FPS variation

[michelebk117]

Hi

I have a Shuttle PC with Windows 7 64 bits, 6 GB of Ram (1333 Mhz) and an Intel Processor i7 2.68 Ghz.

I installed X-Plane on a different partition of the hard driver which is dedicated to it.

On average I obtain between 90 to 130 fps when fly the MU, T28, Bell 206. However there are short intervals in which the simulator slow down quite a bit even if the frame rate is still around 80 fps.

I am not sure what cause this behaviour.

Any Idea

Many Thanks

[woweezowee]

xplane loading the metar and adjusting the weather?

[michelebk117]

Thanks

Indeed I can turn down some options (I set visibility to 5 miles max ) and the I am pretty sure that with a lower resolution ( running now 1600 x 900 if I remember well) I will run the a/c without any problem.

However, 80 fps, been the lowest frame rated displayed during the almost freezing intervals (around 5 to 15  seconds in duration) , should not produce this kind of behaviour.

Maybe more Ram can help.

BTW, I have a 1GB ATI Radeon

Many Thanks

[dpny]

In v9 the performance bottleneck is the number of object, as the CPU has to issue a drawing instruction to the GPU for each one. If you're flying over an area with few buildings, and then fly into an urban area with a lot of buildings, each one of which the CPU has to tell the GPU to draw, your frame rate will take a hit.

[michelebk117]

Thanks Again

Well I have no roads or objects, no tree....

But the resolution it is high and the option set to extreme resolution.

Three options I believe :

I  upgrade my i7 to 3+ GHz

I buy a more powerful graphic card

I add Ram to the system.

I believe a better graphic card may improve things a bit but the processor is probably the  way to go for a real boost.

Regarding a memory upgrade I am not too sure how much difference it will makes to the frame rate.

Any advice very welcome

Many Thanks

[Jack Skieczius]

FPS also seem to change, while in 3d cockpit, depending on the view you are looking at. I find the frame-rates to be lowest when looking towards the horizon and best when looking straight up or down.

But i also want to point out, you eye cant distinguish between 80 FPS and 120 FPS. In fact, if FPS is generally over 30 then you are fine. Some can notice the change between 30 and 60, but for the most part, animations look smooth at 30 FPS.

If you are reaching 120 FPS then you are in a better boat then most of us.

[michelebk117]

Thanks

This is way I cannot explain the short ''almost freezing'' behaviour since the fps is around 80 when it happens.

I will lower the resolution and see what happen for now.

Thanks

[woweezowee]

did you give it a check what I said - weather updates? second issue could be scenery loading of the tiles, mostly to be seen with using heavy photoscenery.

[Jack Skieczius]

Oh, so you are saying there is a short pop of a freeze every now and then? This could be caused by the sim loading something that takes a bit longer then expected to load. are you running the sim with X-Planes traffic? If you are now buying a lot of high end add-ons and have X-Planes traffic turned on, perhaps the freeze comes when one of these guys gets close and X-Plane has to load it up again.

Or it could be scenery loading. Do you have the option of scenery loading in the background turned on?