Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
Post your experience with system optimization for FS here ! |
DVA1070
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM
Joined on January 28 2003
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
"I believe I can fly" Jeffersonville, IN USA
218 legs, 841.9 hours
182 legs,
778.3 hours online 108 legs,
505.1 hours ACARS 42 legs,
200.5 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 20 2005 12:54 ET by Adam Gaweda
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Having seen threads about hardware flying around in the cooler and having spent quite some amount of time trying to squeeze every single possible frame per second out of my system, I thought that it would be a good idea for everybody to share their experiences in optimizing their system's performance for FS (what a long sentence). This is what I mean: share with us what your system's specs are, video driver settings, and other hardware settings and so on and so forth, what modifications in FS9.cfg do you have and what do you achieve with them. It is one thing to have a decent hardware, it is a different one to use its full capabilities. Hope to see some contributions.
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DVA1583
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on March 23 2004
Everett 250 Club
Online Six Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Seven Century Club
South America
710 legs, 1,938.2 hours
619 legs,
1,760.2 hours online 589 legs,
1,630.3 hours ACARS 16 legs,
61.2 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 20 2005 15:15 ET by Charly Azcue
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This post in avsim.com helps me to tweak FS :
http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=177&topic_id=743&mode=full
Regards
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DVA1933
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on September 19 2004
Triple Century Club
Monterrey, NL Mexico
357 legs, 860.4 hours
72 legs,
132.3 hours online 255 legs,
668.3 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.9 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 20 2005 15:15 ET by David Eugenio Gomez
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heheh cool post ..... ok here's my stuff:
Tech stuff:
Generic PC with Pentium 4 @ 1.8ghz
RAM: 640 mb (not even DDR, but the older one)
HD: Fujitsu (Yeah I know that they make elevators HAHAH) with 19 GB of total space (like 40% of it is full with FS)
Video Card: GeForce4 MX440 AGP8X w/128MB
Sound Card: I just bought a Sound Blaster Live 24
Settings:
- My video card's settings are: Textures at a level of detail to get "High Performance", antialiasing 4XS and anisotropic at 2X.
- FS's settings: Scenery is in low detail, weather is visible up to 80 miles, terrain is visible until 40 miles (or the lowest value), clouds coverage to the lowest, aircraft reflections off, FPS blocked at 20, max sound quality, Trilinear mips, "Massive" as general textures quality in the Hardware tab, MIP value at 5 (this last one makes the difference between good performance and totally un-flyable sim :P)
To improve my performance:
- The first thing I did was to mess with msconfig.exe to avoid programs to start when Windows loads up. Then wihen Windows is loaded I manually close the rest of the processes that I do not need, leaving only 13 necessary processes for the PC and using 92 MB of memory before firing up FS. That really helps.
- I got a little program to reduce the video card's latency (somebody posted that in the cooler a while ago, THANKS TO THAT GUY)
- As a suggestion from Ken Rodriguez, I do a daily defrag on my small HD to improve loading times. Works good.
- I keep my FS's folder the most ordered as possible. EG: Every single B737-700 is on the same folder to avoid using the same .mdl / panel / sound / .air files a million times; I also get rid of every plane that I do not use to keep HD space and reduce loading times, things like that.
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DVA2270
Captain, B737-800
Joined on April 12 2005
Western United States
21 legs, 28.1 hours
15 legs,
20.7 hours online 4 legs,
5.3 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
June 20 2005 16:19 ET by Barrie Hiern
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Here's my box:
Intel Celeron processor @ 2.8 Ghz
1 Gig RAM (PC3200)
80 Gig HD partitioned into 2 drives 20 Gig drive for boot and 58 Gig for programs. Defragged daily at 3:00 AM
Video is ATI Radeon 9250 with 256 megs RAM; out of the box settings.
Sound is SoundBlaster Live 24 bit.
Registry Healer is run every 48 hours; then reboot and X-Cleaner fires up - NUKE the adware, spyware, etc.
FreeRAM XP Pro runs every 20 min.
After boot I've about 532 megs RAM to start FS9, ActiveSky, etc.
Internet connection is 4.5 mbits/sec. download - Dlink 100 mbits/sec. card.
I average 20 frames/sec.
