Getting the Best Performance from FS 2

  • Intel is releasing a new generation of workstation CPUs, with the possibility of up to 18 cores and 44 data transfer lanes. With MS FS based simulators higher clock speed gave better performance and the programming could not use more than two cores. High core count CPUs have lower clock speeds than four core CPUs due primarily to heat issues. Which path will result in higher performance for AF 2? I will be upgrading a workstation to a 10 core CPU and am interested in how the architecture of AF 2 is optimized, more cores and data lanes or higher CPU clocking. I do know that the 10 core processor will give me 9 AI aircraft in Xplane instead of 5 in my current 6 core processor:)

    • Official Post

    The short answer here is that Aerofly FS2 relies much more on GPU memory rather than CPU cores. However, with improved architecture CPU's, once released, IPACS could take advantage of those additional cores by allocating specific features to specific memory banks and cores to provide better performance with more feature functionality.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • Thanks for the quick reply. Does that mean that video cards with multiple GPUs or multiple video cards in SLI would provide better performance? Based on your answer to the original topic, it would seem a top end overclocked video card will provide the best performance.

    • Official Post

    Thanks for the quick reply. Does that mean that video cards with multiple GPUs or multiple video cards in SLI would provide better performance? Based on your answer to the original topic, it would seem a top end overclocked video card will provide the best performance.

    Top end GPU would be your best bet for ultimate performance. Aerofly FS2 doesn't support SLI at the moment. So, go for the best GPU you can get. At the mement that would be the NVidia GeForce GTX 1080Ti

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

    • Official Post

    I just ordered a GTX 1080Ti per your recommendations. I will wait on the CPU upgrade until AF 2 can use all the cores, or another application I use can make use of more cores. Thanks!

    Make sure once you upgrade to boost your shadows to "insane". With the extra memory on the Ti card it will handle it with no problem, and absolutely no performance hit. Very nice card. I have it installed in my Oculus VR machine, it handles everything much better.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • I agree 1080Ti + i7-7700k + Oculus Rift is top team for sim VR but I give an other try with a question I have : what about the reccurent "stutters" or loading micro freezes that happen when flying in VR at high knots ? it's the annoying point in Vr experience that I don't experience in other VR sims (dcs, p3d v4 ...). And it's not a "performance" issue cause not relative to settings.

  • I recently upgraded from 16 to 32 GB ram and noticed those microstudders which occured flying straight every couple uf tenths seconds was mitigated a lot. They are still there but very minor.


    My assumption is these hickpus were reloading stutters shuffling textures between HD - RAM - and VRAM

    Just my observation so someone from team can confirm or clarify.

    Titan X Pacal at 2050 mhz and 6700k at 4600 is my system

    • Official Post

    Hi StefVR ;)

    I also noticed a reduction of these with 16 more gigs.

    But I'm hopping them to disappear one day ... it would be perfect for VR fun !

    Would it be a possible way to have an option of high preload of world when having sufficient ram and Vram ?

    There is a give and take for that preload that will make load time longer, but during longer flying sessions it will still need to load scenery and airports during flight. This is the best way currently. There will likely be more tweaks here and there to better improve this as development continues though, although as it is set currently, there is very little noticed micro-stutters.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • Hi friends,

    I am also trying to find ideal simulator balance during scenery files loading to vRam.

    Would be great to be free of this little drops in VR, because overall smoothness of FS2 is simple amazing.

    I experimented with various HDDs and found interesting resutls.

    My app performance is 90FPS + headroom about 50-70% :

    App data on internal SSD: scenery loading impact is quite high - FPS goes down to 60-50FPS for a second.

    App data on internal HDD 7500rpm: during scenery loading FPS goes down to 75-70FPS for a little longer time as in case of SSD.

    App data on external slim HDD 4500rpm: I can see drops more often, but FPS goes down to 80-85FPS only and they are less noticeable.

    It leads me to conclusion, that limiting background data stream to slower value can (maybe) improve stability and smoothness of main application. Is possible to control this data flow somehow?

    PS: I am sorry if my thoughts are stupid for you :)

    I am not programmer. Just trying improve our feelings in VR for all pilots here.

    Nice weekend to everybody!

    Oculus Rift, i7 3.5GHZ, 16GB Ram, GTX 1070-8GB, SSD, Win 10, Saitek Controllers.