My specs are below.  I am using a Dell U3415w w native 3440x1440 display and was hoping someone might be able to tell me what resolution setting within the sim would give me the best performance without losing anything visually.  I am using the FSlabs series and that can be a little more taxing so I am looking to get the best out of my sim.  I am also looking at bumping up my GPU.  Would I gain anything with a 1080ti or would my system not allow?

 

Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Professional, Intel LGA 1151

Processor: Intel 6th Gen Core i7 6700K (4.6GHz Overclock) Quad Core

CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid Cooling

System Memory: 16GB Kingston DDR4 SDRAM 2400MHz

Graphics Processor: 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, PCI Express 3.0

System Power: 750 Watt Corsair RM Series Power Supply

Sound Card: 7.1 High Definition Integrated Audio

Primary Solid State Drive: 500GB Samsung EVO 850 Solid State Drive (SSD)

You want to stay at the monitor's native resolution.  If the monitor supports it, you could try 2560x1440, which would give you a regular 16:9 display in the center portion of the screen with black bars on the sides...but then why have the 21:9 display in the first place?

A 1080Ti would be a good match for that monitor and CPU.  That 2400 MHz RAM is pretty underwhelming, though. 

 

44 minutes ago, w6kd said:

You want to stay at the monitor's native resolution.  If the monitor supports it, you could try 2560x1440, which would give you a regular 16:9 display in the center portion of the screen with black bars on the sides...but then why have the 21:9 display in the first place?

A 1080Ti would be a good match for that monitor and CPU.  That 2400 MHz RAM is pretty underwhelming, though. 

 

Thanks... so if I hear you correctly, stay in 3440x1440 in the display settings and in the P3D resolution settings for the best overall performance?

If you use a resolution other than the screen's native resolution and either the graphics driver or the monitor attempts to scale the image, it'll look terrible.  That's why you want to stay at the native resolution.  If you can go with 2560x1440 without scaling, then you might see a slight performance bump by reducing the resolution (depending on AA settings and image complexity, e.g. multiple cloud layers, dynamic lighting etc), and as I said above, you'll have a "cinema bar" of unused black screen on each side of the smaller image.

 

Thanks!

8 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

Graphics Processor: 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, PCI Express 3.0

I would suggest upgrading your video card to something like GTX 1080Ti or any of the newest RTX series.

Cheers, Ed

Based on my specs are there any tips or suggestions on do's or don'ts that I must be looking at to improve performance?  I've toyed around with my sliders and no matter what I do, I can't get anything over 20 consistently.  Are there any Nvidia Inspector things I should be doing?

I am working on an updated 'intermediate' performance/tuning checklist based on my recent experience that is largely based on information I've gathered from various threads and posts on Avsim from experts like SteveW, Rob_Ainscough and many others.  That said, I have three thoughts.

1) To figure out how to get improvements you need to see where the limitations are.  Best way to do this is to get yourself into a flight where you're getting that 20 fps that you wish was higher and then take a look at how your system is running.  Set the autopilot and then open the task manager (make sure your sim doesn't pause on task switch) which you can do just by hitting the windows key on your keyboard and right-clicking on the task bar and choosing 'Task Manager' - go to the 'Performance' tab, click on 'GPU 0' and also click on 'Open Resource Manager' at the bottom of the window, which will open another window called 'Resource Monitor'.  In the 'Resource Monitor' window click on the 'CPU' tab and expand the window to show all of your CPUs (there should be a total of either 6 or 10 graphs along the right depending on whether or not you have hyperthreading enabled).

In the 'Task Manager' window what is your '3D' utilization, what is your 'GPU Memory' usage? What is your 'Shared GPU' memory usage? Is there any activity in 'Copy'?  A screenshot would help to diagnose.  If '3D' is at 100%, you need to lower GPU-intensive settings like shadows, reflections, dynamic lights and anti-aliasing.  If 'GPU Memory' is within 1GB of your total memory, you need to reduce texture resolution, screen resolution or your anti-aliasing multiplier (for example MSAA 8x uses more VRAM than 4x which uses more VRAM than 2x).  You can change these settings in real time in P3D and see what gets you under the threshold.  If you're under the limits on all, then your GPU is most likely not limiting you.

