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Felixthreeone
June 17th, 2011, 11:52
Anyone have a solution for stutters on a 4.8ghz Sandy Bridge setup? I would be willing to bet no one has seen stutters on SB except me. My bad luck, I guess... or maybe I should have bought a GTX580 instead of the 560Ti OC that i did?
Is it possible that my OC is bottlenecked by my cheapo gpu? Maybe my ram? Hmm. Since I followed all of the proper guides (nick's install etc...) and OC'd last, maybe that is the issue? Maybe all the blue screens I got enroute to 4.8ghz corruped something?

specs:
gigabyte p67a-ud3-b3 mobo
gigabyte gtx560ti oc
corsair vengeance 8gb kit (2x4gb) 9-10-9-27 2t
haf 922 case
corsair h70 hydro cooler
seagate barracuda 1tb hd
w7 64bit

....yes, all drivers and bios up-to-date. OC is prime95 stable for 24hrs. HT is off. I have tried EVERY cfg tweak.... and none at all. Bojote cfg, external limiter, yada yada yada. Stutters. They seem to minimize, at 26 or 27fps locked. REALLY???? You have to be kidding me. 26 or 27 (to me at least) looks like 26 or 27. 50, on the other hand, is quite fluid (but stutters like Helen Keller)...
Maybe 8 weeks or so isn't enough time to have been testing/tuning/flying/etc... And now I am wondering If going back to my trusty FS9 isn't the way to go...
BUT if this is a hardware issue, then Someone maybe has had the same experience? I searched, and every SB post I see is someone raving about how badass the performance in FSX is. I'm not seeing it. So, any input from my favorite FS community is appreciated.

kilo delta
June 17th, 2011, 12:49
Which chip are you running...the 2600k?

Felixthreeone
June 17th, 2011, 13:39
Which chip are you running...the 2600k?

..Yes, sorry for the omission. i7 2600k.

kilo delta
June 18th, 2011, 07:14
Hopefully TXnetcop can help out here,I've no experience of the SB chips just yet (though I do have plans on a very similar setup to yours). The GFX card should be more than adequate depending on the resolution that your run on your monitor(s).That OC does seem pretty extreme...but so long as temps are in check and it's a stable overclock then you should be fine. What is the speed of the RAM..1600mhz? Have you tried different GFX drivers and does the issue only occur in FSX (ie. have you tried any other games)? Finally, what PSU are you running? Hopefully the answers to these questions can help to diagnose your issue.

Felixthreeone
June 18th, 2011, 15:30
Thank you for the reply, kilo delta. To answer your questions, the ram is 1866 but i can't get it stable at 1866, throws errors in prime within minutes. So, I am running it at 1600, and it passes with no problems at that speed.
The power supply is a PC Power & Cooling Silencer MkII 750watt. As far as the drivers for the GPU, I have tried all whql drivers from 266.66 on up to the current 275.3ish one.
The overclock itself was 24hrs prime blend stable, and my temps never went over 72C at any point. I assume based on things i have read that the temps I saw in prime were well below any dangerous range. I also ran memtest on the two sticks and they passed with no errors.

...I do think i should add that as per nick n's guide I am using msi afterburner for fan control, and nvidia inspector to control 3d settings. Also of note, i was running cinebench to get an idea of performance when I first started oc'ing; the scores were very, very good, as was the performance of fsx. But recent runs of both tests in cinebench are showing me a significantly reduced score, and I have no idea why. So, here i sit, trying to narrow my issues down to fsx or hardware. Short of nuke and paving and starting from scratch, I am at a loss for narrowing down the culprit...

AndyE1976
July 1st, 2011, 07:45
Where were you flying when you got the stutters and have you defragged lately?

With a 4ghz i7-960 and a GTX 580, I still get a slow down in places like London X and Manhatten X, but in normal Orbx stuff it's fine.

I think one of the problems is that FSX just isn't designed to use more than 3gb of RAM so even with a monster system it can't take full advantage of it. I have 12gb RAM and still get OOM exceptions sometimes.

