On 2/7/2024 at 10:37 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

When I was having lockups I took LM advice and switched 0 to 6.

That's a hardware issue ... either CPU or RAM.  I personally would have gone with Intel for a new, AMD will get your more reliable and consistent performance, even Intel have decided to move away from eCores for future CPUs.  But I realize that does you no good for current situation ... have you tried using Process Lasso?   For benchmark testing Process Lasso can reduce performance results, but for real world flight simulators that use multiple cores it can help with quickly determining optimal assignments ... especially for ChasePlane and AIG and Weather engine.

I haven't purchased the Concord from FSLab because they don't offer a P3D V6.x version.  But if FSLabs are still forcing modifications to one's prepar3d.cfg you might want to hit them up on that ... A3xx series would modify it.  I assume FSLabs have no input on the issue?

With that many cores, HT nor SMT will be of any help, just generates more heat and consumes more power.

Maxime, what are your Vsync settings in the Nvidia Control Panel?  Do you have adaptive Vsync (half refresh rate) on by chance?

I suspect that some setting related to GPU may be the culprit here. Why do I think so?  Because in your case, the FPS jumps from 60 to around 30, and then from around 30 to around 15. Each of these numbers is a divisor of 60. I know, for instance, that this happens if you turn on Vsync in P3D, but leave triple buffering off. In that case, if the sim can't reach 60 fps, it "tries" a value that's half of it, and if it can't reach that, it uses another half of that. Also, the CPU load is quite low in the scenario where you took off at night and made a turn. Under normal circumstances, the load on the main core (core 0) should be maximum if not restrained by other factors.

You have mentioned somewhere that you are using Gsync, but I would try to turn it off and use a fixed monitor refresh rate and set Vsync in NCP to "Use the application setting" or so. Also, for experimental purpose, I would turn off Vsync in P3D (while leaving the target FPS at unlimited) and try to switch from full screen to windowed mode. Let me know what the results are.

Thanks @Afterburner for these ideas.

I am not using half refresh rate Vsync as it would not work properly with Gsync anyways.
It may have something to do with the GPU, honestly I'm lost with these, I'm completely out of ideas. The GPU usage drops from 90/99% to something like 30% when it starts lagging so this is a possibility. However, why this is happening? Well I have absolutely no idea, this never happened to me.

I have made a test with Gsync disabled for P3D and Vsync disabled everywhere, it may be a placebo but I had the feeling that it was slightly less laggy, not really satisfying yet though and the drops are as hard as before. CPU and GPU usage were the same but I had a few peaks to 20/22 fps while still moving, but average was still at around 15, not sure these peaks were linked to Gsync being disabled.
However I had some black screen flickering, from time to time and it's probably due to Gsync being disabled only for P3D so I am going to turn it off globally for another test.

That being said, apart from testing, turning off Gsync definitively is not an option as it's useful with everything else and brings the best smoothness I have ever met in any simulation or game. P3Dv5 is officially compatible with variable refresh rate monitors so it should not be a problem with Concorde, unless specified which is not the case.>

I will let you know the results.

Hi again,

So testing with Gsync disabled globally brings the same results, no more flickering. Still the same CPu and GPU usage. Unfortunately this is not the answer to the issue 😑

7 hours ago, CO2Neutral said:

That's a hardware issue ... either CPU or RAM.  I personally would have gone with Intel for a new, AMD will get your more reliable and consistent performance, even Intel have decided to move away from eCores for future CPUs.  But I realize that does you no good for current situation ... have you tried using Process Lasso? 

You’re referring to a problem I no longer have. Note the past tense. It was a combination of 5.4 and some unidentified AIG BGL files. Since reverting to 5.3HF2 the lockups have gone.

I took advice from a former well-known member here at AvSim and he advised the difference between the AMD 7950X3D and my Intel was minimal. Go with what you’re comfortable with. I did and have no regrets.

7 hours ago, CO2Neutral said:

For benchmark testing Process Lasso can reduce performance results, but for real world flight simulators that use multiple cores it can help with quickly determining optimal assignments ... especially for ChasePlane and AIG and Weather engine.

Isn’t that what LM does when P3D is fired up first time? I went with their recommendations but during my investigation into lockups I switched the primary task from 0 to 6. It’s stayed that way ever since. Keeping the core used by the OS clear makes sense.

Because ChasePlane is run via an addon entry it’s not possible to assign it to specific cores. In any case because I limit fps to 30 I doubt any of these changes would make any difference. The only places I can’t manage 30 is at Heathrow with more than 180 Ai. Hardly anything to worry about. I have a different profile in SimStarterNG for Concorde and have Ai set to 80% instead of 100% for my other aircraft including PMDG737. Concorde then hits 30 at Heathrow.

