willym

For the 3d attuned, it can be interesting. B)

Older platforms can perform to an appreciative level with TLC, and to pursuing smooth performance vs. chasing fps. Period tech forum postings will facilitate. I would speculate that a modest investment into your current system hardware would still be of benefit. In the long run save money for a new system.

All to relevance, I believe we all understand. So much resource, so much time.

I love this thread! As a former Electrical Engineer, I find my time spent is more valuable than money. I run extreme modest hardware, and I enjoy it by choice! Having said that, I have spent several thousands to fly toy planes on a screen :-). And yes I do enjoy rc flying.. I have a whole hanger ;-). And girlfriends, the most expensive toys of all.. (lol). I build and repair pc's on the side, so I have about anything available I wish.. only so much time! It's all good. Enjoy to you all, and vodka is a good 'reset' button (lol).. (I'm a Finn ;-).

Yes, beauty is truly your call. Stay stock, back off on all the settings, and test each one to your personal best. Good luck, it's all 'science, and magic'. And a crap shoot, dependent on your intuition. :-)

The 'tweaks' can make an incredible improvement. Or screw everything up ;-) If approached with care, they are somewhat similar to overclocking. And I overclock my video board, with ~20% performance boost :-)

Luck to you, and I, as one, successfully run fsx on an I3 laptop on the road!

Good work Rob..

Well, I would suggest you head for simulation fluidity, instead of fps. Check out the Bojote site for some starter tweaks. Others would search for max fps, but as an experienced fsx user with limited hardware I have learned to stretch it to the max. Also check out the 'how to' sections on Avsim. They are excellent. You have sufficient hardware to achieve good performance. Don't let the performance pushers run you down.

I had already decided to use this technique with my next rebuild/upgrade. I does help though that I have dedicated system hardware and do not switch into other applications.

I've been so busy in the 'real world' that I hardly hit the power on switch as of late! I read Avsim posts daily (of course). A lot of add on's.. payware and freeware. Most of which, have never been installed!. And here I've gone and invested more money for a complete system rebuild, with new hardware. Go figure :-) But when I do fly as of late, it is usually late on a Friday night, when the work week is done, with a couple of toddies under my belt. Low and slow. I enjoy watching the scenery flying VFR.

Very nice site. I would very much like to see freeware also. Thanks

Peak and tweak or start throwing money at new hardware.

On the road I run FSX on a 2.3 dual core I3 laptop with Intel HD graphics (8Gb ram). Limit the addons, and with care 20 to 30 fps is pretty do-able. Don't expect to adjust the sliders within FSX to get much above low to mid-range. Get into the Intel graphics control panel, an though the adjustments are limited they have a big performance effect. Some CFG tweaks also help with fluidity, and stutters when panning and shifting views. My Logitech extreme 3d pro joystick has been very dependable. Track IR has also been a nice addition with the limited size screen.

Using the Bojote tweaks selectively, along with an external frame rate limiter seems to be an effective method for maximizing performance of older hardware. This means simulation fluidity - not high fps. Over clocking the graphics board can also push more headroom. I added a second fan for a push/pull configuration for additional cooling. My CPU and GPU usage is typically running 70 to 90 percent (2.66C2D Dell OptiPlex745, Nvidia GT610).

Seems to me, the matter of the fact is that the FSX coding is such that sliders, tweaks, and all other black magic are fair play. And part of the attraction!.. it is not relevant (in a way), but I spent 30 years in position to watch insider moves (different corporation). FSX smacks of top persons who new that the end was near, and let all of the horses out of the barn before it burned. Meaning insight: they did not have complete understanding of multicore processing, or DX upgrades to come, but they let what they had be released.

Looking at it all, LM has been doing some very good things, We have every reason to be feeling very positive today. thx :}

I am in no way trying to put off LM, they are doing excellent work. And all the FS platform developers the sam e (X-Plane, DCS, Rise of Flight, and more!). We all have to be cognizant though, that LM is attempting to re-vamp 12 year old code. This is a daunting task. My best wishes to all.

Meeting your own performance expectations is the best we can all achieve. I stretch my hardware (very limited:) to extreme. I OC my video card, and use the Bojote mods with some additional mods gleaned from forums. With an external fps limiter set to 22 fps, I can achieve relatively high slider settings within FSX. Performance is very fluid, with few stutters. My average CPU AND GPU usage range from 70 to 90 percent. I have added additional system cooling as precaution. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, or in my case what expenses allow..

Hmm. I believe P3D to be an excellent venture. What is needed is extended memory support, shift more process loading from CPU to GPU, and efficient use of multicore processing. Including use of hyper-threading. Time will tell if LM can accomplish these with FSX as the base code structure.

I have looked at the various ram use reports and it appears very much dependent on settings within the program, and add on packages. Just how the numbers are arrived at, is another variable. I use the task manager with the resource monitor running in the background to track the system ram usage; ie: fly around, close down, pause the monitor, view the graphs. I use the utility GPU-Z at the same time to track my GPU ram utilization and processes. My system is very optimized, and process trimmed for FSX only. Within my limited world, system only utilizes less than 1Gb. Flying in FSX.. 2.2 to 2.6 Gb system ram is in use (total), and gpu-z reports ~400 Mb video ram in usage.

My observation is that level of investment (time/money) is relatively on par with level of expectations. On a whim, in 2010 I spent $20 on FSX and installed it on my laptop with a joystick. I now have invested $2K+ and countless hours.. Good luck!

I have found each piece has added to the level of immersion. CH yoke, pedals, throttle quadrant. Track IR.

Personal perception. What some see, others don't, or do not care about. If you like what you have, be happy!

Total agreement on the smooth vs fps. I have excellent results using an external limiter.