Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
Does the computing power exist? |
DVA1598
First Officer, B737-800
Joined on March 29 2004
Midwestern United States
15 legs, 37.6 hours
12 legs,
29.4 hours online
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Posted onPost created on
August 05 2005 16:30 ET by Okwundu Anekewe
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Gentlemen,
I can't help but raise questioning about today's cutting edge computing technology. Do we have the computing power to run FS2004 with complex payware aircraft? I have an Asus "cream-of-the-crop" mother board with 3.4 Ghz LGA 775 processor, 1 gigabyte of system memory, and an ATI Radeon X800 video card with 256 megabytes of onboard memory. The video card is of the new PCI Express technology and has 16 pipes.
Yet when I run aircraft such as flight one's ATR 72-500 and PMDG's latest 747-400, I see framerates in the "teens" and "single digits" respectivlely. I have removed all unused software from my hard drive, removed all firewall, and antiviral protection. ( I removed these protective programs with the suspicion that they maybe taxing system resources in the background) I have cleaned my registry and updated my videocard driver. I even downloaded an FS untility called Flightsim Manager version 2.8 to help me tweak the display settings for better frame rates.
I am not a computer guru, but I did build this computer myself piece by very- expensive- piece. Is there anyone here that can tell me what I'm doing wrong? I'm open to any suggestion, please. I am considering shelling out hundreds more for a top-line AMD board and processor as I hear AMD is better for running games. ( Please don't shoot! I know our fine hobby is not a mere game! LOL)
Share with me your average framerates with complex payware aircraft, system specs and FS settings so that I may get an idea where to start. I think I should also reveal that I do not purchase payware scenery because it further compounds my poor performance woes.
Tired of "slide show" landings here! Heeeeeelp!
Okwundu Anekewe
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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
August 05 2005 16:49 ET by Chris Palmer
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I feel like you are going to beat me up... I am just a wee little scottish lad! The answer to your question; the programming that FS is, sucks! It sucks up way too much resources for what it puts out! I have a similar system to yours, and I see the same issues!
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DVA2482
Chief Pilot, B777-200
Joined on July 16 2005
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Flying Colonel
Globetrotter
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Everett Millennium Club
Six Million Mile Club
"Master of Gravity" Boston, MA USA
1,906 legs, 11,953.0 hours
228 legs,
1,400.0 hours online 1,749 legs,
11,082.8 hours ACARS 7 legs,
57.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 05 2005 18:07 ET by Oliver McRae
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I recently just got Flightsim Manager 2.8 too and it helps a bit. First thing thought i use to have framerates like that even going down to one and two fps. But i don't have that fancy setup i have a Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz processor 1 Gigabyte of RAM and the standard 64MB intel Graphics card and it is a laptop so fps were very low but yesterday or there about i started getting fps of 44 and steady with full scenery 30 fps and with complex aircraft. I would say that before you shell out anymore, to do a few system enhancements such as Defragmenting the harddrive. Also you say that you built it yourself. Was everything optimized to run together? Before you shell out anymore money there are numerous things that you can do to optimize your system i mean just look at my setup. The main thing i can think of is defragmenting. Also it would be wise to turn back on the firewalls and antivirus software my computer is triple firewalled and it is not slowing it down also when in flight simulator you can check the processes that are running in memory by pressing ctrl+alt+delete. Do not stop any of them but if you see one that is using alot of RAM apart from FS then maybe you should check it out or post it here. I am not a Computer super genius but based on what i have done to my sytem for it to run great like it is now i would like to think that i can help.
Anything else post it here.
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DVA2253
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
COMM
Joined on April 01 2005
Everett 250 Club
Online Century Club
Eight Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"I'd rather be flying!" Church Hill, TN USA
862 legs, 1,344.5 hours
108 legs,
165.2 hours online 299 legs,
485.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 05 2005 21:04 ET by George Lewis
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Okwundu,
Nice to see someone else who likes Asus
How is everything running on the system? it might be time to clean up the registry, defrag the HD - check the paging file situation, hard drive space, memory utilization, etc. but if everything else is lickity split, maybe it's time to do a clean FS9 install. you can uninstall the program and the fs9.cfg will still be there - which could be a good thing or a bad one, depending on how you look at it. I recommend backing that puppy up (the file) and then deleting it from the normal location after uninstalling flight sim, then clean up the registry for fs9 and any addons you might have... the registry can get pretty messy...
then reinstall fs9 and install maybe just the mesh and 1 payware bird and see if things change for the better
the biggest frame rate hog I have is the PMDG 738 and it's pretty rough sometimes - I don't run any other program in the background when that bird is flying, that is for sure - I've had 3fps landing at KDFW - almost impossible to control the airplane - but I did a cold boot and solved that problem... an early version of Squawkbox 3 also slowed my system down - that got the boot when I redid flight sim - loading time and frame rates went back to normal - the latest SB3 seems to be ok though!
another thing to check might be the resolution - sometimes going up or down in resolution will speed things up. ..
