FSX Tweak Guide (Links)

**SirBenn21** · November 1st, 2008, 01:39

Here is a link to guides that could improve your FSX PERFORMANCE

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/ya...1197380641/1#1

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...ml#Post2487217

Ben

**txnetcop** · November 2nd, 2008, 07:05

By the way, I think Nick Needham is one very smart man and knows not only FSX but sytems as well. So I appreciate you showing his expertise here.
Ted

**Bjoern** · November 2nd, 2008, 13:13

Umm, Ben, the links are actually exactly the same, the only difference being that I've wrapped up Nick's posts with a "how to".

**FLighT01** · November 3rd, 2008, 04:08

Originally Posted by txnetcop

By the way, I think Nick Needham is one very smart man and knows not only FSX but sytems as well. So I appreciate you showing his expertise here.
Ted

I agree, not only was I able to wring the last drop of performance out of my old AMD box with FSX, I learned a lot about computers and how they operate as well... I still have a lot more to learn but Nick_N's writings are well worth the read. My new Intel box incorporates a lot of his suggestions around building a dedicated rig for FSX and I am not disappointed in the performance I'm getting.

**Bjoern** · November 3rd, 2008, 14:49

Nick is a great guy, but make sure what you say when he's around, especially when giving out advice. He can explode faster than a hangar filled with TNT and a smoking mechanic. :costumes:

:d

**SirBenn21** · November 4th, 2008, 12:12

Originally Posted by Bjoern

Umm, Ben, the links are actually exactly the same, the only difference being that I've wrapped up Nick's posts with a "how to".

Ye I know, but I thought they belonged in this section of the forum.

klemay · November 5th, 2008, 05:38

Hi all,

Hey I'm wondering, how many of these tips and tricks specific to FSX are to be used with SP2/Acceleration?

Thanks!

**txnetcop** · November 5th, 2008, 06:09

Very few if your rig has the horsepower. HighflightSimulations will charge you $10..0 to set an FSX config and I gotta tell ya from what I have seen you can do better on your own
Ted

**orionll** · November 5th, 2008, 13:41

Here's a thread at the FSWC Forums in which Paul Wheeler has added links to all of Nick's guides: http://www.fswaterconfigurator.com/f...hp?topic=266.0

Our all knowing sim guru at FSWC, Nick Needham, has written several great guides for setting up your system. I thought I'd post them all here in one place where they are easy to find.

DEFRAGGING AND SYSTEM SETUP GUIDE:

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/ya...num=1208959973

FSX.CFG SETUP TIPS:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/foru...=149676#149676

NHANCER SETUP GUIDE:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/foru...=156769#156769

NICK'S THOUGHTS ON RAM:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/foru...=160112#160112

You can get a 30 day trial copy of O&O defrag v8.6 here...

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/d.../oodefrag86pro

**Bjoern** · November 5th, 2008, 15:36

Didn't know about that NHancer guide to be honest. Thanks for the link, Orion!

**michael davies** · December 13th, 2008, 08:50

Is anyone else having problems with O&O usage as detailed in the help links above ?, I run it and it stalls on the file c:/system volume/trackinglog, I've left it 30mins sitting on that one file, theres no CPU activity, just sits there. Win XP has no issue defragging but I'd like to get O&O working, its the trial version I'm using right now.

Best

Michael

**txnetcop** · December 13th, 2008, 09:25

Unlike Nick I am not a fan of O&O for everyone while it is extremely powerful it is also very quirky if you new to defrag setup. Some motherboard chipsets react badly to it. Even if you use msconfig to do the hard implanted setup it can still be very quirky. Ultimate Defrag for payware and IOBit for freeware has proven to be the best for FSX and FS9 for people who do not custom defrag.

Also be careful if use ATI video cards using Nick's guides. Other than that I think his guides are excellent. As for the ATI Catalyst knowing how to set it up will keep you from getting weird shimmering and artifacts or use ATI Tray Tools and just download the drivers only for ATI w/o Catalyst. If you are running a DX9.1 video card I would not use any of the newest ATI Drivers stop at 8.4. Remember too that FSX does not use OPEN GL but if you use Force vertical sync you will want to use triple buffering.
Ted

**Bjoern** · December 13th, 2008, 11:42

Michael, I know that problem from Vista and (somehow) write-protected system files. You could try to run O&O as administrator.

XP and O&O work perfectly together though.

