Prepar3D v4.5 - Performance Optimisation & FPS rate

[jjsmcc]

Hi,

I hope you are well. Happy Easter and hope you have a lovely weekend ahead.

As an avgeek and having had flight simulator for the past 13/14 years (I am now 20! - turning 21 next week) I absolutely love planes, aircraft and all things aviation related! I am in the final few months of my Aviation and Airport Management course at University College Birmingham and aspire to brush up on my maths and physics before attempting the easyJet aptitude test and cadet scheme toward the end of this year.

I haven’t been on flight sim (Prepar3dv4.5) since February this year due to the workload of university, and my part-time self-employed. I am going to start flying again this week/next as I hand in my dissertation.

One thing that has been bugging me for years to call is that for some reason or another my FPS never seems to be very good unless I am in the air up in the cruise. I regard my self as having an adequate computer and graphics card, however nothing that I do including changing settings seems to make a difference which is quite upsetting. To note back c2 yrs ago to date my computer started crashing during trans-Atlantic flights. I went to Microsoft support many times to see if they could assist, which ultimately ended in them crashing/blowing up (or even down my computer) …I finally with the help of my father managed to install a new version of windows and got my computer back up and running. Further to that, this past summer (2021) when I was trying to improve flight simulators performance, I was advised to over-clock my computer, which again blew my computer (up/down) …I had to reset the bios, which thankfully made my computer come back to, and saved a costly repair.

Before taking a break from flight simulator, this winter, I was trying to fly the Aerosoft Airbus A320/21 extended version. I have Orbx, Active sky, UK2000 scenery, FSDreamteam, and a few others (checking now 15/04/22 16:50) c65-75 sceneries. This was resulting in an FPS of 8-15 when flying around Heathrow / Gatwick with UK2000, Orbx, Active Sky, and VatSim…the aircraft was shaking violently and it was a really unpleasant experience…not so bad at LSGG/Geneva or the Caribbean airports where I still have all scenery active, Active sky and VatSim just different payware scenery.

I am wondering if anyone maybe able to assist me in increasing my performance, as when I watch YouTube videos and see other’s performance, it seems significantly better than mine with similar, if not more scenery and addons on/activated. Kindly note my computer specs and graphics card and screens below.

Respectively my computer: I have an Alienware Area-51 R4 and 5 series which without overclock on overclocks to 4.5GHz on it’s own
Device name DESKTOP-VH43HJG
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-7900X CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.31 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)
Device ID BCFFA78A-30FD-4256-93E7-DCA1AB7FE783
Product ID 00325-81256-20969-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Note, I have also tried overclocking it to 4.6GHz without any change in performance

Graphics card: NVIDIDA GeForce RTX 2080

Screen(s) – 2 monitors Idek iiyama 27’’ PLX2783H

My monitors refresh rate is 75 Hz and the resolution is 1920 x 1080

Thanks for any help which I am most grateful for.

Best wishes,
James McCallum

[Martyson]

James,

What is your performance when you start P3D default flight (F22 at at KVPS) with only P3D clear skies?

[jjsmcc]

Hi Martyson,

I have not tested the suggested setting(s) as yet, as I currently have P3D open, and am flying today. I will revert back to you on this Monday afternoon.

Thank you for your help in the meantime. Looking forward to updating and advising of the outcome.

Hope you have a Happy Easter/Passover respectively.

Best wishes,
James

[jjsmcc]

Hi Martyson,

I can confirm after doing as advised below: 'What is your performance when you start P3D default flight (F22 at at KVPS) with only P3D clear skies?'

My FPS/performance was 40FPS with the FPS locked at 40... Hope this helps as an initial response.

[Davidgatlin1111]

James,

What is your performance when you start P3D default flight (F22 at at KVPS) with only P3D clear skies?

I had such a problem, it was actually the bad monitor cable.

[Martyson]

James,

What is your performance when you start P3D default flight (F22 at at KVPS) with only P3D clear skies?

I had such a problem, it was actually the bad monitor cable.

Hello Davidgatlin1111 ,

Now that is interesting.
What type of monitor cable?
How long was it?

[Davidgatlin1111]

I don't know, because this one was longer ago, but most likely it was no'name because it was from aliexpress.

[pestridge77]

Hi,

I hope you are well. Happy Easter and hope you have a lovely weekend ahead.

As an avgeek and having had flight simulator for the past 13/14 years (I am now 20! - turning 21 next week) I absolutely love planes, aircraft and all things aviation related! I am in the final few months of my Aviation and Airport Management course at University College Birmingham and aspire to brush up on my maths and physics before attempting the easyJet aptitude test and cadet scheme toward the end of this year.

I haven’t been on flight sim (Prepar3dv4.5) since February this year due to the workload of university, and my part-time self-employed. I am going to start flying again this week/next as I hand in my dissertation.

One thing that has been bugging me for years to call is that for some reason or another my FPS never seems to be very good unless I am in the air up in the cruise. I regard my self as having an adequate computer and graphics card, however nothing that I do including changing settings seems to make a difference which is quite upsetting. To note back c2 yrs ago to date my computer started crashing during trans-Atlantic flights. I went to Microsoft support many times to see if they could assist, which ultimately ended in them crashing/blowing up (or even down my computer) …I finally with the help of my father managed to install a new version of windows and got my computer back up and running. Further to that, this past summer (2021) when I was trying to improve flight simulators performance, I was advised to over-clock my computer, which again blew my computer (up/down) …I had to reset the bios, which thankfully made my computer come back to, and saved a costly repair.

