You may want to look at the amount of video memory in use at the time it occurs (not sure what utility to use for nVidia). At the time, I noticed my video memory was down to 49Mb out of 512Mb. If FSX has to start swapping textures in and out of the video card, that can really slow things down, even on a high-end rig. However, I also have seen the video memory at 0Mb at times, but frame rates were still high. So its anyone's guess, but I do not believe this is a hardware issue. Since I see it on ATI, and you see it on nVidia, that probably decreases the odds of it being a video driver issue. BTW, I am running at 1920x1200 and 1280x1024 on second monitor. Usually runs fine except for this problem.

I've had similar fps problem in the past on my FX-60 system with 2gb Corsair PC4000, and XFX 7900GTX sli. With most scenery sliders at least 50% and some maxed I'd get very flyable 14-15 fps on the active at KSEA, and 16-25 once airborne flying toward downtown Seattle. But after a time, anywhere from 3 to 30 minutes, it would bottom out at 1 - 2 fps :(Restarting FSX would get the good rates back, but would happen all over again. This happened when flying out of several different airports. And it would most often happen on final or flying over or near an airport, as you mention.Not long ago I saw a thread here that suggested the BufferPools tweak might be responsible for that. I'd set PoolSize at 7000000. Anyway, I deleted it from fsx.cfg and the problem disappeared! I haven't seen that massive fps drop since then. I've since put it back, at 3000000 and no recurrance of the problem.If you've added BufferPools tweak, you might try taking it out for a while and see if that helps. Don't know if your problem is the same as I had, I never got "out of memory" error (but then as soon as it happened, I'd shut down FSX and restart) and I've not tried doing screenshots (except with Prt Screen) and I don't use the Shift-Z display much.Good luck, I've been there and know how frustrating it is!

>Hi Robert,>>It would be interesting to know what addons you are using with>FSX? I have experienced the same thing with FS9 and was almost>always due to an Afcad file, and also could be a conflict with>numerous addons. such as the Super 80 from coolsky that I fly.>I am unable to use it along with U.T USA for some reason>without an OOM error altough I have plenty of unused memory>according to the task manager. I've not installed any FS-Addons but run sometimes in the same Problems as still reported (first time seen in the European Alps but also still recognized in Australia and North America)>Ofcourse if you are running FSX right out of the box none of>this would apply, and the best thing I could suggest would be>to make sure your system is clean of any Viruses and , or>Spyware although I highly doubt that this would cuase an OOM>error with your amount of ram!I've installed and executed Sybot Search and Destroy (Best avalibable Freeware-Tool from Germany) and detected no Virusses, Maleware, Spybots etc...My Flight-Time to detect the Problem is also 1..2 hours. It seems that this is not depending on fyling in one Flight and Scenery or often loading of new Flights. Sometimes it occurs for me on a long-range Flight. In other times I often loaded new Airport Locations or previous saved flights and also after 1..2 hours I run in the same Problems. So I assume that one of the common FSX-Functions (independing from special Scenery data) causes the Problem after a while.I sometimes used Memstatus over longer Flight Times. I've not seen yet a Memory-Leak that would constantly from FSX Startup crunch the available Memory. So I assume that there is another Reason like I-E. a Stack Overflow after a while that let the FSX run in Memory based Trouble suddenly after 1..2 hours.Regards Heinz-Werner