**michael davies** · December 13th, 2008, 14:31

Originally Posted by txnetcop

Unlike Nick I am not a fan of O&O for everyone while it is extremely powerful it is also very quirky if you new to defrag setup. Some motherboard chipsets react badly to it. Even if you use msconfig to do the hard implanted setup it can still be very quirky. Ultimate Defrag for payware and IOBit for freeware has proven to be the best for FSX and FS9 for people who do not custom defrag.

Also be careful if use ATI video cards using Nick's guides. Other than that I think his guides are excellent. As for the ATI Catalyst knowing how to set it up will keep you from getting weird shimmering and artifacts or use ATI Tray Tools and just download the drivers only for ATI w/o Catalyst. If you are running a DX9.1 video card I would not use any of the newest ATI Drivers stop at 8.4. Remember too that FSX does not use OPEN GL but if you use Force vertical sync you will want to use triple buffering.
Ted

Ted, indeed I think your right. I set O&O to run whilst I went out for a company Xmas meal, on my return ( 5 hrs ) it had completed the SPACE defrag so it seems one must be patient and let it run its course !.

I've tried many things to keep a clean OS over the years yrs I tend to take all new methods with a pinch of salt, nearly 90% of what Nick recommends I already do or have done with good results, so some of what he writes is in good faith, the rest is down to subjective assessment, it may work for some, it may not work for others.

Thanks for the tip on FSx using Direct 3D, that'll help with setting up the graphics card, I'm using Catalyst 7.3 so will try 8.4 at some stage.

Kindest

Michael

icarus · December 26th, 2008, 01:27

I'm using Catalyst 7.3 so will try 8.4 at some stage

catalyst are at 8.12

**gera** · January 2nd, 2009, 07:12

If you have Accelerator and a well defragmented machine you hardly need any of these so called "Tweaks"...:mixedsmi:

**Meso** · January 3rd, 2009, 11:33

Ì have a question about this setting which Nick Needham describes at simhq (im not a member there so i ask it here) it is about this:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=5,000,000 <- default (equals 5mb)

he uses this value:
Poolsize=100,000,000 (equals 100mb)

he states that this puts much strain on the system, is this a safe setting i can use for longer times. i've checked its effect and it increases the frame rates where massive amounts of trees are from 12 to 15, so there is a nice effect.

i think my memory and mobo are quick enough and i have plenty o fvid ram since fsx max uses 512 mb, so i think its safe. maybe an extra cooler is needed since i only have one 120mm fan and a standard processor cooler.

kind regards,

Meso

**Bjoern** · January 3rd, 2009, 14:34

The Bufferpools size doesn't put any extra strain on the system, it just reassigns a portion of your video memory for some caching tasks. That's why you shouldn't set it too high, otherwise FSX won't run properly because too little video memory is assigned for the basic rendering calculations FSX is tasked to do.

**NickN** · April 2nd, 2009, 22:12

Originally Posted by Bjoern

Nick is a great guy, but make sure what you say when he's around, especially when giving out advice. He can explode faster than a hangar filled with TNT and a smoking mechanic. :costumes:

:d

Thats only true for smart arse engineering students who think they know more than someone who designed hardware for the lunar module, FBW design, the space shuttle and modern guidance and targeting systems for silly things like Boeing’s ABL system.

**Bjoern** · April 3rd, 2009, 08:36

Originally Posted by NickN

smart arse engineering students

*Runs*

:whistle:

:costumes:

**NickN** · April 3rd, 2009, 09:37

Originally Posted by Bjoern

*Runs*

Try some of this...

It works great for those

**stansdds** · April 3rd, 2009, 11:31

I've tried Nick's tweaks and they actually do work, unlike some other suggestions found on the internet. I'm still locked at 24 fps, but I've been able to crank up the visuals as well as traffic to levels that are quite fine for me. I'll take 24 fps that is smooth and looks really good over 30 fps that looks bland or suffers from jitters. Thanks again, Nick.

**Bjoern** · April 3rd, 2009, 14:42

Originally Posted by NickN

Try some of this...

It works great for those

Okay, will try....LoL! :d

**Trans_23** · January 10th, 2010, 08:50

Another post by Nick. I found this link over at Hovercontrol. I don't use FSX yet but it looks like about a days work to implement what Nick discusses in this thread.

http://www.simforums.com/forums/foru....asp?TID=29041