RAM OR GRAPHICS?

[Buggyman]

My PC has an NVIDIA 800GTS graphics card and - until recently - 2GB RAM.

For my birthday I bought a 4GB upgrade of RAM to make moving photos around a bit faster and - maybe - increase my FS9 and FSX fps. So, RAM installed and everything is fine although Vista does not recognise more than 3.5GB RAM which is an accepted fact of life. My first flight in FSX brought me down to earth with a bump - the fps in a really claggy overcast day on approach to LHR was down to 1.4 peaking at 11! The first thing I did was check all connections and ensure that I had not disturbed anythig whilst playing around with the RAM. Then back to FSX.

No change, same weather, aircraft and location and sme p1ss-poor fps. So I did a test run using FS9 and FSX on idential flights. FS9 clocked upwards of 45 fps while FSX stubbornly refused to go above 19 fps and mostly - over central London - around 2.4 to 7 fps.

Today I changed the RAM back to the original 2GB and - in the interim - I have completely reloaded FSX. The FSX results are better at around 5+fps, peaking at 22 fps but this is the base set up with no add-on extras. The flight is the same - LCY - LHR low level along the Thames.

A couple of days before everything went t*ts up (again in FSX) I had installed the Flight 1 PC-12 and noticed a degrading in the fps and a strange situation where the graphics went into slide-show-mode, this time the flight was over open country and - normally- a high fps run. Having parked up the aircraft the scenery went very blocky and then trees and tall buildings seemed to smear up the screen, a bit like wet paint running. FSX then locked up and I got the caption FSX is not responding....... This only happened once. I uninstalled PC-12 before the other problems showed themselves.

My worry is that the graphics card is going and I have only got 3 weeks before the 12 month guarantee runs out.

Anyone out there got a clue what is happening?


ATB

[DaveB]

HI Buggyman

I've had the FSX 'Slideshow' once before too and have no idea how I got into that situation. I'd let the Ark Royal sail out of Liverpool with me onboard in the Skysim Sea Vixen and it has to be said.. my frame rates were already taking a pasting. No addons in that area except for GenXv1. I did a cat launch while she was tootling down the Mersey and basically poodled around Anglesey.. a quick run through the 'Loop' then went and found Ark (by this time well out at sea) and landed onboard. Went for an outside view to admire my handywork and off it went.. shots from this angle, that angle, this distance, that distance.. most disturbing and all without any input from me!! :o It did eventually stop and I exited FSX at that point!

Wish I could tell you why it happened but I've no idea I'm afraid I don't think the graphics card is giving up the ghost.. more that it reached a point where it could take no more and let go. It's been fine since although I've not tried chasing Ark in the Sea Vixen off Anglesey again!

Edit.. the particular system it happened on is an XP3200 running WinXP SP2.. 3gb system ram, Nvidia 6800GT 256mb and FSX with ACC installed.

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[DelP]

Hi Buggyman,

When you say you upgraded your ram do you mean you took your original 2gig out and put in different 4gig? ..then took out the 4gig and replaced it with your original 2 gig

It could be a problem with ram timings in bios or your psu isn't supplying enough power :think:

Derek

[Buggyman]

Thanks DaveB - I doubt if anyone will ever master computers, especially us simmers who require 110% performance 100% of the time.

Yes Derek, I took out the 'old' 512 MB RAM and installed factory fresh 1GB sticks. At present I have replaced the 'new' with the old - just in case there was a problem with the 4GB although dxdiag and windows performance both indicated 4GB was ok.

As for enough power, I had to put a 'butch' PSU in when I added the NVIDIA 8800 GTS last year. Its a Hipper and rated at a constat 670w with bursts of 720w so I think that part of the system is ok. Then again I could be wrong after all I have been married twice............................ As for RAM timings in BIOs I would have thought that any inconsistencies would have shown up on the dxdiag or windows performance read out? Certainly the Vista Optimizer that I have running shows 2.5GB+ available when FSX is running (1.2GB when I only have the 2GB in). I will have a look at the BIOS but it will have to be blindingly obvious for a thicko like me to see a problem.

Thankyou for the input guys.


Allan

[DelP]

Hi Allen,

Married twice?...brave man

If you took out your old ram which was running OK then replaced it with something new then it's possible that your bios ram timings and voltage need to re-set to the new sticks...I'm not sure that any flavour Windows would tell you if there's a problem with the ram..it just wouldn't work right

I hasten to add that I know nothing about any of this and am talking out of my pants..hopefully an expert will be along soon ;-)

Derek ;-)

[DaveB]

Married twice..

Join the club

I dunno mate but I'd have thought the bios would've auto-sensed the new ram and timed it accordingly. That, of course, may be so much tosh! The only time I ever play in the bios is to either enable or disable stuff and set the clock at first run up. The last new board I got actually knew what the time was so I didn't even have to do that!!!

I don't like DXDiag tbh. On every occassion I can think of where something has been going wrong, DXDiag has reported wall to wall and tree top tall!! :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Buggyman]

Well DaveB, Crucial list a series of reactions from the PC and how to deal with them. Most it seems to happen automatically. Having installed the gubbins (tech talk there) the PC fired up without a hitch and the windows performance information page recognised new hardware and suggested a click on the update. After half a cup of tea a report appeared showing the new RAM. The speed of the RAM - performance-wise - is exactly the same as before but then again I was increasing the amount of RAM not fitting a drastic speed-up.

All this thinking is hurting my head.

ATB



Allan

[TSR2]

I'd plan in a rebuild for whenever you get the chance, you wouldn't believe the difference it can make. As at starter for 10 I'd reset your BIOS to default and see if it makes any difference to the RAM then change it one step at a time. Also check to see if any BIOS updates are available.

[DaveB]

Ben..

I'm coming to the conclusion you've been on a course!

You can go to the doctors these days with a complaint and 9 times out of 10, he'll say it's 'Viral'. I note that of late, you're prescribing rebuilds to cure the pc ill's

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[SkippyBing]

I think if your OS is only reporting 3.5GB of RAM with 4 installed you're running the 32bit version, not sure if that's at all relevant it certainly hasn't affected me in XP.

As for the slideshow effect, having seen it on someone else's PC with the ARK (it really isn't suitable for AI traffic near land on anything other than a Cray!) all that's happening is that the computer/sim is responding to your last view change input but is reacting very slowly i.e. 0.2 FPS so you miss out a lot of intervening images between two positions. I found pressing 'S' to go back to the cockpit solved the problem, although there was a noticeable delay, as far as I can tell the culprit area is the flight deck side of the island, although I've got no idea why. If I ever get a full set of plans for the Ark I'll probably try and do a whole new FSX model.

From your specs Ian the performance sounds about as expected rather than any imminent sign of failure, Buggyman what CPU do you have?

As for Ben's course my response 9 times out of 10 is to say buy a new computer, it normally stops people asking me stupid questions. Not the stuff that gets asked here incidently, FS users in general seem to have to know more about PCs than the average person!