Hi all, Just though I would share my findings with you all. I have recently bought a Nvidia FX5600 256ddr Gainward card. This is rated at x8. I set x8 in my bios and was getting quite poor framerates from the PMDG around 10-15fps which I was not happy about because I was expecting more. I was playing around with the bios today and found if I set the AGP port to Auto I get a massive framerate difference. I am getting around 30-70 fps but locked it at 50. Im really happy about this finding, Perhaps there may be other out there who may have teir port settings set wongly.RegardsDavid Cyber Air 062.

David,I hope with your new card you are using the new nVidia 5216 drivers. I have found that even with my old GForce4 4200Ti/64 card I am getting improved frames and NO stutters. This new driver is really stable and adds a lot to the FS9 graphics environment.Bob Johnson

that is very interesting! I have the 5216 drivers. how can you change the bios?

The BIOS cannot be changed from the driver. Go into your PC setup file to make the changes to your AG{ and other settings. In my case I have the AGP set to 128mb of RAM and all else set to default.In all other settings the driver settings are set to no AA and AF. In my system, with the resolution set to 1280/960/32 I really don't think I need them.Hope this helpsBob Johnson

Is there a way you can tell me how to get to that?I don't know where to go to change the BIOS?

Hi all, Glad this is making some interesting reading. Yes I am using the new Nvidia driver.. My motherboard is a Gygabyte GA-7VA. I change the settings in the BIOS as follows. Press DEL on booting to go into the set up. Then once in select ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES. Here you will find a setting called Flexible AGP 8x. Here you can set the AGP slot to communaicate with you card in 3 ways X8 X4 OR in my case AUTO.This will be different on other Mother Boards and Bios's.Hope this helps, Next with the new Nvidia driver set:-1. IMAGE SETTINGS TO HIGH2. ANTIALIASING TO X83. ANISOTROPIC FILTERING TO X8Make sure you do this before running the simulator.Hope my information helps because I know what its like trying to get good framerates.David Cyber Air 062

HI Again, I have been doing more tests here this morning and it seems my last message is wrong.( for my system anyway) In the NVidia settings I have tried the Application controlled option and I seem to get a more steady and better average fps result. Maybe you could try both and post your results here.RegardsDavid.

Well, I upgraded to the new Nvidia drivers on Saturday and found out AA is handled differently:- plane preview does not use AA anymore (at least on my system)- application controlled AA leads to good performance (looks to me like 8x AA is used, if enabled). Anyway, if I hadn't AA activated in the FS9 settings the driver set AA for exterior views, yet the panel/display graphics didn't use AA and looked "pixelish" (I'm using 1280x1024 due to my TFT).All in all I'm satisfied with performance except a slight delay (around 0.5 - 1.5 sec) loading the textures when switching from cockpit to external view.I locked FS9 to 24 fps which I often get, except when using the American Airlines livery (probably reflections uses it up) or when taxi at EGLL or a similar busy airport (got PAI) in cloudy weather.Wondering with which settings you achieve optimal results on a comparable system (3.06 GHz P4, 533MHz FSB, 1 GB RAM, 5900 Ultra using 4x AGP)? Nik

Just reading some of your comments on here and you sound like you know what you are on about so could you please help me?I have a kt400 motherboard and there doesn't seem to be an option to adjust the size of the AGP port.It supports agp of 8 and 4 and at the moment when i look in the properties of my graphics card,(titanium 4400 128mb),it says that it is set to 4.I have entered the bios to try to change this to eight but there is no option to change it.HELP

If you have a 4xAGP card (Ti4400) there is no point in trying to set the BIOS to 8x... which is not compatible with the card's capabilities..

This puts a pretty heavy load on the card.. if good performance is what you are after, try 2xAA and 4xAF as a test and compare framerates..!

Nik,>Anyway, if I hadn't AA activated in the FS9 settings the>driver set AA for exterior views, yet the panel/display>graphics didn't use AA and looked "pixelish" (I'm using>1280x1024 due to my TFT).same to me: with 5216 I activated a fixed AA handling (not application controlled), and wondered, why my PMDG panel suddenly looked so "pixelish" (nice word - again I've learned something ;) ) - but I would never thounght, that this might be dependent from the application control of AA...BTW: I'm using a TI4400 with a small 16" 1280x1024 TFT, so I'll deactivate AA again - anisotroph filtering is much more important :)

Funny... AA works just fine for me on a Ti4200 1280x960x32 (also looks fine in 1280x1024x32.. I just checked), using the 737NG panel.Are you possibly using 16 bit color instead of 32?

Hi all, Hers a turn up for the book, I have re-installed 45.23 and there is an extra setting on it that works great for me in 2004 its called QUINCUNX its under antialaising settings.The new driver does not have it, My mountains are now curvy and there is no pixelish appearance either, also great framerates.David

Dave, the 52.16 new drivers call this 2xQ.. same thing, I believe.Glad it works for you!