I really want to buy the 737's but I know that the VC is a FPS killer...you ahve to crank down wayyyy too much eye candy to enjoy the plane...how does the 2D cockpit fare to the VC in FPS?? Is it much better?

Nigel,As with most aircrafts the VC does take its toll but the 2D cockpit behaves excellently with regard to FPS, much better than addons of similar complexity.If you have a high spec machine you will have nothing to worry about in 2D. A medium to low spec machine and you may have to turn one or two things down but generally speaking for the quality of the cockpit the resulting FPS is very acceptable IMO.Hope that answers your question.

My main concern about the VC is not only the FS FPS (which is lower then the 2D and there is nothing you can do -apart from fantascientific hardware- it's physical) rather the precision of the instrumentation which is nowhere near the 2D panel view.Maybe in the next FS MS will fix this.

thanskfor the replies ...my system specs are below and I was hoping with these specs, I could get around 25-30 fps or more in most situations in the 2D cockpit.p4 3.21 GB pc 3200 (dual channeled)Geforce 6800 GT oc'ed to 404/1.1 on 61.77'sABIT IC-7 moboAudigy 2 soundcard

Hi,With your spec I think about 25-30 FPS is exactly what you can expect using the 2D panel though not in very dense areas or in airports with lots of activity where you will probably get around 15-20 FPS.This is what I get and as you can see I have a pretty alike spec as you have.

thanks for the response...thats what I was hoping to hear..I dont fly in very dense areas...I tend to stay in the smaller cities in the sim like jacksonville, houston, phoenix, san diego, honolulu, etc....just so my FPS stays at an acceptable rate...I fly with autogen dense, scenery complexity very dense, and texture quality high so even with the default aircraft, places like KATL, KJFK, LGA, etc are wayy off limits to me because I dont like fps lower than 20.

Well, then I'm sure you will both enjoy and be amazed by this fantastic a/c because it really is :-)

thanks for all the input :)

With that spec and a bit of attention to some tweaks, I think you'll get better than that! I have a 3 gig/1mb/6800 unclocked with Activesky/FSTraffic/Scenery Meshes(which are superb) and seldom dip below 20 - and only then when really busy with lots of weather happening. Quieter airports, it mostly sits at 30-35 (locked at 35).The only time I got a real FPS hit was with airport scenery files - but frankly, I'd sooner have pretty good airports and better frame rates than fleets of 3d ice cream trucks and seagulls jerking around the screen.Can never get used to the VC anyhow!(turn off antialiasing in FS9 and use 4x AA and 16x Ansiotropic in your 6800 settings)