ginoc1

I haven't posted much here and haven't figured out how to add screenshots or attachments lol not seeing an "add file" or similar...let me know and I'll be happy to show. As for TBM - I found the posts I referred to and copying below. Apparently Steve found that 180 does work better than 30 at medium+ autogen settings but not all maxed out because it caps out and performance suffers...so I assume in my case (trees at very dense and buildings at dense) that 180 may in fact be suffering. I will probably just back it down to 30 - thanks for the correction! Here's his post: "I could see that [DISPLAY] TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT alters the characteristics of the sim. With autogen 4 and lod 4.5 TBM180 performed only slightly better than TBM30. I went up to autogen 5 and lod 5.5 and TBM30 performed a lot better than TBM180, probably because the system is topping out with such high lod/autogen. After tests I amended information on my site: [Display] TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=30 (Smoother frame rate with very low or no autogen and lod.) TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=180 (Smoother frame rate with medium+ autogen and lod.) LOD 3.5 and Autogen 3 improved by at least 2% with TBM180 rather than TBM30. Autogen 5 and Lod 5.5 produce the opposite result as the available bandwidth is exceeded.

@TheBoom - sorry for the confusion...I meant that I changed it to 180 due to higher autogen settings per Steve's post somewhere else and have been pleased with the finished product...just not sure how much this particular setting helped but it all works so I'm leaving it at 180. Hope that helps!

I use NI limiter at 29 and set Gsync to off (not used below 30 so probably doesn't matter) and vsync to "use application" in NI. Hope that helps!

TBM - saw this suggestion from Steve as well...had always gone with 80 or 90 per NickN in the past. My understanding as that in P3dv3 this doesn't make a huge difference like it did in FSX, but if you run autogen at dense or higher then this supposedly helps. I didn't do side by sides as I did these tweaks pretty much at the same time so I don't know how much it's helping but I assume it contributes to the smoothness I am seeing...no more skipping/stuttering in turns and I use max tree autogen and very dense buildings.

Frank - makes sense to use AM=85 on your cpu since this forces P3D to 4 cores which is essentially what I accomplish by using no AM, which for my CPU (non HT quad core) is the same as an AM setting of 15 in cfg. Love that monitor (same as mine) btw...hope you do too!

@Lindbergh72 - I also have a 144Hz Gsync monitor and per Steve's advice I went with an NI external limit of 29 (1/5 of 144 is 28.8). Using unlimited in P3D and Vsync on and TB on - this has REALLY been much smoother for me. I was TRYING to use Gsync and unlimited frames hoping that Gsync would cure the stutters problem (which it DOES improve) but the FPS fluctuations and long frames still drove me crazy. Then I went with NI limiter at 36 (my fps would fluctuate mostly from 40-40fps) and this helped more but still in steep turns I could notice the terrain "skipping" ever so slightly. So I listened to Steve and tried NI at 29, VS ON, TB ON, UNlIMITED FPS, removed my FFTF setting in CGF and changed Texture Bandwidth Multiplier to 180. I also set up P3d with no AM (aka 15 or using all 4 cores (non HT i5 5930k at 4.7Ghz) and took time to set up all external proggies to use only cores 2-4 freeing up 1st core (core 0) for the main P3D thread using Steve's .bat file manual method...bottom line? Damn if I haven't ever had a smoother experience! Bottom line - not sure if your 144Hz monitor is Gsync or not but regardless...Gsync doesn't work below 30fps anyway so it shouldn't matter...try the above and see what you think?

Mike - mind sharing which sun and sky mod you are using? I found the "simple sun mod" and the ENB Sky mod but not sure if those are what you use...thanks!

Steve - 24/24 was too laggy to bear BUT your suggestion of 144Hz/NI at 29fps with VS and TB on may just be the winning ticket. Just tried a flight in heavy cloud coverage and rain here in my home town of Nashville using ASN (Rob A's settings) and it was smooth as silk. Just wish I could keep the occasional "stutter" when a new airport pops into view from occurring but I'll take it if everything else including turns is SMOOTH. The only thing I notice a SLIGHT lag on vs GSYNC and 35-40 fps is my TrackIR view panning...it's still smooth though so I think I may be in business for good with these settings. Thanks again!

