Increasing Frame Rates

[Tom Burnside]

Ive had a but of a problem with these lately I flew the IRIS Sentinel R1 and the JustFlight Canberra PR9 and I have had terrible frame rates just about 5 per second. Is there a way I can solve this.

[dhasdell]

I think the two quickest ways to improve frame rates are to minimise the AI and to turn off the detailed clouds.

[rvn817j]

Ahhh, most likely the most often asked FSX question. A question that has been around for years and will not likely go away soon. Look at some of the Sim-Outhouse tweak guides or try a google search on "FSX tweak guides" (many other sim sites have tweak guides). After spending hours and hours trying to get a really crisp FSX screen that updates (FPS) smoothly you may fine that you need a new bigger CPU or top of the line graphics card or even a whole new system. Many of us use the FSX control panel to cut down on AI traffic (planes, cars, ships, etc.) turn off shadows, dial back a little on details, etc., etc. Individual systems require individual solutions.

If you are running DX10, get Steve's DX10 Fixer and use the tweak guides on this site for Steve's Fixer. Good luck.

[stansdds]

First, post the specifications of your computer. Some computers simply cannot handle highly detailed aircraft and scenery.

That brings up the next question, what sort of scenery, weather, and AI traffic add-ons are you using?

Generally speaking, for smoother FSX performance, lower the Autogen and Scenery Complexity sliders and turn off all of the check boxes regarding shadows. Also set cloud draw distance to the minimum setting. Set road vehicle traffic to no more than 5%, water traffic no more than 20%, and as little air traffic as you can tolerate. Some of us do not like empty skies, others don't mind being the only aircraft in the world.

As for tweaking the FSX cfg file, I was big into tweaking, but with quad-core CPU's and fast video cards, I see little benefit. In fact, I just ditched my tweaked cfg and let FSX build a new cfg file with the only tweak being the HIMEMFIX=1 (not needed for FSX-Steam as it is already included) and I am getting much better performance.

Oh, and don't get hung up on the FPS counter. This is not a first person shooter sim, so look for smoothness. 20 FPS and smooth as glass will look a lot better than 60 FPS with stutters and jerkiness.

[Tom Burnside]

First, post the specifications of your computer. Some computers simply cannot handle highly detailed aircraft and scenery.

That brings up the next question, what sort of scenery, weather, and AI traffic add-ons are you using?

Generally speaking, for smoother FSX performance, lower the Autogen and Scenery Complexity sliders and turn off all of the check boxes regarding shadows. Also set cloud draw distance to the minimum setting. Set road vehicle traffic to no more than 5%, water traffic no more than 20%, and as little air traffic as you can tolerate. Some of us do not like empty skies, others don't mind being the only aircraft in the world.

As for tweaking the FSX cfg file, I was big into tweaking, but with quad-core CPU's and fast video cards, I see little benefit. In fact, I just ditched my tweaked cfg and let FSX build a new cfg file with the only tweak being the HIMEMFIX=1 (not needed for FSX-Steam as it is already included) and I am getting much better performance.

Oh, and don't get hung up on the FPS counter. This is not a first person shooter sim, so look for smoothness. 20 FPS and smooth as glass will look a lot better than 60 FPS with stutters and jerkiness.

Thank you for the advice guys. I will give that a go I can do without road and water traffic.

[Tom Burnside]

So I have done what was said and im still getting poor frame rates.

[WarHorse47]

Tom, you need to post your computer specs including operating system and graphic card. In that way someone with a similar system can offer assistance.

There are so many variables that impact FSX performance, as well as the performance of individual addon aircraft.

For example, if you have other applications running outside of FSX (like a virus program conducting a scan), it can impact FSX in general. Newer addon aircraft, like the JF Canberra, have large texture files which can push your graphics card to the limit - especially if you are flying over photogenic terrain or scenery like Seattle.

[JimH]

I gained about 10 fps by always parking the cursor in the white bar at the top of the screen.

[Tom Burnside]

Tom, you need to post your computer specs including operating system and graphic card. In that way someone with a similar system can offer assistance.

There are so many variables that impact FSX performance, as well as the performance of individual addon aircraft.

