GPatricks

If no newer drivers are available for whatever Ethernet chipset you have, you can try uninstalling the Ethernet Controller in Device Manger and rebooting. Windows will normally reinstall it automatically, but download the latest drivers to have on hand JIC... I know that's what I would try if having a Cat5 cable plugged in made a difference after testing the theory 5-10 times, because this is one finicky game.

For me, the most fluid play seems to be with G-Sync at 60Hz with everything in NVidia Control Panel set as Application Controlled with FXAA Off. Even Preferred Refresh rate for my monitor is Application Controlled. Locks me at 60FPS with drops into the 40's through heavy smoke/fire.

There current performance is very close, but the RTX 2080 is based on its new Turing architecture which boasts new AI and ray tracing technology that could eventually result in better GPU performance. As i'm planning more for tomorrow than today, I figured go with newer tech, and for me, the Zotac GTX 1080 Ti (only one I could find here) was substantially more costly than the RTX 2080, like 1300 euro with VAT vs the RTX 2080 at 800.

Curious, can you edit existing missions and easily switch them to "Dynamic Weather" with CF or is it just for building missions?

Win64 version is here - https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/145872/en-us , I would use DDU to uninstall what you have first (in Safe Mode), then reboot with no internet (so windows doesn't try to grab new drivers) and install the 425.31 set..

Well, after all that even at 60FPS I was not getting a fluid screenrate, wasn't pausing but just didn't look perfectly smooth when turning, etc. Kind of a high-speed stutter.. I went ahead and bought the Alienware Graphics Amplifier and a Gigabyte RTX 2080 to put in it to get the heat out of the laptop. Seems to have worked as the new card w/G-Sync set at 144Hz maxes out at about 75C (with custom fan configuration) and the CPU temp is down about 10C also (assume the case is cooling better without the GPU cooking in there). Deleted the FXO & Metashaders 2 folders, hopped in and no stutters, no pauses even after I spent a good 30 minutes in there and went through both P51's attacking those pesky BTRs.. :D GPU Benchmark scores went up 35-40% too! Not a cheap upgrade, but figure i'll sell the AGA box off next year and build a new i9 system around the RTX 2080..:thumbup:

I have this for my CH gear, have to fill it in manually in Adobe (or print/write) but it works.. CH_Template_Form_Blank.pdf

I agree, going from 32 to 64 only changes a build by about $150US, no brainer for the next box I build.. i9/GTX 2080/64GB/2TB SSD

Considering with a 64bit CPU Win10 Pro 64bit can access 2TB of RAM (Win10 Home 64 "limited" to 128 GB) I don't think you can have too much! :lol:

Another way of looking at it (tests on my system), an average physical HD has a Random 4K Read/Write rate of .8 MB/s, a SSD 38.1MB/s, and RAM chips have a read/write time of 22 GB/s..

Still FS, though i'm in no big rush.. ;)

Simple P51 Instant Action Ground attack uses 14.3GB of system memory and 5GB of GPU, which means a 16GB Win10 system is likely to uses the Pagefile... go 32GB!

I'm no expert but I would run MSI Afterburner during play (tick everything in the Monitoring Tab you want to view live graphs afterwards, but just tick "Show in On-Screen Display" for GPU - GPU1 temperature/GPU1 usage/GPU1 memory usage/GPU1 core clock/GPU1 memory clock and for CPU - CPU temperature/CPU usage/CPU clock and finally RAM usage OSD while playing and see where your temperatures are. It sounds like (black screen/GPU fans at max) your video card is overheating.. be sure to tick "Show On-screen Display in captured screenshots and videos" under the On-Screen Display Tab so you can post them if needed. MSI hint - After you run it you will see the blank graphs where there are no sensors to read (I use the "Default MSI Afterburner v3 skin - big edition" Interface). Go back into monitoring and uncheck them and move the 'Active Hardware Monitoring Graphs" order to your liking (drag and drop) to clean the display up..

Easy chief, he was just putting it out there in case someone had theirs stolen recently, not a horrible thing. I wish I was in MA, I would grab it!

There is one kind of computer (or car, or anything mechanical) issue I hate, it's one that seems to appear and then vanish! Your just waiting for it to come back like an ex-wife. The last "test" (above) was done right after I ticked "VSync" in options, which I set in the G-Sync to 60Hz. In game I noticed it was at close to 100, which seemed odd, but WTH.. it stuttered anyway. I watched a video on using MSI Afterburner after that and discovered how to display everything I wanted to see while flying. GPU Temp/Usage/Clock Speed, CPU Temp/Usage/Speed, and Fraps showing FPS and allowing for video once it started to stutter. In I go and I immediately notice FPS pegged at 60. I hop in P51 for 10 minutes, died, do another 20, quit, no stutters. Mig15 same deal, flew for 20-30, no stutters. Ran a few planes for about an hour, dogfights, etc., no stutters. I did notice a FR drop flying through heavy smoke vs. the old 100% rate, then 0, then 100%. I attached two screenshots that show MSI data, one at the mission start, one 10 minutes in. Check out the RAM usage, glad I upped to 32GB!... I'm almost afraid to play again....

