hamish7777

Hi Martin Again a very warm welcome and Thank You for taking the time to come to Avsim and answer questions as we are like a bunch of excited schoolchildren.. After so many years of not being able to talk to Aces/Microsoft you never knew what was in the pipeline and never knew that if you had a suggestion if anyone was listening so I will take a bet that this thread may become over time one of the largest on Avsim if you have the patience. Like many here I cannot say that there is anything that you are doing that does not sound pretty fantastic. You guys seem to be taking a very balanced view of what you can achieve and also knowing that it does not have to all be ready Day 1. It would be great if you are in the future able to give us a few updates from the team on how the DTG Flight Sim Updated Code is progressing in terms of performance and what added graphics you have been able to achieve. On a personal note I have always wished for better Overcast Conditions at higher altitudes if you want to fly IFR and would love to have better VC rain for more immersion but these are small things. 2016 will be a great year we may see the DTG Flight Simulator and the PMDG 747V2 though I imagine not working togther or maybe we can dream..... Hamish

I think it's the combination for me of the 6700k running at 4.6ghz and the DDR4 @ 3600 and the ssd that has just found FSX's sweet spot. If one thing in this link was not there then maybe I would not have had the performance shift that I have seen. One of the computer techs I was speaking too has said that the DDR4 fast memory has really made a difference and having an SSD to work off makes it all the sweeter... H.

Thanks Martin, I will take a look... Hamish

Thanks Martin. It looks like you know your onions. I am still fairly new to this. At the moment I have turned off the power setting so it's delivering 1.38v all the time. Maybe I should go back and revisit the adaptive mode and power saving situation... The 5 way optimization is probably far more advanced than I give it credit for.. Yes it's all running very smoothly at the moment which is great. H.

Hi Martin, Interesting question.. I started with the 5 way optimazation and in some ways it's good to give you a very basic idea of what your chip is capable of though it settles with a very conservative setting.. It also uses adaptive vcore setting which means that the cpu throttles down when not being used to its full potential... Interestingly I found that running fsx the first few times I had a couple of app crashes and I thought that because the program uses primarily only one core in that setting it became unstable which caused the Ctd.. I then changed to a completely manual setting in the bios and have the chip running at 4.6 in a manual mode all the time and changed a few settings.. I followed an over clocking guide I found on you tube and since then no ctd all perfectly smooth... H.

I went with a Maximus VIII Ranger from Asus. I am running 4.6Ghz with a VCore at 1.38volts. The Corsair 110i Cooler is amazing at full tilt in FSX the fan is hardly moving and I am seeing 48/50C maximum. I reckon I could push it to 4.8 at 1.42v with temps in the early 70s. If anyone is on the fence thinking about an upgrade this is the time to do it. Its been better than a kid in a sweet shop...

I held off as I was very happy with my 1TB Samsung Hard Drives, 1 for my OS and 1 for my FSX Install. I moved over to 2 x SSD;s 512GB. I kick myself for not doing it sooner. I can boot into my OS in 19 seconds and the open FSX in about 9 seconds and then select a flight which on average is about 25 seconds... On an normal HD I would have been looking at 5 mins I reckon.. If you like to tweak, change your mind etc its wonderful to have such quick access to your flights. Other than a new monitor its by far the most revolutionary change to my flightsim experience... Hamish

Well Santa has delivered early as my present to myself was an upgrade to my computer which was originally a Sandy Bridge 2500K @ 4.5 with DDR3 @ 2100. I went for a Skylake 6700K with Corsair Vengence DDR4 @ 3600 and the new Corsair GTX Water Cooler 110. I also swapped out 2 Samsung 1TB Hard Drives for 2 512 Samsung SSD's. I decided to keep my Nvidia 770GTX as I want to wait for the new Pascal architecture next year.. i run 3 x 17" monitors with a Triple Head 2 Go at 3840 x 1280. Sandy Bridge has always run very well and I run a modest FSX Steam Edition with PMDG 777/737 mainly some large payware airports etc but nothing has prepared me for the change I have just witnessed. I had a very well tweaked system but now with this new system its like GLASS. Even with the Nvidia Standard tweak 1/2 refresh rate locked at 30, I always suffered small micro stutters when turning at larger airports, now I can stay locked at 30FPS in any situation and there are no stutters at all. Who knows it may help that I am running a fresh install though I secretly think that the nirvana comes from running Skylake with really fast memory and now SSD's for the operating system and FSX I have finally found my holy grail. I can boot into my OS in less than 19 seconds and then open FSX in less that 25 and be flying within a minute and no stutters even when looking behind you, just glass... Long may it last. Thank You Skylake Thank You DDR4 Thank You SSD's Happy Christmas All Hamish

For me its simple. FSX SE has been tweaked by Dovetail. For starters they have radically improved the VAS handling which means I can take the PMDG 777 from big hub to big hub without an issue even in DX9 which before was an OOM given with FSX boxed even with lower settings. They have improved the reduction of frames when having the cursor on screen. Coupled with the changes to the installer using a newer compiler it has helped the FPS overall. I am very interested in P3D v3 but I am still worried that FPS would be lower than we get with FSX SE especially using a complex plane. I am waiting to see what Dovetail do next year with their own Flight Sim before I change. I would say though with the changes I have experienced with FSX SE I am glad I changed over from the boxed edition. Hamish

Great thread. I am on a 2500K @ 4.5Ghz and I thought that the 6700k is going to be the next platform to upgrade to. I wonder what the sweet spot in terms of memory will be. I will be interested if you can find an airport where the FPS dips below 30 in the PMDG 777 with your new toy. I have moved over to FSX Steam and its amazing what Dovetail have done with the VAS in DX9. Hamish.

