How can I increase my FPS?

[hollywoody]

Hi, I'm still in training and learning to taxi and fly which I'm getting the hang of it...but when observing my FPS (with all settings set to LOW and cockpit at 512) my FPS is avg. 25-30FPS and thats looking straigh ahead with cockpit in view. I notice if I turn my view to the left or right and looking out windoa with less cockpit in view or at higher altitude the FPS increases sometimes to 40-60 FPS. the 25-30 FPS average seems to be smooth enough (no jittering graphics) during the training exercises.. but my concern is that when I get into more detailed graphics during game play my FPS may drop and I may start getting that studdering effect. Is there anything I can tweak within my system to increase the FPS. btw can changing to a pci sound card help much? thanks for your input. I'm running

 

Vista OS (using internal sound off board)

2.2 ghz duo core

3gb ram

Nvidia GTS250 1g ram

also running in background:

Voice activated commands VAC

TrackIR 5

saitek X52PRO

[slug88]

Here are two easy ones:

 

1. Are you running with the latest patch? Vista and W7 users with dual/multicore CPU's get improved performance with 1.01c.

 

2. Enable fullscreen mode

[Griffin]

This is exactly what you need:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=49434

 

Also, looks like you need a new CPU or at least some overclocking wouldn't hurt. This sim is highly CPU dependant.

Edited February 5, 2010 by Griffin

[CAT_101st]

The CPU is your weak point. You need a sound card to take the sound load off the CPU.

[StrongHarm]

You really think so Cat? I'm not so sure it makes a difference in Vista and later. Remember, Microsoft changed the HAL and the way it allows sound drivers to have direct hardware access. I found that the drivers were taking up resources but not pulling the load from the CPU. Now, back in the day when you had A3D that could run from the software layer, when you popped a new CLabs card in, you saw a visible increase in resources. I just don't think that's the case anymore. I pulled my XFI Gamer out and started using my onboard sound. I can't hear a difference in most apps, and I don't have to deal with Creative Labs' horrible drivers anymore. :D

 

@Hollywoody.. did you get Advanced System Care and Game Booster as suggested in another post? You need to free resources up to allow the Blackshark to eat them.

Also, try this guide on tweaking Vista for performance. Don't be offended by the 'Beginners' tag on it. There are a lot of very advanced tweaks here.

 

You have it good though pal. Back in some of my first sims you had to type MEM at a command prompt to make sure you had 575k of free conventional memory before executing the app (which took like 20min to load up). You had to manually edit a LOT of config files in DOS and the sim to get it going. The first 1-6mo of owning a sim was spending half of your time tweaking everything so it would be usable. The going rate for memory was $2 a meg then too heheh. If I purchased my current memory at that rate it would have cost $8192.

But I feel your pain. It's all relative. We do live in wondrous times though my friend.

[Bucic]

The CPU is your weak point. You need a sound card to take the sound load off the CPU.

1. Definitely.

2. Might be. I remember terrible hiccup while flying low over an armored column which was gone (the hiccup) after I installed a proper soundcard (Asus Xonar, SB Audigy, ... ).

[Boberro]

Internal sound card takes not more than few percent about 1-3% CPU... so it is not much.

[Bucic]

Internal sound card takes not more than few percent about 1-3% CPU... so it is not much.

But the hiccup I mentioned was real and I've tested it - onboard (Realtek ALC880 and CMI8738 probably too) vs proper soundcard. "Internal" is not the best name for those cards as cheap external soundcards are often based on the same chips and they will give simillar results. Note that I'm not talking about the latest generation of Realtek and CMI chips.

 

I don't know what is behind the hiccup. My best guess is inability to handle many (more than two:P) sound sources.

[liotczik]

I'm going to upgrade my PC and done some research, as what to do. Definitely stronger CPU + more modern mainboard is the answer. Currently I have AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+, each core clocked at 2,71GHz, running under Win XP Pro 32bit. While this is enough to run Black Shark on medium-high settings with about 30 constant fps, I'm aware that it may not be enough in a very near future.

 

As for the Game Booster, I can't see if it makes a difference. Neither by fps count, nor visual. As far as I can tell, when Black Shark is launched, it goes to one core and all the other stuff goes to the second core. The result is that user sees increase in both cores loadout and thinks, that Black Shark is multicore, but that isn't the case. Launching Game Booster lowers load on the 'system-utility' core by max. 4% and has no influence on 'simulation' core.

 

Also I've been advised, that it's still better to buy a dual core processor with individual cores running higher clock, that quad core with cores running lower clock settings.

 

Another often overlooked tip, is general health of operating system. Defrag HDD, tidy up the register, remove unneeded applications from autostart etc. for better performance.

Edited February 6, 2010 by liotczik

[CAT_101st]

THe AMd's X2 is a crapy CPU I know I had 3 of them. This 940 I have now is so much better even at stock speeds. ANd yes I am awair that Intel smokes the 940 but cost 3 times as much.

[showtime817th]

I'm running XP AMD X2 and had a creative usb. Today I bought a SB X-FI Titnium. With my Bench mark test I gane 5 to 6 FPS. WOOHOO

Edited February 8, 2010 by showtime817th

[StrongHarm]

I'm running XP AMD X2 and had a creative usb. Today I bought a SB X-FI Titnium. With my Bench mark test I gane 5 to 6 FPS. WOOHOO

 

You see, Microsoft decided they were trashing A3D in their new OSs and using a new method for drivers to speak directly with soundcard hardware. Creative Labs didn't like this idea and decided they were going to leave everything as is with their current cards, and just create new cards that could speak with Vista/Win7 (that we've yet to see). Their drivers suck system resources to take the sound from the app and spread them across 32 or more channels, then when those channels are being sent to the card for processing, they get recombined first by Alchemy, AND by Vista (in two different ways). Then they're resampled at the hardware.. again. Ooooo.. a nice resource sandwich... says the XFI. But I digress. Are you using WinXP, or did you switch from another Creative card? If you have Vista/7 you probably were forced to install the newest version of Creative Alchemy (translated: magic way to simulate bypassing the OS HAL) with the new card, causing the slight increase in FPS.

 

When it comes right down to it, with newer OSs the little 1x1 sound interface that sits on the board is doing as much processing as a 8" long PCIe card that requires several watts of power that your vid cards desperately need.

 

Edit: just re-read your post and saw that you are indeed using WinXP, so yes you can see the benefits of a CL card. Also, a USB sound device is really just using the USB port for interface only, and all the operations normally done by hardware are being done by a sound application that installs with the USB device. I'm glad you were able to achieve more FPS.. awesome. :)

Edited February 8, 2010 by StrongHarm