Flight Simulator X game display flickers and become corrupted then crashes on dual monitors

G

Guest

Guest
Hello All... I built this system listed below four or five months ago with hopes of an ultimate system for what I like to do CAD and FSX. The CAD is mainly for FSX design so I didn't go after a work station GPU as the people on the NewEgg forum were insisting I do and the CAD end is all fine on the system but FSX is a nightmare!

I plan on getting a second GPU so I can run FSX across four monitors but wanted to make sure it was going to be a good GPU first. I'm glad I waited but unhappy that I went ahead and purchased an EK water-block for it because I believe I'm going to have to drop the $400.00 GPU and $120.00 water-block in the dumpster and start over unless someone has a solution for my problem.

I paid for a Microsoft Premium plan the other night to see if they could help but the best Tier Two Technicians were only able to uninstall and reinstall the already up to date drivers that I was ahead of them on. I have sent a ticket to AMD but I have little expectations of solution (maybe their best technicians can VNC in to my PC and reinstall the drivers...)

The problem is described very well on this Microsoft Support page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933590 but I have Windows 7 64bit and it leads to an eventual BSOD. The problem also occurs in Google Earth, MS Word, Internet Explorer, FireFox, an old version of Paint Shop Pro and on and on.... I get the BSOD crashes in FSX because that is where I mainly spend my time on this PC and likley because it is much more graphic intensive.

My minor crashes go like this. FSX locks up, the screen eventually goes black them after a while I get this message " Display driver AMD driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered." Then were rolling again until the inevitable BSOD chimes in, then it looks like this:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: a0000001
BCP1: 0000000000000005
BCP2: 0000000000000000
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\032713-31964-01.dmp
C:\Users\My System Name Here \AppData\Local\Temp\WER-42853-0.sysdata.xml

Any ideas? I have a nice copy of Windows XP Pro 64bit that I'm considering but it means I would have to pull the SanDisk SSD, XP won't work on their SSD even though I begged them to say it isn't so.

DD

Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 Pro----
CPU: Intel Core I7 3820 (Sandy Bridge-EP) LGA2011 Socket----
Graphics Card: Gigabyte GV-R7970OC-3GD----
System Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (8X8 GB) DDR3 1866 MHz----
Main Boot Drive: SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s----
OS: Windows 7 64-bit SP 1----
Power Supply: Cooler Master, Silent Pro Gold 800W----
Display Devices: Two Samsung SyncMaster S27B350H----
Peripherals: CH Pro Throttle & Combat Stick----
 

CompuTronix

Intel Master
Moderator
Perhaps the problem is with your 7970, specifically AMD's drivers. Respectfully, it is known in the FSX and X-Plane community that these simulations perform better with nVidia drivers, so a mid-range nVidia based graphics card works well.

Even running 3 displays, X-Plane recommends a single GTX-660. The following link is to X-Plane's website - http://www.x-plane.com/store/hardware/ - and to their partner's website, XForce PC, who builds their PC's - http://xforcepc.com/store/index.php/computers.html?mode...

This is the description of their recommended hardware configuration:

"XForcePC Computer Specifically Designed for X-Plane: Intel Quad Core i5-3570K Processor overclocked at 4.0GHz, 16 Gigabytes of DDR-3 1600MHz" ... "Nvidia GTX 660 Video Card with 2GB. Requires no special adapters to run X-Plane on 3 screens."

Unlike most "gaming" titles, X-Plane as well as FSX is a "simulation" which is very heavily CPU bound, but very lightly GPU bound. As such, frame rates do not respond to SLI / CF configurations, or high-end graphics horsepower.

Frame rates scale with the number of CPU cores and clock rates, so a highly overclocked processor yields the highest frame rates. Although your i7 3820 has Hyperthreading, it's unfortunate that it's not a "K" series processor.

Nevertheless, as a troubleshooting test, if you were to locally purchase an inexpensive GTX 650 that you could return for a refund, then you could remove your 7970 and drivers, install the 650 and drivers, then run FSX to at least rule out driver issues.

If this fixes your problem, then perhaps a GTX 670 would be a worthy replacement for your 7970, which would also serve your CAD needs as well. You should be able to recover most of your investment in your 7970 by selling it on eBay.

Hope this helps,

Comp :sol:
 
G

Guest

Guest
Hello Comp

It does help and is in the alley that I was heading but needed conformation because from what I've read the nVidia was the preferred FS GPU but no one explained why. I've been looking at the 680 and 670 both but wasn't sure on which one, my mind is made up after reading our post. Now to decide which manufacture of the 670 to go with and an EK water block to finish the setup. I've been so frustrated with this after all the $$ I put in to it that just buying the 670 to test it will be worth it! I'll wait a few weeks for the water block just to make sure...

AMD got back to me this evening, their solution was the latest driver beta. It is a little more stable but I can see the problem still exists...

Thanks for the information Comp