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777cap

NEW LAPTOP/Horrible perfomance

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Captains,

after a lot of contemplation, seeing how inferior my previous laptop was for simple entertainment purposes let alone, simming. I went ahead and bought a new laptop in the hope tht it would be a better buy than my previous laptop,here are the specs:

 

i7-4702mq@2.20ghz upto 3.20ghz

8gb ddr3 ram

2gb nvidia gt 740m graphics card

8gb ssd

1tb hard drive

windows 8.1 :(

 

the laptop sounds very appealing, and it really is.But now running FSX i feel it is no better than my previous one,in some cases worse.I have installed fsx acceleration, and with the stalk aircraft at leipzig(aerosoft) my fps fluctuate from the mid twenties to low teens,horrendous and unplayable.Before i am jumped at i know windows 8/8.1 has a ton of issues,i am stuck with it at this moment.I have tweaked my fsx quite a lot,added some tweaks that should have made my experience better,but it hasnt.At this point i feel i have just wasted my money for a laptop that sounds good,i know some people will say the cpu speed isnt good enough so on and so forth,but i have also seen people with far lower specs.running fsx quite well( i was in that group),frankly this is disheartening.My goal was to install the PMDG 777,FTX, a few airports and AS2012, the same addons i had on my previous laptop,but with such perfomance,i really doudt if i shall ever do just that.I hope some experts can help me with this,i really do.

Thanks a ton,

Mahesh

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Greeting Mahesh,

 

May I ask what brand of laptop you purchased as this sounds awfully close to a low end Alienware laptop, but I am probably wrong.  Being a laptop flyer myself, I too chose the laptop I have for the primary purpose of "flying mobile".  In general, my laptop runs some of the latest games without an ounce of issue (ex. Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite), but when it comes to sim flying, you have to do a lot of tweaking.  The processor you have is considered a low-end quad core, judging by the the speed and don't let the turbo fool you as the max speed of the proc with turbo is just that, and not a permanent speed.  Your ram and video should be sufficient (I have 16gb of ram and an nvidia GTX-765 2gb).  I run both FSX and P3D on my laptop and in general, both run just fine as long as you set up the sim correctly.  Unfortunately for us laptop users, we are limited on the amount of eye candy we want, so we have to sacrifice.  I could easily move all my sliders to max while running ORBX scenery and flying PMDG 777, but when you start to move the aircraft and try to fly her, the laptop WILL stutter, if you are lucky and worse case, you'll OOM out.

 

I cannot stress enough the importance of setting up your sim correctly before you fly.  Out of the box, your sim will work, but maybe not like you want it to...again, it's all about what you are willing to sacrifice.  Flying complicated aircraft over more complicated scenery will hit your system very quickly and eventually, your laptop will give up.  Trust me, I am on my fourth laptop in just about as many years because of the frustrations I've had will wanting FSX to produce a flying experience I expected, not realizing that I won't get it no matter how hard I try.

 

Now with that said, I am not trying to discourage you from flying with what you have.  I'd love to have a dedicated desktop loaded to the teeth with the fastest and best hadrware but I don't have the cash nor the space for such, which explains why I use a laptop, but I have learned to compromise and it's those compromised features that allow me to still enjoy a good flight now and then with getting frustrated with any errors that may occur.

 

Considering what you have for content and what you want to run it all on, you have to take the time to set everything up so it'll run, THEN start moving your sliders and other relevant adjustments up slowly until your machine crashes, which will then establish your threshold.  After that, it's a matter of what you are willing to live with.

 

Hope this helps and by the way, I am not an expert, just a helpful member that hopes I helped you out.


Engage, research, inform and make your posts count! -Jim Morvay

Origin EON-17SLX - Under the hood: Intel Core i7 7700K at 4.2GHz (Base) 4.6GHz (overclock), nVidia GeForce GTX-1080 Pascal w/8gb vram, 32gb (2x16) Crucial 2400mhz RAM, 3840 x 2160 17.3" IPS w/G-SYNC, Samsung 950 EVO 256GB PCIe m.2 SSD (Primary), Samsung 850 EVO 500gb M.2 (Sim Drive), MS Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

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But now running FSX i feel it is no better than my previous one,in some cases worse.I have installed fsx acceleration, and with the stalk aircraft at leipzig(aerosoft) my fps fluctuate from the mid twenties to low teens,horrendous and unplayable.

 

There is no hardware out there that will just immediately improve your sim experience.  You absolutely have to adjust your FSX settings, and FSX.cfg appropriately to get good performance from any machine.  If you haven't spent any time using a tweaking guide, you need to.  The only suggestion I have is to skip any section where it tells you to turn off various Windows services.


