Simviation Forum - FSX slow on an alright computer... Where's the bottleneck?

Aug 14^th, 2010 at 1:12am

montymintypie Offline
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G'day all, I recently built my first computer, mainly for gaming, cost me about $1600, but it still has decent components.

The thing is, even though I think the specs are alright, FSX still runs pretty slowly, about 15-25fps at Sydney (ultra high). What's worse is that I've bought the ORBX FTX YBBN airport addon (photorealistic), and Brisbane almost grinds to a halt at about 5-10fps with that scenery enabled (the FTX settings are at optimal performance versus detail).

I've tried some FSX tweaks and get minimal (1 or 2 fps, but hard to tell) improvement, and I've also tried some mild overclocking on both my CPU and GPU, but I still only get an improvement of a frame here or there.

Does anyone here know what my bottleneck is? Would getting another 5850 and running a crossfire setup help? CPU needs an aftermarket cooler and more overclocking? I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong, that's all... Undecided

Almost forgot to put the specs in here

CPU: Intel i7-930 (2.8GHz, 3.36GHz when I tried overclocking)
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5850 (760MHz, when OC'd, went to 875MHz core clock)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
RAM: 6GB DDR3
OS: Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

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Reply #1 - Aug 14^th, 2010 at 11:16am

CHUCK79 Offline
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Have you tried any Cfg. tweaks?
If not, try this..... http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1183998514 .....third entry down. This guide to editing the FSX Cfg file really helped me out.
Hope it helps you too

Also, here is the homepage for SimVs' FAQ http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197423715

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings. Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds.....and done a hundred things you have never dreamed of.....wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delerious, burning blue I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace where never Lark, nor even Eagle flew. While with silent lifting of mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of god"

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Reply #2 - Aug 14^th, 2010 at 11:41am

Groundbound1 Offline
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You're not doing anything wrong. I don't think there is a bottleneck really. 15-25fps on ultra high is actually pretty respectable. It's all about the sliders. AI traffic (air,land and sea) are REAL performance killers.

Also, to answer your crossfire question, I wouldn't bother. Unless you're using a monitor @ extreme resolutions, a second card won't help much. (FSX is more cpu than gpu oriented anyway.)

When you've read the links posted by Chuck, give this one a read too. (Posted by our buddy, Nick) I lays it all out for you!
http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041

Wink

Nice system btw!

« Last Edit: Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 10:42am by Groundbound1 »

Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932

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Reply #3 - Aug 20^th, 2010 at 7:20pm

montymintypie Offline
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Well, those email notifications for replies didn't work... Roll Eyes

Thanks for the tips, I think I might just have AI traffic set to high along with cars etc... I'll also try out the config file modifications. Thanks again!

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Reply #4 - Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 6:32am

idahosurge Offline
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Here is a link to an excellet guide to optimize Win7 and FSX for performance.

It starts with the post by NickN on April 11 @ 4:31

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=34141&PID=198187#198187

With a decent air cooler (Venomous X or Noctua NH-D14) you can easily get to 4.0GHz on your 930 and a lot of people get to 4.2GHz fairly easy. When you OC you also need to set your ram up for it rated timings to get the best performance out of your ram.

When you have a decent system and you do, it is not necessary to use a bunch of FSX.cfg tweaks. Here is a link to a tread that discusses tweaks and the few that you need if you have decent hardware and like I said, you do!

The start is post #2

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=34246&KW=memory+communicatio...

Regards,

Rod

Asus R3E_i7 980X @ 4.44GHz_TR Silver Arrow_Mushkin Redline 6GB 1,644MHz @ 6-7-6-18_Zotac AMP GTX 480_OS - Windows 7 Ult 64b_OS SSD - Crucial C300 128GB_FSX HD - WD VR 600GB*2 w/3ware 9750-4i 6Gb/s Controller_Corsair AX850_CM HAF-X_FSX Gold, UTX, GEX, FSG, ST, MSX, MSE, FTX, FEX, FSWC, MTX, STB, AS F16, PMDG MD11, CS MD80 Pro, FSD P38, VRS FA18E

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Reply #5 - Oct 3^rd, 2010 at 10:30pm

montymintypie Offline
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Sorry for bumping this now ancient thread... Embarrassed

Using the ATI utility and task manager, I've determined that it's the CPU that's holding things up, with FSX pushing it at 100% all the time and the GPU only running at 20%.

I've been seriously considering overclocking, and I know with a after market cooler I can easily get to 4.0GHz (currently at 2.8). What type of a boost in speed should I expect from bumping it up to 4.0GHz?

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Reply #6 - Oct 4^th, 2010 at 11:56am

Groundbound1 Offline
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Michigan, USA

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montymintypie wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2010 at 10:30pm:

Sorry for bumping this now ancient thread... Embarrassed

Using the ATI utility and task manager, I've determined that it's the CPU that's holding things up, with FSX pushing it at 100% all the time and the GPU only running at 20%.

I've been seriously considering overclocking, and I know with a after market cooler I can easily get to 4.0GHz (currently at 2.8). What type of a boost in speed should I expect from bumping it up to 4.0GHz?

Overclocking can produce pretty big gains. Before you start however, you'll need to make sure your ram can handle the stress.

Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932

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