Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Frame Rates For Dummies

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Frame Rates For Dummies

DVA10359
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on November 29 2011
50 State Club
Century Club

"Specialization is for ants."
Albuquerque, NM USA

128 legs, 357.0 hours
58 legs, 154.8 hours online
126 legs, 353.5 hours ACARS
9 legs, 16.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 01:28 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

Okay, so I am by no means a computer guru, but I know enough to get myself in trouble, so I need some advice...

Does anybody know how I can set up my computer/FSX to get better frame rates? Currently, I'm getting a meager 13 fps at best (9 fps at worst), and I know that most people (even those with similar setups to mine) get double or triple that amount. To give you a better idea of what I'm working with, here are my system specs:

HP Pavillion dv7 notebook
AMD PhenomII P940 Quad-Core Processor
4GB RAM
Windows 7 64-bit

I'm currently running GameBooster3. I only have a couple of payware a/c that I use, but I never have any other add-ons running (other than FSInn and FSCopilot when flying online). Most of my FS settings are set to medium-high with the exception of AI traffic which is turned completely off.

I've heard of some people modifying the .cfg file to get better performance, but I don't know what to change... so I'd need some instruction on that.

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

DVA2025
Senior Captain, MD-11

Joined on November 27 2004
50 State Club
Quatercentenary Club

USA

453 legs, 1,458.2 hours
44 legs, 128.1 hours online
407 legs, 1,364.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 01:39 ET by Noah Bryant

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

That's the cfg tweaking tool, it may help.

Turn make sure bloom is turned off. I don't know what game booster is but I'd be surprised if it's helping you. You don't mention what your processor speed is though but on a laptop it doesn't really matter, you can't change it. If none of that helps, turn autogen completely off too. If that helps you can up the autogen a little until you get to a happy medium.

You got to understand, just because it seems like some has the same hardware as you, doesn't mean much at all with FSX. There are so many things that could affect your FPS it's crazy. FSX is so different than any other game that the normal stuff just doesn't work. The biggest thing you need to run FSX well is a fast overclocked processor.

To be frank, if I were in the same boat as you I'd probably just not fly - or find a copy of FS9.

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 01:54 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

I enjoy it too much to not do it, so that's out of the question.

I will soon be getting a new rig, but unfortunately, my job requires a lot of travel, and I often have cramped quarters, so a laptop is a must. Soon I will be getting an Alienware laptop with the works on it and using this laptop for work while using the new laptop strictly for gaming. But, for now, I just want a quick way to improve my fps just a bit. I don't need ridiculous performance, just enough to make it slightly less jerky.

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 03:23 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

WOW! So, I used the .cfg tweak tool... and first impressions are great! I don't know exactly how much of an improvement it made yet, but the eyeball test tells me it made a huge difference. FSX is SOOOO much smoother now. I'll report back with what my average is for this flight.

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 03:29 ET by Noah Bryant

great to hear

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 05:44 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

I'm hovering around 25fps now. Thanks for the help!

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

DVA7016
Senior Captain, B767-300

Joined on February 14 2009
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

"I5 2500K - 560GTX - 8GB Ripjaw"
Essex GB

385 legs, 1,090.6 hours
384 legs, 1,089.6 hours ACARS
1,821 legs, 4,442.9 hours total

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 09:15 ET by Alan Barber

Roy, this is also worth a look http://www.simforums.com/Forums/topic34141_post198187.html#198187 its helps with the OS side of things

Alan Barber

Senior Captain, B767-300

Posted onPost created on February 13 2012 13:33 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

Yeaaah, that link may as well have been written in Swahili, cuz I understood none of it. But, thanks for trying to help me out!

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

DVA6654
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on July 14 2006
50 State Club
B757 100 Club
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club
Globetrotter
Everett Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Ummm..."
Tucker, GA USA

1,192 legs, 2,719.3 hours
87 legs, 169.7 hours online
1,192 legs, 2,719.3 hours ACARS
1 legs, 2.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 25 2012 00:15 ET by Gregory Stevenson

Roy, I personally don't recommend running FSX on a laptop because FSX requires usually a good add on video card which laptops don't have the capability of but as Noah Bryant recommends... "http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html" and also "http://flyawaysimulation.com/news/3806/fsx-performance-tips-and-tweaks/"

GregO

- Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- 8GB RAM

and I still get frames issues...

