Need some help with the fsx settings on new rig

[lucas81]

Hi,

Few days ago I bought a new rig:

Intel i5 2,66 GHz
Asus P7P55D mainboard
2x 2GB DDR3 1600mhz - Patriot
500HD Western Digital Black Pearl
650W Corsair
ATI 5850 1GB DDR5 - HIS
Win 7 HP 64bit

I am experiencing huge problems with the FSX. There are massive strutters (jumps from 5 to 25 fps - /25 locked/) and sometimes some spikes are visible as well. I suspect that this is some driver issue. What is more, the game does not "see" my AF settings from the CCC. Everything is pretty smooth above 15k feet, but once I get lower, I experience the strutters.
Has any of you own a rig with similar configuration and could help me a bit ? I think that that vid card's drvers are the main issue. I have a friend who owns an i5 with Nvidia 260 and has no problems at all. Another friend owns an i7 with 5850 but he has only some minor strutters and has not even touched the fsx cfg yet.

Best,
Lucas

[lucas81]

Just want to add that I have no problems at all with other sims. Both Digital Combat Simulator and Rise of Flight perform super fine. Regarding the drivers, I have the newest Catalyst for Win7/64bit

[harleyman]

Start here...

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=16294




Then in your FSX config change the TBM from its default of 40 to 10 to start with...


The TBM can be 10 60 70 80 90 100

[lucas81]

Thanks Harleyman, I will give it a try.

First thing which I changed was to set AA and AF in game. Currently iam in short hop from one airport to another in C172. Everything is fine with the scenery set to normal/normal. Once I have increased it to dense/dense, the spikes and some strutters appeared. After I will land I will play with the TBM

Lucas

[harleyman]

You also probably need to OC that i5 to at least 3.4 for FSX to have the processor power it needs....


2.66 is a tad weak ....

[lucas81]

Rgr that. However on my E8200 with stock clock I was able to fly on much better settings than here, on the quad core processor.

PS: I hoped that everything will be fine. After installations first three addons: UTX Europe, ASA and A2A P-47 the performance became hopeless and fps were jumping like crazy from 5 to 17 and finally to locked 30... and then back to 5. Odd. As I wrote you, my system smokes the Rise of Flight which is very demanding and resource eating and I get solid 75 fps (with vert sync. on) there.

I will be experimenting. Thank you for your advices, Haleyman.:icon29:

[harleyman]

Move to Very dense on your scenery slider..Believe it or not it CAN help FSX.

Stuttering is mainly from your TBM , and underclocked Quad...

FSX runs great on socket 775, as it was actually made for that core, not a quad...

[lucas81]

Yup, you are right, it is CPU related, not GPU. I put my old 8800GT into the box and I have experienced the same problems as with the Radeon.
I need to take a deep breath and read carefully the mobo manual and how to OC that thing.

Lucas

[txnetcop]

Sorry Lucas I have been out of pocket. The i5 750 is pretty anemic when it comes to running FSX the i5 870 would have been a better choice, but overclocking the i5 750 will help.

I did a complete write up on this overclock at Overclockers Club as did Tacohunter but can't find it right now so see if this helps you.


The P7P55D's overclocking settings can be found under the AI Tweaker tab. Before you can start overclocking, however, you'll need to decide which "Overclock Tuner" you'll be using. The first choice is manual, which will only allow you to increase and decrease some of the minor settings. Next up is auto, but that will just keep you on the auto settings. This isn't any fun, so most users will be using one of the next two options. D.O.C.P. and X.M.P. are the choices that will give you a slightly better overclock potential. I prefer D.O.C.P. because it gives you the most control, but some users may not be looking for this. In D.O.C.P., you'll be able to adjust BCLK, (http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_p7p55d_deluxe/6.htm#)and CPU Ratio, and memory parameters. XMP will automatically set the BCLK, CPU ratio, and Memory parameters. In other words, it's pretty much like the Auto setting. When in D.O.C.P. mode, you'll be allowed to choose a DRAM OC Profile. This will automatically overclock your memory, but be aware it will lower your other settings to do so. I suggest leaving it on whatever speed your memory happens to be.

