Fsx Fps Hit With Vista/aero/basic

[Peter Lürkens 30]

There was a report from RAVNA recently, that he found an FPS cut from 45 with stock FSX down to 25 with Cx!/sim_probe. I digged a bit into it and I'm almost sure that this is neither a problem of Cx! nor Sim_probe, but a side effect.

What I found is the following:

Conditions:

HW: E8400/4Gig/Leadtek 9600GT1GB@1900x1200

SW: VISTA64/FSXSP2/Cx!+Sim_probe

EDDK tower view, fair weather, sliders pretty high

First Vista Basic (Aero is turned off automatically)

FS : 32

Windowed: 30

Maximized: 17

Now, with taskbar autohide:

FS : 32

Windowed: 30

Maximized: 27

Now with windows standard theme

FS : 32

Windowed: 30

Maximized: 27

If you run FSX under VISTA and using the native VISTA theme (Aero or basic), then VISTA shows its bubble in the start menu. Everytime, when this overlaps with the 3D-Window of FSX in windowed mode, the frame rate is cut significantly.

Probably this is a flaw in the 3D graphics driver design. You can workaround it by putting the taskbar anywhere else than the lower edge, or at the lower edge make it broader, or put it into autohide mode. In all cases the bubble does not penetrate the 3D window anymore and the frame rate stays high.

The influence of Cx! and Sim_probe is negligible. So the apparent FPS drop is a side effect of the recommendation to windowed operation in combination with an overlapping VISTA bubble.

Cheers,

Peter

[sf4JC 1]

Thanks for reporting that Peter, I haven't even tried DX10 yet with the new graphics card, I think I'll try it tonight or tomarrow to see what kind of hits and such happens. Does anyone know, do the aircraft that one flys need to be compatible with DX10 to use DX10? Maybe I should be asking, is DX10 the aero part of Windows Vista?

Scott

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Forget to mention:

No DX10. Only DX9.

There are reports about some increase of FPS with DX10 along with much denser scenery. At the same time, many add-on aircraft, and scenery is not compatibile with DX10.

regards,

Peter

[sf4JC 1]

Thanks for the info Peter.

Scott