Thank you Steve - will run some tests and report back. Initial reaction is - I have to manually set monitor refresh - can't set it on an application level in nvidia control panel or NI and at 24Hz my mouse curser is painfully laggy so I'm not sure how the 24/24 combo will work or if I have the patience to switch it on/off all the time. If smooth flight otherwise (mostly GA plus the Q400) it may be worth the hassle. If that doesn't work I will try the 60/30 combo and pick the best of the 3. Appreciate the quick response!

SteveW et al - What about Gsync? I use an Acer XB270HU Gsync monitor (144Hz) with 2 980Ti's in SLI. I use NI to cap at 30fps and have FPS at Unlimited in P3D. I also have P3D with no AM (i5 3690K 4core no HT) and all addons with AM=14 (Hex E) via batch files. So in my case...unless I'm under 30 fps (where Vsync supposedly kicks in from Gsync) my monitor refresh rate syncs to the frame rate. So my questions are... 1) with Gsync enabled should I keep Vsync/Triple Buffer off in P3D? 2) with Gsync enabled is there any reason not to increase NI fps cap to say 35 (no cap usually sits in the 40-55fps range)? 3) should I just disable Gsync and use Vsync for P3D? My monitor can be set to 144,, 120, 60 and 24 but not 30hz anyway so I'm guessing Gsync is better. I don't think Gsync does any good at or below 30 fps so I am thinking either run it a little faster (35 in NI) OR cut it off and use standard Vsync and NI at 30fps (maybe 120hz would be better than 144Hz in that case assuming the refresh rate goes to 1/2 or 1/4 if can't maintain fps that match monitor Hz). Anyone else struggling with this? Thoughts?

thanks man! any thoughts on choosing between cas 6 vs cas 7 memory OR i2600k vs i2500k??? Have a great "air" cooling solution...megahaleth with dual 120mm fans...thanks

Hey all - I peruse this board frequently and read up on all the performance and stutter problems and user experiences pretty religiously. So I'm hoping someone will chiime in based on their personal experience especially if similar to mine. Here's the deal...my motherboard just croaked...and I'm faced with a decision to replace it but keeping the system similar OR doing an overhaul. Here's what I have: Asus Rampage Formula L775 motherboard (the one that died)4 Gigs 5-5-5-15 DDR2 G.Skillz 1066 RAMIntel e8500 core 2 duo oc'd to 4.0 Ghz stableMSI GTX 570Vizio 42-inch LCD at 1920x1080pOCZ 750Watt PSUWindows 7 64 so I have 3 options I'm considering: a) just replace the motherboard - approx. $100 cost B) replace motherboard, add additional 4 Gb RAM, and upgrade processor to a Q9650 - approx cost $500 c) overhaul system - P67 motherboard, i2500k CPU and 8Gig DDR3 CAS 6 or 7 RAM - approx cost $500 it SEEMS like a no brainer...option a or c...BUT...with so many FSX performance issues I'm reading about on the i2500k/2600k platforms I almost am inclined to go with a or b...and only considering b IF the quad core REALLY helps in FSX and in general over the e8500. BTW I DO play FPS games and RPG's occasionally, but mostly FSX, DCS A10 and BoBII, IL-2 1946 and Falcon 4. Current system doesn't handle RoF well at all OR IL-2 Cliffs of Dover...but I don't get the feeling that an overhaul will even help with those two titles. Any thoughts? Gino

Ya know what? I don't post much but i gotta say...it irks me to see all the hate about carenado and here's why. Their planes ARE gorgeous...and yes they HAVE looked mostly the same (VC and guage-wise) in the past. And yes some of the FDE's weren't spot on. BUT...here's the thing. They have REALLY stepped up their game recently...in a world when companies that I was RELIGOUS to like FSD and Dreamfleet have POOF gone away (DF literally and FSD figuratively)...leaving RealAir, A2A and PMDG as the only REAL viable options (ok there ARE a few others but you ALL KNOW what i mean) WHY on earth would anyone criticize the drive, momentum, and sheer will to produce products for FSX when MOST of them wouldn't know the difference between a real yoke in their hand at 8000 feet and a frikkin badminton racquet lmao. Guess I'm bored but geeez show me more than TWO producers of HQ aircraft for fsx right now - especially ones that keep stretching themselves. Whatever...I'm done ranting. Gonna go play poker online...at least the morons there don't hide lmao.

