READ THIS: Screen Resolution
Hi All,
I wanted to write about this! Like many Flight Simmers I've always been led to believe that the higher the screen resolution the better FS2004 will look.
I recently bought a larger monitor (17") and was glad that this increased my Screen Resolution to 1280 x 1024.... Yehaa I thought, this is going to look great !
Now it does look great but the more and more add-ons I've added and the more complex my FS set-up has become, the more my Frame Rates have been dragged down. So although the graphics on the sim technically look great, the movement has become a little jumpy and stuttery (especially where the scenery is complex).
A good example of this is the fact that I now use a second monitor to display my Instruments (and a small box with an outside view of the plane).
This makes the Sim fantastic and really immersive - but again it also drags down the Frame Rates.
How can I improve things ? I thought. I've got all the RAM I should need (2Mb), a cool new Graphics Card and a decent PC.
I tried changing some scenery and hardware settings but it didn't make much difference.
Then I thought........ what would the effect be if I slightly reduced the SCREEN RESOLUTION ?
So I went into the SETTINGS, DISPLAY menu is FS, and reduced my screen resolution
from: 1280 x 1024 x 32
to: 1024 x 768 x 16
now, theres 2 things to note here - the number at the end (the 32 that has lowered to 16) is the colour resolution ..... and I'd encourage everyone to try changing this from 32 to 16 and see if you can notice any difference in the colours on the sim - I really can notice NO difference at all !
The main numbers (1024 x 76😎 refer to the actual screen resolution size.
So after reducing them, I returned to my flight (in the Feelthere ERJ145).
So what were the differences ?
- The Panel becomes slightly (and I mean slightly) less focussed.
- Frame Rates increased by around 50 - 70% (that's a lot!)
- Looking out of the window (left & right) from the 2D panel showed a lovely smooth take-off and the Scenery was rendering immediately!
- Even with some extra instruments placed onto the 2nd monitor, the difference in frame rates and smoothness in the sim was dramatic.
So the moral of the story is, yes it's nice to have a 1600 x 1280 screen resolution but unless you have 4Mb of RAM and a 512 Graphics Card, you're going to take a hit in the smoothness and frame rates of the Sim.
If you just aren't happy with your Frame Rates, try reducing your Screen Resolution.... certainly if you're running at 1280x1024 or higher, I would really recommend trying out 1024x768x16 ..... you may just be surprised!
If you're already at 1024x768 then it may not work well going any lower than this - but you should trying reducing to 16bit colour as above, as even this on it's own can make a great difference.
😉
12 Answers
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Pro-Sim wrote:
Hi All,
How can I improve things ? I thought. I've got all the RAM I should need (2Mb), a cool new Graphics Card and a decent PC.
😉
Pro-Sim,
2 MB of RAM 😳 That'll do it! LOL
Seriously, thanks for providing us with your findings. I will check it out.
Oops! I forgot what comes after a Megabite! 2 err..... thingys.
Is it Gb ? oh well 2048Mb !
he he - well spotted Michlin 😉
what graphics card have you got, and what setting do you have on AA???
Please reply!
Micah 😉
Man, I think this topic could be or almost be made a sticky for the General Forum. Nice Work Pro-Sim 😀
As much as I hoped it would help, dropping the resolution did NOTHING for me. I guess I'm just sorta stuck...but then again, I've not had a problem with frames too much. usually stays above 20 unless i have ultimate traffic turned on.
Good info though!
It won't work for everyone, as it all depends what you're set up on now, and how good your current performance is.
But for those who are set up higher than 1024x768x16, it may be worth trying.
It's not just the Frame Rates either, my scenery looks so much better at the lower resolution because I was able to increase the Scenery slider to 'dense'.
My Graphics Card is a ATI Radeon X800 256Mb / 256Mb... and I have AA set at 8x.
😉
Am I some type of demon? Look at this, it's starting to confuse me
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz Processor
2GB RAM
ATI X800XT Platinum Edition video card
I run it at 1158x762x36 and it works just fine. My scenery, Both of them, are set at Extremely Dense, and everything is as high as it goes. As is everything set up in the video card...what is up with that? It won't go better, or worse 😳 😳
Then you're lucky... enjoy it !
The exact opisate happens when I do this I get worse FPS out of focuse panel (completely unreadable) and my AA does not seem to work unless its to 1280x1024 I tried it at 800x600 it was much worse with much more stuters 😕
I think something must be up there Ranald, as there's no reason that a lower Screen Resolution would give reduced performance.
A lower Screen Resolution leads to lower Polygon load by your PC, which means your PC can perform faster.
Not sure if you're using a non-standard sized monitor ? or maybe multi-monitor ?
Pro-Sim wrote:
I think something must be up there Ranald, as there's no reason that a lower Screen Resolution would give reduced performance.
A lower Screen Resolution leads to lower Polygon load by your PC, which means your PC can perform faster.
Not sure if you're using a non-standard sized monitor ? or maybe multi-monitor ?
I'm using a 17'' LCD monitor and I have no idea why I get reduced FPS and when I do lower the res everything in the sim seems to be stretched 😕
ranald wrote:
The exact opisate happens when I do this I get worse FPS out of focuse panel (completely unreadable) and my AA does not seem to work unless its to 1280x1024 I tried it at 800x600 it was much worse with much more stuters 😕
I had the same problem. FPS dropped and the textures were reeeally awful, so I changed it back 😉
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