***New Radeon 9800XT- I am dissapointed - Need Guidance***

[Guest Ray CYYZ]

Indexing is Win2k & Win XP.To yank it, right-click on your drive, one of the properties pages will have an 'allow indexing service to index this drive' check-box. Clear it.Got into control panel, advanced, services. Look for the indexing service. Set it to disabled.Restore in an XP+ feature. Right-click on 'My Computer', properties, System Restore tab, check the 'turn off' box.You might also want to run through some docs from Microsoft on cleaning up services that you don't need. Each service is running in the background, doing stuff that might be completely useless based on what you need. Care needs to be taken here as disabling the wrong service can lead you down the need to recover system path.Another little gotcha is the Windows Update which checks every couple of minutes over the internet for updates. Usefull, but not if you have poor internet connections. Easier just to go get them yourself when you are not playing a game.Ray

[WebMaximus 372]

HiSaw you already had your questions answered. When it comes to services that aren't needed, check this URL:http://www.sanx.org/tipShow.asp?articleRef=65The list is written for Windows XP, but I still think many of the services will be the same in Windows 2000 and do the same thing. At least it can be worth checking out, or better yet - look at Internet and try to find an equal list specifically for Windows 2000 if that's what you're running.Cheers,

[Guest joshranwest]

I have to try these things tonight. I get about 5 FPS and when you see my system specs you will freak out too. I get the 5 when its cloudy, in a busy airport, with a non default plane. The best I can do is outside view with NO clouds looking up from the belly of the plane. And its around 50 FPS. Then thats where the good frames end. I wanted to let everyone know he is not alone. I am thinking refund time if I cant fix it (refund from ATI).Gateway 3.06 Gig, built 12/1/032.0 Gig DDR RAMATI 9800XT 256 MB Graphics Card w/new drivers70 Gig Hard DriveSeal soundKinda sad to get those frames. I was hoping for A LOT more. Guess I will have to experiment.Josh

[WebMaximus 372]

Well, with that systemspec something must be REALLY wrong when you only get about 5 FPS!! With my system I very seldom get under 12-15 FPS even at a very busy airport a cloudy day. And I have Ultimate Traffic installed and the traffic set to 100%.Good luck getting the FPS:s you should get with that kind of system!Cheers,

[Guest Fjorko]

JoshHi mate !! Sorry to hear about your poor performance.......seesh, with those specs you should get 4-5 times that FPS !!!Have you done the FS9.cfg tweaks ??? And have you installed the Highest Performance cloud fix from http://fsw.simflight.comLet us know !!PS.... Now suddenly i don't feel so bad about my system anymore !!! WOW !!:-eek

[Guest joshranwest]

Hi guys. Yeah it makes me sooo mad that I cant achieve smooth frames. On a 3,000 dollar machine. Sad. Well, I am gonna try the FS9 config fix. However, I cant find the FS9 config file. I heard it was hard to find. As soon as I can, I will do that. I am also gonna disable the system resore thing. As well as the clouds fix, thanks for the link! Do they look the same? I love 2004's clouds!! I will let you know what happens. Worst frames are at KSEA for me. They just plummet. Outside view looking at the terminal while sitting on the runway, this is pathetic I know, I get 3-5 FPS. Using the CS 727 add on. Not cool man, not cool.I should also mention 99% of my sliders are in the middle too. I dont dare go max, I would probably get 0 FPS, seriously. If thats possible. Might as well use the built in graphics if that happens! Get my 400 bucks back from ATI. But in any case, I will try these things, and post back. Thanks for your help, I know its not exactly a PMDG topic per se. Josh

[Guest Fjorko]

No my friend, this ATI 9800XT card ROCKS.....you just need to fiddle a bit with the software that makes use of itThe cloud fix is basically a cutdown version of the original cloud textures. Chris Willis made them smaller in size so that they don't impact on performance so much. You should be able to have the sliders wider open with minimal impact in other words.They look almost exactly like the originals, but there is a bit of quality degration but you don't notice it really. Well i don't.To get to the cfg file you have to UNHIDE hidden files and folders first - Do this bly clicking on TOOLS, FOLDER OPTIONS, then on the VIEW tab, under hidden files and folders, click SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS. Then it is located under :C:documents and settings"username"application datamicrosoftfs9"username" above is the name that you use when you log on to xp when it boots up - (in your case Josh perhaps ??)Also - i would like to point you to the place where you can find the diffrent things you can add/remove to the fs9.cfg and see if that helps !Here you go :http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=177Sorry if you already know all this !Cheers

[WebMaximus 372]

Hi Josh,In your case I would also try to delete the FS9.CFG file and let MSFS create a new one. A couple of months back I had a similar problem getting very low FPS values even though I hadn't changed any settings. After deleting the FS9.CFG file and a new one was created the FPS went up from 5-10 to 15-25.To find the FS9.CFG file you must set the option in Explorer to show hidden and system files. The file is located under C:My DocumentsApplication DataMicrosoftFS9 if my memory serves me right.This is a simple thing to try before you do anything else.Good luck!

