Effects setting issue.
 

The main driver of this problem could be the "Effects" setting value in the Graphic Options in the game menu. The difference between "medium" and "high" is almost inexistent. The FPS impact is quite high in very specific situations with both settings. Setting this value to "low" will solve the problem of FPS impact the easy way. That is the total absence of effects, no dust, no smoke, no explosions, no fire, no nothing....

Not even high end GPUs are able to handle this elegantly at this stage of the game.

We must all consider that the reference for a good graphic setting evaluation should not be the recurrent low level flight over London, since this situation (INHO) does not add much value to the game. We should consider the “Back death” track as reference, with a significant amount planes, multiple combat like situations at different levels, ground pounding, fast view/camera changes.

Most of you will find out that being able to fly smoothly over London, while playing the “Back Death” track, will still suffer from dramatic FPS lows (<10 FPS) specially during explosions, flying around smoke columns, fires and so on.

Being such a specific issue, one tends to think that it would be relatively easy to optimize, but what do I know?
We will see.

Salutes Majo.

Since I have a GTX470 as well, can I ask to what you have your memory clock set and at what voltage.

Here is what I have been using for a while on stock cooling, though with the fan at jet engine noise level:rolleyes:. 750/1500/1770 @ 1025mV.
The highest MSI afterburner lets me set the voltage to is 1086mV, but due to not wanting the card to run too hot I try to get away with as little overvoltage as possible.
I have seen overclocks in articles for the pretty iffy memory clock as high as 2000, but I didn't dare to go there yet, can't blow the card since my budget does not really allow for a 570 right now.

I have an EVGA GTX470 that sounds like that too. I've taken to wearing headphones when I fly just to hear the in game sounds. After several other excellent EVGA cards, this one has been disappointing in that and performance.

Lynch and you, both have a reference design cooling systems (coolers) on your GTX470 cards. My card is MSI GTX470 Twin Frozr 2 with custom (and very efficient) cooling system. Thats why my card is not so noisy and hot. In fact its pretty silent even when the two big custom vents go high in RPM. Therefore I can use higher OC settings with negligible impact on temps and noise.
I left memory on default since it has no big impact on performance. Raised my core clock to 790 Mhz leaving it linked to shaders, so both are going up proportionally. Voltage is at 1050mV. 1090mV is maximum safe voltage you can go. That is if the temps are ok and if the noise is acceptable. With 1050mv I pass all the bench tests (combustor, tropic demo, 3dmarks etc) without artifacts.

Here too: dust and multiple HUMAN CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT in MP only. SP is ok with a lot of planes around me.

We have serious issues remaining in MP and with dust effects and clouds.

Just like Tvrdi said, our cards are reference cards, mine is an EVGA card. What we could do is buy an aftermarket cooler and put that on our cards, either from Zalman or Artic Cooling (I think I got the name right). Both have good reviews and they make coolers for the 470.
Didn't do it so far since a cooler for my cpu was first on my list (can recommend this one to anybody, Noctua's website has a compatibility list for mobos and memory btw.)

I don't have temp issues (mostly :rolleyes:) at 1087mV, just trying to get away with as little overvoltage as possible.

Very interesting that the memory clock has little performance impact. Good though because there are quite a few people who state that overclocking that one on a 470 is not really great, i.e. can't get it very high.

Dust, plane explosions,clouds,low flying over cities...Oh yes & telescopic views while in aircraft.

I with mates got fps slowdowns from 40-50 to below 20 or even belowe 10 fps during online dogfights. It was when a few planes were fighting over land and when we made minimum FOV ( gunsight view) game slow down a lot from 40-50 to 20-10 or even lower fps. With maximum FOV ( wide view) it was ok. It happend many times.

DUST! "Effects" Agreed that is the BIGGEST FPS killer and desperately needs to be optimized! As someone had said there is NO difference between Medium and High and Low give no effects at all.. Funny it is called Low maybe they should have renamed it to "None"

in another thread as i stated before try disable ingame voice comms. helped me