My one suggestion would be to try turning down your OC to maybe 4.3 or 4.0 and seeing whether that makes any difference. Tuning is often more about balance than outright speed of a single part.

Good luck

bennyfsx
August 3rd, 2011, 08:54
I had a similar problem with a very similar setup (i5 2500k @ 4.6 and a GTX570). The solution for me, after much testing and recording of results, was slightly counterintuitive.

I set the internal frame lock to 24 (no other number seemed to be as effective - you may need to tweak/test but it'll probably be in this ball-park). Then I set the nvidiA inspector settings (I am using 275.33 drivers) as per NickN's standard recommendations, with one exception: anti-aliasing at the 64x4V12 setting. That bit was the eureka moment.

This delivers me exceptionally smooth flight with all settings maxed out except water (2xlow) and vehicles (medium airport vehicles, NO cars - even 3% creates a stutter on my tests - and 20/20 boats).

It may seem disappointing to peg at what sounds like a fairly "low" frame rate but I assure you the result, if rock steady, is immersive. And the power of the rig is clearly still being harnessed owing to the maxed settings (I also run 100% UT2 traffic, UTX with intersection night lighting at 25%, GEX, and REX with 4096 clouds out to unlimited distance) and of course the spectacularly good AA setting. No other rig would deliver even close to 24fps in these conditions.

I hope it works for you. I am no expert but I think some of the tweaks which have taken off in the recent past may already have been overtaken by the latest top-end hardware. In particular I think saturating the video-card with the AA helps to stop it out-pacing the frame creation. Maybe it's like adding weights to Ussein Bolt to keep the harmony!

The above is the only set-up that works for me. Both of the frame-limiter freeware programs give me stutters all the way to 60Fps, and the in-game limiter stutters at 60 as well as at unlimited. (Actually I can use up to 45 with a default aircraft but as I rarely do this I keep it pegged at 24.)

The only thing that drags me down a bit is flying a very complex a/c like the JS4100, which gives me a fluctuating 20-24 in severe weather. But I can tolerate this as it's a huge ask of the system, it only really happens at climb/cruise when there is massive cloud, and may anyway improve with SP2.

Good luck with the above. I really hope you sort it out. Be patient and you should find the sweet-spot. Then be sure to reward those hours of work with a disk-imaging program (I use O&O) so that you will NEVER lose it when you find it. That is hugely good value for your money/time.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Felixthreeone
August 4th, 2011, 19:40
Thanks for all of the info. After pouring over OC'ing guides, and forums, etc...Seems as though 26 is my 'sweet spot'. At least, for where things are right now...some time in the not too distant future, I will probably wipe out my current install and re-install windows and everything again...but apply the things i have learned through trial and error the first time...

txnetcop
August 5th, 2011, 06:14
Thanks for all of the info. After pouring over OC'ing guides, and forums, etc...Seems as though 26 is my 'sweet spot'. At least, for where things are right now...some time in the not too distant future, I will probably wipe out my current install and re-install windows and everything again...but apply the things i have learned through trial and error the first time...

You might try taking your overclock down to 4.0 as some of the SandyBridge units we built and tested at 4.5 and above had some real trouble with certain games. We don't use FSX as a benchmark but I think it might apply in this case too. It certainly is worth a try. Also make sure your frames are set to unlimited with high computer clock speeds.
Good luck
Ted

Felixthreeone
August 6th, 2011, 05:25
After more experimentation, it seems as though I *may* have found the culprit...

Apparently, the newer nvidia drivers don't respond to the '8XS' AA setting the same as the older drivers; Found a thread on another site linking performance issues in FSX to the new drivers and AA settings. So I am currently experimenting with alternate AA modes in nvidia inspector. Definitely a noticeable difference in stutters and choppiness with other AA settings, and I will post which ones work best for my combo as soon as I am satisfied that the image quality/performance ratio is a good one:salute:

Felixthreeone
August 6th, 2011, 09:38
Well...maybe I spoke too soon...seems that regardless of which AA mode i choose, even default, i get some degree of stutter. I also have noticed that it is largely unrelated to sliders in FSX. For example, i can turn up water all the way, autogen, etc..and I get a stutter. If I turn water down all the way, and autogen down all the way, i still get a stutter. Regardless of locked frames or unlimited, or where I am. Now, I run Ultimate traffic II at 50%, and have the internal FSX ai sliders at 20%, with cars off. So, considering the level of power my computer supposedly has, should I just live with it?

