Pilatus Matt

This one took a little time but was well worth it. A little cinematic showing the FS weather engine in action. Enjoy!! https://youtu.be/fTOwQAEpVE8

I'm curious about this too. The ability to lock vsync at 1/2 refresh rate of the monitor would be a game-changer for me.

You have me beat there Vic. 8" floppy were gone by the time I entered the scene. We're dating ourselves here, but as I always say, it's better to date yourself than to date no one at all.

Trust me, I'm well aware of this. Every upgrade I've done for the last 20 years or so has been due to me wanting better performance from flight Simulator in one way or another. Edit: Try this on - I remember that first upgrade was to add 4MB of ram at the price of about $100. Yes, you younger guys read that correctly - 4 MEGABYTES!

Mainly, most of the aircraft you can find that don't rely heavily on glass instruments should suit you well. Almost all of the Alabeo stuff fits that profile, and they are quality. Another that I haven't seen anyone mention is the Lotus L-39 Albatross, which is a fun little jet to tool around in and is of decent quality, despite its age.

So I'm not sure what exactly I did to help with the problem, but I narrowed it down to two things. It's by no means buttery smooth, but 30-40 FPS is now tolerable, rather than the sickening mess that it was before. At some point, I had disabled the Nvidia processes that run in the background, like the Nvidia helper service. I re-enabled those and let them run. I also ran a full virus scanner, which located a number of issues. I'm not sure which one to give credit to, but I'm thinking it's the Nvidia thing. I also discovered that I am still very bottlenecked by my CPU. I can up many of the non-cpu-dependent graphics options, and see little or no FPS impact, even at 5900x1800 resolution. The frames I get are really limited based on the complexity of the aircraft I'm flying. Was tempted to chuck some more cash at a 4790K, but that would take a complete rebuild from my 3770K, and I'm not ready for that yet. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, it always helps to get some new knowledge and fresh ideas.

Yes I do use EzDok and will look in to your suggestion. Regarding the refresh rate on the monitor, my choices are 50 and 60 default, I tried to override 30hz, but the monitors won't take it. For TrackIR I have the smoothness setting to max and use precision mode with the speed set at 0.6. I think the combination of all that stuff running together is what's giving me headaches, but I'll do some more testing tonight and try your suggestions. I appreciate the suggestions.

Thanks Steve, some great info in there and interesting stuff. Up until I upgraded to P3D, I was using FSX DX10 and found that using 1/2 refresh rate (on a 60Hz single monitor), and locking frames to 30, produced a result whereby everything was synced up perfectly; refresh rate, time between frames, and TrackIR panning, to the point where the result was almost as good as when I can achieve 60FPS with Vsync on in P3d. I mean smooth, with barely as much as a single visible micro-stutter. I guess my question is, is that even possible at frames below 60, given my setup (triple screen 60hz/TrackIR), with the current state of P3d and Nvidia drivers and how they hook to the sim? Or am I wasting my time trying to achieve such a thing? It seems like no matter what combination of things I try, I can not achieve anything that I would consider to be acceptable.

Wow, I should update that. That was about 3 GPUs ago. I'm actually running a 980, as referenced in my first post. And again, it's not being able to maintain high FPS that I was asking about, it was about high FPS and smoothness. I can push everything up to max and still be above 40, but it's only above 60 that I get the really smooth panning with trackir.

Thanks for the reply K, and some good info in there as well. I don't normally use the bigger airliners, most of my time is spent in Iris' Pilatus PC-9 and PC-21s, which are demanding in their own right. I am by no means a beginner with flight simulator, and know my way around the sim better than most. I have been doing this long enough to remember launching with a DOS prompt. That being said, I am new with triple monitor gaming, and figured some of my issues stem from that. TrackIR is a must for me as well, I can't imagine flying without it. It seems like it requires 60FPS to be smooth. As I was saying earlier, even just a few frames below that and it jerks and stutters as I pan my head across the view. I might have to deal with lowering settings, weather conditions, and sticking with simpler aircraft for the time being, because when it is running smooth, it is absolutely a great experience.

No, I am not using NI. I was under the impression that it wasn't necessary with P3D. All of my settings are through the Nvidia CP.

To start off, my P3D is set up on triple monitors (through Nvidia surround) on a GTX 980 and I use TrackIR as well. I keep reading posts where people are getting smooth frames below 60 FPS, and various advice about Vsync on/Vsync off, locked vs. unlocked. The only way I ever get a truly smooth experience is running unlocked frames and Vsync on within P3D, and only if the FPS is at least 60. If it dips below that, even 50 creates a stutter fest, especially when looking around with the TrackIR. Am I missing something? I used to use the 1/2 refresh rate in FSX and wish that that was a viable option in P3D, but as I understand it, that is not possible due to Nvidia's drivers not hooking to P3D due to the lack of true full screen mode.

OP here. FWIW I gave Opus a good run this weekend and wish I had relized there was a demo version. What I have found, is that it quite simply does not play nice with other add-ons and .dll's. My idea was that I was going to run the software for just the tactile buttkicker feedback, and use ASN and EZDOK for weather and cameras. The way the tactile feedback works is that it uses the same data as the dynamic head movement, so the DHM must be enabled within Opus in order to get the buttkicker to work. This is a problem because I can't have EZDOK and Opus' DHM running at the same time. As a long time EZDOK user, I can easily change my viewpoint, edit dhm's and the rest very easily. Not the case with Opus. Regarding the tactile feedback itself, it has a long way to go for it to be convincing. I use tactile feedback in racing simulators, and the feeling you get in the seat is much more customizable and dynamic. The feedback in P3D using opus is very simple, and in many ways runs counter to what you would actually feel in the seat. For instance, when you are sitting in a recip prop under low RPM, that is where you will feel the most vibration, and as the RPM increases, the engine vibrations smooth out. The way Opus represents it is a completely linear, low RPM=low vibration, and vibrations increase as RPM increases. It is very weird and doesn't feel right. I think if I didn't already have ASN and EZCA, Opus would be a worthwhile purchase. We'll see if Flight1 is easy on me when it comes to getting my $50 back.

Fair enough. The 970 is definitely the best bang for your buck right now. Not sure what the release schedule is for the next generation of cards, but for me it's either a 970 now or wait until the next gen cards and price drops.