Always one geez.

Nah...they're getting a good $50-$60 from you...and you alone...every month. (ok...maybe your household). I don't think they'll mind LOL. Then I again...i work for the company who's backbone carried the Olympics in hi-def to all the other cable providers...so I have a little different perspective I suppose. :)

Sorry I didn't get to this earlier or I would have suggested a different cooler. I'm running an e8500 with an Asus Rampage Formula and 4G G.skills 1066 DDR2. With a Thermalright Extreme 120 air cooler I am running 4.2 Ghz STABLE.

Yep...honestly I wanted to get this...but determined before release I would not. In my opinion I have spent far too much money on FSD planes...Commander, Cheyenne, Seneca, Porter, and Navajo...upgrade after upgrade...only to inevitably get frustrated with the non-friendly panel editing (I own several Reality XP products). I most recently purchased a promotion to get two planes discounted...I chose the O2A and the 337 Skypmaster - but after initial install I immediately knew I would not use the O2A and asked if I could "exchange" my order for a different promotion - with no option offered or flexibility shown by FSD). Add to this my INITIAL re-install issues a few years ago with re-activation problems (being accused of suspicious conduct when all I did was change a piece of hardware or re-install XP - which I did a LOT back then. [disclaimer: granted - those issues HAVE since gone away for the most part and the reactivation process is much simpler than before]. Anyway - I honestly haven't been truly satisfied with any plane - to the point where once installed I just don't fly them - since the original Commander and the Seneca (LOVED THOSE!). So - I have come to the conclusion that the impulsive buyer in me would just continue to spend money on upgrades to planes that sit in my hangar regardless of the rather subjective arrogant attitudes I have observed in the company's staff...if I didn't finally stop. So - with that said - I have finally stopped. I recently royally screwed up my entired system performing a registry compact...requiring a complete reinstall. It's been about a month now, and I have FSX up and running beautifully...but I haven't installed ANY of my FSD aircraft...and at least right now - I'm not even tempted.Merry Christmas everyone!

>I'd just like to know where you got an E8500 - haven't been>able to find any here in the US...>>Sure am glad I got mine when I did then. Nothing like fsx with an e8500 running stable at 4.2Ghz on air. The move from a ATI 1950XT to an Nvidia 8800GTS 512 was also a great move for me...and no significant perf drops from clouds here. Although i AM toying with the idea of grabbing and ATI 4870 now...hmmm...not for FSX per se but my other games would probably see an nice improvement,,,Gino

I say YES! I recently upgraded to an e8500. Got some g.skillz pc-1066 DDR2 and a Rampage Formula MB, along with a EVGA 8800GTS OC. Oh yeah, and a nice Thermaltake air heatsink paired with a great 120mm fan and I have an EASY and STABLE OC of 4.3 Ghz! FSX runs like a dream...with all the addons. so...YES!

Well it looks like I have everything working now...turns out your idea about antispyware reminded me that I had recently "immunized" my pc with SB Search & Destroy...so I undid that and then I disabled Simple File Sharing and ensured that the EVERONE user group had Full Control as well as Read and Write. Not sure which actually did it but all is well so thanks for the idea...MUCH appreciated!

OK - so I finally decided to connect a laptop to my FSX rig to offload a few 3rd party programs. I have been stuck in network **** ever since. I AM pc savvy and network savvy, and I've gone through ALL available suggestions on getting networked properly. However...no matter WHAT I try, my client PC keeps giving me errors on accessing and security rights to my server pc. I mean firewalls are good, been through all the steps on file sharing and permissions...still I get errors from my client PC that my "server pc" is not accessible and can't be written to. Any ideas? Anyone else go through this? How did you solve it? I am about to throw my laptop away and just go back to flying fsx without any 3rd party programs...

