Axelb9

Hello Guys - my first post and I need help, I believed I have a pretty adequate system running this game with an FPS between 30-50. Instead I am getting 11 FPS at stock clock and only 15-16 sometimes maybe 19-20 when overclocked to 4,5 GHz. I have used some very reasonable video settings based on the guid here in the forums where my view distance is only 7 miles, object draw distance is 6 miles, PiP off, antialiasing low, etc. I definitely do not want to compromise on the 3D rendering settings as the monitor I am using is 1980*1020 HD and the object, texture and terrain quality which are all on high or very high. My system is the following: System Information ------------------ Operating System: Windows XP 32 bit Memory: 4096 MB RAM CPU: I5 - 2500K Ocd to 4,5 Ghz --------------- Display Devices --------------- Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Display Memory: 1024 MB Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz) Monitor Name: Benq Output Type: DVI ------------------------ Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives ------------------------ 300Gb Veliciraptor All in all it should be good even though I know that there are some compromises in the system eg. XP32 bit, the videocard maybe or that I run a pretty ancient Nvidia driver namely 182,50. I have so far not defragged the disk but actually this is the first game I have put on the Velociraptor after a fresh format. What do you think is bottlenecking me and would eliminating one of the abovementioned issues take me up to 30-40 fps? The game is so jerky and stuttery at 16 FPS that it takes any enjoyment out. At totally desolate areas it goes up to 40 and that is the type of smoothness I am used to from XPlane or other sims. Thank you for all your help, Alex

Sorry mate I have no idea why you are getting yourself so worked up on this. Read back on your posts and my responses: I believe I was quite clear when I said that using your settings I get the same performance as you do. There is one single setting namely object detail on very high that kills my fps for one reason or another. If I keep most on normal and a few here and there on high I also get 30+ fps. It just looks crap. All in all I have finished dealing with this. When I get a new vga card I check again and until then I use Xplane and FSX, both giving terrific framerates with a way better flight model. Be happy, Alex ---------- Post added at 06:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:15 PM ---------- Thanks a lot for this effort I appreciate it. Honestly I also do not know the reason could be XP or something maybe. Running the game my CPU temps never go above 52 C so I am not thermal throttled or anything like that. FSX and XP are giving me 100+ fps and still 25+ in built in areas with loads of autogen so thus far no other indication that my CPU would not work up to specification. Would be willing to benchmark the system though I just do not know any good comparison benches that could gauge my system against the performance of a similar. Thanks again, Alex

Ah I see. How do you measure GPU load if I may ask?

Clear. So what object view distance are you using?

Care to share your settings? 6000 m object view distance was recommended as a very reasonable setting in the sticky about video performance. Otherwise if the game is not able to show even 6000 meters object view on a 4,5 Ghz CPU with a GPU that is above the recommended settings then something is really wrong. So what do you recommend then as reasonable? Thanks, Alex

I would but it seems that they do not provide drivers yet for xp for this particular beta. Thanks, anyways. Somehow I think that my card especially coupled with my strong cpu should handle this game without issues. I made a test turning off AA and reducing the 3d resolution to 50% and it was similarly bad - at some higher altitudes with multiple objects showing fps went below 20. Only when I reduce objects detail to normal do I go up above 50. Would that hint at a gpu limitation or something totally different? What benchmark would you suggest to test my system's overall performance against similar builds. Thanks, Alex

In an earlier post you wrote that most settings are on normal for you. I checked and if I out everything on normal my fps is between 30 and 40 as well. The image quality is crap though.

Sorry mate every single bit of info you ask is in the original first post of this thread. For the sake of others I am not repeating. I now have the lastest drivers too. The difference is that you have a 5 series Nvidia card while I only have the 285GTX. Thanks, Alex

Here you go - this gives 14-15 fps on a 4.5Ghz system. ---------- Post added at 03:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:35 PM ---------- If I put everything on normal except for post processing on low and maybe texture quality on very high or high I also reach 30+fps. I guess it is object detail on very high that totally kills my fps. So the frames are OK on everything on normal but the image quality is quite rubbish. Thanks for this comparison exercise - helped me a lot.