...One very interesting thing I noticed as well....when I first got the computer set up, and had things running relatively problem free, I began overclocking. I ran Cinebench to test score the system and see if there were improvements, which there were. BUT...If i run the same tests now, my scores have dropped considerably. I am wondering if that is hinting at a possible hardware failure??

bennyfsx
August 6th, 2011, 11:19
Have you installed Java somewhere along the line? Perhaps to power an external FPS Limiter? If so, you need to go into java settings via control panel and disable the auto-download function. This one is a silent killer until you eradicate it ...

FlameOut
August 6th, 2011, 17:56
Thanks for that tip bennyfsx,
How in the world did you discover that! I use the FPS Limiter and I'd had a little trouble with my AIcarrier program. It somehow or another led me to re downloading Java.
I've not had a lot of time for FSX over the past 2-3 weeks but I knew that something was giving me horrible "little snags". This pretty much nipped it! :applause:

bennyfsx
August 7th, 2011, 01:38
Pleased to have been able to help! I've been there myself and "wasted" many long nights tinkering!

Felixthreeone
August 8th, 2011, 16:03
I di have java installed, but I have the auto-update feature disabled....

...I have experimented now with various AA modes, and found that some are better than others for *reducing* the stuttering I am experiencing. But...I seem to have a much more pervasive and repeatable phenomenon occurring with the stutters...

...Seems as though i can get the stutters 'minimized' when flying relatively low. Not gone, but reduced. In test flights, however, i am noticing a MASSIVE stutter that seems to get worse as I climb. For example, at 2500, there is a little stuttering. If I climb to 10,000ft, and do a roll or pan around the VC looking outside, there are HUGE scenery stutters that make the scenery look like a slideshow...where the terrain actually appears to be 'jumping' from frame to frame. Not a frame-rate issue, but a crippling stutter. I have tried down-clocking my CPU, and that hasn't helped. HT on or off, doesn't seem to help either.

I am definitely approaching my breaking point with FSX, and starting to regret ever leaving my nice, stable, stutter-free FS9. Spent a boatload of $$$ on this comp, did a lot of research before installing anything, and followed all the guides. So, not sure what to do now. It is not a smooth, fluid experience at all. I read a lot of posts from people that have relatively basic systems that *apparently* have none of these issues....or maybe they are talking out of their asses. I guess it is time for a complete re-install, and no addons. Just vanilla FSX and a few addon planes. Then i will wait for MS Flight, and hope it is a finished product...

bennyfsx
August 9th, 2011, 04:44
Very frustrating. Another one that did for me once was game controllers. Stutters went when I uninstalled them and test-flew by keyboard. And they didn't return on reinstalling (while system not overclocked for the install). Have you tried this?

Felixthreeone
August 9th, 2011, 15:52
I will give it a try! thanks!

stansdds
August 10th, 2011, 02:01
Keep your hard drive defragmented too. Last week, FSX started crashing on me. It had been a while since I had defragmented my drives and they were pretty bad. FSX was smoother and stable after a good defrag.

txnetcop
August 10th, 2011, 04:28
I have tried duplicating your stutter issue at TechCorp by using basically the same set-up you have and cannot get FSX to stutter. I have run it at 3.8, 4.0, 4.5 and no stutters period! I even have Orbx scenery loaded and A2A's B-17 and all the scenery in Orbx at max. Frankly, I m stumped-the differences here should not have made that much difference. I have all sliders set to the full right. Smooth as butter! avg frame rates are 44 (I have frame rates set to unlimited)

gigabyte p67a-ud3-b3 mobo(refurb)

Intel SandyBridge 2600k CPU

EVGA DS SuperClocked 01G-P3-1567-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit
(we didn't have a Gigabyte)

