DescentBB

I've been playing Over Flanders Fields (a ww1 flight sim that is outstanding), and have done pretty well with my rig.
However, my FPS isnt all what it should be, and in certain circumstances, I get graphical glitches (almost like tearing...sections of white, but only for a half second before it textures in) when using my TrackIR (version 5 with beta sw) and snapping my view back quickly.

I'm running an i7 920 at 2.66 and a GTX 260 with 6gb ram (running XP, so only using 3GB ram)


Others arent getting these glitches, and have better FPS than me, by 40% or so, with systems using an

E8500 Duo at 3.16 Ghtz with a 8800GTX

and another with an i7 920 and a GTX280 running at 4ghz.

and a Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0ghz 8gb 9800 GTX+ with the CPU overclocked to 3.8ghz


All these machines are vista 64bit though, and have double + my ram.

Here's my dilema:
They think I should OC my system for better FPS, and that it's the low clock I have that's the problem. I remember reading about the i7 chips that they use a different memory reading style, so even tho it's a lower clock speed, it should be faster than a high clocked duo or quad....right?

I think it's likely my RAM.

Is clock speed that important?
The game (and everything I'm playing now) runs pretty great...and my fps is fine, just not what it could be

I Have a vigor monsoon 3 cooler, and I'm set up to OC like crazy, but havent as I didnt need to...and I dont want to undermine the integrity of the chip (tho in reality, it's only going to be running for 2 - 3 years before I replace it...probably).

Opinions?

What are the timings for your RAM? It's a set of 4 numbers, measured in CPU clocks. For example, my RAM timings is 3-3-3-8 (DDR-400 speed). Do you have high performance or budget RAM?

I have this ram:
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 20-145-220
timing is:
Timing 9-9-9-24

For starters get a 64 bit OS so you can use all your RAM. Most copies of Vista these days come with a free upgrade to Windows 7 (and Vista has gotten to be a much more solid OS these days).

Honestly for gaming RAM speeds and timings usually don't make a huge difference, size is what matters more than speed. Faster RAM at the same CPU speed will likely have less than a 5% impact on performance. The only people that care are the people who try to set records in benchmarking. If you are trailing by 40% I'd say something else is definitely going on. To start with a simple question, are you running a higher resolution than these other computers?

The graphical glitches sound more like a driver issue than any clock speed problem, either that or the games support for Windows XP is lacking.

Also, look at your mother board and see what it's bus capacities are. You might be bottle necking somewhere.
Bios updates?

Unpatched Dual/Quad Support Version of XP

hmmm. I've never upgraded the bios, well, since I built the machine.

My resolution is actually less than the other computers. I'm running 1280 x 1024 on my 2 lcd monitors.

Yeah, I was planning on the upgrade to windows 7 and 64 bit, but was going to wait till a few months after the launch.

So you dont think my clock speed is a factor?
Is my i7 at 2.66 faster than an e8500 at 3.16?

ReadyMan wrote:So you dont think my clock speed is a factor?
Is my i7 at 2.66 faster than an e8500 at 3.16?

Yes, but not at largely single threaded games. Turbo mode on the i7 might make up some of it. If the game only has a couple busy threads a higher clocked C2D might still have the advantage, but it would be a small advantage not 40%.

turbo mode?

Have you patched XP for dual/quad support? if you still have issues after that, then entertain the rest.

This is not included with any flavor of XP. Now Vista and Win7 Have it included as part of their Operating System.... also Autoupdate does not work for this patch

no I havent patched xp other than the updates they recommend and sp3...

BUBBALOU wrote:Have you patched XP for dual/quad support? if you still have issues after that, then entertain the rest.

Included in SP3.

Yeah Gren I know it's included in spk3 that's why it is a patch for spk2. I install O/S's everyday

ReadyMan wrote:I'm running an i7 920 at 2.66 and a GTX 260 with 6gb ram (running XP, so only using 3GB ram)

What was install sequence for you motherboard drivers and are you using integrated Audio

Also BTW disable Setpoint.exe before you enter the game, let me if that changes anything....TRACKIR MAN

I disabled trackpoint and it didnt change anything as far as I can tell. I'm using the beta software for TIR 5....they must have fixed the issue that they used to have with this.


I'm tempted to OC this chip.

The i7 features a turbo mode where the chip overclocks itself assuming only one or two cores are busy, you could be running as high as 3 GHz already in your game.

Readyman : These other users who run better than 40% are they using FSAutoStart or AlacrityPC, most likely they are....

#2 Maxing out detail settings for CFS3(OFF3) is a big NO NO even for the original game

#3 Using global settings for the game from the Nvidia Control Panel is not good, you should create a game profile

Yes, I think my bottleneck is the video card as you suggest Bubba. I lowered the CFS3 graphics settings a bit and the FPS jumped much higher, tho about 10 FPS below those other machines. I also have a profile in nvidia cp (tried nhancer as well, but am not running it atm) which I've been tweaking. I think I've solved this tho, as my cp settings are all set to pretty much max, with supersampling etc for maximum clarity.

Their using 64 bit OS and having more ram available makes sense for the extra umph. I'm planning on upgrading to win7, but it'll be a full install, so have to back everything up, etc...still havent gotten that external hd yet. Gotta decide on on on newegg...


That said, any thoughts on the value of 2.66 as opposed to a 3.5 with a mild overclock on my cpu?

Stock clocked systems are the most reliable period, it took me over 18 months before I finally overclocked my C2D, and I only did it because it was the most convenient way to get optimal performance out of my RAM upgrade. Even at that, I can probably get 3.2 GHz from this chip, but I only went to 2.7 GHz.

Most Flight simmers use FSAutoStart or AlacrityPC to stop processes not required to play the game.

Usually a XP Computer has 50-55 process running (vista up to 72)

These programs will usually reduce the process down to 25-30 during the game and restore the services after the game exits

FYI, my laptop runs 24 Processes and my normal XP machines are 30-42 before any requirement for FSAutoStart or AlacrityPC

I appreciate your input. I'll wait on the OC till it's really necessary, and I'll get AlacrityPC setup to save me some frames.
Thanks!

I feel real bad, that not everyone took the chance to obtain a free copy of XP 64 bit like I did through Microsoft - when it was originally released for any Windows XP Pro Users that purchased their O/S when I posted the link on this board... so the next best thing is just wait for Windows 7 64 Ultimate..... it's real nice in a OSX kind of way