Kyle Rodgers

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Captains,

after a lot of contemplation, seeing how inferior my previous laptop was for simple entertainment purposes let alone, simming. I went ahead and bought a new laptop in the hope tht it would be a better buy than my previous laptop,here are the specs:

 

i7-4702mq@2.20ghz upto 3.20ghz

8gb ddr3 ram

2gb nvidia gt 740m graphics card

8gb ssd

1tb hard drive

windows 8.1 :(

 

the laptop sounds very appealing, and it really is.But now running FSX i feel it is no better than my previous one,in some cases worse.I have installed fsx acceleration, and with the stalk aircraft at leipzig(aerosoft) my fps fluctuate from the mid twenties to low teens,horrendous and unplayable.Before i am jumped at i know windows 8/8.1 has a ton of issues,i am stuck with it at this moment.I have tweaked my fsx quite a lot,added some tweaks that should have made my experience better,but it hasnt.At this point i feel i have just wasted my money for a laptop that sounds good,i know some people will say the cpu speed isnt good enough so on and so forth,but i have also seen people with far lower specs.running fsx quite well( i was in that group),frankly this is disheartening.My goal was to install the PMDG 777,FTX, a few airports and AS2012, the same addons i had on my previous laptop,but with such perfomance,i really doudt if i shall ever do just that.I hope some experts can help me with this,i really do.

Thanks a ton,

Mahesh

That computer just won't ever get the job done. That processor is way to slow to run FSX well. 

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That computer just won't ever get the job done. That processor is way to slow to run FSX well. 

 

 

This.

 

In short, you bought a laptop that's just so unsuited for FSX specifically it would be comical if it weren't for your pain.

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I'm sure I'll get all kinds of grief for this. But a laptop is not really a good choice for Flight Simulator or any 3D gaming. The CPU, GPU, memory and hard drives needed for good performance simply can't be put in a laptop for one important reason, just no way to keep them cool enough. That's why a tower based machine will always out perform a laptop.

 

Dave


Dave Paige

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In short, you bought a laptop that's just so unsuited for FSX specifically it would be comical if it weren't for your pain.

 

 

Guys....if this truly the case then my machine would explode if I tried to run FSX on it.  This is simply not true, and when you stop laughing at my specs, you'll realize that like jmorvay and Kyle suggested, you absolutely have to tweak your FSX, and Nvidia settings to get FSX and the 777 running good...with REALISTIC expectations of what she'll look like.

 

Go look at my screenshots in any of my posts...I'm at a solid 30 frames exterior, low 20s (but smooth and that's the key) in the 777 cockpit on the ground.  In the air and away from heavy scenery...mid 20s.  I'm running at 1920x1080 on a 26in screen and it looks fantastic. 100% completely flyable!!

 

OK...brace yourself...my specs:

Intel core i7 2630QM CPU@ 2.0 GHZ max TURBO 2.9 GHZ

6 GB 133 ram

500 HDD  240 Crucial M500 SSD!!!!

GEFORCE GTX 460M 1.5gb (edit-added the 1.5gb...forgot to initially list)

 

I have what is now an OLD Asus ROG (G53SW) laptop that I was ready to upgrade mainly because loading times for Windows and FSX...as you see in my specs, I decided to throw an SSD in her...and now...just WOW.  The pic below says it all.  5.9 pre-SSD, 7.1 post!  And not that I'm the kind who lives on performance numbers and will spend $1000 to get 10 more FPS in flightsim....its ALL about the overall experience and smoothness.  We've heard it ad-nauseum...I would take a steady 30 frames over a 100 frames that fluctuates wildly and I get stutters, choppiness, etc.    

I can assure you that if you saw my system in person, and you were of the belief that you have to have an overclocked, watercooled  i7 desktop running at 5ghz to get any enjoyment out of flightsim, you would not believe what your eyes were telling you on the screen when they glanced down to the laptop and saw the specs on the wristpad!  I swear you'd be looking for the desktop under my desk I "really" had the screen hooked up to.  :LMAO:

 

6-15-201411-22-39AM.jpg

 

As you might have guessed...the SDD was an incredible upgrade to my system, and if you don't have one and still running an a mechanical platter'd hard drive, you are missing out!

To the OP (777cap)...I see you only have a 8gb SSD which I assume is only doing simple things like preloading some files into memory, but not enough to make an appreciable difference.  Although an HDD replacement to a SSD won't completely resolve your issues, it will boost load performance exponentially! My system now takes 32 secs to boot to Windows, FSX loads insanely fast, and everything else has been enhanced more than I can describe here.  That would be the only upgrade I would suggest to your laptop.