In the 'Resource Monitor' window, how utilized is each core? (again a screenshot would help).  If you don't have an affinity mask set, then P3D will be using CPU 0 the most.  Is it at 100%?  If you are running at a fixed framerate in P3D, set it to Unlimited and turn off Vsync for testing purposes.  What framerate are you seeing now?  If you're only seeing 20 FPS AND the GPU is not limiting (per above) and CPU 0 is at 100%, then you need to turn down CPU-intensive settings until you achieve a framerate that is acceptable to you.  Reduce your Level of Detail Radius and/or your Autogen settings and/or your traffic until you reach a framerate you like (30 is a nice target).  Try to get it up to 35 fps.  Remember that this is very dynamic, as you increase your framerate by reducing the demand on the CPU, your GPU will have to work harder to keep up (and vice versa), so after each change, you need to look at both the GPU in Task Manager and the CPU in Resource Monitor.  Once you hit any upper limit, you'll start to have stutters and the framerate will be limited.  It is a balancing act.

But...you don't have to fix it now, just sharing how it is running right now would help us give you better advice on next steps...

2) Your monitor's native resolution is high; from a pixel count standpoint, it is between a 2K/1440p (2560x1440) and 4K/2160p (3840x2160) resolution; much more than a standard 1080p (1920x1080) display. Your GPU is really not geared to output intensive graphics at that high of a resolution and so it wouldn't surprise me if you were GPU limited at that resolution.  You could go for a lower resolution, but as others have mentioned that isn't ideal and won't look great.  Your better bet would be to consider a more powerful GPU that is better matched to your screen resolution.  Higher resolutions, especially when paired with high resolution cockpits and scenery textures, are very VRAM intensive as well.  I have 8GB of VRAM and run dangerously close to/right up to that limit running at 4K.  But, you may also be able to achieve acceptable performance at that resolution by sacrificing anti-aliasing and texture resolutions.  If you have ActiveSky, Cloud Art/Envtex, etc weather is a menace to GPU performance, especially at high resolutions.  If flying in cloudy weather, you should see an obvious change in GPU utilization if you set your cloud layers higher or lower.  In bad rainy weather I have to go to 2 cloud layers to un-peg my GPU.  In fair weather/non-overcast, I can have 4-5 layers.

3) Your memory is relatively slow by current standards.  Your CPU/Motherboard combination (in your signature) should be able to run faster memory.  A quick look at crucial.com shows that the Asrock Z170 Pro4 can support 3200Mhz RAM (and faster) if you have XMP enabled in the motherboard BIOS.  That COULD help, but I wouldn't go there yet.

My GUESS is that you're limited either by (a) CPU because your main P3D thread is sharing Core 0 due to hyperthreading being on and no affinity mask set (or not on and thus only 4 threads available) or (b) your GPU is pegged at 100% because of your screen resolution. Or both.  If you can share screenshots of your Task Manager and Resource Manager as outlined above, we can try to get you pointed in the right direction.  Even with your current hardware setup, I would think we should be able to get you tweaked to get 30 fps with the right mix of settings...

35 minutes ago, cwburnett said:

I am working on an updated 'intermediate' performance/tuning checklist based on my recent experience that is largely based on information I've gathered from various threads and posts on Avsim from experts like SteveW, Rob_Ainscough and many others.  That said, I have three thoughts.

1) To figure out how to get improvements you need to see where the limitations are.  Best way to do this is to get yourself into a flight where you're getting that 20 fps that you wish was higher and then take a look at how your system is running.  Set the autopilot and then open the task manager (make sure your sim doesn't pause on task switch) which you can do just by hitting the windows key on your keyboard and right-clicking on the task bar and choosing 'Task Manager' - go to the 'Performance' tab, click on 'GPU 0' and also click on 'Open Resource Manager' at the bottom of the window, which will open another window called 'Resource Monitor'.  In the 'Resource Monitor' window click on the 'CPU' tab and expand the window to show all of your CPUs (there should be a total of either 6 or 10 graphs along the right depending on whether or not you have hyperthreading enabled).

In the 'Task Manager' window what is your '3D' utilization, what is your 'GPU Memory' usage? What is your 'Shared GPU' memory usage? Is there any activity in 'Copy'?  A screenshot would help to diagnose.  If '3D' is at 100%, you need to lower GPU-intensive settings like shadows, reflections, dynamic lights and anti-aliasing.  If 'GPU Memory' is within 1GB of your total memory, you need to reduce texture resolution, screen resolution or your anti-aliasing multiplier (for example MSAA 8x uses more VRAM than 4x which uses more VRAM than 2x).  You can change these settings in real time in P3D and see what gets you under the threshold.  If you're under the limits on all, then your GPU is most likely not limiting you.

