Setup issues, primarily framerates

[JNS 106]

Hi.  I have been in flight simming off and on for many years (back to about '90).  I'm almost at my wits end now.   I recently purchased a computer specifically built to run FSX.  I have the Gold Edition of FSX with the Acceleration Pack installed on an SSD.  The basic specs of this machine are i7 3770K running Windows 7 at 4.4GHz (water-cooled), 8GB Kingston HyperX RAM,  a GeForce 670 FTW video card, and two monitors.  My video driver was originially Nvidia 314.22 and is now 347.52.  I also have Nvidia Inspector 1.9.7.1.  with either Nick's or xxxxx's recommendations.  I have no add-ons installed at this time.  With this hardware I would assume I would have no trouble getting some really good frame rates and performance.  I have tried setting up the sim using Nick N.'s, xxxxx's, and AVSIM's setup guides.  I have most Settings sliders to the far right since I figured this system would at least be CLOSE to handling that with the stock aircraft and scenery.

 

For the life of me I can rarely even get the Ultralight default flight (daytime textures, about 1,400' alttitude, and zoom at .40) to hit 30FPS using the FSX framerate counter.  Usually it is bobbing around 20 FPS or lower.  I have tried both fullscreen adn windowed modes with windowed giving me just a slight edge in framerates (maybe 2 or more).   As I get lower and do an approach performance goes to around 10 FPS.   NOW, things get really bad if I try to use something like the Cessna 172, Baron, or especially the stock 747.  Virtual Cockpit and/or approaches on these will sometimes put me in the single digits for framerates.  I cannot figure out what is going on.  Nothing seems to significantly change the performance.

 

I would really appreciate any help from some of the many knowledgeable members here.  I have FS9 on another machine and, as much as I hate to say it, I'm about ready to chunk FSX even though I purchased purchased this really nice computer and know FSX is considered to be the much-superior sim.

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Jeff

[PieEater 10]

In your post you just highlight performance issues in FSX, so the first thing would be to confirm whether or not you have a general performance issue with the machine or if it is just FSX.

If you run the Windows Experience Index (Start > search for Windows Experience Index) what scores are you getting?

Have you run any benchmarking tools such as Unigene Heaven / 3DMark and compared the results against similar rigs?

[onebob 125]

Further to PieEater comments I noticed you have two monitors, I would suggest disconnecting one and start with a new fsx.cfg file.

edit the file at this stage :-

[GRAPHICS]

HIGHMEMFIX=1

[Display]

ForceVCShadowMap=1 ( use if required by type and res of monitor)

 

bob ( from another pieEater )

[JNS 106]

Thanks to both of you.  Pie,  I have not done what you mentioned.  I will probably do that out of curiosity, but I think I may have come across the problem.   Before I read Onebob's suggestion I did try disconnecting my second monitor (Don't know why I didn't think of that before) and frame rates went up 30%.  My main monitor is 28" (1920 x 1200) and my second is 21" (1680 x 1050). I do have the HIGHMEMFIX=1 entry, but not the ForceVCShadowMap=1 entry.  I was not familiar with the second or when to use.  I will look into that.

 

I have since gone ahead and purchased an EVGA 970 FTW+ 4G  video card.  Hopefully, this won't be a waste of money, but it was looking like maybe the card just couldn't properly handle the load.  If nothing else, I will have at least eliminated that possibility, I think.

 

Jeff

 

Edit:  It turns out that since I don't use DX10 then I apparently don't need the ForceVCShadowMap=1 entry.

[onebob 125]

sorry jeff, copied the wrong one , it should have been 'WideViewAspect=True' , was called for dinner, abit too hasty. ha ha that's typing not going for dinner.

your new card should run your P3D

bob

[JNS 106]

No problem, Bob. Hey, a guy's gotta eat.   I do have the WideView entry.

 

Thanks.

 

Jeff