As far as Win 8.1...I can't help you there but I think I've read FSX tweaks for it as well here at AVSIM...go find them and give them a shot.

 

To make your perfectly capable laptop run FSX and the 777 satisfactorily, you MUST tweak.

There are too many references out there to tweaking guides to list here, but one place that offers EXCELLENT advice is the PMDG 777 Introduction Manual!  No kidding guys!

 

777cap...please take some time to tweak your FSX and your system and report back here...I'm challenging you to report back, as a fellow laptop simmer, to tell me you are at LEAST getting as good results as I am on my measly, old, out-of-date, could never run FSX system.  :Big Grin:

 

Oh...and my sliders are NOT all maxed out...that would be silly and I know I'd get called on it if I claimed that.  Then again, they are not all set to minimum either...they are carefully set to get the best balance of performance and appearance from my system.  As for OOMs, blue screens, etc...never had one.  Am I lucky?  maybe, but my VAS has never been over 2.7 and I keep my system pretty tight.

 

Regards,

Steve Dra

Edited by Steve Dra

Regards,
Steve Dra
Get my paints for MSFS planes at flightsim.to here, and iFly 737s here
Download my FSX, P3D paints at Avsim by clicking here

9Slp0L.jpg 

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That GT card also really needs to be a GTX 60+ Series.

 

Just my two cents.

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My laptop (ASUS ROG G74SX) is very similar to yours Steve, except with a better video card and a tad newer. I have all the necessary tweaks applied and it powers FSX just fine. I've never had an OOM error either. Have Titan 777F, will travel!


Chris Sunseri

 

 

 

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My laptop (ASUS ROG G74SX) is very similar to yours Steve, except with a better video card and a tad newer. I have all the necessary tweaks applied and it powers FSX just fine. I've never had an OOM error either. Have Titan 777F, will travel!

 

Hehe...glad to hear another laptopper chime in here (didn't know that is something else we share in common, and glad you're enjoying the Titan paint).  

I will wholeheartedly agree that a laptop is not the optimal solution for FSX, but sometimes circumstances require we run on them, and rather than banging that point home over and over again, I tend to try and help a fellow simmer get the most out of what he/she has.

I do have an advantage that I happen to run on a laptop, and for a long while now...so I've taken the time to research the tweaks, test them. tweak, test again...rinse, lather, repeat until I have a system...an OLD system...a LAPTOP system, that runs FSX just fine. :lol:

 

You'd think with all the painting I do, and knew the strains Paintshop puts on a untuned system, that I'd have to run a monster system just to put out the paints I do.  Not true.

I would love nothing more than to have an i7 watercooled 5k system with a 6gb video card and 1TB SDD, but I also love eating, paying my bills, and having a place to live.  :biggrin:   Since I can't have both at the moment...I choose to make what I do have work as best as it can.

 

Hear is a pic for all the naysayers:

Megascenery Dallas

FSDT KDFW

PMDG 777 (4096 textures, paint by me :wink: )

Standard FSX clouds (should investigate making them 512 versions like I've been reading up on..may get a few more frames)

ASN

Climbing out after departing from runway 17C....

b5a4204a-d90a-4ee6-b3ee-85f70f5326fb.png

 

Solid mid-20s, smooth as silk, no stutters, micro-stutters, scenery tearing, OOMs.  

Once I'm a few miles away from KDFW...solid 30s, pan around the exterior...not a scenery tear in sight, not jerky...cinematic almost.

Although i don't have the framerate counter on in this pic (I don't need to...it just looks smooth)...I'm still over megascenery Dallas, making my turn east to KTPA...Mountain Creek Lake and NAS Dallas below...photo real...smooth as silk.

 

2014-5-23_21-55-40-392.png

All from my crappy laptop. :Whistle:

 

Regards,

Steve Dra


Regards,
Steve Dra
Get my paints for MSFS planes at flightsim.to here, and iFly 737s here
Download my FSX, P3D paints at Avsim by clicking here

9Slp0L.jpg 

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Looks "real crappy" Steve lol. I spend 250 plus nights a year in hotels so my laptop is worth its weight in gold when it comes to having fun on the road. I sometimes get weird looks when lugging my hotel cart full of FSX gear inside during check in. Little do they know how much I enjoy flying. Housekeepers always get a kick out of my setup...big monitors, speakers, wires everywhere. It's totally worth it plus they always avoid dusting the desk area lol.

 

I too spent more time tweaking than flying way back when. Could I get better results with a new machine...absolutely. Smoothness is much more important than the FPS counter in my book. Someday when I switch from FSX to another platform I'll bump up to a higher horsepower machine, but for now what I have suits me just fine.