In the 'Resource Monitor' window, how utilized is each core? (again a screenshot would help).  If you don't have an affinity mask set, then P3D will be using CPU 0 the most.  Is it at 100%?  If you are running at a fixed framerate in P3D, set it to Unlimited and turn off Vsync for testing purposes.  What framerate are you seeing now?  If you're only seeing 20 FPS AND the GPU is not limiting (per above) and CPU 0 is at 100%, then you need to turn down CPU-intensive settings until you achieve a framerate that is acceptable to you.  Reduce your Level of Detail Radius and/or your Autogen settings and/or your traffic until you reach a framerate you like (30 is a nice target).  Try to get it up to 35 fps.  Remember that this is very dynamic, as you increase your framerate by reducing the demand on the CPU, your GPU will have to work harder to keep up (and vice versa), so after each change, you need to look at both the GPU in Task Manager and the CPU in Resource Monitor.  Once you hit any upper limit, you'll start to have stutters and the framerate will be limited.  It is a balancing act.

But...you don't have to fix it now, just sharing how it is running right now would help us give you better advice on next steps...

2) Your monitor's native resolution is high; from a pixel count standpoint, it is between a 2K/1440p (2560x1440) and 4K/2160p (3840x2160) resolution; much more than a standard 1080p (1920x1080) display. Your GPU is really not geared to output intensive graphics at that high of a resolution and so it wouldn't surprise me if you were GPU limited at that resolution.  You could go for a lower resolution, but as others have mentioned that isn't ideal and won't look great.  Your better bet would be to consider a more powerful GPU that is better matched to your screen resolution.  Higher resolutions, especially when paired with high resolution cockpits and scenery textures, are very VRAM intensive as well.  I have 8GB of VRAM and run dangerously close to/right up to that limit running at 4K.  But, you may also be able to achieve acceptable performance at that resolution by sacrificing anti-aliasing and texture resolutions.  If you have ActiveSky, Cloud Art/Envtex, etc weather is a menace to GPU performance, especially at high resolutions.  If flying in cloudy weather, you should see an obvious change in GPU utilization if you set your cloud layers higher or lower.  In bad rainy weather I have to go to 2 cloud layers to un-peg my GPU.  In fair weather/non-overcast, I can have 4-5 layers.

3) Your memory is relatively slow by current standards.  Your CPU/Motherboard combination (in your signature) should be able to run faster memory.  A quick look at crucial.com shows that the Asrock Z170 Pro4 can support 3200Mhz RAM (and faster) if you have XMP enabled in the motherboard BIOS.  That COULD help, but I wouldn't go there yet.

My GUESS is that you're limited either by (a) CPU because your main P3D thread is sharing Core 0 due to hyperthreading being on and no affinity mask set (or not on and thus only 4 threads available) or (b) your GPU is pegged at 100% because of your screen resolution. Or both.  If you can share screenshots of your Task Manager and Resource Manager as outlined above, we can try to get you pointed in the right direction.  Even with your current hardware setup, I would think we should be able to get you tweaked to get 30 fps with the right mix of settings...

Thanks for the long post!  I appreciate it.  I should be able to get to the testing at some point tomorrow and can post some screenshots.  Is it best to just leave all the Nvidia Inspector stuff alone?

Generally, NI won't get you a 50% boost in framerate. It will help tweak some things but won't provide wholesale performance improvement. Honestly, I recently built a new sim rig on the i5 9600k and an AMD RX5700XT GPU, so can't speak to NVIDIA.  That said, we also built a gaming PC on an i7 9700k and an RTX2070 Super and I tested P3D on that and didn't get better performance, but didn't mess extensively with NI.  SSGA and framerate limiter are the only two NI features I see people using regularly, but an NI guru might be able to speak to that better.  In your shoes, I'd leave NI alone and start with a default NVIDIA profile for this purpose.  If I recall, there are a couple things you want to set in the NVIDIA control panel - 'Prefer Maximum Performance' is one and making sure your Anti-Aliasing settings match to what you're selecting in P3D, but I can't speak with authority on that.

