Hi,
I'm not experienced at forums so apologies if mis posted.
 
I bought a Titan X 12GB SC at release for using my flight simulator, Prepar3D V3 (p3D) and I am to date very disappointed in the performance and it may be I have purchased the wrong card for my application but I have a number of queries I would like answering before deciding whether to change the card.
 
Even on the default scenery with no add on aircraft on a fresh install, my frame rates are regularly sub 20fps with lag and stutters and popping as the scenery tries to load. On looking at my card using Precision X, the most obvious concern is my card does not appear to be using anymore than 2.5GB VRAM - which may be a limitation of P3D so any advice would be appreciated.
 
I have heard the Titan X will not use its 12GB unless it has a specific amount of on board RAM; P3D is a 32bit application but I still have 16GB on board, do I need more to utilise the 12GB VRAM ?
 
I am running my rig (specs below) on a single 50in 4K screen and I have tried locking frame rates to 30fps with Vsync, Tessellation on and off etc without much difference and non of my slider on the far right. If I cannot achieve smooth graphics at decent frame rates (for P3D 30fps smooth would be a good goal) without any addon ons like Orbx Sceneries, 3rd party aircraft (PMDG 737 etc) with the Titan 12GB X SC, what should I consider if this is just "the wrong card" ? I know P3D is CPU intensive but I did expect my card to make a better contribution so I'm hoping someone with more knowledge than I have can assist !
 
PC Specs- MSI X99, Intel i7 5960X, 16GB DDR4@ 3000MHz, Titan X 12GB SC
 
Thanks
Rob

http://www.prepar3d.com/f../viewtopic.php?t=113663

They didn't show their computer specs, but it looks like this game can really kill FPS at high graphics settings (the old addage comes to mind: "Well, can it play Crysis?" Because some games are just too much for even modern systems to handle).
 
 
EDIT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8WBLBleUr0 He's using two 980s in SLI with a 3960X at 4.8GHz - and less than 30FPS looks like.
 
This flight sim is just pure beast, pure and simple.

Is this a primarily cpu based flight sim?

OP said he is using a 4K TV & only 32 bit OS  ------  recommended on 64 bit OS
 
How is it connected --- what version of cable
 
Why not lower the resolution ---- should improve fpm
 
 
System Requirements: http://www.prepar3d.com/system-requirements/

FSX is a CPU based simulator... your issues could come from alot of things. Im going to say your Gfx card has nothing to do with your issues as much as what your settings might be. Its one of those things that you have to find the sweetspot on with lots of tweeking. Ive owned FSX for many years and am an avid simmer and Im still tweaking. I do know it doesnt like overclocks and Ive had issues in the past running FSX and Precision at the same time. Ive learned in my exp on my hardware that running everything stock yields the best results. If you search your issue, you will find lots of good advice. Just remember that the sim runs diff on everybody's hardware so somebody elses fix may not help you out or even make yours worse. Heres a link below that may or may not help you. Good luck!
 
http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html
 

jeepn
FSX is a CPU based simulator... your issues could come from alot of things. Im going to say your Gfx card has nothing to do with your issues as much as what your settings might be. Its one of those things that you have to find the sweetspot on with lots of tweeking. Ive owned FSX for many years and am an avid simmer and Im still tweaking. I do know it doesnt like overclocks and Ive had issues in the past running FSX and Precision at the same time. Ive learned in my exp on my hardware that running everything stock yields the best results. If you search your issue, you will find lots of good advice. Just remember that the sim runs diff on everybody's hardware so somebody elses fix may not help you out or even make yours worse. Heres a link below that may or may not help you. Good luck!
 
http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html
 

He's not running FSX.

RobertM48
Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.
 
I'll deal with simplest first; P3D is developed by Lockheed Martin (LM), who I think are the largest defence/aerospace manufacturer in the world; a serious organisation ! but they have taken on the Microsoft Flight Simulator legacy and there are obviously lots of "simmers" looking forward to the day when LM release a 64 bit version. The challenge (I believe) is LM in taking on this 32 bit legacy is we simmers (NOT gamers :-) ) have LOTS of 3rd party add ons, scenery, aircraft etc which need a transition period to release 64 bit versions and I would think this is in progress.
 
My PC is connected to my 4K 50in Samsung Curve via an HDMI cable.
 
I'm no expert but P3D is known to be CPU intensive. I have managed to overclock my i7-5960X 3.0 Ghz to 4.7Ghz and even without any add on scenery, I still have lag and scenery pop ups. I have rebuilt my system to spend whatever time it takes to get the default P3D program to run as SMOOTH (to simmers, FPS is only a guide, the real acid test is smooth....trying to land a 70 ton aircraft on a 3 degree decent is difficult enough without even a 1/2 second lag.
 
