705]

1 hour ago, GSalden said:

Switching AA settings does not show a load message. The scenery is back within half a second , but with the higher framerate .

Hi Gerard,

Perhaps something is being reset in the graphic drivers and switching AA is triggering this behaviour. I would imagine that you have tried this already, but do you see this effect while using a freshly generated Prepar3D.cfg with no or minimal changes made by the user? 

Did this reduction of frame rates over time happen before you SLI’d your 1080Ti?

I’m speculating about the possibility that you are experiencing some form of saturation and this is developing over time to the point where it affects frame rates. Changing AA may be forcing a ‘fresh start’, a graphic reset if you like.

Regards,

Mike