Corsair Dominator 1600mhz 8-8-8-24 (did not have Vengence in the lab)

Cooler Master 932

corsair h70 hydro cooler

Western Digital 1GB Black Edition WD 10002FAEX 64mb cache hard drive (we did not have any 1GB Seagates to test with)

w7 64bit

I will ask around and see if anyone else is having issues with the SandyBridge setup!
Ted

Felixthreeone
August 10th, 2011, 18:53
ThanksBenny, and Ted. After a bit of trial, error, and testing, It seems as though what Benny asked me to do has had the most significant impact so far. I normally leave my X52 Pro, rudder pedals, and Pro flight yoke (+additional throttle quadrant) all plugged in at the same time. The additional quadrant is plugged in through the yoke hub. So, I unplugged the yoke setup, and flew a test flight with frames locked at 30. Lo and behold, the stuttering was GREATLY reduced. Not gone, but noticeably reduced. So, I unplugged the X52 and plugged in the yoke, and got similar results.

...i then proceeded to try unlimited frames, which returned an average of 45-50fps, but with much,much more pronounced stuttering. The test flight was over ORBX PNW at midday, in the Xload FA-18D at around 250-400ktas. test flight is a straight-out departure into a slow spiraling left-hand climbing turn up to fl200.

Ted has essentially proven that I shouldn't be having the stutter issue..

I double checkedinspector settings, and the AA is set at 8XS as per nickn recommendations...I tried both HT on and HT off; With HT on, the stuttering is worse than with HT off. Also, I used the affinitymask=14 when I had HT off. No other tweaks...only other cfg mods are disablepreload and highmemfix....and I have wideviewaspect set to 'true'. So, any more input would be appreciated. And I thank you guys very much!!

bennyfsx
August 11th, 2011, 23:31
I would try the following next. Make a backup of your cfg file, delete the original, load FSX and run the default flight to rebuild it. Then reapply only the tweaks you mentioned in the last post, plus this single Bufferpools entry: RejectThreshold=131072. I do find that I need that one. Also, be sure to try both the 8xS and the 64x4v12 AA settings. The higher one will crunch your frames toward 25-30 but can still be smooth if all else is well.

Try it locked at 25, 30 and 45fps. Ignore any stutters for the first minute or so of flying in each - even when switching in-flight - these are inevitable as the settings bed down.

PS Top timesaving tip if you've not tried it already. Save a copy of each of these display settings (25, 30, 45) under recognisable file names. Then edit these files (explorer -> documents -> FSX files) to restore any non-default settings: Eg I use 4096 clouds, and LOD 7.5. Then if you want to change your FPS lock in-game just load the relevant settings file without touching the sliders. That way you won't keep losing cloud resolution, etc. (I have also made further copies of these files with the water set to low so that you can quickly test if your water is causing a problem.)

Also, try to avoid tuning solely in an area full of your add-ons. I have found it helpful to break out and test in hong kong or somewhere where my FSX was running close to default. At least that way you'll know everything's fine without the load.

Finally, are you running anti-virus? Be sure to disable the FSX folder from scanning. Also, any weather engines acting as browsers need to be allowed unhindered access...

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Felixthreeone
August 14th, 2011, 17:32
Ok...quick update:

...4 different drivers, all of which returned the same results: stutters. The driver that produced the fewest was the 270.61 driver. So, that has been the basis for my next few tests

...Tried HT on, and HT off. Noticed a slighty more pronounced stutter with HT off. Strange, considering most people I see say turn it off to avoid thread collisions, and run a higher overclock...

...went to a couple tweaks; Namely, turned wideviewaspect back to false. helped a little

...Applied various affinity mask settings; both with HT on and HT off. Seems that the stutter is reduced most significantly with HT on, and an affinity mask setting of 244.

...Also tried bufferpool settings. All settings I tried were poor, except for 'usepools=0'..that one seemed to help a tiny bit.

...Did a number of test flights; Over default areas as well as addons such as orbx PNW. Noticed NO difference in stutters between addon areas, and default ones. That is really, really odd. They both suffer from a micro-stutter that simply will not go away.