In the A.I. Tweaker set your DRAM Profile to match the mhz of your memory(you can raise it later if you want to) then set your CPU ration which is basically the same as a mulitiplier. In other words, multiply your BCLK by your CPU Ratio and you'll get your CPU speed. You'll be able to increase the CPU Ratio to 21 by pressing the + button . If you're looking to lower the CPU Ratio, you'll need to hit the - button. Both Intel SpeedStep and the Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode can be enabled or disabled. When overclocking, I'd suggest disabling SpeedStep, but to try the Full Power Mode enabled. The latter will supposedly get you the best possible overclock for your CPU. More importantly, it will disable the EPU's auto power saving feature. BCLK is easily increased by pressing the + button on the keyboard, and decreased by pressing the - button.

DRAM Frequency can't really be changed unless you're increasing the BCLK. That's right, there's no longer a changeable memory multiplier. You will, however, be able to select between three speeds for each given BCLK. I found that selecting a lower speed didn't really help overclockabilty. In other words, if you can run your memory at the faster speed, run it at the faster speed. You'll have two different choices for the QPI frequency, and four different choices for the CPU Differential Amplitude. Adjusting the amplitude has the possibility to increase overclockablity, so I'd suggest trying out a few different settings when overclocking.

Much like amplitude, different Clock Skews may help increase overclockability. If you've got a lot of time on your hands, feel free to play around with different settings and see which works best for you. To adjust the voltage, you'll have to choose between doing it manually or offset. I prefer manual, but in both cases you'll be increasing the voltage with the + button, and decreasing it with the - button. The IMC voltage can also be adjusted. Again you'll be using the + and - buttons to do so.


Play with settings until you get a stable configuration. Make sure your PCI-E setting is at 100. You should not have to overvolt to get to 3.3 maybe even 3.5 which should be enough to run FSX very well. Once you get your overclock right and tested then mess with your bandwidth multi inside of FSX until your CPU speed and GPU speed give you solid frame rates.

If you need more help let me know
Ted

[lucas81]

Ted,
This is one of the most helpful replies which I have ever received here on the SOH. I would like to thank you very much for spending your time to write this guide. I will try to do what have you described.
Many thanks :medals:
Lucas

[lucas81]

After few weeks of frustration, I have found a solution :)
I had to add bufferpools parameter and set it to 0. Now the sim runs smooth and I get solid 25 fps. Now (after i will accomplish my flight) I will play with the texture_bandtwith_mult value a bit, because there are still some graphic bugs when I set my scenery/autogen to dense or higher. With the normal/normal setting everything is fine and I noticed that the sim handles the textures and scenery much better than on my old e8200/gt8800.

Lucas

PS: It is good to be back :)

[harleyman]

Sounds like you are getting there..:applause:

But changing the TBM can throw a wrench into the mix..

I never add bufferpools until all else fails....

[2Low]

Lucas heed txnetcop's advice. Overclock that puppy then change your fsx settings.

I'm running an i5 750 at 4.1GHZ, memory at 1600MHZ 6-6-6-21, with an ATI 4850 and it's pretty smooth. Even with real weather, lot's of traffic, LOD 6.5, TBM 10, autogen dense, sreen resolution 2048x1152. It gets a bit stuttery around heavy scenery but not too bad.

Overclock it (3.6-3.8 should be real easy) and hope for descent drivers. Best of luck.

[lucas81]

2Low,

At the moment I run her at 3,2 GHz, but I will tune it to 3,6.
Thanks,
Lucas

[smithcorp]

2Low,

At the moment I run her at 3,2 GHz, but I will tune it to 3,6.
Thanks,
Lucas

Apologies for ressurecting an old thread, but I was wondering how your FSX has been running - I have many of the same problems you did with my upgraded system. I can run it much better in DX10, but I'm still keen to try things to get DX9 working better.

[lucas81]

Hi,

Well, I returned to the standard CPU frequency. The FSX still does not fine, but I got used to it. Here are my settings:

- General settings - ultra high (The game works best locked with 20fps. The more I set the limit, the more unstable the game is)
- Aircraft - ultra high
- Scenery - Detail radius (med), mesh complexity 80, Mesh resolution 19, texture resolution 60 cm, Water 2x low, Scenery complexity Normal, Autogen Normal, Scenery shadows Off
- Weather - High
- Traffic - High

Now, the most importand tweaks:

[BufferPools]
UsePools=0

[GRAPHICS]
HIGHMEMFIX=1

Without them, I cannot fly in the dx9, even with the higher clock frequency or with the lowest scenery setting (for example: with A2A Cub I have about 9fps on such settings). I am able to fly with dx10 without messing with the fsx.cfg but it is far from perfect and has some small unstability.