Before taking a break from flight simulator, this winter, I was trying to fly the Aerosoft Airbus A320/21 extended version. I have Orbx, Active sky, UK2000 scenery, FSDreamteam, and a few others (checking now 15/04/22 16:50) c65-75 sceneries. This was resulting in an FPS of 8-15 when flying around Heathrow / Gatwick with UK2000, Orbx, Active Sky, and VatSim…the aircraft was shaking violently and it was a really unpleasant experience…not so bad at LSGG/Geneva or the Caribbean airports where I still have all scenery active, Active sky and VatSim just different payware scenery.

I am wondering if anyone maybe able to assist me in increasing my performance, as when I watch YouTube videos and see other’s performance, it seems significantly better than mine with similar, if not more scenery and addons on/activated. Kindly note my computer specs and graphics card and screens below.

Respectively my computer: I have an Alienware Area-51 R4 and 5 series which without overclock on overclocks to 4.5GHz on it’s own
Device name DESKTOP-VH43HJG
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-7900X CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.31 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)
Device ID BCFFA78A-30FD-4256-93E7-DCA1AB7FE783
Product ID 00325-81256-20969-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Note, I have also tried overclocking it to 4.6GHz without any change in performance

Graphics card: NVIDIDA GeForce RTX 2080

Screen(s) – 2 monitors Idek iiyama 27’’ PLX2783H

My monitors refresh rate is 75 Hz and the resolution is 1920 x 1080

Thanks for any help which I am most grateful for.

Best wishes,
James McCallum

Hiya,

I dont wish to waste your time with offers of advice that may or may not work. You know your set up and you know what the exact nature of the issue is. I have a You Tube video that is dedicated to P3D and has hundreds of helpful videos on every nature of the sim and how to address/resolve issues. I am confident you will find exactly what you are looking for there : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLo7M2 ... BPvM24y8Ig

Poor performance is usually down to one of three things. hardware. software. the user.
Just need to find out which is causing the issue and resolve it. It may be one of the above or all three.

[pestridge77]

Looking at your specs (which is always the first place to start) I see a mixed bag for V5.3
I recommend you using your CPU in the boosted mode to get the speed up to 4.50 GHz. No need to overclock beyond that.
The RAM could do with being increased to 32G if you use multiple addons and applications when flying.
In all honesty, vram is king in V5 with Directx12 and the ability to manage it is essential for not having CTDs. 8G on your GPU card I would say is restrictive compared to say a card that allows 10G. Not by much and not essential to upgrade but something to consider for the future.

The next thing to look at is the environment that the sim runs in, Windows. Making sure it is running correctly with no errors is essential maintenance for the smooth running of the sim.
I run this command to ensure there are no errors in the OS weekly - sfc /scannow
It repairs broken OS files that can get corrupt much in the same way P3D will do for itself with the repair feature.
Another thing you can do as well is to remove all the bloatware that MS places in Windows that you will never use but will be active in the background taking performance away from the sim.
Of course the final thing to look at is how you have set up your hardware, for Windows to manage and the sim to use.
By default, Windows averages its power to the hardware meaning you can only get so much performance out of it and leaving alot of usable performance on the table.
Make sure you set up a power profile (you can also unlock ALL the hidden features to gain more performance) for High or Ultimate Performance so you can make the most of your CPU and GPU.
Set up your GPU correctly in Nvidia Control Panel as well to gain the best performance of that card and ensure that GPU Scheduling is turned ON in Windows.
There are loads of steps you can do to configure your PC as a "Flight Simulator" as opposed to accepting the default settings that will hamper the performance of the sim using your hardware.
Also, looking at your refresh rate of your monitor, your GPU is having to work harder for little gain in the sim. I recommend setting it too 60Hz instead of 75Hz.
Finally, set up P3D in the settings correctly as well for you GPU and monitor. I would recommend most settings going on MEDIUM as opposed to trying to get the highest slider settings. It also really makes a difference what you fly and where you fly, your sim will have different performance needs. The best thing is ANY fps rate can be achieved by setting up the settings correctly. The more data you are loading in the sim, the harder the hardware is required to work and generally the lower the fps rate that can be achieved. Its all a trade off depending on what you fly. Some sliders wont even need to be active for certain flights. I have profiles set in my P3D depending on what I am flying and where I am flying to make sure I get the fps I want for the flight.

[eiketre]

Hi
I have a “butter smooth” experience with p3d v5.4 running three 85” screens. Some of the settings would probably be valid for v4.5 too.

In windows I have game mode off, but I have Hyperthreading enabled in BIOS.

I have set my screens to 30Hz in Nvidia. I have also enabled full color range. (This will get rid of most color banding).

Under 3D settings in Nvidia I use Vsync to adaptive. (Or select half-adaptive if you have your screens set at 60hz). I have also threaded optimization turned on and triple buffering.

In prepar3D I have not selected Vsync and I have Fps unlocked.

Be careful with the terrain level of detail slider.

I do not use an aircraft with a virtual cockpit, so I do know how much the cockpit panel affects Fps. I have a home-cockpit.

Regards
Jan