Hello everybody,everywhere you can read you should set a target frame rate (e.g. 20). But in EDDF I've made the following observation. For the target frame rate I've activated "Unlimited". Now on runeway 7L I had about 15-17 frames. Then I've set the target frame rate to "18". Now I reached only 10-12 frames. OK, what do you think, is it better to set a target frame rate or is the "unlimited" value the best?Have you made similar experiences?Thanks,PatricIntel Core 2 Duo E63002GB DDRII RAM PC5200MSI GeForce 7600GS 256MB

Same experience for me too. I guess my processor has been freed up to figure out how to cast a shadow on a building or something that I probably can't see.I understand the theory of the limiter, just in practise it doesn't work. Not for my setup anyway. Looks like its for older gen hardware.Nels

It is not a simple FPS lock like most games out there. Most games you can lock it to 30FPS and expect it to stay there if you were previously getting 50-60. This is due to the implementation... most games simply have a lock that states that if it gets to frame 31 and one second has not elapsed... take a break.With FSX, the implementation is MUCH different. The locked rate pre-determines the overhead of the engine... in other words, if you lock it at 20fps you are dedicating a specific amount of time to the extras. This means that the sim will spend a specific time loading textures, rendering extra autogen, and other things. This extra overhead drives your actual FPS much lower than what the target was set to :(When you select Unlimited, the software apparently runs full speed ahead and gives the extras a preset amount of time to run. (Fibre_Frame_Time setting) It never auto-adjusts depending on whether it reached a specific FPS or not, which is the factor responsable for FPS drop when locked.

the Fiber thingy operates only when unlimited FR is selected?

No, it operates in both cases, however when you set a target frame rate it adjusts adds to the preset value. Basically when you run lower than the target frame rate, it will use whatever your Fibre frame time is set to, however if you are able to maintain a locked rate, it also adds to the fibre running time.This is why you get unstable FPS in FSX, sitting on a runway for a half hour can reveal that your FPS changes up and down erratically here and there. Even though your locked at a specific rate and you can usually hold that rate, it will sometimes drop occasionally.It's all pure speculation, it's what I've found in the tons of testing I've done trying to get a handle on cause/effect in this game. FSX is like nothing else out there, I have seen my FPS actually DROP when turning off Bloom in some situations... logically the Bloom setting adds time to the build of each individual frame, yet disabling it I actually got a drop in performance.... this shouldn't happen, which shows that ACES have some evaluation equations for fiber frame time that are independent of the logic flow. I've also seen my FPS increase when turning up other sliders in some situations. Really, it doesn't make much sense.... however when you take into consideration that FSX is evaluating it's own performance on-the-fly and controlling fibre percents on that evaluation, you can really understand why this is the case.I have no doubt that this is one of the aspects that ACES are currently working on, as it is blatantly inaccurate at times and presents itself as a major hog to resources. Sticking with simple logic would have been better IMHO, but since I don't know the whole story I can't say that is the case.... better letting ACES figure it out, when they patch it we can rest assure that the outcome will be good.

Patric,In recent years, I've never capped frame rates. Haven't gotFSX yet but ended up in FX9 with excellent frame rates, everythingmaxed out, with PSS 777 & VFR photo scenery.Peter Sydney Australia

Yeah all that fancy talk about fibers and threads made me think of knitting while eating a big bowl of shredded wheat.Try it both ways.And if you really cannot see any difference as with 99.9% of all these tweeks, Forget about it.

Thanks for all your answers and explanations.I'll try both variations with a complete flight and if there are any differences.Patric

Yes I've had a similar experience. After having optimized my settings, and locked the frame rate at 25, I noticed that there was one spot in the Seattle scenery where my FPS would always drop to 9 FPS whenever I would pass by. After having this bother me a number of times, I unlocked the frame rate to the "Unlimited" setting, and I noticed that my FPS at that same scenery spot had jumped up to 15.I've read the reasoning behind the supposed recommendation to lock your frame rate and understand where they're coming from, but frankly, it reduces my performance instead of helping it. So now I always run the sim on the unlimited setting, and it helps to raise FPS in the dense scenery areas.

I've noticed the same effect. I could not see a similar effect in FS9.Of course, the frame rate may really be higher without the limit. But it may just be that the frame rate readout itself is the culprit. If so, changing the limit does not effect the actual frame rate but only affects the readout.I did some very quick tests. Using the standard frame rate readout I observed the effect. But when using FRAPS I did not observe the effect i.e. the reported frame rate did not drop when applying the limit.Probably the best approach is to forget the frame rate readouts. Simply fly with and without the limit and see which gives the better overall flying experience. I use a limit of 16 FPS as I believe it runs smoother - and it will almost certainly help to keep those textures sharp!Best regards, Chris

Same here, tried it locked and unlimited many, many times and I always get better performance with unlimited, go figure.Regards, MichaelKDFW

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI-x16 / AMD

there is some sort of sublogic that combines various aspects of the app. In fact, it's not all that bad, since it is more "intelligent", but it also makes it harder to tweak...

I agree with the others who've posted.In FS9, I lock my value to 30FPS and it stays there in almosta all situations/areas. In FSX, if I lock it to 20FPS I can't get that in what I've considered the "proving ground" area - KSEA (because of the water, detailed city, detailed airport, all all types of AI - road and water).My values don't come close to 20FPS.But, setting it to Unlimited in FSX, at KSEA, after take-off, I canget over 20FPS turning West and the high teens near the areas arounddowntown.JerryG

>>OK, what do you think, is it better to set a target frame rate>or is the "unlimited" value the best?Your thread made me try "unlimited" in FSX. For some reason, it seems to be smoother that way on my system. It does defy logic. You'd think I would be paying for "unlimited" somewhere, such as with blurries or popping objects. But so far I have not noticed anything.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

unlimited seems to improve FR....Bloated texture in this FS10 is amazing. 5cm autogen resolution when 1m terrain resolution is selected. Look at the details on the vehicles.... Much to resize.But it's running much better now for bush flying, I was initially down on FS10 but it's pretty good. Runs well with AI Ardvark so it's looking more like FS9. I doubt a PMDG744 can smoothly fly on FS10 in a high detail airport. We'll see.PatAMD A64 4000+ @ 2.6GHz, Zalman7700Cu cooler, Corsair XMS 1GB DDR, LTK6800GT-OC, Asus A8V MoBo, WDRaptorHDD, TrackIR4, CH FSYoke+TQ+peds, Eclipse RED KB, XP-hsp2