Intel i5 2,67 GHz
Asus P55D mainboard
HIS ATI 5850 1GHz
4GB DDR3 Patriot 1600 MHz
650W Corsair PSU

I think that something is wrong with the processor. One guy on some other forum had similar problems to me and they stopped when he switched i5 to i7 860 using the old mainboard, etc. I have to think deeply about doing the same. At this moment I rarely fly FSX because Iam not satisfied with this sim and other ones, like Rise of Flight or DCS run much, much better, so I spend more time playing them.

Lucas

[txnetcop]

Hi,

Well, I returned to the standard CPU frequency. The FSX still does not fine, but I got used to it. Here are my settings:

- General settings - ultra high (The game works best locked with 20fps. The more I set the limit, the more unstable the game is)
- Aircraft - ultra high
- Scenery - Detail radius (med), mesh complexity 80, Mesh resolution 19, texture resolution 60 cm, Water 2x low, Scenery complexity Normal, Autogen Normal, Scenery shadows Off
- Weather - High
- Traffic - High

Now, the most importand tweaks:

[BufferPools]
UsePools=0

[GRAPHICS]
HIGHMEMFIX=1

Without them, I cannot fly in the dx9, even with the higher clock frequency or with the lowest scenery setting (for example: with A2A Cub I have about 9fps on such settings). I am able to fly with dx10 without messing with the fsx.cfg but it is far from perfect and has some small unstability.

Intel i5 2,67 GHz
Asus P55D mainboard
HIS ATI 5850 1GHz
4GB DDR3 Patriot 1600 MHz
650W Corsair PSU

I think that something is wrong with the processor. One guy on some other forum had similar problems to me and they stopped when he switched i5 to i7 860 using the old mainboard, etc. I have to think deeply about doing the same. At this moment I rarely fly FSX because Iam not satisfied with this sim and other ones, like Rise of Flight or DCS run much, much better, so I spend more time playing them.

Lucas

While the i5 750 does play other games and sims fairly well if you want to run FSX really well the i7 860 on you 1156 socket board is much better processor for all the effects in FSX, especially if you like your settings way up there. The only thing you can do to that 750 is water cool it and run it at 3.8 or better to make FSX shine. I had the same problems with testing some of the higher end games with the i5 750...fortunately it didn't cost me to upgrade my test unit to the i7 860. If do decide to keep the i5 750 and overclock it, you will have to change your bufferpool and affinity settings by experimentation.
Ted

[lucas81]

Solved!

As I wrote above, I had terrible problems with my PC and FSX once I bought it year ago. The FPS jumped like crazy and the game was very unstable with lots of artifacts (spikes) when adjusting the scenery. The bufferpool tweak did some job and allowed me to fly all the planes on mid-low settings, but still some black ground textures were appearing.
You Gents, suggested me to overclock the processor or to use some tweaks...
Yestreday in the morning my PC died. I had no clue what failed. I suspected my PSU and brought it in the evening to the service where I bought parts year ago. The checked it and it worked ("I have never seen 650W Corsair to be broken" - i heard ;)) So, it looked like to be a motherboard failure.
I was so desperate, that I bought mid range Gigabyte mobo (the P55-UD3L) to replace my Asus P55D. And guess what ? After the installation, the FSX started to work as it should :jump: By typing that I mean that it runs fine with mid-high settings, with no artifacts and locked 30 fps with any of my addons. On my first mobo, the A2A Cub was unflyable, when using default cfg, even with the autogen turned off. The fps varied from 6 to 15 and were all jumping. Now, it works like a charm :)

So, when you expect some strutters, fps jumps and artifacts on your new system, it may be the mainboard issue. Did it, checked it, experienced it :)

Intel i5 2,66GHz (not clocked)
2x2GB DDR3 Patrior 1600MHz
HIS ATI 5850
WD CB 500 GB
Gigabyte P55-UD3L (replacing the Asus P55D)

regards,
Lucas

[txnetcop]

Lucas it is not a surprise to me that the Gigabyte board improved your fps. Gigabyte started showing dominance back in the X48 series motherboards. The only ASUS board I recommend these days is the X58 and P55 Sabretooth. It is very hardy, inexpensive and competes with the big boys in its overclock ability. Glad things are going well!
Ted

[lucas81]

Ted, not only the fps are improved, but the overall program stability. Actually, the old motherboard almost killed all my joy from flying in FSX. Now, I am rediscovering it, having fun with the clean game almost without any addons installed and it works like a charm. Now, that i5 along with the ATI5850 started to make huge difference compared to my old E8200/GF 8800GT and it just works as it should :)

Thanks,
Lucas