Gregory Stevenson (DVA6654)

Posted onPost created on February 25 2012 02:16 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

Yeah... but unfortunately, I have to.

I'm putting in an order to Alienware on Thursday for an M17x... It's expensive, but it will give me better performance than most desktops, and the portability that is necessary for me to continue to be gainfully employed.

This is the new computer's specs are:
Intel Core i7 2860QM (2.5GHz,3.6GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
750GB 7,200RPM HDD
17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED
Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO

This should be enough to handle it.

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

DVA10173
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on September 17 2011
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Triple Century Club
Online Triple Century Club

Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

369 legs, 835.4 hours
326 legs, 652.6 hours online
358 legs, 817.1 hours ACARS
3 legs, 6.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 26 2012 09:45 ET by Eric Fields

Roy, IMO, save your money on an Alienware. Since Dell bought them, they are not near what they were. For the price of that computer, you should go to someone like DigitalStormOnline.com. I got my machine from them nearly a year ago and has been the most amazing FSX ever. Mine is way overpowered for FSX but I felt like I should be ready for the future. Here is what I ended up with:

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Dominator DHX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1000W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (120GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: 320 Series) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme
Cooling: H20: Stage 3: FrostChill Cooling System: CPU Only
H20 Tube Color: Green Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive) Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires Pro or Deluxe Series Motherboard) Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory OS Boost: FREE: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD) Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 4 Year Limited Warranty

I only had one problem with one of my video cards. They sent me a new one 2 day shipping at no charge. Incredible!

Eric

Eric Fields

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on February 26 2012 23:51 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

This is actually a good discussion to have since I have not yet placed my order.

But after some research, I'm having trouble seeing the value for money in the Digital Storm PC. I see a few problems here... all four of their top-of-the-line laptops are out of stock and won't be able to ship until mid-April, whereas if I purchase an Alienware M17x (or M18X), or a Battalion 101 X7200, it will be shipped within a week. Additionally, if I order the X17E level 4, I'm looking at WELL over $5,000 to get essentially the same system I can buy with the Battalion or Alienware for around $3,200. When I priced Alienware setups, I selected the M18X and MAXED OUT the customization options (factory overclocked everything, top notch video cards, 2TB eSATA HDD, etc.), it came out to around $4,900. The system I quoted above will cost me exactly $2,832.97 (which doesn't seem bad considering what I'm getting).

When I priced the Battalion, I found the following system.

1 x Case ( Battalion 101 X7200 17.3" Full HD 1920X1080 Widescreen LCD TFT Laptop w/eSATA port, Bluetooth (EDR), Fingerprint Security, Li-ion 6 Cells Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter - Original Metallic Black )
1 x Processor ( Intel® Core™ i7 990X Processor Extreme Edition (6x 3.46GHz/12MB L3 Cache) )
1 x Memory ( 12GB [4GB x 3] 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM [Laptop Memory] - Corsair or Major Brand )
1 x Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M 1.5GB GDDR5 Video [X7200] )
1 x Primary Hard Drive ( 750 GB 5400rpm Serial-ATA Super Slim Laptop Hard Drive )
1 x Optical Drive ( 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [X7200] )
1 x Flash Media Reader / Writer ( Built-in 9-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Laptop] )
1 x Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
1 x Network Card ( Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN [Laptop] )
1 x IEEE 1394 FireWire Card ( Built-in 1x IEEE 1394 FireWire Port [Laptop] )
1 x Internal Wireless Network Adapter ( Intel Ultimate-N 6300 802.11 a/b/g/n 450Mbps Dual-Band Wi-Fi )
1 x Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit )
1 x Additional Software ( Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote included )
1 x USB Ports ( Built-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports + 2x USB 3.0 Port [Laptop] )
1 x Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case )
1 x Video Camera ( Built-in 2.0 Mega Pixels Digital Web Video Camera )
1 x Warranty ( Standard Warranty Service - Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
1 x Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

This setup you see above was quoted to me at $3,001.