>I've had similar fps problem in the past on my FX-60 system>with 2gb Corsair PC4000, and XFX 7900GTX sli. With most>scenery sliders at least 50% and some maxed I'd get very>flyable 14-15 fps on the active at KSEA, and 16-25 once>airborne flying toward downtown Seattle. But after a time,>anywhere from 3 to 30 minutes, it would bottom out at 1 - 2>fps :(I use a Athlon64 3500, 1GB Corsair Memory, a extended Pagefime (3,5 GB), a RADEON 1900XT with 512 MB and a 250GB HD with a 125GB Partition for FSX where much more than 100GB are still free. For me it usual takes 1..2 hours until I run in this Trouble.>Restarting FSX would get the good rates back, but would happen>all over again.Same Experience for me.>...>Not long ago I saw a thread here that suggested the>BufferPools tweak might be responsible for that. I'd set>PoolSize at 7000000. Anyway, I deleted it from fsx.cfg and>the problem disappeared! I haven't seen that massive fps drop>since then. I've since put it back, at 3000000 and no>recurrance of the problem.My PoolSize is meanwhile tweaked to 8000000.>>If you've added BufferPools tweak, you might try taking it out>for a while and see if that helps. Don't know if your problem>is the same as I had, I never got "out of memory" error (but>then as soon as it happened, I'd shut down FSX and restart)>and I've not tried doing screenshots (except with Prt Screen)>and I don't use the Shift-Z display much.The problem occurs for me since 4 Weeks (also before and after I installed this Tweak last week).>Good luck, I've been there and know how frustrating it is!Also a litte frustrated. I still tried 3 Times a Long-range Flight but I always had to Interrupt it by the reported Problem. Was no Problem for me to save and continue after FSX-Restart the Flight for 2 Times but it needed very long Time to save the Flight from the FSX in trouble.Always happy landings Heinz-Werner

I took off from KJAC with full autogen. 2 minutes later the 5 to 6 fps became a solid 1.2 fps (!) and the sim froze. I bet it's the autogen.

I've also experienced massive frame rate drop but it happens much sooner than 1.5 hours..more like 1 hour. Since I fly in full screen mode I cannot quit out of FSX nor can I envoke taskmanager to close FSX..I must hard restart my system when this happens. I don't remember loosing the "Shift Z" display though. I attributed this to real weather settings because it seemed to only happen when I had that selected. I've also had the lockup when moving to a differnet airport after flying for some time as noted in an earlier post. I'am glad I'am not the only one dealing with this problem. Hope ACES has this as reproducable in house.

PlanePlanter, I run full-screen also and as I recall I was able to alt-tab back to desktop and shut FSX down gracefully when that happened. Or also, I think a few times I was able to ctrl-c to get out. FSX still responded, just took it a long time to "think"...But speaking of that, it reminds me of another problem I've had the last few days (since getting rid of the "crashing" frame-rates) I use FS Commander while waiting for FS Nav to be compatible, and at least 3 or 4 times the last few days, when I alt-tab to the FS Commander window then try to alt-tab back to FSX, the whole system hangs :( Can't click on anything, can't open task manager, start menu won't open, FSX don't appear.If I'm patient and wait a minute or 2, FSX will eventually come back up and things are fine. But when it happened last night, I let it sit 10 minutes, and still no FSX, or response from the system in any way. Had to do a hard reset to get out of it. Don't understand, most of the time there's no problem, but SOMETIMES it sends my whole system out to lunch...I love this sim, but I wish there weren't so many bugs in it!

For our World Tour flight into a very dense area (Tokyo) i thought it would be a good idea to apply the Buffer Pool tweak. I tried it in Seattle and everything looked well so far. Arriving above Tokyo caused (first time for me) this huge drop to 1-2 FPS with distorted graphics. I disabled this 'tweak', restarted the session and everything was back to work. Buffer Pool size should be handled with care... ;-)

Mango I'll tell you what, makes me glad I don't live in or near Tokyo as that's where I'd want to do a lot of flying if I lived there. Tried Tokyo for the 1st time after reading your post and it brought my $5k 3-month old system to its knees :(Whereas at KSEA I can get 13-14 fps on the active, and 18-20 fps over downtown Seattle, and at my home airport KGSO mid 20's on the active, and 30+ after takeoff, well in Tokyo I was getting a whopping SIX fps on the active, averaging maybe 7 after takeoff... Heading west out of RJTT after a while I got up into the 12-14 range. But jeez, all the stuff going on there I guess it's understandable. Makes NYC look like a village ;)Just curious, after killing BufferPool what fps were you getting in Tokyo? Had mine at 3000000 but I don't think that was affecting it, fps were steady thruout, no sudden massive drops. Also, what alt were you at? I was in my DreamFleet C-177 RG, 1,500 or less alt.

