NCP - Enhance vs Override...

[newtie 540]

On 10/17/2023 at 6:20 PM, Rogen said:

My 2 cents... overclocking does work and does make a difference overall, I mean hey... why sacrifice a free performance upgrade ?

My 5800x is clocked to 4.7 Ghz with SMT disabled where P3D does take advantage of the overclock as well as the dedication of whole processor cores (instead of splitting the processor core into 2 x threads).

I just aimed for the maximum CPU stated boost clock speed while keeping SMT disabled, that way the maximum CPU speed can be maintained without unmanagable production of heat, helps to have a great CPU cooler too, I have one of these (not black though) and even though SMT is disabled, P3D when under load does drive those cores to max temps, good on a cold day to heat the room 😉

 

Also with setting AA in NCP, I take it you mean you've set Antialiasing - Transparency ?

There are higher settings available via the Nvidia Profile Inspector, for instance you could set Transparency Super Sampling to Sparse Grid super sampling, the trick when using Sparse Grid super sampling is to set a value match of the P3D MSAA setting.

2 x SGSS means P3D would be set to 2 x MSAA, 4 x SGSS means P3D would be set to 4 x MSAA and so on, this is because there is a matched dependancy between the two types for proper operation and while it does provide pretty good AA, it is a GPU hog, meaning there is always a trade off.

There is also DSR in the NVidia Control Panel where you can set a resolution higher than that of the monitor's native resolution, this provides an adjustable smoothing effect which is quite helpful towards AA.

Additionally there is also reshade and the many AA filters included like SMAA, CMAA, FXAA, DLAA and TAA, all of which are adjustable.

So lots of options to play with, with the best being whatever your GPU can be pushed to handle without overloading.

Cheers

 

2 x SGSS means P3D would be set to 2 x MSAA, 4 x SGSS means P3D would be set to 4 x MSAA and so on, this is because there is a matched dependancy between the two types for proper operation and while it does provide pretty good AA, it is a GPU hog, meaning there is always a trade off.

Don't know how I missed this. 2xSGSS/MSAA does a pretty good job of removing shimmering runway lines/markings. 4xSGSS/MSAA even better at a larger GPU hit. I'm going to continue to use this at a variety of airports to see how this works out.

[Luis Hernandez 591]

On 10/18/2023 at 6:21 AM, jcomm said:

WOW for performance and visuals with just 2xMSAA in the sim and 2xSGSS through the default NPI profile for Prepar3d !

Did you find any issues with the FSL A320? With 4xMSAA+4xSGSS (2x was still too jaggy for me), I find the EFBs unusable.

[Rogen 1,102]

On 10/23/2023 at 6:59 AM, newtie said:

Don't know how I missed this. 2xSGSS/MSAA does a pretty good job of removing shimmering runway lines/markings. 4xSGSS/MSAA even better at a larger GPU hit. I'm going to continue to use this at a variety of airports to see how this works out.

Great to hear the values are helpful, I also use 2 x SGSS and 8 x MSAA, surprisingly it works quite well without too much GPU hogging.

Cheers

Edited October 24, 2023 by Rogen

[jcomm 6,020]

4 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Did you find any issues with the FSL A320? With 4xMSAA+4xSGSS (2x was still too jaggy for me), I find the EFBs unusable.

No, only that popup saying "it's too much" 🙂 but I dismiss it and it doesn't affect the performance.

[Kalnon 160]

@jcomm regarding the inital topic question, I believe that AA is very GPU intensive, not CPU intensive (someone correct me if I'm wrong), but I personally see no change in CPU usage or temps when increasing/decreasing AA or changing AA type.  I do however see a big change in GPU usage/temps so I don't believe your high CPU temperatures are due to AA.

As someone else said, getting a bigger CPU cooler as well as quality thermal paste will help temps a lot.  I have the Noctua NH-D15 fan cooler.  It was the biggest fan cooler on the market when I bought it a few years back and it is massive but it also works wonderfully cooling my Ryzen 5800X.

Questions:

I noticed you and others mentioned turning SMT off.  Is it really better to have hyperthreading off for P3Dv5?  I've always kept it on.

You guys mentioned SGSS, what exactly is that?  The only AA methods I've seen are FXAA and the option to switch between SSAA or MSAA.

Interesting note: I have FSX:SE completely jaggy free with using the DX10 8x SSAA through Steve's DX10 Fixer Tool.  I never see jaggies in FSX ever.  Strange how P3D is worse.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Kalnon

[newtie 540]

10 hours ago, Rogen said:

Great to hear the values are helpful, I also use 2 x SGSS and 8 x MSAA, surprisingly it works quite well without too much GPU hogging.

The values don't have to match, that is, 2/8 v. 8/8?

[Rogen 1,102]

8 hours ago, newtie said:

The values don't have to match, that is, 2/8 v. 8/8?

Yeah they do need to match for the best results, that's not to say you cannot set P3D to alternate value AA settings and perhaps see a further improved result.

It's about balancing GPU use vs. the amount of AA applied.

SGSS does indeed need a matched value of MSAA for it to function as designed to provide great results, but when you want a bit more AA but cannot afford the GPU use of doubling the SGSS/MSAA values, you might find just increasing the MSAA side improves for less GPU cost.

I typically trial and error for a given senario, for example I fly into a couple of farm strips with powerlines at each end where I want the powerlines to display the smoothest for best visibility on takeoff and landing.

Cheers

 

[newtie 540]

Thanks. I tried 4/4 but cooling fans on GPU went crazy (4K monitor). I'll look at 2/2 or 2/4 when I get a chance and see how that settles out.

[Rogen 1,102]

4 hours ago, newtie said:

Thanks. I tried 4/4 but cooling fans on GPU went crazy (4K monitor). I'll look at 2/2 or 2/4 when I get a chance and see how that settles out.

Yeah a matched SGSS/MSAA can be quite a GPU hog, although the 2/2 option is something most of the newer GPU series can handle ok.

But to give an example of how GPU vs. MSAA settings can apply when SGSS x2 has been set...

Here are a series of pics using SGSS x 2 and various AA settings in P3D, the final pic is showing the GPU usage steps for each pic.

Specifically this is the powerline example I previously quoted.

SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 2 - overall AA is quite good although the powerlines are fragmented.

 

SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 8 - the powerlines are much improved.

 

SGSS x 2 - SSAA x 4 - the powerlines are back to being fragmented although they are a slight improvement over SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 2

 

SGSS x 2 - SSAA x 8 The power lines are much improved looking very similar to the output of SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 8

 

The below pic shows the GPU usage for each of the above pics as each stepped change of P3D AA is applied in the order of

1. SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 2
2. SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 8
3. SGSS x 2 - SSAA x 4
4. SGSS x 2 - SSAA x 8

The pic below with the GPU monitoring graph I took with AA set as SGSS x 2 - MSAA x 8, where it can be seen the GPU usage is just slightly less than SGSS x 2 - SSAA x 4, a saving of ~20% of GPU resources for almost the same AA result as SGSS x 2 - SSAA x 8.

Of course individual results may vary, plus I am also using DSR for a larger than native screen resolution and also CMAA within Reshade.

Cheers

Edited October 25, 2023 by Rogen
spelling etc.