There's some others up here who are geeks like me - they'll surely have some tips I've overlooked and maybe we can spare you some agony!
Happy Flying!
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DVA2253
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
COMM
Joined on April 01 2005
Everett 250 Club
Online Century Club
Eight Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"I'd rather be flying!" Church Hill, TN USA
862 legs, 1,344.5 hours
108 legs,
165.2 hours online 299 legs,
485.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 05 2005 21:07 ET by George Lewis
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oh, something I forgot - your slow frame rates - are these in clear weather conditions or in clouds and stuff?
I take a beating when there are lots of clouds...
also, if you are doing any offline flying and use something like ultimate traffic or simflyers airports, those can slow frame rates down too...
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DVA1598
First Officer, B737-800
Joined on March 29 2004
Midwestern United States
15 legs, 37.6 hours
12 legs,
29.4 hours online
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Posted onPost created on
August 06 2005 01:52 ET by Okwundu Anekewe
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Thank you all so much for your replies.
I can't answere with accuracy on whether or not my computer components were optimized to run together. I simply purchased computer parts that received high review markings by a magazine I read, Maximum PC.
I think a clean install of Flight Simulator would help a bit, however that is nearly a day's work as I have many payware aircraft to reinstall. I do notice a frame rate reduction when heavy cloud cover is present, but I would expect this. I would be happy to get framerates that consistantly remained in the lower to mid 20s.
I have defragged my drive, cleaned the registry, removed unused software, etc. Within Flight Simulator, I have turned off ALL AI traffic, I don't use Squawkbox 3 because it slows me down even more and crashes my sim everytime. I run FS2004 bare except for weather. I the Active Sky weather addon, and I simply can't sim without it! In case you're wondering why, it is the most realistic and accurate wheather genrator I have ever seen.
At any rate, I'm printing out all suggestions and welcome many more. Its time to get all "scientific" about improved frame rates. Together we can eliminate "slide show" landings for all. I'm on a mission, LOL
Okwundu Anekewe
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DVA2253
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
COMM
Joined on April 01 2005
Everett 250 Club
Online Century Club
Eight Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"I'd rather be flying!" Church Hill, TN USA
862 legs, 1,344.5 hours
108 legs,
165.2 hours online 299 legs,
485.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 06 2005 05:05 ET by George Lewis
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yeah, I would do an uninstall of fs9, move the cfg file (in case you need it again for settings) and then re-clean the registry - of course, uninstall all the payware and stuff first. What I actually do is make a backup folder something like "old fs9 aug 2005 before reinstall" and just copy the entire thing over in case I forget some airplanes, scenery or whatever...
Active Sky will probably work better after the reinstall... also, what I have had to do is not reinstall all the stuff I have (and I have a LOT) - so this time around, I only installed the stuff I actually am using at the moment... so far, it's worked pretty well for me. I am locked at 20fps and for the most part, with weather being an exception and whenever I switch to spot view or side views in the dreamfleet B722, it is really good... when I switch views, it may actually pause or stutter for a few seconds... (I hate that!!!)
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DVA599
Captain, B767-300
Joined on June 13 2002
Century Club
Northeastern United States
174 legs, 286.1 hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 06 2005 08:11 ET by Tim Robertson
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another way to help to boost some frame rates upon landing is to actually take ur AI traffic down to zero a few miles before landing, i just did this because i was tired of landing on cessna's sitting on the runway thanks to the fantastic FS ATC!! :-) but i found that the AI traffic can really eat at your frame rates.
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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
August 06 2005 08:49 ET by Joe DeGregorio
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make sure you have good cooling for your case and CPU...AMD's run hot and adequate cooling is mandatory.
Dynatron makes a mini blower for both Intel and AMD CPU's and is rated up to 3.6ghz and 180 degrees.minimum of 3 case fans preferabley 4 is required.and must be configured properly...a decent power supply is also mandatory...550watt dual fan power supply is also a must have.