I was not able to get an exact quote on the Digital Storm PC since it was out of stock (and they won't even let you price the options until it's backordered), but the base specs are as follows:

Intel Core i7-3960X CPU
16GB 1866MHz Memory
120GB SSD & 750GB HDD
Intel Ultimate-N 6300
DVD-RW/CD-RW Multi-Drive
2x SLI GTX 580M 2GB
1920x1080 Resolution LCD
Windows 7 Home Premium

And the price for this setup?.... "Starting at $4,872". I'm having trouble seeing where the extra $1,871 has gone to, since the only upgrade I get with this system is the dual video cards. Maybe I'm missing something here... can anyone enlighten me?

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

DVA5890
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on May 06 2008
Online Century Club
Everett Century Club
Double Century Club

"PPL"
Toronto, ON Canada

232 legs, 1,191.6 hours
190 legs, 972.7 hours online
226 legs, 1,173.8 hours ACARS
23 legs, 60.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 27 2012 01:16 ET by Craig Gear

I just bought
Intel Quad i5 2500K Sandy Bridge Unclocked
8GB Corsair XMS3
1TB Seagate
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H mobo
XFX Radeon HD 6770
Corsair 650W

And it all runs perfect in FSX with PMDG, Addon scenery, REX, AES, ACARS...

Craig Gear (DVA5890)

Posted onPost created on February 27 2012 02:18 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

I understand... but as it's a laptop, and can't be modified -- I'm looking more towards the future. I'm sure I can get a much cheaper laptop that will still run FSX perfectly, but I'm looking at what it will be able to do a year or two from now... and Moore's law tells me that if I go out and spend my money on a scaled down model, two years from now it will be worthless as far as gaming is concerned.

If this were a desktop, I'd have no problem going cheaper because I could always upgrade it when something better came along... but it's not.

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on February 27 2012 06:00 ET by Eric Fields

Roy,

I did a custom-build and I could pick and choose exactly what I wanted in the machine. I have not checked what my be causing them to be backordered but the machines you were viewing were their stock machines. The best way to do it with them is to go on the config forum, post what your budget is, and what pereif's you're running. Make sure to tell them your primary gaming purpose is FSX (and whatever else). They will provide you with a build number and you can customize it to whatever you want. You just go to Load Config at the top right, enter the number and go to Customize. You can customize any of their machines to whatever you want. If you want to talk to someone, just give them a ring. They will even have a technician give you a ring to discuss the best equipment.

Yes, I know they look more expensive. I thought that too. However, I love have support in the US and quick response to my needs. They also will do lifetime upgrades to the machine. I am not alone. Be sure to read some of the reviews.

Eric

Eric Fields

Captain, B757-200

DVA10074
First Officer, B737-800

Joined on August 16 2011
50 State Club
Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary

Plymouth, MA

117 legs, 260.8 hours
117 legs, 260.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 27 2012 09:34 ET by Barrett Forish

I'm sure someone mentioned it, but this thread ( www.deltava.org/thread.do?id=0x19539 ) is what I followed and I noticed that my FPS increased 10-20 FPS after that. I'm running FSX on XP, and considering today's technology, my computer is outdated.

Barrett Forish

First Officer, B737-800

Posted onPost created on February 28 2012 18:13 ET by Roy Mollenkamp

Thanks Eric, I'm looking into it. I just e-mailed digital storm the other day with what I'm looking for, I'm waiting to hear back. I'm looking at the total package (value for money, performance, support, shipping time, headache factor, etc.), so we shall see which brand gives me what I'm looking for.

Roy Mollenkamp

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on February 28 2012 21:51 ET by Eric Fields

Smart move Roy. Love to hear what you decide. Good luck. I know it is a big decision!

Eric

Eric Fields

Captain, B757-200

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