Is there a memory leak in FSX?

[mhoffman50]

I'm not sure if this has been asked before or if this is a known problem.

System Specs:

Core 2 DUO E660
8800gts
2 gig OCZ memory
320gig SATA
XP Home

I have my settings set fairly high and have appied several tweaks.  When I start at a medium sized airport and city I am getting between 20-30 FPS.  I fly about an hour of touch and go and then fly to an uncontrolled airport land and take off heading back to my starting point.  The closer I get the worse the frames get and the detailed cockpit turns to fugly with all kinds of jaggies.  As I get into the pattern for landing it turns almost into a slide show  and stays that way through taxi.  I end the flight and the entire UI is also a slide show.  Once I end FSX and start it up again everything is back to the way it was and flying is good.  Along with FSX I have TIR4 and Saitek profile sofware running.  Everything else is turned off including un-necessary windows services.

Has anyone encountered this before and/or know how to fix it?

[Daube]

I'm not sure, but I think there is indeed some memory leak issue in FSX, and this is one of the main issues the SP1 is supposed to correct...

[ATI_7500]

First of all, try defragging the disk and see if it helps.

[Keep It Simple]

I'm not sure, but I think there is indeed some memory leak issue in FSX, and this is one of the main issues the SP1 is supposed to correct...

Has any heard just when we might expect the "SP!"?

ACES has stated the the "issue patch" would be released "after the first of the year" and would be before any DX10 patch.

[Daube]

Yes, but they didn't provide any precise date.
They just said that they wanted to fix the biggest issues (game content, like missing bridges I would guess, as well as game bugs, like memory leaks etc...) with that patch, and then they would start orking on the DX10 upgrade.

[Keep It Simple]

"Precise date"?.

Just knowing what year we can expect it would be nice.

[Daube]

"Precise date"?.

Just knowing what year we can expect it would be nice.

It was supposed to be delivered at the beginning of this year... probably during March, I guess...

[jlvandem]

I've noticed issues like this as well. At times the problem has brought the sim and the system completely down and I have to restart by simply pushing the power button. Not exactly what I want to be doing to my laptop.

Hopefully a fix comes soon. As for now... I've reverted back to FS2004. Not just because of the memory leak but because I also enjoy flying online in VATSIM with Squawkbox which hasn't been updated for FSX yet.  :'(

[DizZa]

I don't think there is a memory leak in fsX. After flying for an hour, my memory usage never surpassed 1.2gb.

[justpassingthrough]

FSUIPC4 is causing problems because of the SIMCONNECT module. If you installed FSUIPC4, remove it and see if the problem continues

No memory leaks have been reported as far as I have read. Most likely, if its not FSUIPC related there may be something around the area you are landing. The default airline aircraft are not properly mip-mapped and will also cause major slow-downs as you approach from a distance if traffic is set too high. Replacement AI traffic is needed to set the traffic sliders above 40%

[Lange_666]

Yes there is a memory leak in FSX (if it's really a memory leak). But it's not really random and i'm not sure what causes it. It happens on some locations. Mostly you start to notice that something goes wrong when switching screens takes up a lot more time or that you start to notice stutter now and then when there was a smooth play before. And then mostly... bang: memory can't be read or written error (i had both already), refering to a few adreses. These memory adresses are not always the same. Some people say that it happens only on a few locations and that every time they fly over the same location, the error occurs.
I'm currently flying a trip around the world and had the error on 2 different locations. The first time, i reflew the same flight and the error happened again at around the same location (confirming what other people say about this). Since i wanted to continue my journey, i took a slightly different route and no error. The second time it happened was just after a landing so i considered that flight as a success and didn't refly it.

[mhoffman50]

I haven't had the sim crash yet.  I did notice that if I raise the FIBER_FRAME_RATE to a higher number it happens less often.  I had it at 0.25 and upped it to 0.30.  The default for this is 0.33.  Going to too small of a number I thought only impacted scenery not the 3d cockpit or other plane textures.  I will play with the traffic numbers next and see if there is a connection.

[justpassingthrough]

Yes there is a memory leak in FSX (if it's really a memory leak). But it's not really random and i'm not sure what causes it. It happens on some locations. Mostly you start to notice that something goes wrong when switching screens takes up a lot more time or that you start to notice stutter now and then when there was a smooth play before. And then mostly... bang: memory can't be read or written error (i had both already), refering to a few adreses. These memory adresses are not always the same. Some people say that it happens only on a few locations and that every time they fly over the same location, the error occurs.
I'm currently flying a trip around the world and had the error on 2 different locations. The first time, i reflew the same flight and the error happened again at around the same location (confirming what other people say about this). Since i wanted to continue my journey, i took a slightly different route and no error. The second time it happened was just after a landing so i considered that flight as a success and didn't refly it.

That error is not a memory leak. It is usually caused by an external problem such as page file set too low or aintivirus and other background scanners or services trying to use memory addresses that are not available or reserved. Im not saying there may not be some type of bug which you stumbled upon in relation to scenery however what you are describing is not a memory leak.

[justpassingthrough]

[quote]I haven't had the sim crash yet.

[justpassingthrough]

As mentioned above, one of the best tweaks that can be done is to defrag.. and not using the Windows XP defrag. Get a good professional Defrag program such as O&O Defrag (COMPLETE\NAME defrag) or Perfect Disk. There was another defrag product on the market but I have never used it. I think it was called Ultimate Defrag.

FSX flys much, much smoother when the file structure is defragmented using an alphanumerical NAME structure. Not many defrag programs will do that. O&O Defrag does. It usually takes 3 full passes of the program with reboots in between to complete that type of defrag correctly, even if the program GUI shows the files are in order on the first pass, repeat it 3 times.