....messed with the sliders a lot, as well. No discernable difference in stutters or microstutters regardless of slider settings.

....Also tried different AA settings in inspector, along with the pre-rendered frames setting and nothing really had a positive impact. Only negative, as I went to lower settings, no change. Higher settings caused worse stutters.

So, I am basically looking at acquiring an EVGA GTX 580, in the hopes that my Gigabyte GTX 560Ti OC card is simply a piece of crap.....hopefully, If Ted or Benny or someone else has input that can solve this, I can save $500.

Thanks in advance!

txnetcop
August 15th, 2011, 02:52
Matt the 560ti has the power to run FSX very well. You could have a bad card have you tried it on any other games or simulators?

bennyfsx
August 15th, 2011, 09:34
Agreed. There's no need to shell out any cash yet. Your stutters in default areas show that something else is holding things back, and that will likely remain the case with a slightly faster card.

There are more things to try yet. I'll send a checklist of things to try in a bit (when the kids and wife have no use for me!).

First off though, do you have a soundcard in there? If so, get that out - the integrated sound is fine and cards are known stutterers in FSX.

Felixthreeone
August 15th, 2011, 17:28
Thanks guys for the replies!

Ted: No, have not tried anything other than FSX, since the only reason this PC was purchased was for FSX...

Benny: Just using the integrated sound now, do not have a dedicated sound card

Felixthreeone
August 16th, 2011, 09:16
Another thing I have noticed, and not sure if it related, is that the red light on the top of the computer (presumably the one that indicates hard drive activity) Is constantly blinking. Even when i am not doing anything on the computer. I am currently talking to the salesguy at microcenter to see if they can swap the card for me, and that way I can rule out the possibility that i got a dud

bennyfsx
August 17th, 2011, 00:28
Good luck with checking the card out.

If you're still having trouble when you get it back, can you double-check there is no anti-virus software busy in the background and that your FSX folder is excluded from any real-time activity?

Also, do you have FSX on a separate drive to the OS? to keep it away from any page file activity...

Then try these:

- reset your nvidiA control panel to default, and also the FSX profile in Inspector. Make sure Vsync is off. Rename your FSX.cfg file, let a new one build, and launch the default flight without making any settings changes. It should show considerable tearing, but should be very smooth despite running at the default 20fps

- If this isn't smooth check you've no unwanted processes running in the background. If you're using MSI Afterburner try right-clicking on the monitoring panel to pause the polling. If it's still not smooth then IMHO you have a hardware problem. You could try cleaning or replacing the memory, or reducing the overclock as a first step

- if the above is smooth, you know your system is OK and your battle is actually tuning. Keep vsync off for now (it introduces its own problems), don't worry about the tearing, and without adjusting any nvidiA settings start ramping up the in-game settings. You should be able to get close to max in the default Friday harbour flight (leave out light bloom, car traffic and air traffic for now). Try it at 30 and 60fps lock via FPS_Limiter and at unlimited.

- if you get big stutters during the above, check your GPU usage history in afterburner - you're probably hitting 100% every now and then. Tune down card-heavy settings (shadows and water) to back it off while the CPU is pumping so much at it. Small stutters are fine for now

- add the widescreen tweak and try again to check this has no impact

- then introduce (via inspector) vsync on, prerendered frames 0, AA at 64x4v12. Use the standard recommendations for the other inspector settings. Exception: I keep my AA ticked on-game and use inspector to Enhance it, rather than Override. I am assuming this helps the o/clocked CPU take some work away from the GPU but am not sure.

- your card will likely hate you for the above, but if you then try with various internal frame locks (ditch FPS_Limiter now) and check the GPU usage every couple of minutes you will soon get a feel for how much throttling back it needs to avoid saturating it and incurring the big stutters. Use Seattle or something to give it a fair test. You can also experiment with triple-buffering on and off but I can't see a difference.