[Guest vspeed]

Ok I tried to delete the FS9 config, and start flight sim and have it create a new one. That went fine. I also did the old modules entry, so I dont get the annoying notice that Host SB is incompatible. So anyway, I did all that. Turned off system restore and the other hard drive thing, enable cache points or something (mentioned earlier in this thread). I started up FS2004. Went to Denver. In window mode I was getting 40 FPS while looking at the terminal in outside view in the default planes. I loaded a payware add on. Windowed mode it dropped to 30 FPS. I went to full screen, 10 FPS. What a freakin laugh man. FS2004 needs some serious work, or my brand new computer. One or the other. Something has to give. 3,000 dollar computer and 10 FPS. Absolutely unacceptableto me. Thanks for all of your help on this one, but the card is heading back to ATI, and my 400 will go to paint the house!! Have a good one all, and thanks again for your outstanding help. I will throw my 9700 Pro back in. At least with that one I could maintain 25 FPS somehow. Amazing, how you go from 128 megs to 256 and get twice LESS frames. Unbelievable.Josh

[Zoolander 5]

Peter,I was in a somewhat similar frustrating position as you are in. Before you decide to format your hard drive, you have another option that does NOT involve destroying your current "build", :-scatter, but allows you to install a fresh and "secondary" copy of XP or 2000. You can then tweak this build to your hearts content without affecting your previous OS build. Flipping back and forth is as simple as a boot time hot key and I am not talking about XP's Hardware Profiles. I suggest a review of my earlier post.http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&mesg_id=174088-Todd

[PLazarus 0]

Hello,Here is a tip that made a big stir when it was first posted, and having glanced down all thats been said here I didn't notice it mentioned.Try compressing the whole fs9 folder ( including all subfolders ).It's easy, dosn't really affect anything and will even free up a bit of disk space. It's worth trying.Paul ( SPIM )

[Zoolander 5]

Greetings,The issue of compression is a difficult one since many factors will influence individual performance. I found that compression caused me longer stutters when the disk was accessed. I believe this was due to the CPU utilization required to uncompress. As we all know, MS FS is a very CPU intensive application.Microsoft has the following to say on the matter: "Compression adds overhead to the system because a compressed NTFS file is decompressed..." and "If your server is CPU-bound, avoid using compression."More on the subject and NTFS optimization can be found here:http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/...kc_fil_punq.aspI would also be curious as to others findings with compression.-Todd

[Guest Fjorko]

Well..No matter how we look at it, the main culprit here is the CLOUDS !even with the Cloud fixes, they are still a MAJOR Fps killer if you have to much of 'em, and if you fly very CLOSE to them, THAT is when your machine really gets a kick in....It's those CLOUDS man, i'm telling ya !!!!!!!!!!Without clouds my pc is as smooth a baby's bottom !! No problems !

[Arnaud 0]

Pieter,I also switched from nVidia to ATI recently, and also boughtthe Radeon 9800XT 256.What I did first, depsite the huge time it takes, I reinstalledeverything, starting by win XP. everything.i have all sliders maxed to the right, and the sim is OK.FPS locked at 26, weather and clouds also to the max.except in area crowded with AI (even low polys Ai planes),the sim keep at 20fsp, even with lots of clouds around.The radeon do the job with the clouds.The CPU (I have only a P4 2.4B) is weak, as it computes the AI andthe autogen, but not the clouds.I would also never say enough to get more RAM.Yesterday, I had a look, with the PMDG, fs9 took more than 900Mo RAMon a busy field, ...... fsp were 5!... But this was not usual...So imagine if you have only 512!...Arnaud

[Guest gremel]

Do you delete the FS9.CFG file and then restart MSFS2004 from scratch and it automatically restores or generates a completely new CFG file automatically ???? or is there more to this fix !!Regards,Jack Noullet