7 hours ago, CO2Neutral said:

I haven't purchased the Concord from FSLab because they don't offer a P3D V6.x version.  But if FSLabs are still forcing modifications to one's prepar3d.cfg you might want to hit them up on that ... A3xx series would modify it.  I assume FSLabs have no input on the issue?

A fellow Concorde user here has advised they don’t have any options for that aircraft unlike their Airbus series that do. I have no clear evidence my AM settings are being changed with Concorde. In any case even if I did have evidence do you think FSL would discuss it and explain why? Of course they wouldn’t. They are very protective of their products.

7 hours ago, CO2Neutral said:

With that many cores, HT nor SMT will be of any help, just generates more heat and consumes more power.

Agreed. 24 is more than enough.

On 2/14/2024 at 11:43 PM, kmax59 said:

I'm using a RTX 4070 OC with a 1440p True Gsync monitor

Maxime, could you give me the model and make of your monitor please? I'm curious about its specs.

42 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Maxime, could you give me the model and make of your monitor please? I'm curious about its specs.

Sure, it's a Viewsonic XG270QG, I am very satisfied with it, it's quite expensive but it's a true native G-Sync monitor and it works really well with P3Dv5 (I can't get it to work again with P3D since I disabled it earlier today though 🤦‍♂️😂). This is probably the best purchase I did within the last few years.

Maxime,

It's certainly a quality monitor. Have a look here in the G-SYNC section further down.

https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/viewsonic-xg270qg/

For G-SYNC to work it has to be connected via a DP connection. I take it that's how you have it connected. It also states 30 is the minimum refresh rate which should be perfect for P3D and Concorde. Is that how you have it setup?

58 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Maxime,

It's certainly a quality monitor. Have a look here in the G-SYNC section further down.

https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/viewsonic-xg270qg/

For G-SYNC to work it has to be connected via a DP connection. I take it that's how you have it connected. It also states 30 is the minimum refresh rate which should be perfect for P3D and Concorde. Is that how you have it setup?

Sure of course that's how I have it connected 😉 I got it working for years and after a quick check it still works with other 3D programs, just not anymore with P3D since the tests I ran this morning, I probably made a mistake somewhere but not sure how. I only disabled it and turned it back ON, same for the "variable refresh rate" option in P3D. Ahhhh ! P3D testing can quickly become a nightmare, I put Concorde in the Hangar for a few months and wanted to come back to it but it's not making my life easy 😅

Other than that, I've found something in one of the Concorde's ini files:

[RenderAsync]
All=0

I am still investigating but I tried to turn this to 1 and it seems I had good results, but this was with Gsync not working. I wondered if this could be the cause actually but turning this back to 0 did not bring back Gsync, even with default aircraft and a computer reboot. Let's solve this first and I'll keep investigating the RenderAsync option, not sure what it does, no answer about this on the FSL forum but I only asked this morning so let's wait and see. I did not get any news back from Norman unfortunately.

EDIT: Reinstalling the Nvidia driver (which was already the latest one) has successfully repaired Gsync with P3D, not sure what happened here

Edited February 16, 20242 yr by kmax59

Hi Maxime, I thought I’d ask just in case. 😉

Looks like you’re making some progress. Hope it sorts out your problems.

Yes, there are multiple ini files but no explanation anywhere what their significance is.

21 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Maxime, I thought I’d ask just in case. 😉

Looks like you’re making some progress. Hope it sorts out your problems.

Yes, there are multiple ini files but no explanation anywhere what their significance is.

No worries, I would have asked too !

By the way, the website you've sent is wrong about the refresh rate range of this monitor it's not 30-165 but 1-144. And that's the main reason why I prefered a true native Gsync monitor over a Gsync compatible monitor, this one follows the FPS down to hell if it has too, it's very visible with the mouse cursor, when you run P3D at 15 fps, your cursor is very laggy has well because the monitor has a very low refresh rate.

35 minutes ago, kmax59 said:

No worries, I would have asked too !

By the way, the website you've sent is wrong about the refresh rate range of this monitor it's not 30-165 but 1-144. And that's the main reason why I prefered a true native Gsync monitor over a Gsync compatible monitor, this one follows the FPS down to hell if it has too, it's very visible with the mouse cursor, when you run P3D at 15 fps, your cursor is very laggy has well because the monitor has a very low refresh rate.

Maxine, I can understand the logic of a variable refresh rate if your hardware allows a higher one. So, for example, 30 when taxiing due to scenery complexity but increasing to perhaps 50 or more once airborne. That sounds really attractive.

But on the other hand is there any real advantage to a display that can refresh at 15Hz. What advantage does that offer over a 30Hz display without VRR?