Yeah, Tokyo is the true benchmark place... With my high visual settings i can fly at any altitude above Seattle with 16 - 25 FPS very fluid. When i came close to Tokyo @ 3.000 ft with the default Grumman Goose, it dropped to 9 - 12 - not flyable anymore. I tried Buffer Pool size 5000000 and 10000000, both failed (FPS drop to 1 -2 and disoriented graphics)@ Tokyo and didn't make a noticeable frame rate difference at all.

This is just a gut hunch, but I think you are eventuallysapping your video resources dry. Probably from too much autogen. When this happens, does your virtual cockpit reduce theres of the BMP? It will, if it's a video overload problem.This will also cause the reduced res "blurries" in the landclass.Using far right sliders really pushes the video and texturesbig time. What I would do, is set the autogen to about half,and see what happens. Look at your high res! There is no freelunch when it comes to high res, and far right sliders. My hunch is it's eating your video resources dry after a whileof flying. MK

Hy SirYou have steady 25 fps with FS X? Can you tel me how? For me is dificult to obtain more then 20 to 21 fps and drops with a few clouds or trafic. I have Intel Cor 2 CPU [email protected] 2.14 GHz on MSI platinium and 2GB with an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro grafic card.RegardsAntonio

Antonio, our systems are different, for what that's worth. I have a Core 2 Duo E6700, which is a faster processor. My ram is 800Mhz, low latency; I don't know what yours is. My videocard is an XFX nVidia 7950GT, not one from ATI.Robert

Hello,Just something to think about:I experienced similar behaviour as TS described.I did however find something interesting:When the frame rate drops, Alt-Tab to Windows, and back.Most of the time the framerate returns back to normal for a while.What I also noticed in this thread:Everyone experiencing this problem are using a system with Intel Core2 Duo processor.Could it be a processor compatibility issue?When looking at taskmanager, I also noticed, when running FS, one core is almost at 100% while the other core is almost at 0%Rgds,MarcoMy system:MSI P965 Mobo (Intel 965 chipset)Intel Core2 Duo E6300 Proc1 GB 800Mhz memoryAsus EN7600GT 256MB (Nvidia 7600GT)

Hehe, I was just going to say: anyone see the trend processor wise? But you beat me to it.I also have a core2duo, 6600, and have experienced the same problem, often a lot sooner than most due to my aggressive track-ir use, but not as severely as some of you. My fps drops occur only when panning the view after a period of 30 minutes to 1 hour, straight ahead flight fps is never affected regardless of flight time.To the previous poster, its normal for your second core to be doing pretty much squat. FSX only seems to take advantage of it for minor tasks that don't need to be executed per frame.I installed this MS multi processor hotfix, which may be helping:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=enThere's a link further down that page to a full description of the problem.If you try it, definitely do a system restore point first.On the framerate degredation question, I think the vram exhaustion issue may be spot on, but I'm also concerned by the number of autogen description files (.agn) that the sim is constantly looking for, and which simply do not exist. Run a filemon session in the background during a flight and you'll see what I mean. Remember the issues FS9 would have if there was an empty texture folder next to a scenery folder? FPS drops, CTDs, OOM issues. I think we're seeing a ghost of that here, but something which isn't possible to fix on our end. For a full look into that problem, look for a thread called "Texture Lookup Goosechase" from a few weeks ago in this forum. I'm willing to bet the problems are closely related.Also maybe take a look at your texture multi bandwidth setting in the fsx config file. It's common practice to boost this up, but I've found doing so brings this problem on a lot sooner, for me anyway.I seriously doubt that this is a core2duo hardware or winxp problem as much as an FSX problem. I regularly play many other graphically intensive games: Oblivion, Neverwinter 2, and Medieval Total War 2, for many hours at a stretch and never see any such slowdowns. If its a memory leak, I'm betting its some internal buffer related to autogen that's getting messed up over time, instead of a leak that's visible in the system performance window.Just for kicks, maybe try setting processor affinity for fsx to just one proc, and see what happens.Good hunting!