Simviation Forum - This has been bugging me

Jul 7^th, 2007 at 9:37am

JSpahn Offline
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Hello guys,

Ill try and explain my situation with FS9 the best I can. First I think for some reason my RAID 0 config is not working the way it should, when Im flying my textures are getting very blurry and they dont seem to update fast enough. I also notice fs9 seems to load very slowly.

So far I have a bunch of payware installed UT Ground Environment and FSGensis mesh, I know this is slowing me down a bit, but the amount of blurriness is ridiculous.

My raid is a third party card, I though a RAID setup was speedier then a standard IDE hard drive? Is it possible my RAID setup isnt configured properly?

Or could this be an issue with RAM? Im currently running 1gig of ddr 2700.

Or should I stick to flying slower aircraft so the scenery can update Cheesy

My hardware is:

P4 2.9 ghz
1 gig 2700
Nvidia 6600LE 256
2 40 gig HD with a PCI RAID 0 setup
xp pro
fs9

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Reply #1 - Jul 8^th, 2007 at 8:03am

GeForce Offline
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The PC2700 RAM won't be helping. It shouldn't cause a massive amount of problems, but it is slower and, although you didn't list your motherboard, it would probably a be a lot happier with 2x1Gb PC3200 sticks.

Try running memtest, that will tell you if the RAM has any faults.

Also, running HDTach will give you a good indication if your RAID array is working as it should.

*j

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Reply #2 - Jul 8^th, 2007 at 9:50am

JSpahn Offline
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Im too sexy for my hair
Philadelphia,PA

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Already have the one 2700 and picked up the matched 1gig stick off Tiger I know its slow but Im running FS9. I might pick up a SATA HD, I have a feeling the PCI bus on this cheapo MSI MB isn't the best so the raid suffers. Also next week I might pick up this puppy:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=30924...

unless somebody could suggest a better video card in that price range. My old 6600ls is gonna go in one of the other cockpit pc's so I can run two "glass panels off one pc"

So far my sim runs well I just want the textures to be a bit more crisp & thanks for the advice

p.s. When I get the time I want to list my exact ram and the config for the ram in the bios so I can tell if its configured right or not.

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Reply #3 - Jul 8^th, 2007 at 9:58am

JBaymore Offline
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masternerd,

I know that you just installed GE II Pro. I have it too. WONDERFUL general "look"... but I found that it not only hit my framerates a tad but worse, caused a bit of the blurries. Never had blurries before GEII Pro.

All that nice payware taxes the whole system. I'm trying to cram 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound sack here Wink

. I think you are too.

FS2004 is VERY main processor dependent. While the video card certainly is important, the CPU can slow things way down. The particular place this shows up is if you run extensive AI. Try shutting your AI totally off and see if that improves the blurries. Freeing up some processor time often allows the system to catch up with the tasks at hand.

The other cpu killer is complex payware aircraft like the PMDG 747-400. Try flying a default plane and see if that helps with the blurries.

Another issue can be the AA and AF settings. What are those settings you are running? Try turning them down a bit.

While others here often say they run fs2004 at 6 gazillion FPS, with perfect visual clarity, with all sliders maxed, with massive amounts of payware add-ons on a PIII 800 Mhz machine ( Wink

).... it has been my experience that unless you are running an Intel P4 at over 3 Gig clock, and your important front side buss speed is at least 800, and your RAM is as fast as the FSB will run, the sim can bring your computer to it's knees. ( FSX.... you gotta be kidding me! Sad

)

I guess I am very demanding in the smoothness and visual qualities... and I am guessing you are too.

Nick and I have talked a bit about this; his basic "position" has been that my machine as currently configured is not really up to fs2004 fully maxed out. My machine is a tad heftier than yours in a numbner of points... so possibly you'll need to do what I am doing...... slowly upgrade the core hardware. A long while ago (about a year after fs9 was released) I changed from a 2.6 P4 to a 3.2 with an 800 FSB...and that made a world of difference... but unfortunately still not enough. Going to 2 Gig of 3200 RAM helped my 3.2 machine a bit.

This has been a constant struggle for me since fs2004 was released. I don't want to THINK of the $ I've spent in little bits at a time in the past 4 years trying to get this program to work well. That's one of the reasons I am not going NEAR changing to FSX anytime soon. WON'T (and can't) go thru this again.

best,

......................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #4 - Jul 8^th, 2007 at 10:21am

JSpahn Offline
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Im too sexy for my hair
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Thanks John,

I agree with you John on keeping FS9 around forever, it pretty much does everything I need it to do, and with some of those cool add-ons, personally, I think it looks better then FSX. I'm gonna tinker with this system for a while before I give it up, I still have a few things I can do to the OS to get that load off the CPU. And really it doesn't run that badly on my system its just, the textures and in certain areas the frames suffer.

Really its a curse, because it would just be cheaper to buy a new PC, but I like to tinker what fun would it be to have a pc with a warranty sticker on it Wink

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Reply #5 - Jul 8^th, 2007 at 12:22pm

JBaymore Offline
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hombuilt cockpit!

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JSpahn wrote on Jul 8^th, 2007 at 10:21am:

......what fun would it be to have a pc with a warranty sticker on it Wink

What's a warranty sticker? Wink

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #6 - Jul 9^th, 2007 at 10:05pm

GunnerMan Offline
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It is a sticker that should be trashed immediatley. If your warrantee is not void your doing it wrong.

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Reply #7 - Jul 10^th, 2007 at 10:31am

ZeroTime Ex Member

I don't think it's a RAID issue... I would grab a faster videocard (X850XT would be good for that system) which should help textures load faster as the 6600LE has terrible memory. Lock framerate at 20 too.

Oh.... and scenery influences load times greatly.

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