ACTIVE FTXG Slicing FPS in Half

[Geosword]

Hello.

 

First off, absolutely love FTXG.    I think it crushes GEX which I was using.   That being said, I have a question regarding FPS with this product.    I have done a COMPLETE reinstall of FSX because it got tweaked to death on my previous install.    I run a lot of addons such as UT2, FS GLOBAL, REX Essentials with Overdrive, PMDG 737NGX, FS2Crew and airports and city payware addons.   

 

Now, after a clean install I decided I would build an FPS matrix to check my base line and then as I add an addon go test out the FPS performance.   Everything right now in these tests are run wide open, no VSYNCing yet and no limiter on frames.    It's wide open.   The only tweaks I have put in my FSX.CFG is the AffinityMask=62 to take advantage of my 6 cores and HIGHMEMFIX=1.

 

Benchmarked from my home base of KDAL in DFW, Texas.   Starting at Gate 5, fair weather at 5pm CST with a Boeing 737-800 Default MS Model.

 

BASE LINE FSX                     :       FSX AFTER FTXG INSTALL

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virtual Cockpit:           96       :      48

Outside View:             99       :      50

Top-Down Satellite:  130       :      80

Fly-by Cinematic:      240      :     180

 

Now, those frames are still very respectable after installing FTXG but here is my concern.   FTXG is the ONLY product I have installed so far.    I still have to put PMDG 737NGX, FS GLOBAL and Ultimate Traffic 2 in there along with a slew of other products.    Is it normal for FTXG to be brutal on the FPS?    

 

System Specs:

============

Intel i7 3930k 6-Core OC'd to 4.6ghz, STABLE

32gigs of G.Skill Ripsaw Ram set at 1600mhz with 9 9 9 24 timing

2 Velocipator WD Drives (OS and FSX) and one 7200 RPM WD to hold Addons and Fraps recordings

ASUS GTX 770 OC2 2gig DDR5 video card on a 3x24" Monitor setup

 

UPDATE #1:   I started with the default Autogen set to Normal as recommend in the manual.    I turned Autogen off completely just to test and my FPS shot up to 108 FPS in the VC.    With Sparse turned on my VC FPS was 95 but soon as I go to Normal it plummets like a wingless chicken to 48 FPS.

[jrrbolkin]

I can only say from my experience my Frame rate has gone UP since installing Global,not massively but on avg around 5-8fps  so it does seem odd your vanilla Fsx with Global has gone south.

I too run a lot of add-ons ,PMDG some aerosoft airports and loads of other add-on planes.It doesn't crash at all (I will rue saying that,I know) and will comfortably sit at around 30-45 fps avg. Obviously it can drop to 15-18 in heavy areas  especially running Pmdg et al. The one thing I have done is to try to ignore the Fps values and look at it from an aesthetic point of view ie. does it look smooth and fluid and fortunately the answer is yes at the moment.Maybe you should start there. I do agree though that if you had previously higher fps it is a concern as to why these have dropped.People with better knowledge than me will maybe answer why. My specs are listed below.

Regards.

Gary

[mopperle]

I turned Autogen off completely ....

Don't do that! It might cause scenery addons not being displayed correct. Set it at least to "Spare".

 

And btw: I didn't notice any fps drop.

[Ripcord]

Buddy you got way more than enough computer there to handle it all just fine.  Anyway you will want an FPS limiter running.  I saw my FPS increase, but I have a weaker rig.

[keino333]

I too have increased on FPS after installing FTXG. Also my pc is loaded with addons and I fly the NGX on a regular. I only have my LOD set to the lowest setting to afford less Oom messages in commercial AC and long hauls.

[Dibidut]

Me, for my part, cant see "any" differences... maybe a bit more FPS but absoutly no decreace on my rig.

Henrik

[spirit_66]

.......The only tweaks I have put in my FSX.CFG is the AffinityMask=62 to take advantage of my 6 cores and HIGHMEMFIX=1......

 

Hi,

with your rig you'll have no problem with FSX at all. But why don't you lock FPS at 30 FPS?

 

Did you switch of hyper threading in the BIOS? In your affinity mask you have only 6 cores but in fact you have 12. (62=111110) If you didn't switch of hyper threading in the BIOS then the right affinity mask would be 1364 (1364=010101010100). With this mask you switch off all hyper threads.

