Simviation Forums

Hi All,

I'm posting this in three different forums. i hope that's legal. I don't know where to best find the answer:

What is going on when I fire up the computer, have settings at a particular point, run the FS and get FPS of about 28, and then fire it up the next time and have the settings the same and the FPS jump all over from 28 down to 3, to 25-29 to 4 creating very jumpy gameplay?
Please keep in mind that I am doing a Ctrl+Alt+Del and freeing up RAM space. Also the cloud settings are the same. On top of that, I can drop all my graphics settings to literally zero and still get crappy movements. This is a new 128Mb ATI 9800 Pro and the second time (out of three times so far) that I have used it I was flying out of Phoenix with clouds and lightning and settings up pretty high and I was smooth as hell. This morning I did the same exact flight, the clouds were nil, and the FPS sucked! *%$^^#*!!!!

Secondly, is it normal for the CPU usage indicator to jump around from say, 77% down to 43% when all programs are shut down?

I just wanted to add that the second time I played using the new card was in the same sitting as when I first used it. I only add it to show that I don't think this is a defrag problem or something like that. It doesn't make sense to me that if the FS runs crappy and then I do other stuff on the computer as a break, then come back and fire up the FS again and it runs smoothly.... >:( >:( >:(

Wow! Look at me!! I'm running my own thread here!!!

I just wanted to add....again....that my system is as follows:

768Ram
2.4Ghz
Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb
30Gb Hard Drive
17 Inch Monitor

And how much does the screen resolution under "Hardware" affect gameplay? Thanks everyone!

I have the same card. I would reccommend updating the video card drivers first. Then there is a freeware ( but if you are kind enough and like the program you can choose to donate a little bit of funds) program that stops most of the RAM sucking programs behind the scenes in your computer with just a few settings while you are running FS9. if you stop FS9 itr will automatically start everything back up. Its fantastic, and has helped tremendously on my own PC. I am not sure how much RAM you have on your PC or your system specs, but I highly recommend 1 gig atleast and you may also want to keep an eye on your PC temperatures. Could be an overheating problem.

[link=http://www.fs-gs.com/downloads.htm]Ken Salter's

Sounds to me like you got some other program sapping your cpu power.

Thanks guys,

I have the latest drivers from the ATI site and I can't find any programs still running though as you said there must be something there. I had the FS Autostart with my old Radeon 7000 and noticed improvements. I'll download it again to see what happens.

My temps seem to be fine from what I can tell.

I manually shut down all the crud that comes on startup as far as I can tell and I don't have the anti-virus on during play.

If you are online (Especially with a persistent Internet connection), then shutting down the firewall and Antivirus program is something I don't recommend.

Don't know what OS your using but try this...

Go to your Display Settings dialoug box and see if there is a "settings" tab, I so, click on that and there should be an "advanced" button. Click on that.  You should see several tabs. Select "SmartGart".  Try the "Retest" button.

I was having problems at first until I found that button.  It will configure your card for optimum running.

Skittles,

Is that a tab on the ATI, or the FS, or the OS (Windows XP)?

I have delt with this same thing within the last week!
And after trying everything possible I would still get the frame rates droping from a smooth 25+ down to 2-3 fps. It was a problem that just appeared out of no where.
With the help of our friend Congo I tried everything and eventually ended up reinstalling Windows XP, upgrading to SP2 (has DirectX 9c) and the problem still exsisted.
Switched video cards, updated all possible drivers (sound card and video drivers do work in conjunction!!) ones bad it effects the other!) everything but nothing worked.
Then I found the problem, exact thing your now dealing with!

I had a varient of the "sasser worm" removed it with my trusty anti virus once and everything was good, for a hour or so, it came back! couldn't rid my computer of it! Found out that it resided in my "system restore" so everytime I would remove it I never really did pieces of it were still there and it would regenerate itself!
So google for  "stinger" a stand alone program from McAfee, I ran it and it found the virus in about 30 seconds and removed it.
Bottom line: with Windows SP2, 61.11 drivers for my FX 5200, updated everything else my computer is running better and faster than it did brand new!!!!
So give Stinger a try, remember to disable your system restore before running it. I am willing to bet that it will find something and solve your problem!!!

Also Thanks owed to Congo!!! He had given me a huge amount of help and invested time to try to get my computer on track, pointed me in directions i didn't think about looking, without his advice I might still be searching for answers! Congo is truly a asset to SimV!!!

Still getting the same crap happening. Frustrating. Just spent $208 for this 9800 Pro and getting only slightly better FPS than with my old 7000. I did do a Stinger scan and found one virus which it eradicated. The FPS were a little better and holding at 28 while in the desert between Phoenix and LA. Then I got over some city stuff and started getting the 4-6 FPS mixed in with the higher rates. Gets very jumpy and annoying! How about if I just throw the computer out a window. That might solve the problem

Check your computer for Ad-ware or spy-ware.

Back in December when I bouight my first copy of FS2004 I noticed that I was getting like 4-9 FPS in the city. I found this unacceptable on an AMD XP 2600+ 768RAM Nvidia Geforce 4 TI 4200 64mb and windows XP Home edition. I even went and bought an XFX Geforce FX 5600 128mb. Nothing seemed to help. For some reason I had to reformat the had drive and reinstall windows. Well after a clean install of Windows XP I noticed that the game ran very smooth. 17-22 FPS in the city and around 50 over the sea or desert and I was using PAI add-ons and the sim max out. Try that and see if it works for you. You never know.

fretnstuff,

How would think that a Gforce FX 5200 would be enough for this game? I'm going to buy a video card to get good performance but I'm not sure which card would be enough to run this game on an AMD XP 3000+ 512 Ram WIndows XP Home and I don't really want to spend a lot of money on a video card.

One thing no one has mentioned .... but first a question.

Is your computer left on 24/7?

Now the solution and yes it could be as simple as this.

Do a restart before playing.... This releases all memory including the cache memory. Once restarted shut down all unnecessararys and play.

cheers
eno

I already use the Spybot program. A great piece of software writing. it does catch a lot of stuff. I also read on another forum that some people have found it helpful to do a compression of the FS9 folder which leads some to get better, smoother play.

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az= ... 3032&page=

I didn't seem to get any better FPS though in my case. And my computer is not on 24/7.

Arghhhhh...........