Yeah yeah yeah... lower this and that. I have included in earlier posts what modifications I made on the settings and what I have should be perfectly reasonable. I have upgraded the driver to the most recent one and it only yielded 3-4 frames extra - frames most of the time are still under 20 and the game is unplayable. As my videocard is above the recommended card types in performance I believe there is nothing more I can do. As this is a brand new build I have installed Xplane to test the performance and sure enough framerates are in the sky. There is a giant leap in performance compared to my old I7-940 @ 3,8 Ghz. Let's face it this game is way more GPU intensive then advertised. I will put this away and wait until I decide to buy a new card and sim the Dreamfoil R22 in Xplane instead which is absolutely amazing. Maybe in the meantime the game gets added a few patches here and there also. Thanks for all the comments and help. I really wanted to play with this but buying a brand new vga card just for this when basically no other game or sim taht I use would require that purchase is a bit over the top for me. Thanks, Alex

Using which videocard? Thx, Alex Edit: Ok I see - have not opened the spoiler first. Would have been surprised if you had a card like mine and ran the thing at fps. Apparently this game is a lot more GPU intensive than either FSX or Xplane that seems to be the case.

Fair suggestions although the RAM and OS issue could hardly cause this. The available RAM is more than enough for this game and it is a 32 biot application. It really does not need more RAM to increase FPS. If RAM is an issue it causes an OOM error and not an FPS drop or jerkyness. Fair suggestion about the vidcard but I am not convinced as there was anothe poster here who has a weaker videocard and runs higher settings with more FPS. It will be a challenging ride to root this out thats for sure. I will need to run some synthetic benchmarks to see if my build is actually performing as it should be or not I guess. But first the driver change... ---------- Post added at 02:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:32 PM ---------- Really? I looked up all the posts but could not find any similar. Would be happy to find the reference. Thanks! ---------- Post added at 02:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:34 PM ---------- Will do. First I need to find out what drivers people use for the GTX285 nowadays...

Agree and I will try a newer driver this evening and report back. Regarding the videocard I know it is 6 times faster but the question really is whether the game uses that graphics rendering power or relies rather on the CPU. I thought TOH was more CPU dependent just like FSX or Xplane Alex

Its a 750W Corsair - no issue there I guess:)

Yes I was thinking about that as well but on stock setup the FPS is 11!!! The stock setup of the I5 -2500K is 3,7 Ghz and it should still fly. The OC to 4,5 Ghz only increases the FPS by 5-6 which is not much as it is still very jerky at 16-17. What I want is 30-40 all over really. The I5-2500K is really easy to OC and basically you need to leave everything but the clock multiplier and the core voltage on AUTO. There is nothing to it really apart from a good cooler but my temps are more than OK with my Corsair H60. I will check the issue with the driver in the evening for sure but somehow I doubd that the trusted driver that was OK even in the most recent games such as the latest Op Flashpoint would cause me to halve my FPS...

Yes I agree. See my comment above though

I do not quote your posts as for some reason the forum engine sends my posts to moderation so forgive that: MD500: I have 1600 Mhz Mushkin Blackline RAM at 6-8-6-24 timings. Pretty fast in its class and cannot be the bottleneck. And as I said I have a 10,000 rpm Raptor... Derby: the performance difference is immense but as you said it is not really an FPS limiter at least not in this magnitude that effectively my fps is 16 instead of the expected 32. If the driver alone can cause this I will hit myself in the head really.

That is my feeling somehow also. I would not think that the GTX285 would cause such a bottleneck. I also do not think that the OS would have anything to do with it as TOH is a 32 bit game if I am correct. What is left is the driver (testing tonight) and maybe the SSD but my freshly installed WD Velociraptor is one of the fastest devices after an SSD. I do not know about any game that would rely on an SSD for performance. What worries me a lot is that for all other games my driver was perfectly fine... Alex

Thanks a lot. Our system is pretty similar apart from the video card and the SSD and my game settings are actually lower... I have pip disabled and the view settings are the same as yours with a lower AA setting in my case. I never would have thought that the GTX 285 could be such a huge bottleneck nowadays as back in the FSX forums everybody is talking about the videocard effect being more or less negligible and even people with the 285 GTX are getting huge performance boosts with an overclocked i5 2500K. I am really scratching my head now. It would be nice to see someone with a card similar to mine to compare fps. I understand the bottleneck concept but as I said I did not see the 285 GTX to be such a bottleneck in flightsims while other games were running very good with it (well apart from GTA IV) maybe. I will try to update the vgs driver as the very first and free measure. Alex

Ok thanks for the suggestions. Is there really that big of a difference between a GTX285 and say a GTX570 for TOH? I mean for Xplane or FSX it is defenitely not that huge that FPS would double. Somehow I thought that TOH was more CPU intensive just like the mentioned sims. Somehow I would really like to make sure that the vidcard is the reason before spending the money. Alex ---------- Post added at 11:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 AM ---------- What sort of FPS you are getting if I may ask? Is the game totally fluid? Thanks, Alex