Why am I getting poor FPS?

[Jonay]

Ive got a 2.8GHz dual core AMD X2 5600+, Biostar TA90GX128 MoBo, 512MB nVidia 9400GT GFX card, 4GB OCZ Platinum series 800MHz RAM, Windows7 64bit.

 

But im only getting about 18-20 FPS on the default settings on a 19" monitor running at 1280x1080.

 

Ive tried all the settings to try tweak it here and there but it doesnt make any difference? Infact im getting the same FPS on low as on high settings.

 

Could it be my nVidia control panel and my AA and Antistophic filtering settings that are the issue?

 

I've got them on AA-16xQ and AntiStroph- 8x i think..

 

I've just thought of the nVidia control panel part jsut now, and i cant do anything as im at work, could someone tell me if they think it is that?

 

Also, Is Black Shark compatible with Freetrack? Im a cheapskate, and i look to save money as much as possible! (hence why im using Windows 7 beta on my new rig and not a full OS!)

 

Is Blackshark more GPU or CPU intensive? I'm looking to upgrade one of these to make it run better..

 

It truely is amazing.

 

Thanks

[Zorg_DK]

Apply affinity tweak found elsewhere on this site to enable both cores. Also try running with no AA or AF (16xQ AA is way too demanding for a 9400GT). That should help.

[-Nighthawk-]

DCS: Black Shark is more CPU intensive, however both your CPU and GPU will be currently bottlenecking you.

 

I would recommend turning AA off and setting all of your settings to medium-low for playable FPS.

 

Also, have you tried the CPU affinity hack?

[Yskonyn]

On a 19" monitor there's no need to go as high as 16xQ AA at all on a 1280x1080 resolution apart from it being too demanding on the card, like Zorg pointed out.

 

If you need AA try your luck with 2x or 4x first to see wether that gives you the smooth enough edges you want. But beware that AA is often a FPS killer.

 

Also, like Zorg said, find a tool to set the affinity to both cores of your processor as the game doesn't do that automatically at the moment.

DCSMAX is an option for this. You can find it here in the General Discussion section of the forum.

[Distiler]

As others have said:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=39261

 

Also, a nvidia 9400 using 8AA and 16AF is a "nono you're doing it wrong!". Try 2AA and 4AF and from there go up to 4AA and 8AF.

[Jonay]

Ohright thanks!

 

Its not that its not playable, its pretty smooth for only being ~20FPS, the only time it bottlenecks is when im low over the ground and i kick up a lot of dust.

 

Ill do the tweaks you've suggested when i get home, and try the affinity tweak.

 

Thanks, ill report back.

[bumfire]

Your pc rapes mine and I have better fps than you with most things turned up high and with 8sxAA and 16xAF, water is the lowest setting but apart from that everything else is high and with 1440x900 resolution, ok not huge fps compared to yours, but slightly more depending on the situation and with a bigger res.

 

Thats with a 4800 X2 cpu and 2 gigs of ram but running windows XP, but vista and win7 gives you the fps boost with the affinity trick, so I really cant understand whats happening with the stuttering down low, i think its more of a glitch with either the sim or some other piece of software on your pc, as your pc does rape mine except i have the 8800gtx and I have no real problems unless their is alot of things onscreen, flying near the ground produces no problems whatsoever for me, no stuttering even with dust, so to me I think its a glitch you are having, as for the bottlenecking that someone suggested, I dont think its bottlenecking because I hardly suffer from it and your cpu is better than mine and I presume can handle more than my cpu can.

 

I would start looking at what software you have running alongside the sim, worst case scenario, uninstall and then install again, as that cured someones problems like that not that long ago, hopefully the affinity trick will give you roughly 10fps like it does for alot of people, also I find this helps, turn off your virus scanner realtime scan when playing, basically disable the AV before you go play as that helps me alot, otherwise every single file that is opened by the game is auto scanned by my AV program thus can slow things down and cause stutters.

Edited April 6, 2009 by bumfire

[Yskonyn]

Just do the affinity tweak and lower the AA setting before you start searching for other reasons. I bet your performance will be more than acceptable when you've done this above anything else.

[192nd_Erdem]

You really shouldn't even touch AA and AF with that card. Also what kind of a resolution is 1280x1080? I hope you aren't using full HD with that rig :D

[BTTW-DratsaB]

AA is the big killer. I have never tested it, but even with that card full AF should not be a problem. YOu have been able to whack AF up full with out and performance lost since the 68XX NV cards. AA, I imagine is the problem.

Did you change any other control panel settings? I know that Antialiasing Transparency is another big killer of FPS.

[Nate--IRL--]

AA is the big killer. I have never tested it, but even with that card full AF should not be a problem. YOu have been able to whack AF up full with out and performance lost since the 68XX NV cards. AA, I imagine is the problem.

Did you change any other control panel settings? I know that Antialiasing Transparency is another big killer of FPS.

 

Odd, I found signifigant FPS drops with AF over 4x (7900GS), i'll have to have a play with the settings again.

 

Nate

[GuntiNDDS]

this is what i do before i start the game:

 

• Kill any uneeded procceses
  
• Disconnect from Internet (to reduce workload of software firewall)
  
• Start game with affinity tool.
  
• I also overclocked my cpu from 2.4 to 2.6 ghz, but i dont think it makes a difference :)
  

[Yskonyn]

Odd, I found signifigant FPS drops with AF over 4x (7900GS), i'll have to have a play with the settings again.

 

Nate

 

Well in your defense; I never was able to put Anisotropic Filtering to 16x in any game with 6800 card or better without suffering serious performance drops. ;) I am curious where that statement comes from.

AF 8x though should be no problem and a nice tradeoff between quality and speed.

[Jonay]

ok when i turned off the 8x AA and 16x AF i got about a 8 FPS increase..

 

with the affinity tool, I got another 10.. so im about 38-40 FPS now.. the game is much smoother, but not that much difference in game experience tbh, you dont notice the increase as much as you do as in MSFS9/X

 

The only thing thats still holding me back is the smoke/dust effects.. the FPS drops to about 8-10 when i'm in close proximity of it, which totally sucks

[EtherealN]

As another point, do ensure to not have water on high. It only gives a very low visual improvement but can cause a big increase in load. Windowed mode is also a bitch, if you happen to use that.

 

I know there's some mods rattling about somewhere that removes some smoke and dust effects, but don't use them myself so can't remember where it was that I saw them. lockonfiles.com it might have been.

[Jonay]

Thanks ill look into it,

 

I did start off on the windowed mode (by default) and then i quickly changed to windowed.

 

Im not sure about the water effects, but ill check when i get home.

 

Thanks again chaps.

[Distiler]

Yes, windowed mode and mirrors eat FPS a lot. turn them off.

[EtherealN]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the mirrors. They can be a nasty hit as well.

[Zorg_DK]

Try to turn off water and dust effects. That should help the fps. Check to FAQ on this site to see how it's done.