For example, if you have other applications running outside of FSX (like a virus program conducting a scan), it can impact FSX in general. Newer addon aircraft, like the JF Canberra, have large texture files which can push your graphics card to the limit - especially if you are flying over photogenic terrain or scenery like Seattle.

Its a Lenovo G50 with an Intel R graphics card.

[Peg o my heart]

I can only think of using DX10. Its a trade, for ex I cant have the tacpack FLIR and other small limitationa in other aircraft. But the performance gain is really worth it.

Setting the FPS to unlimited also works for me, and I experience no stutter.

As said aboce, when the cursor appears, it drinks up fps. Nothing we can do about it but waiting until it dissappears or navigate it ro menu bar.

I set traffic cars to zero and use 1024 cloud. Everything is pretty much full right, except autogen (VD) and Mesh (10).

My spec is i5 2500K and....... 9800GT 1GB.

[henrystreet]

Its a Lenovo G50 with an Intel R graphics card.

Tom,

On that laptop system you must really go light on the FSX display settings. For example, for autogen, set to "Sparse" or "None". Set Global Texture size to "Small". On the "Traffic" tab, set all traffic sliders to 0%.

Traffic and autogen were the 2 biggest frame rate killers on my first FSX system (very close in specs to your laptop).

[Tom Burnside]

Tom,

On that laptop system you must really go light on the FSX display settings. For example, for autogen, set to "Sparse" or "None". Set Global Texture size to "Small". On the "Traffic" tab, set all traffic sliders to 0%.

Traffic and autogen were the 2 biggest frame rate killers on my first FSX system (very close in specs to your laptop).

Thank you ill give it a go when I get the chance.

[stansdds]

I looked up the specs on the Lenovo G50, sadly, it is an entry level laptop. The CPU is the Intel Core i3, which is Intel's lowest performing modern CPU and Intel HD graphics have never been known for being performance graphics technology. I would suggest setting all AI traffic to zero, graphics sliders all the way to the left, all animations and airport ground vehicles turned off and see what you get.

[Tom Burnside]

I looked up the specs on the Lenovo G50, sadly, it is an entry level laptop. The CPU is the Intel Core i3, which is Intel's lowest performing modern CPU and Intel HD graphics have never been known for being performance graphics technology. I would suggest setting all AI traffic to zero, graphics sliders all the way to the left, all animations and airport ground vehicles turned off and see what you get.

Is there a way I can improve the graphics on it.

[henrystreet]

Is there a way I can improve the graphics on it.

Unfortunately, because it is a laptop, there is no way to upgrade the hardware specs.

[Tom Burnside]

I just had a thought. I still have FS9 installed would that have anything to do with it because theres less memory.

[stansdds]

FS9 might run a little better because FS9 does not require a fast, mulit-core cpu, but the graphics chip will still be a problem. As for having FS9 and FSX installed, that will not make any difference as you run only one flight sim at a time.

[Motormouse]

I just had a thought. I still have FS9 installed would that have anything to do with it because theres less memory.

You are getting memory and hard drive space confused.

No. It will only be using memory when actually running.

It will only be using storage space on hard drive.



ttfn

Pete

[Tom Burnside]

Hello everyone sorry for taking so long. The canberra still nit getting very good frame rates but it has improved to a good rate. Tornado was actually not to bad when I first flew it but when I got to Wattisham it did go down hill.

[DaveB]

This will always be the case. The closer you get to mother earth, the more detail the pc has to process putting a greater demand on what may already be limited resources.

ATB
DaveB:)

[scotth6]

Hi,

I recently tried something I had only ever tried once before, years ago, which was uncheck the High Resolution 3-D virtual cockpit option in FSX settings, after reading someone's suggestion on how to improve the frame rates on the Carenado B200.

The frame rates were really bad, probably below 10, and unchecking that option bumped the frames back up to 30 FPS. I know the Canberra uses really high res and even 3D gauges, so this might be an option if or when the frames go downhill. When I tried unchecking that option years ago it was in the default F/A-18, and I switched it straight back on because the VC textures were a blurry mess. With these newer aircraft that have extra HD VCs it is different. I can hardly notice the difference in textures in the B200, apart from zooming in the detail on the LCD screens is not as nice or as clear. The detail overall, though remains really crisp, and the performance is much better.

Cheers,