Simviation Forums

I've always wondered what the general consensus on frame rates is?

I've heard people happy with as little as 10fps and other complain that anything below 30fps is unplayable.

I run FSX on a laptop so I'm pretty restricted but I've got a i7 in there and a decent nvidia card so generally I get about 15 to 20fps in the PMDG NGX with all my scenery addons etc.

I would imagine hardcore gamers with mega systems would need to have there stuff running at like 60fps + for it to be even nearly acceptable but I don't know many people who would be willing to invest that amount of money and time to a set up.

So what does the average hobby flight simmer find acceptable?

I guess the purpose of the question is to find out if the people who say 'FSX at less than 40fps isn't worth using' are right or not. Is the quality of play THAT much better when you always at 40fps rather than 15fps?

I'm on a Lenovo Y570 (Specs Below).  I'm using the NGX at a Med. high scenery, and getting about 20-25.  There is now way of getting 40 out of a laptop without overclocking your processor.  You do not want to overclock our laptop, or your processor will melt.  I'm happy with the way its running, I got good scenery, planes weather, and it runs like a charm!

Just as an aside....
As a regular, on-line, Multiplayer, I keep my frame rates locked to 20 fps, so as not to overload the Multiplayer Server bandwidth during flying sessions.
So, both my FS 2004, and FSX, run up to 20 FPS max, off-line Solo, and on-line Multiplayer.
The most important consideration is; "Smoothness", rather than "Frame Rates".

Paul... 8-)...!

Fozzer said it

"Smoothness", rather than "Frame Rates"

Look at what your eyes can see, and forget about fps

I'm running with Acceleration on a 3 year-old laptop - exactly as it came out of the box - Centrino 2, Vista, 4Gb RAM, GeForce 9650M GT with 1 Gb, usually at around 30 fps with a sizeable amount of scenery add-ons. A lot depends on the graphics settings you apply. Don't go for density overkill. Try the lowest setting first and work up.
I completely concur with everybody who says "smoothness" rather than brute speed is essential. I also fly real world and a stuttering sim just ain't real enough for anybody (that means under about 15 fps). It also leads to control inertia - you're trying to control something that is no longer doing what you see. Just makes life overly difficult.

I don't know what frequency the controls update at. Maybe 60Hz, could be higher though. Anyway, to get the most fluid feel from the game one needs to get as close to the controls update speed as possible.

It isn't as important in flight sims as it is in race sim, but both benefit from high frame rates. I can't get my high as I would like and I can feel it in the joystick. A feeling the controls are not reacting as they should. If I cut back settings and lower the res (or run on one monitor), I can feel a big improvement in the smoothnes. But, since I like it to look nice and also want to use 3 screen, I just live with it being less than idea. Sometimes it is frustrating, but only when absolute precision is needed. That isn't too often though and I can put up with it.

I try to get at least 30 with a low of 20 around busy airports. I would love to be getting 60/45 respectfully, but that is impossible for me on 3 monitors. I used to get kinda close to that on one though.

Anyway, I would say 30 is a good goal, since the controls begin to feel much better at that. Maybe my next system will be able to do 60 with 3 screens, until then, I have to settle for a happy medium.

With my hardware and tuned by the 'KOSTA's Tuning Guide' i have a constant smooth mostly stutterfree 25-30 framerate.

I tried them all (Bojote, NickN) both very good, but i never found any better than Kosta's Tuning Guide for a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge i5 K or I7 K-processor with a Nvidia GTX-560TI or better.

Just Google:

I don't know what frequency the controls update at. Maybe 60Hz, could be higher though. Anyway, to get the most fluid feel from the game one needs to get as close to the controls update speed as possible.

It isn't as important in flight sims as it is in race sim, but both benefit from high frame rates. I can't get my high as I would like and I can feel it in the joystick. A feeling the controls are not reacting as they should. If I cut back settings and lower the res (or run on one monitor), I can feel a big improvement in the smoothnes. But, since I like it to look nice and also want to use 3 screen, I just live with it being less than idea. Sometimes it is frustrating, but only when absolute precision is needed. That isn't too often though and I can put up with it.

I try to get at least 30 with a low of 20 around busy airports. I would love to be getting 60/45 respectfully, but that is impossible for me on 3 monitors. I used to get kinda close to that on one though.

Anyway, I would say 30 is a good goal, since the controls begin to feel much better at that. Maybe my next system will be able to do 60 with 3 screens, until then, I have to settle for a happy medium.

I think this is the core of it to be honest. Graphical smoothness comes at around 15fps and that's fine most of the time but the control response isn't great.
I'm using a laptop and as high spec as it is I don't think im going to get about 20fps in the NGX on approach to somewhere like KLAX with all the scenery I'm using. I could upgrade to a desk top but it's to impractical.

Maybe i am a bit spoiled with the Kosta Tuning:

27-30 is PERFECT and VERY SMOOTH.
24-26 is GOOD and SMOOTH enough.

20-23 is only ACCEPTABLE and not really SMOOTH enough. (to much micro-stutters)

Below 20 is to low.
Only acceptable for me for a short time in the virtual cockpit of the PMDG B737 NGX in Major Thunderstorm or Stormy Weather and heavy scenery like Angeles KLAX on the last 15 seconds on final approach for runway 25R. Then i have only 17-18 frames with a lot of scenery settings maxed, 40% airline traffic and 25% road vehicles. Just flyable, but only just !

Mostly i am happy with my smooth 25-30 frames.