Well I suppose I can take a few minutes to tell of my recent excitement. I had been struggling with FSX in my past system, and as much as a I WANTED to use it...I ended up just settling to play FS9 exclusively. I have been pretty good at optimizing XP, and still couldn't get decent performance in fsx with an addon planes other than RealAir. I had an AMD FX-60 OC'd to 2.8Ghz, 2G DDR800 RAM (OCZ), an ATI x1950 Pro AGP (yes - AGP) GPU and 2 SCSI 15K Cheetahs and a 10K Raptor. But one of my cheetah's finally died (the one with the OS!) and I decided to take the oppty to do a complete system revamp. So , "ONLY" $1200 later I now have an Intel e8500 CPU, an ASUS Formula Rampage MB (finally just bit the bullet to get a great one), 4Gb G.Skillz DDR21066, an EVGA 8800GTS 512 KO, and a new WD 640G (320G/platter) drive! Everything else was re-usable...XP SP3 on the 10K Raptor and FS and Games on the 640G WD. First let me say that i am SO glad I put down big bucks on a solid motherboard. My last rig wouldn't let me OC much even tho I had good components OTHER than my Asus A8V MB. So on air cooling (Zalman 9700) alone I bumped my e8500 from 3.16 to 4.16Ghz EASILY! No crashes, BSOD, lock-ups, or errors in tests! I know I can push it more but I'm not ready to take the time necessary to do so safely. Easily OC'd my 800GTS to 750Mhz mem, 1000Mhz core and again - no errors in tests of any kind. So I spent the most of a week loading all software, going through tweaks/tunes (thanks Nick_N) to the letter. I DID load both fs9 and fsx (sp2) just for comparison. For fsx I have FEX, GEX, UTX, FSG 9.6m mesh, and a bunch of addon planes. I can now say, without a DOUBT, that FSX is here to stay! I WOULD take FS9 off except for I still have a few addons that haven't been converted, like the DF 727 or the Aeroworx B200, but honestly I may never fly those again...not unless they come back to FSX! I have NO clue what my max frate rate is...don't care. I set it at 26...smooth as silk (if you ever REALLY tweaked FS9 to be smooth as silk you probably used the TextureMaxLoad (not Texture_Max_Load) tweak and didn't lock FR above 22-26 anyway. Now the game autoconfigures most everything to Ultra-High. I have Autogen on Dense, Scenery on Extremely Dense, water at 2.0 low, Traffic on Ultra High, use 16x AF and 8xS AA, Real time weather (also Ultra High) and it is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS! In fact, I haven't even tried to squeeze more Autogen or AI Traffic out yet...I'm just so blown away that I don't really care to. I only increased my Buffer Pools to 15M, and disabled Preload...no other tweaks. So take it for what it's worth...no I haven't run a carefully constructed comparison test. Don't need to. I'm a believer. I hate that I had to drop the $$$ to get this performance, but I suppose that's the nature of the beast. Hope it helps anyone sitting on the fence. Thanks for listening to my ramblings! Back to fly...

I had both of my sons sitting in my lap at age 4 and simming with me. I have the full CH setup with TrackIR4. At 4 they could both take off (yes - by themselves - except I would rudder cause they cant reach) including flaps, speed up, watch speed indicator and pull up - and fly straigh and steady. Now (they are 8 and 6.5) they can fly steady and straight, turn, watch attitude indicator, keep from stalling and understood basic principals of flight, and now my oldest can land - again with a little help and USUALLY hit the runway LOL. I'm now teaching my oldest advanced concepts modeled in some planes like hot-starts, pressurization, and feathering props - he's fascinated by this stuff! We also enjoy multiplayer dogfights with JF18 (they love trying carrier landings), IL2, or BoBII and they LOVE the A-10 in LOMAC FC LOL! Of course I don't turn up all realism (leave blackouts off, set unlimited ammo and disable crashing into other aircraft) with them but the fact that they "get" how to fly and turn and shoot guns and missiles just blows me away. Anyway - it's something I'm proud of because I love my "flight time with the kids" so this thread really captured my attention. Great topic!Gino Coughran

Well then I guess you haven't come up against MY VW (NOT talkin bout my PC here) while driving your BMW (or anyone's BMW for that matter!) :-)Sorry - just a VeeDub Head who loves tuning my lil ol straight 4 1.8T. ;-)

Thanks Kev...just let me know and if available I'm DEFINITELY interested.Gino