- if this broadly nails it, you can then try tweaking via bojote's web tool (leave out the vsync obviously as your card is doing that) then building in 4096 clouds, 7.5 LOD radius, and air traffic, etc. When tuning for these changes, save a copy of your settings file for each FPS limit you want to try, as previously posted, so that you can quickly switch without losing the other settings. I settle at mid-twenties FPS smooth.

Good luck - you deserve this to work!

Felixthreeone
August 17th, 2011, 04:48
Benny,

THANK YOU sooo much for all of the good troubleshooting and tuning steps. As soon as I get the card swap done, i will set out to get testing and follow those steps to see what happens.

As far as what you have posted above, I use NOD32 antivirus, and I have it set to exclude the FSX folder and associated folders from scanning; FSX is on the same drive as the OS, as I am not proficient in partitioning or anything like that. Maybe i should add an SSD just for X.

The post that Ted put in a few up really makes me feel like I have a serious hardware issue, because his test was with very similar hardware and he has the 'buttery-smooth' flight that I am looking for, and he really didn't mention any hardcore tweaks or tuning.

So, I will be working from my laptop for a day or two while microcenter does their thing swapping my card (i can do ram, but don't feel comfortable doing the vcard) and it is warrantied, so once i get it back, I will report. Thanks again!

kilo delta
August 17th, 2011, 05:08
Maybe i should add an SSD just for X.



I'd suggest getting an SSD for your OS and keeping the FSX install on it's own dedicated drive.

I've just ordered my own i7 2600k upgrade and am looking forward to seeing how FSX will run in comparison to my current (3 year old) overclocked QX9770 build.

txnetcop
August 17th, 2011, 10:10
Benny,

THANK YOU sooo much for all of the good troubleshooting and tuning steps. As soon as I get the card swap done, i will set out to get testing and follow those steps to see what happens.

As far as what you have posted above, I use NOD32 antivirus, and I have it set to exclude the FSX folder and associated folders from scanning; FSX is on the same drive as the OS, as I am not proficient in partitioning or anything like that. Maybe i should add an SSD just for X.

The post that Ted put in a few up really makes me feel like I have a serious hardware issue, because his test was with very similar hardware and he has the 'buttery-smooth' flight that I am looking for, and he really didn't mention any hardcore tweaks or tuning.

So, I will be working from my laptop for a day or two while microcenter does their thing swapping my card (i can do ram, but don't feel comfortable doing the vcard) and it is warrantied, so once i get it back, I will report. Thanks again!


This is the only tweak I used:

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

not one single jaggie and smooth as butter46203

bennyfsx
August 17th, 2011, 11:05
Ted - that's interesting. I get to the same IQ but only with the above considerations and FPS limit. Would you mind detailing your nvidiA driver version and all your inspector settings please? And what vsync solution are you using - card-based or via FSX.cfg? Many thanks.

Felixthreeone
August 17th, 2011, 11:22
OK...faster than I thought...but interesting result. I just returned fro Microcenter, where they swapped out my Gigabyte GTX 560Ti OC for an EVGA 560Ti SOC, and after getting it home and re-installing the driver and setting up FSX the way it was prior:

................NO CHANGE AT ALL. STUTTERS LIKE HELEN KELLER.

.................I give up. Done.

bennyfsx
August 17th, 2011, 15:37
Have you tried DX10 mode?

Felixthreeone
August 17th, 2011, 16:06
DX10 doesn't work at all for me; Makes the water look funny and all of my graphics look 'corrupted' with dx10 switched on....and IT STILL STUTTERS!:angryfir:

Felixthreeone
August 17th, 2011, 16:10
Looks like I am left with a couple other components to try. A new CPU, a new Hard drive, or different RAM. I only use it for FSX, and since it runs like crap, what is the point? Might as well throw component after component into it, until flight comes out, and runs at 1,000,000 fps and stutter free. I know the 560Ti series of cards aren't that great, but c'mon...2 different cards, both very reputable brands. Both stutter. So...maybe my cpu is fritzy, or my HD isn't up to the task....

txnetcop
August 17th, 2011, 18:55
Unfortunately the test unit I built at TechCorp is no longer, they tear 'em down fast and set up the next build, but the settings I think these are the settings for Nvidia Inspector I had:462304623146232

Did you run prime95 CPU test Matt? Also drop that overclock down to 3.5ghz and see what you get. FSX has an internal clock too and if your overclock is done badly or reported wrong the clock could be off and your bandwidth very slow.
Ted

Felixthreeone
August 17th, 2011, 19:41
Thanks, Ted. Yes, I actually have run several Prime95 runs, and I tend to do one after each change to speed or voltage in BIOS...