 

Another very important cfg tweak would be something like this.

 

[bufferPools]

BufferPools=1                                // 0 let the GPU do more work if it has at least 1 GB

PoolSize=10485760                      // 10485760    = 10 MB                                    

RejectThreshold=524288             //        512Kb = 524288, 256Kb = 262144, 124Kb = 126976, 96Kb = 98304

 

Again, you shouldn't have any problem with your rig but please don't look only at these high FPS, there's no benefit in it.

 

Spirit

 

[Geosword]

Thanks for the responses.     What I typically do, after I have installed everything, is THEN put a FPS limit lock on it to 30.      But you can't see what Add-ons are doing to the FPS if you lock it.   It will just always say 30 on the benchmarker.   I need to be able, right now, to see which add-ons are devouring the system resources and which ones have little or no effect at all.    I know that locking the frame rate down gives smoother flight by removing micro stutters.    I did actually clamp the FPS down once last night during testing using Nividia Inspectors 1/2 Refresh setting of the VYNC.    This created a HORRIBLE stuttering when outside the airplane trying to rotate around it.    So FSX obviously did not like that at all with a baseline FSX.CFG file.

 

As I said in my Update #1 above, when I set Autogen to Spares, my FPS doesn't really move that much, which is good, but when it goes to Normal (what the manual recommends to start with and it in fact, for my rig, says I should be able to go almost maxed out) the FPS plummets unacceptably.   The second I install PMDG 737 NGX, I guarantee, with autogen on Normal+, my FPS is going to get pushed under 30 FPS which is going to wreck havoc with micro stutters, texture blackouts and all that other jazz, not to mention my sanity because my brain still cannot grasp the concept of a game from 2006 bringing a nearly $5000 NEW computer to it's knees with graphics that are slightly behind the times (still look amazing though when you stuff things like FTXG into the mix).

 

I haven't really started tweaking the CFG just yet.    The owner of ORBX is strongly against overly tweaking your CFG and after the nightmare I have had prior to this new install I am now inclined to agree with him.    All those threads and guides and stuff were written years ago and may no longer be relevant to this rig I have built.  It may actually hamper it's abilities.

 

As to the Mask setting.   I have turned off Hyperthreading as a large majority of the community agree that it can cause more harm than good to FSX because of thread thrashing.    FSX doesn't know what do with virtual cores and wholly ignores them anyway so my mask of 62 is for use with just 6 physical cores.

 

Those of you that experience a FPS increase with FTXG probably did so because FTXG replaces the notoriously bad default FSX tree models and I believe it re-configures your default.xml file to add it's own custom Autogen buildings which probably replace the FPS hogging gas station and fast food restaurant models that are standard to FSX.

 

I really would like to fly with Autogen at least on NORMAL.    A testatment to FTXG though is that even with SPARSE on it lookings epic levels of awesome but I am greedy.  I want more 3D buildings!   BUILDINGS EVERYWHERE!  Which are useless to me because I am an IFR pilot for Southwest Virtual.   LOL.   I won't even see any of those buildings until I am on final approach.   I can be crazy like that.  XD

[Geosword]

I just installed PMDG 737 NGX and my FPS on the same scenario as listed in the original post plummeted to 24 FPS on the runway...      From 108 down to 24 FPS with an i7 3930k OC 4.6ghz....      UNPLAYABLE.   I haven't even installed Ultimate Traffic 2 yet...   Why can this $5000 PC NOT run this game once you fiddle with it just even a tiny bit?    I just don't understand this simulator.   I think the only way I am going to be happy with it is just fly with NOTHING installed but the base game...      I can't think of anything else to do.    I have been trying to get a smooth running game for 5 weeks now non-stop.  I am exhausted.   I don't know how people with older i7 2600k and even older i5 are just kicking my butt in frames with a lot of the same stuff installed that I run.     I have the latest drivers, I have tried minimal tweaks, I have tried a bunch of tweaks.     In the end... it's always the same result;  FPS that drops under 30 while on the ground.   I've read every clever community guide, hundreds of threads..  nothing is working on this system.       All my other games ROCK on this rig but this one game, the very reason I built this system, is doing horribly.   ARGH.  *pulls out hair*