Stuttering/Lag/Micro-Freezes

[swallsgaming 2]

Hi All,

I have just moved over to P3Dv4.3 by recommendation as I am aware that it uses the GPU more than the CPU and so would fit my system better:

i5 4690K @ 4.5GHz

GTX 1060 3GB

After running FSX for a few years, I had managed to achieve a solid between 25-40fps on the ground and 60-70fps at cruising but fps didn't matter to me because as long as there was no stuttering, lag or jumpy freezes, it was fine and looked amazing!

I made the switch to P3D to take some of the strain off of my CPU and also so that I could begin to use a weather addon to improve my experience and maybe even be able to turn the sliders up to make the sim look even better. This is not the case and currently I am getting 20-35fps on the ground which is prefectly fine but there is some sort of lag that ruines the experience. The only way I can describe it is that it looks almost as if the sim pauses for half a second every 3 seconds which creates a jumpy, laggy picture. Sort of like micro-stutters that other people have experienced but much worse and the stutter lasts much longer and is far from "micro".

So far I have tried:

- Lowering my refresh rate to 59Hz in the NVIDIA Control Panel

- Capping the sim at 30fps and at 20fps in NI

- Reducing the sliders (Improves fps but stutters remain)

- Adding the AffinityMask=14 entry to the CFG (just makes my terrain texture go blurry)

- Changing FTX Global Vector Settings to only Main Roads and coastlines

 

My Addons used at this point are:

- Aerosoft Airbus A319 Professional

- ORBX FTX Global Base, Vector, Europe England OpenLC

- UK2000 Gatwick Extreme v4

 

This is a real shame as I thought the upgrade to P3D would be good and so far am dissapointed. If anyone knows of a fix, any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advanced!

Matthew.

[LRBS 942]

What is the operating system?

First if is windows10 64 (even windows 7), open task manager, performance and see if CPU speed is at 4.5 GHZ steady while using P3dV4 or actually any other software.

[Mikelab6 89]

@swallsgaming Hi Matthew,

Look in P3D Options Lighting and try turning OFF:

HDR, Dynamic Lighting and Dynamic Reflections slider to OFF (full left) to see how it goes.  Also, use casting and receiving shadows with moderation. Try enabling CAST for only Internal vehicule, External vehicule and clouds. Receive shadows = all enabled.

Mike

[pinepix62 63]

I upgraded to an i7 9700K and a GTX1080 GPU a few weeks ago and thought that it would be the end of all stutters only to find that this was not the case. I then noticed something that I knew from the FSX days, but thought was solved a long time ago. The stutters started when I went to another window (I was playing around with Process Lasso, performance tools, mapping toots etc) and then went back to P3D (now paused) and continued flying. If you open the display settings menu and just close it immediately (cancel) things smoothed out immediately.

I know that this may be a well know cure and you may be doing it already, but I did not realise that this still an issue in P3D v4.3

[swallsgaming 2]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the comments!

@killthespam I have Windows 10 64bit and the CPU does use a constant 4.5GHz clock with P3D open

@Mikelab6 I have done as you suggested also and the problem remains, even with all shadows of

@pinepix62 Yes I am doing this already so the problem must be something different!

Cheers,

Matthew!

[swallsgaming 2]

Here is a visual representation of what I am talking about, notice the constant freezing:

The main things are:

- Please don't tell me to turn the scenery down because the same thing happens with scenery sliders all at the left

- CPU usage is 100% all the time but even without chaseplane when it lowers to 70%, the problem is still there

- It's not smooth at all so please don't tell me to "deal with it" or "it looks good" either

Video Link

 

 

[LRBS 942]

Ahhhh, pretty frustrating.

I see that you go as low as 16 FPS, something is going on really bad there.

Before running the sim start the Task Manger, go options and select Always on top.

Start the sim while you have Task manager running see in the Processes tab which one is creating the problem, it should go red indicating that particular issue.

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Make sure Hyper-Threading is turned off in the BIOS.  For an i5 4690K the video looks good.  I really did not see that much stuttering. If you did not say there was stuttering, I would have not noticed.  It appeared you were taking off from a payware addon airport.  But flight simulation is in the eyes of the beholder and your eyes demand more than mine.  You should not expect it to run as good as my system where I get mostly 50-60 constant fps. See specs in my signature. Turning off HT will help as it improves the visuals too.  Have you saved p3d.cfg by renaming it to p3d.off, restarting and letting the config rebuild?  When doing this, I usually will max out the first graphics page and leave the other pages as defaults.  See if this improves anything.  Shadows are a big performance hit so be careful there.

[LRBS 942]

Jim if you don't mind, I see that you recommend the HT off. My question is (because I don't know) what is the advantage of

having it off versus on? I understand that one issue is related to the CPU temps but other than that how is this working on this P3D. If you know pluses and minuses with HT on versus HT off. Thank you!

[swallsgaming 2]

@killthespam @Jim Young As I have a 4690k which is not HT capable, I have no option to turn it on as it is a 4 core 4 thread only CPU. My dilemma is that on my system I can run FSX with the same settings for better performance which shouldn't be the case. P3D should suit my pc better because it's not so CPU intensive

[swallsgaming 2]

@killthespam The fps is fine for my eyes, even at a default airport, all addons off, I still get the same awful stuttering which at times when it freezes, is unbearable. I wouldn't care if the fps was 6, as long as it's smooth that's all that matters

[holliwutt 11]

You use the AS Airbus, that looks exactly like me. The PMGD 777, however, runs superglatt.Hast you have it already with other aviators z.b. with one of the default aircraft?

Grüße Kalle

[swallsgaming 2]

@holliwutt yes the problem is the same with default aircraft

[LRBS 942]

swallsgaming, my concern is that big jump on FPS you have, especially when is dropping below 20 (in your case 16 as I noticed). With such a big drop is impossible to achieve a smooth and fluid flight.

That's why I mentioned checking the Task manager, did you check that?

Also, you mention that CPU is 100% all the time. It shouldn't be like that all the time, running at 100% is an indication that is overloaded.

What is the CPU load when you play another program or at idle (stay at idle for at least 5 or 10 minutes and notice the load please).

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

5 hours ago, swallsgaming said:

As I have a 4690k which is not HT capable

Yes, all i5's do not support HT.  My recommendation would of course not work on your system.  Sorry for the mistake in not seeing this before commenting.

12 hours ago, killthespam said:

Jim if you don't mind, I see that you recommend the HT off. My question is (because I don't know) what is the advantage of

having it off versus on? I understand that one issue is related to the CPU temps but other than that how is this working on this P3D. If you know pluses and minuses with HT on versus HT off. Thank you!

I answered in a PM you sent but will also answer here.  I had the blurries with my i7 8086K w/6 cores.  I overclocked CPU AND all 6 cores to 5.0GHz and saw blurries in MSE SoCal/NoCal.  Saw on the Internet somewhere HT was not really needed so turned it off.  Suddenly all of my blurries were gone.  I mean, this was like night and day.  The textures are crisp and clear and I feel as if I can almost see people on the ground.  I had some minor stuttering when taking off from FSDT KLAX in any of my payware aircraft and this also reduced or eliminated it (cannot see any issues now).