Odd problem with visually complex aircraft

[piperarcherpilot]

Hello all,

I finally got FSX tweaked very well in my opinion for the hardware I have...but I have an annoying problem with some aircraft.

First of all, specs: HP Laptop. All drivers are up to date. I also have good antispyware/virus software and Ccleaner, so I think the computer is pretty well maintained. Nothing is overclocked. Also the case/fan unit is free of dust.

Vista 32bit - SP2
3gb of RAM
Dual Core 1.66 GHz Processor
Nvidia 8600GS 256gb card (179 series drivers - the most recent HP has released)
160gb HD (OS drive, where FSX is installed) - about 35 gb free
320gb HD (where my 3gb swap file is located) - about 200 gb free

IOBit's defragger (I run a full defrag and optimization about once a month)
IOBit's GameBooster (seems to help only a little with performance as there's not much running in the background anyway)
Nhancer v2.4.5 following the guides in these forums. Settings seem to work well.
FSX: Acceleration (relatively recent install) with the following tweaks:
--Bandwith multiplier: 10
--Bufferpool: 5000000
--Fiber time fraction: .20

With medium to high settings in all the visuals (with the exception of water which I cant go higher than high 2x cause it causes a huge drop in framerates), I have my framerate locked at 20, flying over moderately complex scenery in the default F18, I get a solid, smooth, 20 fps. No bloom, no self shadowing, either - these cause HUGE drop in framerate. I like 20 fps and can live without them.

Thats the good.

The bad is that with a few aircraft, I still get an average of around 20 fps, but get constant stuttering and popping. The only aircraft this occurs with are Dino's F14, IRIS F14, and the Aerosoft F16. Obviously, I see that these are graphics 'heavy' airplanes, but why dont I just get a lower framerate? Why all the annoying popping?

I dont know how to further tweak to minimize this without messing up how wonderful the rest of the sim is, because, like I said with all other aircraft (including planes like the CS C130 and 757) I get decent (18-20fps) framerates that are stutter free. Does anyone have experience in a situation like this? What is causing the stuttering on just these few airplanes?

[harleyman]

Your vid memory is to low for bufferpools I think..Try just removing that entry and see how it does...

[piperarcherpilot]

Thanks for the tip, Harleyman, thats something I hadnt considered. I will give it a try tonight!

[piperarcherpilot]

Just as a followup, unfortunately Harleyman, that did not make things better. In fact, removing the bufferpools reference in the cfg made the stuttering much worse and continuous. I upped the value to 6000000 and things seem pretty decent, although I still get annoying stuttering with previously noted planes.

Here's a good link on the bufferpool issue: http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archiv...week-or-2.aspx

Looks like 4000000 to 10000000 is a decent range for mid range cards.

So...bufferpools aint it...and the mystery contunues...