For those who are technical, I have attached a couple of screenshots to see if this helps you advise me....sorry, cant do that as not sure how to insert image (asking for URL?? ... whats wrong with "insert file") but reading from image I have, it says the following;
Power 71%, Memory Clock 3304- 3733MHx, Memory usage 2562-4377, GPU usage 55%, VID usage 0%, Frame Rate 33-55, GPU clock MHz 1126-1388, GPU temp 40-83, GPU Voltage 1.037-1.174
Thanks again
Rob

The temps are a little high (83C) - you could use PrecisionX or Afterburner to set a more aggressive fan curve. Everything else looks to be normal.
 
But all that is academic. You are using a flight simulator, even decent one like P3D version 3, at 4K resolution. Nothing but a computer from the future can play at that resolution and expect smooth game (sim?) play. The GPU usage only at 55%? That screams CPU bound, and you have the most powerful single CPU in the world overclocked to 4.7GHz and it can't keep up.
 
The only thing I can think of is: are you playing this game from a standard (spinning) hard drive? If so, putting it on an SSD may help to "smooth" things, since SSDs will load textures very fast.
 
EDIT: Also, 4.7GHz on a 5960X is really quite high. Are you sure it is stable? Use Prime95 to stress test it for 6 hours or so while you sleep. Make sure the temps aren't too high! (CoreTemp works well for monitoring CPU temps). An unstable CPU overclock can also lead to jerky/stuttery game play.

Bro, this game runs like poop for me too on a 5960x @ 4.7ghz and 4 way SLI Titan X's on max settings in 4k. It is what it is just like every other Prepar 3D version and every FSX version that it's based off of. It's a CPU based game that really only uses a few cores. You'd get better FPS off a 2 core system clocked at like 6ghz probably. Every patch the Prepar3D team tries to offload work on the primary cores more to the extra cores & GPU's but there's only so much they can do with like a 10+ year old architecture most likely.

Time to tweak the settings.

Prepar3D v 3.2 is a bit of compromise... and is VERY sensitive to sliders settings.  I have a similar system to the OP i7 2600k OC to only 4.0 ghz, with the latest NVidia Titan X purchased direct from Nvidia.  Running triple 1080 monitors in NVidia surround 6100 x 1080, I see frames rates a high of 120 and a low of say 40, depending on where I fly, and my settings are NOWHERE NEAR max! Add on scenery and add-on realtime weather are two major culprits.  I run almost EVERY Orbx product, my true love is Orbx SoCal (Southern California), NorCal, and all of the other stuff they offer for the USA, along with FTX Global, Mesh and Vector.  For weather, I run the brand-new Hi-Fi Technologies Active Sky 2016, but with cloud textures from REX.  When conditions are completely overcast, frames are the worst.  I think this is caused by the cloud textures being redrawn several times per frame, and 'averaged'.
 
I am NOT running 4000 line monitors, I think that would CRUSH frames, why?  SO MANY MORE PIXELS!  Even with my triple display 1920x1080 HD monitors x 3 that is STILL a lot of pixels to render (Over 6 MILLION pixels per frame compared with around 2 MILLION for SINGLE monitor per frame) , and then you add in the MSAA anti-aliasing, which oft times is rendering a given frames 4 times (or more) then 'averaging' them to reduce the jaggies and sharpen object edges.  Even Nvidia recommends SLI for surround view on 4K monitors!  That's $2400 USD (plus applicable tax)  for a pair of Titan X cards (plus $40 more for new high-bandwidth sli bridge connector, and no guarantee of increased frame rates!  BASIC NVidia surround view (all by itself) is NOT ideal for the 'best' field of view.  Xplane can easily drive 3 monitors (1080) on 3 PCs with 180-degree field-of-view.  In P3D you don't get that sweet offset on the left and right windows at 60 degrees each.  What this means is you cannot see properly when trying to turn base or turn final.  Some folks use Infra Red Camera on their head (TRACK IR) to see 'around the corner', but it may cause motion sickness issues for you. UPDATE:  Two new pieces of FREE software solved the camera distortion problem using NVidia Surround!  LCD Designer Pro by Fly Elise, combined with their Immersive Display Pro product will create and export the needed setup files for distortion-corrected side views within P3D v. 3.3.5!  Step-by-Step instructions are INCLUDED!  You STILL USE NVidia Surround or Matrox Triple-Head-to-go to create ONE "virtual" super-wide display (6100x1080 in my case).  
 
The frames hit for this solution was minimal, say 0 to maybe 10 frames depending on location, but flying WITHOUT distorted views across triple monitors at 45-degree offsets (you can choose higher or lower offsets) is PRICELESS!  I am still getting 120 fps 'most of the time' with my (newest model) Titan Pascal card on an older i7 2600k system (NO HYPERTHREADING).  
 
I think NVidia did a bad thing not allowing the aftermarket vendors (such as EVGA) access to the newest Pascal-chip Titan X.  Also they confused people by retaining the same ending name "Titan X" as their prior product GTX Titan X.  Their new model is 11 Terraflop, 12GB DDRX5 VRAM, 7 billion transistors, over 3000 cuda cores (oddly, cuda cores are great for physics and certain other apps, but NOT of any help that I can see in Direct X.  Translation: a marketing ploy, unless you do Folding@Home, or HD video rendering such as Sony Vegas 13).
 