Go to this site and browse around for any of those items.
http://www.amamax.com
cheers,
Joe
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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
August 06 2005 10:22 ET by David Eugenio Gomez
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If clouds become a FPS problem, I'd suggest you to go to http://library.avsim.net and search for this zip file: realskies.zip
Also, Fs sky World is a must have, get it at avsim too ...... here's the link for that one: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004scen&DLID=56578
The number of processes running in the CPU also affects FS9 very hardly. For example, if you have Norton Firewall and Antivirus running, Office, Messenger, Media Player, etc ..... all thsoe processes slow down FS a lot. Try eliminating unnecesary processes and u'll notice a big increase in FS's peformance.
Best regards!
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DVA601
Senior Captain, B757-200
Joined on June 13 2002
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Northeastern United States
380 legs, 833.2 hours
120 legs,
215.9 hours online 120 legs,
234.5 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 06 2005 11:23 ET by David Shartzer
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I just recieved my Alienware computer a few days ago and my last flight I did on it was with the PMDG 737-800 and Ultimate Traffic going. I averaged 27-38fps. Not even a hickup. I have a GForce 7800 video card 1G Ram Pent D 3.0.
So far the only games I got to try on it are FS2004, Halo (online) and Brothers in Arms and they all ran flawlessly.
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DVA1598
First Officer, B737-800
Joined on March 29 2004
Midwestern United States
15 legs, 37.6 hours
12 legs,
29.4 hours online
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Posted onPost created on
August 06 2005 17:58 ET by Okwundu Anekewe
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Gentlemen,
Your help has been most appreciated. As of the time of this posting, I am in the process of backing up all payware aircraft and other important files. I am going to do a complete reinstallation of FS2004. No other games or software will be installed on this computer. It will be my dedicated "flightsim" computer. I'm even considering reinstalling windows and making this system a stand-alone flightsim station.
I truly believe something is slowing my frame rates down. I have top-of-the-line components in my rig. Thank you all for taking the time to help me.
Okwundu Anekewe
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DVA273
Assistant Chief Pilot, B777-200
Joined on September 07 2001
B757 100 Club
50 State Club
Tri-Jet Triumph
Three Million Mile Club
Stage 1 Jet Five Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Ponce De Leon Club
Bi-Millennium Club
"Flying Freedom, Photography Passion" Aurora, CO
2,077 legs, 8,238.4 hours
39 legs,
247.6 hours online 1,182 legs,
4,676.4 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.5 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 06 2005 18:07 ET by Michael Evans
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My desktop is my dedicated Aviation Station. It has my flight sim, Gleim products, paywares, and all required charts for updates. I run FS04 on it smoothyl after getting rid of everything else a few months ago.
Michael EvansAssistant Chief Pilot, B777-200
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DVA2253
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
COMM
Joined on April 01 2005
Everett 250 Club
Online Century Club
Eight Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"I'd rather be flying!" Church Hill, TN USA
862 legs, 1,344.5 hours
108 legs,
165.2 hours online 299 legs,
485.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 07 2005 05:34 ET by George Lewis
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I have had to actually reinstall windows XP before to get fs9 straightened out - well, I opted to redo the OS - I figured the OS decay was bad enough at the time...
A fresh install of Windows sometimes is like day and night difference on the PC's performance...
Joe has another good point - the power supply - the high end video cards demand alot of power - make sure it's got a good one
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DVA2370
Senior Captain, B737-800
OLP, COMM, VFRADV
Joined on May 26 2005
Online Triple Century Club
Commuter Conquest
Six Century Club
Stage 1 Prop Triple Century Club
50 State Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Flagler Beach, FL USA
675 legs, 726.8 hours
319 legs,
311.4 hours online 179 legs,
146.1 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.6 hours event 0 legs dispatched, 4.0
hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 07 2005 06:36 ET by Scott Clarke
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do you have a strong cable connection-what about your online link and how fast it processes as at times my cable does slow me down when on vatsim. I am using Pent 4 2.66 gig, 1g ram navida Gforce FX5600, two monitors. I redid the whole software, re installed only FLSim4, LD 767 and a few DVA aircraft. Everything in background is turned off except norton. It flys.............
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DVA2303
Captain, B757-200
Joined on April 20 2005
Skaneateles, NY USA
51 legs, 110.8 hours
34 legs,
66.5 hours online 43 legs,
91.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 09 2005 12:23 ET by Alan Jump
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Something else to check on is the memory speed. I made the mistake of buying PC2800 memory for my Athlon 2800+ machine, not realizing that I was slowing the FSB down by doing so. When I can afford to do so I'm going to pick up 1GB of PC3200 RAM to replace the 512MB stick I have in the box right now...and I expect to see 12-15fps increase as a result, and not just from the extra memory.
Speed matters.
Alan JumpCaptain, B757-200
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