19 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Maxine, I can understand the logic of a variable refresh rate if your hardware allows a higher one. So, for example, 30 when taxiing due to scenery complexity but increasing to perhaps 50 or more once airborne. That sounds really attractive.

But on the other hand is there any real advantage to a display that can refresh at 15Hz. What advantage does that offer over a 30Hz display without VRR?

Actually running at 15 fps would not make much difference from a fixed refresh rate as 15 is a multiple of 30/60/120 hz and using any simulator or game at 15 fps is a pain for the eyes, it's also bad for them from a medical point of view. However, it's getting very interesting for fps that are not a multiple of your monitor fixed refresh rate. We're used to run our simulators at 30 fps because it's a multiple of 60, however, as soon as you go below 30, even at 29, you can start feeling that the frames are not synced with your monitor, the result is that you percieve this as stutters, the farther from a multiple you are, the worse it will be. It also depends on the user, some people are more sensitive to this, personally I can easily percieve a very small stutter and I'm quickly annoyed by this.

As our simulators tend to have eratic FPS in some conditions, Gsync is very useful because if your FPS are dropping to let's say 25, your monitor will follow this and will be set at 25Hz. Of course, it has some limits and honestly below 25 you can feel the lack of smoothness and it feels laggy, but at least your FPS and monitor are synced and it feels less laggy than it would with a fixed refresh rate. Personnally I can live down to 25 without being annoyed, if it momentarily drops below that it's not a huge problem either. This also results in a lower input latency which is quite nice in simulators.

The downside is that you mouse cursor will also be affected by the change of frequency and it will look more "laggy" than at 60Hz, the lower the freq, the more "laggy" the mouse will feel (Laggy is not really the good word, but it will just move at the same fps as your sim). Also you can percieve a bit of screen flickering, but it's almost unoticable on a true native Gsync monitor, on a Gsync compatible or Freesync monitor, you will see more flickering as they can't go below 30 Hz and if you drop at 25 it will choose a multiple instead, probably 50Hz in that case, the mouse will be less laggy but the screen will tend to flicker a bit more.

Edited February 16, 20242 yr by kmax59

Maxime, to be honest if your frame rates are that low I’m not convinced VRR is a viable solution. Time to improve your hardware or stop flying Concorde as that’s the only aircraft giving you these problems.

Or you could wait for a software improvement which may come or may not. ☹️

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Maxime, to be honest if your frame rates are that low I’m not convinced VRR is a viable solution. Time to improve your hardware or stop flying Concorde as that’s the only aircraft giving you these problems.

Or you could wait for a software improvement which may come or may not. ☹️

No Ray don't worry! I'm definitely not flying at 15 fps 😅 there would be something not normal with such a PC ! It's not the best we can find nowadays but it was a very powerful set 3 years ago.
The values I used in my previous message were just examples to  answer your question, I'm flying with fps capped at 30 like most of us, this is plenty enough for smoothness and it allows a good framerate stability, I don't like when the framerate is constantly variating with fps uncapped. In most cases I could get much more without capping fps (which I do externally from P3D). Drops happen sometimes with heavy airports and advanced aircraft with hiugh visuals and this is when Gsync helps to keep smoothness but I'm rarely below 30.

I'm unfortunately not flying Concorde for this specific reason, I actually did 2 complete flights on this new version as I could not fly properly because of the framerate. I'm targetting 25 so it's flyable comforably with Gsync. And from today's tests, the option I've found in the ini file seems to be the solution.

The RenderAsync option in the ConcordeXgauges.ini seem to have a huge impact. My CPU and GPU usage did not change suprisingly, but the fps inside the sim is much better.
How is yours set?

It seems that if I change All=0 to All=1, fps are much better, I did two quick take-off from EGLL and KJFK and I could even fly the Canarsie climb without too many lags.
Of course it's still very heavy on frames and it would deserves further improvements, but it's definitely flyable now as I could maintain between 25 and 30 fps, with a few drops during loadings. I am hopeful that they will bring more updates in the future, I think I spotted a message from Norman or Andrew recently were he said there are improvements waiting to be released. There's also the paintkit which I'm sure will be released one day or another with the promised liveries, it's a bit too long but better later than never

I am hopeful that I'll be able to fly it again, I'd like to post a new flight report like I did in the past with the SSTSIM, if you want to have a look it's here but you'll need to use a traductor unless you're speaking French: http://pilote-virtuel.com/viewtopic.php?pid=665300
Pierre Chassang transmitted to me his passion for Concorde, I met him in real life and helped him a bit with CPS in the past, that was one of the most exciting times I had in my flight simulation career

Edited February 16, 20242 yr by kmax59