For what they charge for the card, it is NOT for the faint of heart!  120 fps is more than decent, but when you get into a lot of clouds and a high-density area such as Orbx SoCal LAX terminal at dusk or at nightfall, frames can plunge, and performance can begin to suffer.  That said, the newest Titan-X (Pascal) is a true graphics BEAST of a card!
 
Lockheed has not been in any hurry to migrate to 64-bits (although unofficial rumors abound), but that aside, P3D is light years prettier (IMHO) than XPlane 10, sad to say.  Orbx Palm Springs, Telluride, and Monterey (to name a few) airports are drop-dead gorgeous.  Add-on planes (think "PMDG") add more overhead to the experience, I beat that by running Sim-Avionics on a separate PC to handle the aircraft instruments.  Thus I do not add a 'virtual cockpit' overhead to my sim, and the avionics on a different (networked) PC helps boost frames considerably.
 
One of the huge problems is that P3D v3 is still not optimized for the latest versions of Direct X (Direct X 12), and does not allocate workload to extra threads.  In plain language, the coding is at best, still fairly primitive, as contrasted with full-on video games such as Fallout 4, GT Auto, and so on.  Trying to make a simulation backwards-compatible with primitive hardware is a huge part of the problem.  In fact, LM has recently re-introduced "Networking" (called "Multi-Channel") to Prepar3D (only in their highest-cost license level "PROFESSIONAL PLUS", in which they require GPUS with frame lock (think $6k Quadro Video Cards with BNC connectors) so all displays will wait until the other monitors and their accompanying PCs are ready to render the next frame).  In plain language, non-ideal, and difficult to implement, plus COSTLY as heck.  Early word on this setup:  NOT GOOD.  Fortunately, the new products I mentioned earlier in this post have finally solved the huge problem of getting HD images across triple monitors!
 
My rendering settings:  (NOTE my slider settings are NOWHERE NEAR MAXIMUM, even with the most powerful GPU currently on market)
 
Display:  NVIDIA TITAN X (Pascal)  6100x1080x32
black out desktop Y  Auto-fill main view Y
 
FXAA:  OFF  MSAA:  4 Samples  <  This is a biggie, higher settings slay frames
Texture Filtering :  Anisotropic 8x  < NOT 16!           Texture resolution  HIGH 2048x2048
 
FRAME RATE CONTROLS:  Vsync ON  Triple Buffering Y   Target Frame Rate  UNLIMITED
 
HARDWARE TESSELATION:  Y  
View and Panel Settings   Wide-View Aspect Ratio  (Wider field of view for triple monitors)  Y
Mipmap VC Panels   N   (I don't use VC panels at all)
 
Terrain Level of Detail Radius   High
Tessellation factor:  High
Mesh Resolution 19m
Texture resolution  1m
Land Detail Textures Y
 
SCENERY OBJECTS
Scenery Complexity  DENSE
Autogen Vegatation Density  DENSE
Autogen building density   DENSE
 
WATER AND BATHYMETRY
Water Detail   MEDIUM
Bathymetry   N
Reflections   Clouds Y  User Vehicle Y  all others NO
 
Special Effects Details   MEDIUM
Special Effects Distance  MEDIUM
 
LIGHTING
HDR Lighting  Y
Brightness  0.80
Bloom  0.99
Saturation  0.80
 
Dynamic Reflections OFF
Landing Lights Illuminate Ground  Y
Lens Flare  Y
 
Shadows
Shadow Quality  MEDIUM
Enable Terrain to Receive Shadows Y
 
Terrain Shadow Cast Distance 0
Cloud Shadow Cast Distance 0
Object Shadow Cast Distance 6,000 m
 
Object Type  Internal Vehicle   Cast Y  Receive Y
External Vehicle                     Cast Y  Receive Y
Buildings                              Cast  Y  Receive N
all others in this section                  N             N
 
VISUAL SETTINGS
Cloud Draw Distance   90 m
Cloud Coverage density   Maximum *  Try lowering this will help frames!
 
Volumetric Fog  Y
DETAILED CLOUDS  Y

Simulation Settings
Disable turbulence and thermal effects on aircraft  N
(handled by Active Sky 2016)
 
Rate at which weather changes over time  NO CHANGE
(handled by Active Sky 2016)
 
TRAFFIC  Other than clouds, traffic is a MAJOR frames killer!
Airline traffic density  0
General Aviation traffic  0
Airport vehicle density  MINIMUM
 
Vehicle labels
Show vehicle labels  N
 
Land and Sea Traffic
Road Vehicles 0
Ships and Ferries 0
Leisure Boats 0
 
Credit for some of the foregoing settings to Rob Ainscough.