Barrie
Barrie HiernCaptain, B737-800
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DVA544
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on October 24 2001
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Southeastern United States
329 legs, 661.4 hours
186 legs,
368.2 hours online 47 legs,
90.0 hours ACARS 7 legs,
22.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 20 2005 20:17 ET by Joe DeGregorio
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Syntax S865PE Motherboard with chipset cooling fan.
True Intel 2.53Ghz CPU (running @ 2.85Ghz) 800Mhz FSB
512Mb DDR400 (had another stick of 512 but its going in another system)
20Gb Boot Drive
80Gb second harddrive
GF2 MX400 64mb AGP4x (slightly overclocked..:-))...)
3 case fans,and a dynatron blower for the CPU cooler running about 6500rom,and its very quiet.
waiting on my new GF 6600GT AGP video card before I install fs2004.
it can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.pcofla.net/1stboot.JPG
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DVA477
Senior Captain, B777-200
Joined on May 31 2002
Southeastern United States
15 legs, 17.1 hours
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Posted onPost created on
June 21 2005 05:03 ET by Dennis Cherney
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I haven't done any tweaking, but the system runs really good without it:
Intel D865GBFLK System Board
Intel P4 3.0GHz w/HyperThreading Enabled
1 GB Corsair DDR400 RAM (2x512MB 1 Per Bus)
2x Western Digital 7200 RPM 120 GB SATA Drives (C: & E:)
1x Western Digital 7200 RPM 80 GB EIDE Drive (D:)
PNY GeForce 4 4400 AGP Video
MGE Quantum Case with 5x Case Fans
Just finished with the rebuild of the systems (Added SATA Drives) so I need to mess with the settings a little more but currently I'm averaging about 45fps with all Graphics Settings maxed out. The Video Card is a little on the older side, but that's what this weeks paycheck is for.
Dennis CherneySenior Captain, B777-200
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DVA630
Senior Captain, B777-200
Joined on June 22 2002
Million Mile Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Eight Century Club
Online Seven Century Club
Everett 250 Club
B757 100 Club
"Flightsimaroma therapy." Bainbridge, PA
873 legs, 2,775.4 hours
783 legs,
2,429.4 hours online 487 legs,
1,454.8 hours ACARS 19 legs,
64.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 21 2005 08:25 ET by Kenneth Rodriguez
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Server PC:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+
3GB Ballistix PC3200 DDR Matched RAM 400Mhz
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nVidia Socket 939 Motherboard
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset
2X-Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB HD RAID-0 @ 10K RPM Partitioned X4 on the primary drive (MSFS runs on it's own partition)
BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB w/ nForce Networking
Windows XP Pro SP2 on both machines now
Client PC:
Running all secondary Prog's. SB3, AS, FS Realtime, Etc.
4 20" Flat Screen LCD's - Just recently added the 4th. 2 monitors on each PC.
Frame Rates are through the roof with all settings maxxed out. I can get 45-50 FPS during a big flyin in Atlanta or any major airport with weather (either bad or good) running, however the slight stutters are unavoidable as this has to do with the Vatsim network limitations. Other than that, we average between 60-75 FPS, which in my opinion is too high. Considering that most Television programs run in the 24-25 FPS range.
When you get your system to not go below 25 FPS during flyins and whatnot, then you are doing just fine.
BTW, on my machine that runs FS, I shut down all background programs using "End-It-All". I like to have all resources allocated to FS. Now if I can just run FS in realtime as far as the CPU goes without overheating it, that would be awesome.
Best Regards.
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DVA1385
Captain, B767-300
E-MAIL
Joined on November 09 2003
Century Club
"www.flyaoamedia.com" Western United States
122 legs, 479.3 hours
72 legs,
282.0 hours online 36 legs,
162.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
June 22 2005 15:06 ET by Chris Palmer
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I would also like to still your computer, Ken, and scavange it for parts! How would that feel?! HAHAHA!
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DVA630
Senior Captain, B777-200
Joined on June 22 2002
Million Mile Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Eight Century Club
Online Seven Century Club
Everett 250 Club
B757 100 Club
"Flightsimaroma therapy." Bainbridge, PA
873 legs, 2,775.4 hours
783 legs,
2,429.4 hours online 487 legs,
1,454.8 hours ACARS 19 legs,
64.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 22 2005 15:23 ET by Kenneth Rodriguez
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ROFL!