Chris Sunseri

 

 

 

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Looks "real crappy" Steve lol. I spend 250 plus nights a year in hotels so my laptop is worth its weight in gold when it comes to having fun on the road. I sometimes get weird looks when lugging my hotel cart full of FSX gear inside during check in. Little do they know how much I enjoy fying. Housekeepers always get a kick out of my setup...big monitors, speakers, wires everywhere. It's totally worth it plus they always avoid dusting the desk area lol.

 

I too spent more time tweaking than flying way back when. Could I get better results with a new machine...absolutely. Smoothness is much more important than the FPS counter in my book. Someday when I switch from FSX to another platform I'll bump up to a higher horsepower machine, but for now what I have suits me just fine.

Hehe...another thing we share in common.  I too was a road warrior until just recently.  The hospital I consulted for the last 4 years heavily recruited me to join them, and they basically made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  :LMAO:

 

To validate my claim as a road warrior, I'm a lifetime Marriott Platinum member, a 3 year-running Platinum Premier ELITE member (only the top 3% of all Platinum members qualify for this), presently at 970,000 points (was over a million a few times...bought a few TVs, hotel stays for friends, a Wii, a few ipads all with points), Diamond on Delta, A+ Elite on Airtran (before SWA bought them out and they stopped flying to DFW :Cry:...transferring all my points to SWA was a joke...lost at least a whole flight, and the ONE free flight I do have expires in OCT...and I can't find a single open seat to use it on the dates I need...nice job SWA/Air Tran!!  Lost me as a customer for...forever ), Bluechip premier at Thrifty, National Car Rental Executive Elite, Avis Preferred, Hilton Diamond (when I was staying with them), and a few more I'm sure I have status with but have forgotten. 

 

So...I know EXACTLY what its like Chris... to travel with a laptop, or have a desktop that you're never sitting in front of...I choose the laptop.  It gets boring in the hotel and I can't begin to tell you how many planes I painted while sipping on Marriott coffee, Lol!

 

Oh yeah...and how many of you get a signed Christmas card from J.W. Marriott?  I do.  :Big Grin:   The gifts we get now are trifels really...this year it was a portable cell phone charger...a few years ago, it was a Mercedes (JK...but you get the point). 

 

Regards,

Steve Dra


Regards,
Steve Dra
Get my paints for MSFS planes at flightsim.to here, and iFly 737s here
Download my FSX, P3D paints at Avsim by clicking here

9Slp0L.jpg 

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People forget that today's laptops perform comparably like desktops did 5 year ago. Apparently no one could run FSX 5 years ago. This even applies to current AMD's desktop CPU's. Enough said

 

That's about the best CPU you can get in a laptop and the GPU is a mid-range one which should be more than capable of running FSX if you don't abuse antialiasing, especially at a typical laptop resolution. (What's your resolution BTW?)

 

On your performance issues, it looks like the problem is those FPS dips in the low teens. A shot in the dark: Something might be overheating and throttling back (could be your CPU or GPU)

You could try and monitor your CPU & GPU speed when your FPS take a hit and see if there's a problem there.

Another possibility is that your GPU is going into power saving mode (2D) at times

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If I may, moving to DX10 helps a great deal.  I recently made the move after reading countless articles on AVSIM about using Steve's DX10 Fixer and how to use it.  This has made a big difference.  I haven't moved forward with PMDG installs yet, but for flying GA aircraft over ORBX Global and Pilot's Mesh with heavy weather, I can maintain solid 30's for fps.  Sure, my laptop is pretty loud with it's beffy fan, but she's an Alienware, a gaming laptop, and this suits me just fine.

 

Point is, you go with what you got and be satisfied with what you get.  If what you get isn't enough, then re-evaluate your situation and change it. :)


Engage, research, inform and make your posts count! -Jim Morvay

Origin EON-17SLX - Under the hood: Intel Core i7 7700K at 4.2GHz (Base) 4.6GHz (overclock), nVidia GeForce GTX-1080 Pascal w/8gb vram, 32gb (2x16) Crucial 2400mhz RAM, 3840 x 2160 17.3" IPS w/G-SYNC, Samsung 950 EVO 256GB PCIe m.2 SSD (Primary), Samsung 850 EVO 500gb M.2 (Sim Drive), MS Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

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Make sure FSX is actually using the Nvidia chip - many laptops have both Intel integrated graphics and a discrete chip from Nvidia or AMD - the integrated one is used for desktop/2D stuff and then theoretically it's supposed to switch to the discrete one when 3D stuff gets run, but I know that doesn't always happen correctly in practice. 


Ryan Maziarz
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For fastest support, please submit a ticket at http://support.precisionmanuals.com

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