Keep us updated.... Would love to know if your flights are smoother. Hamish.

This is interesting... I am still on a 2500k @ 4.5Ghz so I am sure I would see a fairly good improvement. Hamish.

I am sure there are many like me that are sitting on a Sandy Bridge chip. I use a 2500K running at 4.5Ghz coupled with Gtx 770. If I could get a Skylake 6700K that could possibly reach 4.7/8 that looks like a 30%+ increase over where I am and that would be great for the PMDG 777 in some of the bigger airports. I will wait to see how the chips perform once they are in better supply but I am thinking it may be the time to upgrade. I wonder if DDR4 will help FSX at all? Hamish.

I have been the happy owner of 3 x Sony 17" Monitors hooked up to a Triple Head 2 Go for about 8 years now. The resolution is 3840 x 1024 but I must say that these 34" curved Monitors have got me interested. I have had to get used to 2 1 inch bezels where the Monitors meet and I bet not having that would increase the immersion factor coupled with the higher resolution on a smaller desktop space, though I wonder if I would miss the width, probably not. I suppose I need to find one to have a look and make a decision. Do you think the framerates might be slightly higher using one large monitor over 3 seperate ones? Interesting times ahead. Hamish.

Is the whole stutter issue down to the fact that you cannot run the Vsync on standard at 1/2 refresh rate at 30fps (60hz monitor) that makes FSX so buttery smooth. P3D runs in windowed mode which means the standard vsync won't work. I am not sure if there is a workaround (adaptive vsync?)or whether Nvidia need to release a driver that works. I am currently thinking of moving to P3D from FSX as there are many things to like but microstutters are pain especially if you use Track IR and for me now an immersion killer. If anyone has any advice I would love to know. Hamish.

My question is that once PMDG port over the 777 there will be quite a few people who will be in the position to move over to P3D V2.5 (hopefully out of beta), will you be able to have better performance (fps) at the same visual settings that you had in FSX as obviously the better eye candy comes at a cost and will the OOM be a bigger problem than FSX? I for one am definitely thinking of making the switch and 2.5/PMDG seem to be the perfect opportunity. Hamish.

I would also be interested if anyone is seeing any increase in FPS especially with the PMDG 777 at normal settings vs FSX Boxed, I know the Steam edition has used a new 2013 compiler which Pete D said could well make a difference. Its great news about the VAS issue for sure.. H.

For me I re checked my system properties and noticed that I had a page file set of 3024MB for my C drive and no page file for my D Drive where FSX is located.. I changed them to 'system managed' as per the PMDG manual. Bingo I checked and am no longer getting an OOM at 3.2GB. This might be the culprit. Thanks PMDG and on a side note the 777 is beyond amazing. Hamish

Funnily enough I bought the PMDG 777 today and had an OOM error before leaving the airport. I ran process explorer and watched the virtual address column as I loaded the plane and as soon as it reached 3.2 GB I got the dreaded OOM message. My system is Win 7 64 bit. 2500K at 4.6. 8GB Ram and a GTX770 Nvidia. I have been trying to find out why I am unable to access the full 4GB rather than 3.2 I am still looking if anyone has any ideas. Thanks H. Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

I am running the Nexus 10 and I have to say Erik's Flight Map is amazing. It runs perfectly with no fuss and he is always updating the software which means its an ongoing project. I can't imagine flying without it now. Bravo. Hamish.:-) Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

I had a couple of months of the visualfx.DLL CTD. After lots of tweaking and searching forums I discovered that it was down to a bad overclock well I had been pushing it too much. I backed off I think from 4.7 GHZ to 4.6 GHz and the dreaded ctd disappeared. That would be my guess. Hope it helps. Hamish. Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

This looks really good. Just bought a Nexus 10 and this just the sort of app that would make FSX tracking great. I think you will find there will be many people moving into android tablets this year so don't be discouraged if there seems to be little interest now that will change for sure.. Can't wait to give it a go.... Hamish

Noooo. Hate to break it to you you have to go for the MCP PRO. I have owned both and there is no comparison. The PRO is beautifully constructed the knobs feel great the backlight/buttons etc are all top quality. It is expensive but long term its worth it especially with the time I intend to put in with the 737. This year I treated myself to the FDS CDU (another masterpiece) + Buttkicker as well and I am one happy chap!! Hamish

Has anyone tried this using multi monitors. I am having trouble when trying to go fullscreen at 3840 x 1024 with a Matrox Triple Head 2 Go. The screen flashes a couple of times then reverts to the middle monitor in a squished configuration. Would love to try the DX10 Preview but no luck so far... Cheers Hamish

Its strange I cant get that system to work, maybe because I am running 3840 x 1024 it freezes when going back to full screen. I have also now got an issue with running FS2Crew with the CDU as they are both accessing the SDK. Its still early days I hope we are able to iron out the bugs... Hamish