RAM, FSX and SP1

[lowellyerex]

Just prior to SP1 release, one of my 1GB RAM modules died. Because they were a matched pair, I had to send both back for replacement under warranty. Luckily, I had purchased them off a guy here in Nelson, and he was able to lend me a 1GB stick to get me by.

The loan stick could not cope with my FSB settings, so I returned the frequency to the default, meaning the E6600 CPU ran at its rated 2.4GHz (rather than my usual 3.2 GHz).

Now I can't remember if I ran FSX after that, but soon after I downloaded and installed SP1. When I ran it, I was horrified to find that the performance had turned to custard, with slow texture loading and jerky pauses, especially in complex scenery areas. In the end I uninstalled FSX, and waited for the new RAM.

Yesterday it arrived, and I was able to get my machine back up to speed (I ran 3DMark06 just to reassure myself, and was amazed to get my record score to date of 11430 marks! - presumably a result of a recent NVidia video driver update to 158.19). I reinstalled the base FSX and performed some test flights. Performance was as smooth as it used to be (I'm lucky enough to have a fairly grunty system).

I then installed SP1, and re-ran the same flight. Still good, although a couple of brief jerky bits when flying between some mountains in the F18 - they didn't occur pre-SP1. The big difference is the effect of pushing up some of the sliders. I can now push the water quality slider to max with no effect on the frame rate.

Anyway, I guess the take-home message is: the drop from 2GB to 1GB RAM, combined with a CPU frequency drop, had a huge effect on my FSX performance under SP1.

[Timmo]

I had the same jerkiness when using un matched RAM as well (2x 1GB sticks on one channel, 2x 256mb sticks on the other channel)

I removed the 256mb sticks and the jerkiness went but the frame rate remained fairly consistent...

The jerkiness only seemed to be apparent when flying over areas with library objects (i.e. Forum field, Whakatane scenery ive been working on)