Edited January 30, 20206 yr by cwburnett
typo

1 hour ago, cwburnett said:

Generally, NI won't get you a 50% boost in framerate. It will help tweak some things but won't provide wholesale performance improvement. Honestly, I recently built a new sim rig on the i5 9600k and an AMD 5700XT GPU, so can't speak to NVIDIA.  That said, we also built a gaming PC on an i7 9700k and an RTX2070 Super and I tested P3D on that and didn't get better performance, but didn't mess extensively with NI.  SSGA and framerate limiter are the only two NI features I see people using regularly, but an NI guru might be able to speak to that better.  In your shoes, I'd leave NI alone and start with a default NVIDIA profile for this purpose.  If I recall, there are a couple things you want to set in the NVIDIA control panel - 'Prefer Maximum Performance' is one and making sure your Anti-Aliasing settings match to what you're selecting in P3D, but I can't speak with authority on that.

Cool!  I think I'll go back to the default P3d Nvidia settings. 

Also, would a 2080 TI be recommended for my system?   I know I have some testing to do to see where my bottle necks are but not being technical, I was not sure if something in my set up would prohibit me from using the 2080ti

3 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

Also, would a 2080 TI be recommended for my system?   I know I have some testing to do to see where my bottle necks are but not being technical, I was not sure if something in my set up would prohibit me from using the 2080ti

A 2080Ti is a great GPU with plenty of VRAM.  I can't say confidently whether you could fully take advantage of all that power with your existing system, though.  Texture resolution, screen resolution, anti-aliasing, reflections and shadows are largely exclusive to the GPU, so you could turn those settings way up (probably all the way up), but you may be able to do that with a 2080 Super also at your desired resolution.  If you were also asking the GPU to render an Ultra Level of Detail and max autogen settings, a bunch of cloud layers and hundreds of AI planes at EGLL with TE Great Britain loaded you'd easily max out even a 2080Ti.  However, your CPU won't support high settings for LOD, autogen, clouds and traffic anyhow.

My totally unsolicited advice would probably be to wait on hardware upgrades for two reasons.  First, the next gen of GPUs is coming soon - probably by mid-year.  The 2080 is 2 year old tech at this point.  The pressure from AMD is already driving Nvidia prices down and you can expect that with AMD's 'Big Navi' blah blah and the expected Nvidia RTX 3080, existing cards will get cheaper or you'll have the option to buy the next best thing.  Second, that timing aligns with when we might expect to see both the next version of P3D and/or MSFS2020 (plus or minus a few months).  That all paints the picture that the second half of 2020 will probably be a good time to be considering hardware and software and building a balanced system that aligns with the requirements of the updated software.

Of course, none of that stopped me from building a new rig in September, so...  My only other thought would be that you could basically build the system I built in September for the price of a 2080Ti...and have better overall/more balanced performance than a 2080Ti in your current system.  But, if you did get a 2080Ti, you could pair it with a faster CPU at some point, too and blow my system out of the water.  Lots of choices if you have money to spend! No right answer.

All that said, I don't see anything in your specs that would prohibit the use of the 2080Ti, but I can't say definitively.  You need to have the right power connectors, but you probably do.  So, no, your system won't prohibit you from using it I don't think...

4 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

Also, would a 2080 TI be recommended for my system?   I know I have some testing to do to see where my bottle necks are but not being technical, I was not sure if something in my set up would prohibit me from using the 2080ti

The 2080Ti is the cutting edge right now, and priced accordingly at a significant premium.  The rest of your system is three generations old now.  So if you're contemplating upgrading the CPU/mobo/RAM in the near future, lead-turning that with a 2080Ti now may make sense.  If not, the 2080Ti is a real overmatch to the rest of the system.  It'll work just fine, but your 6700K will not push it hard enough to exploit its capabilities, especially at a resolution below 4K.

 

On 1/27/2020 at 4:24 PM, Zimmerbz said:

Would I gain anything with a 1080ti or would my system not allow

I have basically the same system as you have, only I already have a 1080Ti.
I'm pretty sure that replacing your 1060 with a 1080Ti will certainly increase your framerates.
FSLabs (and other high-end add-ons) run very good on my system, but in 2560x1440 resolution. Nevertheless I'm confident that the 1080Ti also can manage UHD resolution.

Question however is if you can get your hands on a (new) 1080Ti. Price wise is was/is a very good card and therefor popular.
I guess you have to aim for a 2070 instead, or wait for this years GPU's

 

 

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by Egbert Drenth