Anyone know how to address my final remaining issue with FSX?

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Every day I enjoy FSX more.. New airplanes appear, new scenery is released. Nifty work-arounds are published, like a fix for the W-key view and the flashing clouds. Fewer and fewer reasons to start up FS9..But then I run into the only real issue I have with FSX..In complex scenery, occasionally, my frame-rates tank, and stay low until I perform the equivalent of the Heimlich maneuver:1. Save the Flight under a temp name..2. Re-load this temporary flightand, bingo, my frame-rates are OK again.Does anyone have any thoughts on better ways to recover from this situation? Or, avoid it altogether?I've tried re-loading the scenery, but that does not solve it..Q6600 @ 3.0 - 2 GB PC800 RAM - Asus P5K - 8600GTS 256 MB video.Normally fps steady at 25 fps (locked). When it tanks, fps go to 8-10 fps and stay there. After "Heimlich", fps back to 25.

[David Roch 1,953]

Bert, it looks like a memory issue.- Vista or XP?- FSX SP2 installed?- With such a good rig, could you afford changing your graphic card (good bargains on the 8800 GTs right now), I think it should really help.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Hi David,Forgot to say... Win XP Pro, FSX + Acceleration installed.I do wonder if the 256 MB is the weak spot, especially since the card is reported to have 512 MB in Dxdiag and Control Panel, but 256 MB in Rivatuner. If there is confusion about the memory on the card... there could legitimately be problems when running, I guess.Having said that, the card works great in every other aspect..

[Mace 1,896]

Did you happen to read Phil Taylor's blog about graphics hardware? You might consider changing out the vid card which is the weak link in your nice Q6600 overclocked rig.That may or may not fix your fps tanking issue (which as was said sounds more like memory or driver cross-installation issue) but it will give you a new higher reference point about the performance you should be seeing.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I'll go and read... In benchmarks the 8600GTS is actually quite respectable.. and it is paid for !!:-)

[David Roch 1,953]

Not that good for FSX Bert.You'd really enjoy a 8800 and you'll see a hudge difference!

[beatle 0]

The 512MB number is counting both the 256MB on-card memory, and an additional 256MB of main system memory that the card is allowed to "steal" and use for its own purposes across the PCI/E bus.

[delta november 0]

I used to have the same thing happen in FS9 and something similar towhat your doing would "Fix" it for awhile. I'd click "exit flight"when the dialog box came up that said....do want to end flight, I'dclick no and the flight would resume with increased performance.It's almost got to be an issue of memory not being released.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

OK... that is the first time I've had someone make some sense of the two numbers.. Thanks !In that case, I'm regularly using a good chunk of the "second 256 MB", at least if I can believe Memstatus.

[FalconAF 213]

Danny,Another thing you can try which might be easier...and it solved all my OOM problems on long flights...Switch to WINDOWED MODE if you aren't already in it. Then minimize FSX to the Taskbar. Then click on the taskbar icon to open FSX up again. If you have Windows Task Manager open when you do this, you will notice a significant decrease in the FSX.EXE memory usage. I monitor the FSX.EXE file memory usage during flights, and when it starts getting high (in my case on my system, around 1.000,000kb) I just minimize FSX, then reopen it from the taskbar. Memory usage for the FSX.EXE file will drop to the 80,000kb range, then slowly begin climbing again. But I can safely fly for over an hour this way with no fear of OOM, and constant good frame rates. I think your method of "ending the flight" then saying "no" does the same thing. Mine might just be quicker. In both cases, what I think is happening is the minimizing of the FSX display window is releasing "hogged" video memory, but I haven't been able to verify this (no one responded to a post I made about it several weeks ago). All I know is it works for me and has completely eliminated any chance of OOM's and FSX "slowdowns" over time. It works particularyly well if you do it just prior to the end of a flight before approaching a "dense scenery airport with AI"...I haven't had an FSX "crash" during approach to a major airport even with lots of AI present since doing this.No guarantees, but try it out if you want to.

[Midnight Music 252]

In FS9 sometimes 'refresh scenery' would help towards the end of a long flight. Does FSX have the same command available? I had assigned the number 9 to that command. I wonder if that command would help.Lee

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Thanks for the feedback.. it gives me more things to try !BTW, I did have OOM problems a while back, but they disappeared after I applied the /3GB setting in the boot command.I also believe my issue has something to do with memory usage, but maybe also with overall load on the system... if I cut right back on AI traffic, I see a definite improvement. The annoying thing is, that after I fly through a busy area with reduced frame-rates, I would expect performance to pick up again. But once it is really stuck, it stays stuck until I do something to "unclog" the system.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I have a key combo assigned to "Refresh scenery", but that is not sufficient to clear the jam..

[David Roch 1,953]

Bert have you tried closing unwanted programs and services before launching FSX?Launching the simulator just after a reboot also helps :--)

[lliaudais 2]

Lee,Scenery reload by assigned keystroke?Indeed it does. I happen to use CTRL-F11 for aircraft reload and CTRL-F12 for Scenery reload. It's exactly the same as FS9. And I DO use them frequently!Loyd