Graphics loading and FPS

[Airspeed]

Another query from the dunce's corner:
I bought a Creative Soundblaster card, and disabled the audio on my NVIDIA graphics card. I thought that this ewould relieve some load on NVIDIA, and improve FPS. Have another think, Mike, it made no difference.
Looked over my files again, and found that I had "GPU Temp". Fired that up whilst FSX was running, expecting to see that the graphics card was up to its neck in processing. Think again, Mike, no matter where I looked or flew around Moorabbin, which is my heaviest graphic user. This is what GPU Temp reported:



To me, that doesn't look too busy, but maybe that's my inability to read what's in front of me?

[chrispbits]

Hi Mike, unfortunately FSX doesn't make the best use of your GPU. It makes the CPU work for a living whilst the GPU snores gently in the background.

It's only recently that P3D has managed to shift work off the CPU and onto the GPU.

[Airspeed]

Thanks Chris.
So there we have it, either switch to P3D, or get a better CPU & motherboard,
Might be time for a change of sim?

[TSR2]

Whatever way you look at it Mike, the CPU and Motherboard (and almost certainly memory) will need replaced... a strong likelihood that the PSU may need updating too, depending on how old it is. This is regardless of P3D, XP11 or FSX.
FSX doesn’t know anything about DirectX 12 as FSX predates it by many years. P3D / XP11 etc will make better use of your graphic card for sure, but both also need a modern processor ideally an i5 or better from the last 3 years.
What exactly is it you’re having trouble with in FSX?

[Airspeed]

Whatever way you look at it Mike, the CPU and Motherboard (and almost certainly memory) will need replaced... a strong likelihood that the PSU may need updating too, depending on how old it is. This is regardless of P3D, XP11 or FSX.
FSX doesn’t know anything about DirectX 12 as FSX predates it by many years. P3D / XP11 etc will make better use of your graphic card for sure, but both also need a modern processor ideally an i5 or better from the last 3 years.
What exactly is it you’re having trouble with in FSX?

Hi Ben,
Mainly unstable FPS. You may recall that horrible prop flashing from a couple of weeks back. Unlimited FPS seems better than setting any upper limit, but the numbers leap from 50s to 20s then <10, then it will skyrocket again followed by a total freeze for 1 or 2 seconds.

It's an old computer:
Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.2GHz
18.0 Gb RAM (16 usable) [I haven't seen this before, one of the cards might have come loose]
64bit OS W7
NVIDIA GEForce GTX560.
The motherboard will only take DDR3 memory.
I have 2 SSDs and 2 hard discs.

The hangar is massive, including a heap of FTX aircraft from scenery.I've already moved some rarely used aircraft to folders other than "Airplanes" but they are still within "Sim Objects"
The scenery library is also huge, would it help to disable Africa,Asia? If I knock out North America, I lose too much building texture, and I don't remember whether that helped ot not, as it was some time back.

[TSR2]

Hi Mike,

As a starter for 10, don’t uninstall any default areas, that’s a bad idea. If what you’re describing has suddenly started happening, then it’s almost certainly caused by something that’s been installed on the computer, whether that be in FSX or on the PC in general.
FSX uses the ini file paths to tell it where objects are stored, so if you have moved objects out of that path, it would load them or even see them.
What anti virus / Anti malware etc are you using? And your operating system is open season for hackers, I really would suggest upgrading it. (But probably not an In place upgrade)

[Airspeed]

Right, Ben.
Problem followed install of ORBX Global Vector and Base.
ORBX told me that (a) it should not put any extra load on the computer, as it only replaced textures with better ones.
(b) I am unable to install, because the files have been overwritten.
I'm not sure about no extra load, because Vector puts heaps of detailed coastline data in.
The only way I can see of getting rid of it, would be to delete FSX and reinstall without Global.
Currently I have not disabled ANY scenery files in the Library. (I tried it a long while back, and decided it was causing too many missing building textures.)
Update to W10? I cloned my wife's W10 HDD onto a SSD, to try and speed up her machine, but couldn't get it to actually run on hers. I was going to use it on mine for extra storage. I inserted the SSD into my machine ready to clean it off, and it booted mine as a W10. I tried running FSX in that mode, only to be told that my key code was invalid. Tried re-entering, but rejected again. When these things happen, I tend to backtrack to my previous safe position. I managed to make it into storage space later.
I think that my current financial position will have me stuck on W7 and this machine for a while. Windows Defender obviously isn't being updated, so I occasionally do a System Mechanic virus/malware check. I turned off live checking because that checked every file in sight, making FSX a nightmare to load.