We thought that when I was at 85C GPU (no idea where the threshold is but I read 90+ sustained is NG) but this time GPU was 75C and CPU about 80, and I watched the CPU speed/temp in play, never saw it dip..

Just an update, and as the sim hasn't crashed i'm mostly on the "Game Performance" forum.. Did a DDU Uninstall in Safe mode, installed the newest Nvidea (431.60?) drivers, raised the laptop off the table to give fans better airflow, and hopped into P51 Instant Action. After about 5 minutes of smooth play, with a high GPU temp of 75C (better than last tests, so thats good), the pauses came back again, about every 7-8 seconds, fairly steadily..

To answer a couple of inputs - The MSI controls for Fan Speed [%], Core Voltage [mv], Temp. Limit [%], and Power Limit [%] are greyed out, no way to enable them (I have all voltage/etc. ticked in setup). Fans and Fan screens clean, laptop is now lifted in rear to allow better airflow to fans. Used DDU in Safe mode to uninstall drivers, reinstalled latest, all went well. Fired up P51 Instant, watched both GPU and CPU temps. GPU never got above 75C this time, CPU hit a high of 90C but saw no reduction in rate (3.6 GHz). After about 5 minutes the pauses started, occur about every 8 seconds. On the MSI GPU temp graph it looks like a small dip in temp occurs around the same time. As for Dell warranty, it expired a year ago and at $275 for one year I think i'll pass... and trust me, the dry ice idea did cross my mind.. ;) Thanks for the help guys!!

I think you are right and just tested it again with MSI display up while flying. The idle temp is 47C, as soon as I start DCS it rises to 53C and climbs until after 5 minutes flying it hit 88C and the stutters began. There are some hints online about undervolting to reduce temps but I think it's chasing a ghost, and even with the "Unlock Voltage Control" selected I cant do anything with Voltage in MSI, also can't control fan speed or temp limit, both unlocked but greyed out.

He must have had those in stock, he has been unresponsive to me about the CH pots after the initial reply...

Not resolved, just took longer to start the 7 second and pause fun again. I'm done chasing this for now, I can fly BMS all day without issues, this is crazy... Edit - being a glutton for punishment I ran another missio with MSI AB running, GPU hit 85C as a max, stayed about 83C for 10 minutes, saw no stutters/pauses this time.. no idea why.

Not resolved, just took longer to start the 7 second and pause fun again. I'm done chasing this for now, I can fly BMS all day without issues, this is crazy... Edit - being a glutton for punishment I ran another mission with MSI AB running, GPU hit 85C as a max, stayed about 83C for 10 minutes, saw no stutters/pauses this time.. I'm going to DDU the drivers and reinstall, see if that helps!

Yes, it is Internal, I'll most likely build a game box before I add that big Alienware GPU add-on brick..I will take a look at Afterburner and see what it tells me Thanks!

OMG that is gorgeous.....

Thanks Bignewy. I just posted this (below) in the "Game Performance" forum as being "Possibly Solved", hopefully it solves the CTD issue also.. I've been having issues with FR pauses since trying out DCS 2.5 on this machine with the new G-Sync monitor. I get 144 FPS (running at 144Hz) and then it drops to 0 for 1 second, then back to 144 for about 5, then back to 144, and on and on. Disabled wireless stuff and deleted drivers, deleted the two shader folders (mentioned somewhere here), dropped my graphics sliders way down, tried pre-load at minimum and maximum, then just upgraded from 16GB to 32GB RAM. Same results in my tried and true P51 Instant Action Ground attack mission, which surely is not demanding with two planes and about 10 BTRs.. Today I set my G-Sync back down to 60FPS, hopped in and played for 10 minutes with not one pause. I'll try it a few more times but *maybe* the problem was pushing out too high of a refresh rate with G-Sync? I hesitate to say "all is well" but thats the 1st time I saw 0 stutters.. Yesterday it paused and stayed paused for the 1st time, CTD (reported) and prompted me to try this today.. Fingers crossed, because it seems that many of the problems are on new high end machines and most/all are G-Sync or Free-Sync capable.. Edit: Flew P51, Sabre, Mig 15 all with 0 pauses. Got ballsy and set all graphics to High, Pre-load to max. Flew the P51 again, 0 pauses, 60 FPS steady! Guess i'll start to dig in now that I can actually play!