"Did you run prime95 CPU test Matt? Also drop that overclock down to 3.5ghz and see what you get. FSX has an internal clock too and if your overclock is done badly or reported wrong the clock could be off and your bandwidth very slow."

..Not sure what you mean by this....as far as my overclock, it is, at least from all of the research i have done, fairly clean and stable. It will pass prime95 blend torture test for over 12 hours, and I don't see awful temps.

..I do notice, however, that you had your inspector set to AA 'enhance application setting'? Does this mean that you had AA ticked in FSX settings? maybe I will try this and see...

Felixthreeone
August 17th, 2011, 19:53
I am seeing some progress....

With the new EVGA card, I have tried a few tweaks that I had attempted with the Gigabyte card...and the EVGA unit **SEEMS** to be responding a bit better...namely, the bufferpool setting. With the Gigabyte card, adding a bufferpool entry caused either no change, or a negative one. With the new card, however, the bufferpool entry seems to have had a slight smoothing effect on the stutters.

I am, at this point, focusing on the inspector settings, as well as the config settings that relate directly to the video card (i.e. the vsync, BP, AA, and texture bandwidth etc) and as soon as I am satisfied on some level of thoroughness, I will report my findings.

Felixthreeone
August 24th, 2011, 21:13
WoooooooHoooooooo!!!!!

...After much trial, error, tweaking, tuning, researching, testing, beer drinking, head scratching, headaches, nausea, vomiting, cheering, yelling, and other odd behavior, I have, at last, solved this!!!!

...The short story is as follows:

Did a ton of research into FSX inner workings, and got a better idea of how it works. So I set about applying the usual tweaks that are posted all over FSX forums everywhere, after researching each one, and studying its merits and drawbacks.

After a TON of trial and error, narrowed down the tweaks that actually DID something for me: affinity mask, bufferpool=0. I am currently using an affinity mask of 12, and I will continue to experiment with 14 and 15 also. And bufferpool=0, because every other BP setting was a no-go.

Now....after making it that far, I was still getting stutters, albeit reduced stutters....so, I thought 'hey, man...this setup MUST be able to run better than this!'...and did a bit more research about the rendering from the GPU, its feed from the cpu, etc...

And, incidentally, Ted's post a few back really got me thinking...SO...I used my MSI afterburner to monitor GPU usage, and set up invidia inspector with a few changes.

I changed the anti-aliasing setting to 'enhance application setting', and ticked the AA box inside FSX. Then, I changed the anisotropic filtering setting in inspector to none (same as use application), and changed the setting in FSX to anisotropic. Finally, I set the vsync setting in inspector to 'use the 3d application setting' , and added the vsync lines into the FSX cfg directly.



.....The result? At 30fps, the smoothest flight experience I have ever had since getting this new PC. It is AMAZING!!! Any stutters that do show up are so minor they are almost invisible...you REALLY have to be looking for them in order to see them!!

As of now i am still testing with different aircraft, in different areas, and so far, I have been able to max out pretty much every slider (except ai, since I use UTII), and I am astounded at what I am seeing. The help and advice of other people on this forum really made a difference, and I appreciate it very much!

kilo delta
August 25th, 2011, 03:26
Glad you got it up and running,Matt. Now you can enjoy FSX as it's meant to be.:applause:



I got my i7 upgrade parts this week too. I'm considering keeping my current rig "as is" as a backup rig and getting a new case,gfx,cooler,fans,SSD,hard drives,optical drives and psu for the new build...but Mrs KD isn't too keen on the idea of yet another d**n pc about the house! :kilroy::icon_lol::icon29: