Low FPS in Flight Sim X - HELP!

[Akumos]

Hi everyone

I ran a benchmark tool in FSX to find I get an average 16 fps. So I upgraded my GPU from a 8600GS to a HD4870. Still I only got an average of 16 fps.

So I bought a new Gigabyte gaming board for £250 and 4GB of corsair DDR3 ram @ 1600Mhz.

STILL I ONLY GET 16 fps, if I set the graphics options in the game to full or minimum it's still the same. What am I doing wrong?

Oh, I'm running a Q6600 (Quad @ 2.4GHz)

Thanks all.

[JC316]

Hmm, flight sims are heavily CPU depandant. Try overclocking that Q6600 some and see if it improves.

[mikek75]

That does seem odd, but FSX is a bitch to run smooth. Unfortunately for both of us ATI apparantly fares worse than Nvidia.. However, on Ultra High with af/aa(in game) I get around 22FPS, dropping a bit during turns, so yours does sound a bit low. And you should see a difference between Ultra and low.

Fill in your system specs BTW, someone may spot something. You do have both service packs applied I take it?

[Fif23]

if a Q6600, 4GB DDR3 and that card can't run the game, don't play it, it's not the computer.. The game design is bad, the designers are stupid, and I don't wanna think how much money the hardware companies paid them so it will only run on 2000 dollar rigs (which is stupid, why not get PS3 and have games made FOR YOUR HARDWARE and not the other way )

It's just like GTA... Engine is loaded with too much crap and the makers clearly didn't think of everything.

[Kreij]

Make sure that you have SP1 for FSX, it makes a difference.
Not sure how much it will make on your rig, but a friend said that it increased performance on his rig.

[ktr]

SP1 is a must, or the game wont multi-thread at all.

[Akumos]

OK thanks all for your responses. I havn't got fligh sims SP1 so I'll download that now.

[Polarman]

There are 2 service packs for FSX.

FSX SP1:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

FSX SP2:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

[DrPepper]

Originally Posted by Silencer23

if a Q6600, 4GB DDR3 and that card can't run the game, don't play it, it's not the computer.. The game design is bad, the designers are stupid, and I don't wanna think how much money the hardware companies paid them so it will only run on 2000 dollar rigs (which is stupid, why not get PS3 and have games made FOR YOUR HARDWARE and not the other way )

It's just like GTA... Engine is loaded with too much crap and the makers clearly didn't think of everything.

The game design isn't bad, There is obviously something else causing the low fps. Also telling him to get a ps3 to play flight simulator X which is for the pc was unhelpful. I doubt you have the service packs installed also if your getting the same fps with your new card then you might need to reinstall the drivers for your new card. Also try lowering the settings to see if you still get the same performance.

[Akumos]

Thanks DrPepper! I have reinstalled Windows and downloaded the latest drivers, still an average of 16 fps. Full high settings or full low settings gives the same performance.

Anyway downloading SP2 now.

[mikek75]

Fill in your system specs as I requested, IT MAY HELP!

[Akumos]

Sorry Mikek, missed that. I've filled them in now.

I'm upto 20 fps now with SP2 installed. Still, this doesn't change weather graphics are set high or low.

[mikek75]

Cheers! Nothing looks amiss to me, other than the CPU at stock. With mine at 3.2 I get around 25 fps at 1920x1080, so you're getting closer. Try overclocking that chip a bit, see what you get then.

BTW, when you mention benchmark tool, is that just by watching the FPS counter in game or is there an automatic tool which gives you your average FPS?

[lemonadesoda]

What the devil does this mean? I HAVE got an English version of FSX installed!

[Akumos]

I didn't know there was a counter in game, it's a program called FRAPS that I downloaded and tells you what FPs you're getting in the corner.

I'm trying to overclock now, never done it before. I'm using a tool that came with my motherboard called Easy Tune. afte I've made changes how do I see what the CPU clock is running at?

CPU temp is still low at mid 30's.

[mikek75]

Thats weird, never seen that one before.... Try ringing India (sorry, I mean Microsoft support) and see what they say!

[mikek75]

Originally Posted by Akumos

I didn't know there was a counter in game, it's a program called FRAPS that I downloaded and tells you what FPs you're getting in the corner.

I'm trying to overclock now, never done it before. I'm using a tool that came with my motherboard called Easy Tune. afte I've made changes how do I see what the CPU clock is running at?

CPU temp is still low at mid 30's.

CPUz (available from the downloads section here) will tell you what speed you're at. TBH you'd be better off overclocking from the BIOS rather than those tools. There are plenty of guides on the web that will explain what you have to do.

If you press ctrl and z at the same time you'll get the in-game FPS counter up. Better to use that than running FRAPS IMHO.

[Akumos]

Thanks Mikek. I'm already running CPU-Z. Do I need to claculate my clock speed from the FSB and multiplier?

[mikek75]

Aye, for instance, my q6700 has a multiplier of 10, therefore with fsb at 320 I get 3.2 ghz. The same speed for you would mean 3200/9=355. You may have to adjust your memory divider to keep within your limits, but its best to read one of the guides for a full understanding.

[Akumos]

I've figured it out!!

When i pressed Ctrl Z it told me my FPS and a target frame rate of 20! I went into the settings and changed the target frame rate to unlimited and now I'm getting mid 30's. Thanks for the tip Mikek!!

[mikek75]

Nice one! Although I'd completely forgotten about the target framerate setting, glad you've got it going. Incidentally, what res are you playing at?

[Akumos]

My monitors native resoltion is 1680 x 1050 but I think I saw it was playing in 1024 x 786 whilst in the settings. Thanks again for all your help Mikek.

[mikek75]

No probs, happy flying!

[rampage]

i have just got this game in the last few days and i soon learnt that SP1 for it was a must and a OCed CPU helps as well and also the target frame rate.... i only get 30>35 fps on average on my system, i just think the game will run crap on any pc

none the less its a fun game, i love the vip mission in the acceleration add on where you follow in a space shuttle when it is landing (pity it wont lend me end the mission when i land at the end )

[mikek75]

Thats interesting, I'd heard that nvidea was better on FSX. Agreed, I think its just badly written. After all, the graphics aren't that special by todays standards. You'd think that with the advances in graphics since its release 3 years ago that we'd be chewing it up.