:-D
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DVA544
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on October 24 2001
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Southeastern United States
329 legs, 661.4 hours
186 legs,
368.2 hours online 47 legs,
90.0 hours ACARS 7 legs,
22.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 22 2005 20:36 ET by Joe DeGregorio
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I want his video card....:p
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DVA2286
Captain, B757-200
Joined on April 21 2005
"On, On, U of K" Southeastern United States
48 legs, 101.5 hours
11 legs,
8.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
June 22 2005 22:32 ET by Josh Garrett
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Main Rig:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (Both cores running at 2.6Ghz)
MSI K8N Neo4P SLI
4GB Corsair XMS (4 x 1GB)
2x BFG 7800GTX OCs in SLI
Western Digital 74GB Raptor
Western Digital 250GB HDD (4x Partitions)
2 - 21" Viewsonic LCDs
Having just completed some trade-ins on my FX-55 and 6800Ultras, I can now say Flightsim along with every other game is incredibly fast. Running at 1600x1200 with Nvidias new Transparency Multisampling set at 4x, Anisotropic filtering at 16x, all settings maxed I get between 70-80fps, any airport, any amount of traffic, any plane, any time (including online flying). The performance hit is next to nothing. I too use End-It-All to shutdown all background tasks that are not required.
I'll leave you with this link - http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm
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DVA1070
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM
Joined on January 28 2003
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
"I believe I can fly" Jeffersonville, IN USA
218 legs, 841.9 hours
182 legs,
778.3 hours online 108 legs,
505.1 hours ACARS 42 legs,
200.5 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 23 2005 10:07 ET by Adam Gaweda
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Thanks for the link, Josh.
Since I started this, I thought I would share my findings too:
MB: Intel D845BGL / FSB 400 MHz / AGP 4x
CPU: Pentium 4 2.2 GHz
RAM: 1 GB SpecTek PC2100 DDRAM (2x512 MB)
VC: ATI Radeon 9600 128 MB DDR1 / GPU 325 MHz / Memory 400 MHz
OS: Win XP Pro
Chipset Drivers: most recent (Feb 2003)
Video Drivers: Catalyst 5.6
Video Settings: screen res. 1280 x 1024 / refresh rate 60 Hz / AA 4x + temporal AA / AF 8x / MIPMapping: performance / AGP 4x / AGP Fast Writes: ON / AGP Read/Write: ON / Wait for Vertical Sync: OFF / Catalyst AI: OFF / PCI Latency: 32 (set using LtcyCfg)
BIOS: AGP Aperture 64 MB
Virutal Memory: 1.5 GB
Using FS Autostart by Ken Salter and Intel Application Accelerator
FS9.cfg:
TEXTURE_BANDWITH_MULT = 300 (this seems to be a very critical parameter, but I still don't know exactly what it does)
PanelAsTexture = 0 (I'm not sure if this parameter makes difference for me)
I also used to have TextureAGP=0. Supposedly, bypassing the AGP texture xfer improves smoothness in FS9. I haven't been able to observe any difference.
FS9 Display Settings:
RenderToTexture: OFF (ON, required with DXT3 textures, causes screen flashing)
T & L: ON
AA: OFF (obviously)
Trilinear Filtering
FPS locked at 20 fps
MIPMap level: 4
Global Texture Size: Massive
3D Cloud Density: Maximum
Scenery Settings Maxed, except for Special Effects, Autogen and Dynamic Addon Scenery: None
With all this, I get 19 fps on average, except for some sceneries (about 15 fps) and in clouds (down to 10 fps in thick cumuli). Right now, specifically focusing on improving fps in clouds. Recently reverted to default MS cloud textures. Changing cloud density does not result in significant improvement.
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DVA2026
Captain, B767-300
E-MAIL
Joined on November 27 2004
Northeastern United States
96 legs, 162.1 hours
81 legs,
131.9 hours online 46 legs,
76.1 hours ACARS 2 legs,
4.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
June 28 2005 12:30 ET by William Larkin
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My System is:
Dell Demension 4700
GeForce 256MB 6800
1GB of Memory
160GB C Drive
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz Processor
Its not the stock 4700, i customized it, I have sliders turned mostly all the way up and my average framerates which i set maxed out at 40 is about 35-40 in the air and 25-35 on the ground. You really don't need more than 25 I think.
William LarkinCaptain, B767-300
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