Hello,I recently purchased a new leadtek GF4 4400. I did a complete reformat and installed detonater 30.82 drivers.I fired up FS and went to Simflyers KDFW scenery - I was getting 9-19 FPS but even with my old TNT2 32MB card I was getting simlar results. Granted everything looks better but the FPS could be better.Am I missing a step in tweaking this card to optimise performance?Thanks, AMD 1600XP @ 1800XP 1.51 (10.5 X 143)EPOX 8KHA+ VIA KT266A 1GB INFINEON PC2100 DDR (2x512)Leadtek GF4 4400 A250 TDIBM 60GB ATA100 7,200RPMQuantum 20GB 5,400RPMSB LIVE 512V350 Watt PSUWINDOWS XP PROGood judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.

For one thing, FS2k2 is very heavily CPU based. You should have better performance, but it won't be as drastic as you hoped. Other games more 3d intensive will benefit the most (Quake, Counter Strike...etc). Also, did you try using the AGP Texturing trick that's been talked about in the forums? Turn off AGP Texturing via DXDIAG and it'll force Windows to use the onboard gfx card memory exclusively. Hope that helps.

Hi,Yeah I was going to give the AGP trick a go. I am also going to start overclocking it. Would anyone recommend using Riva Tuner or something like that to tweak any settings? Or how about settings in the bios like disabling fast writes?Cheers,AMD 1600XP @ 1800XP 1.50 (10.5 X 143)EPOX 8KHA+ VIA KT266A 1GB INFINEON PC2100 DDR (2x512)Leadtek GF4 4400 A250 TDIBM 60GB ATA100 7,200RPMQuantum 20GB 5,400RPMSB LIVE 512V350 Watt PSUWINDOWS XP PROGood judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.

I thnk the framerate situation at both KDFW and KLAX is just a function of the very heavy CPU load at both of those locations. I'm seeing something in the range of 15-22 at KDFW and a little better (surprisingly) at KLAX. You can OC the 4400 a bit (I'd recommend RivaTuner to reset the clocks) but, unfortunately, it's probably still going to come back to more CPU cycles. I can see a framerate difference between 2.2Ghz and 2.7Ghz on the CPU but no difference at all with the 4200 OC'd irregardless of the CPU settings. TripNorthwood 2.2a at 2.72Ghz Abit TH7II-R512MB Samsung 40ns PC800Gainward 64MB GF4 Ti4200 300/57030.30's DX8.1 WinXP ProInwin case / Enermax 431W PSU3DMark2001SE = 12055http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4088814

EIDUB, I'd be shocked if overclocking your video card would matter. Here's how to tell: try running at 1024 x 768 x 32, then comparing vs 1600 x 1200 x 32. If you don't get much difference then don't bother with overclocking as it wont' matter.Noel

I'd be interested in what your frame rates are flying over a default scenery with a default aircraft. Try about 80% mesh, dense autogen and scenery, ATC at about 50%, and everything else where you like. Do it at 1024/32bit and let us know what you get then. I would recommend locking the frame rate at about 30 and see how she does. I think you'll be really happy. Those simflyers sceneries CHEW up even the fastest vid cards and machines so what your getting there aint out of line IMHO.Hornit

I suspect that the scenery is the cause of the problem. I also have the leadtek A250, paired with a P4 2GHz, so not too different. With highres mesh I get good framerates, better on my GF3 / AMD1.4GHz.I'm in the process of dumping generic scenery objects like antenna masts, power pylons, etc into FS2002. I had a detailed pylon model and suddenly I got framerates about 1-3 FPS. It really is up to the scenery designers to design framerate friendly scenery, ie use of LOD, etc, with 'bad' scenery its easy to bring any system to a screeching halt.Having said that, I have never seen above mentioned scenery run, but I suspect it's the cause of your problem.Cheers, Christian

I have read a number of threads and articles on this site and on Flightsim.com about how smoothness and FPS are not strongly correlated in FS2002. The best results visually and from a smoothness point of view tend to be achieved by limiting framerates and adjusting scenery density etc. I have my rig set at about 22 to 23 frames per second, with most of the sliders either maxed or fairly high. The big exception is dynamic scenery and ATC, which I have set fairly low. As a result, I have fairly crisp scenery and reasonably smooth movement in all but the steepest turns. With regards to video cards, I don't think that they will give much FPS increase as (and has been documented in these forums a lot) the sim is very cpu dependant. A CPU upgrade is probably the one, best investment someone can make if they are having trouble getting up above 17 to 18 fps which is really what you need to start feeling like the motion in the sim is fluid. And with CPU prices now, it may be less expensive than the new card. I just upgraded my video card and the biggest improvement I have seen is in visual quality, not speed. I have crisper textures farther away from the plane than before - which is well worth the money for upgrading. Hope this helps.

Hornit - I don't know if you're looking for my FPS or the original poster's. But mine in the situation you describe are 80ish.Trip

Holy cow Hornit where have you been hiding?

Exactly the GeForce 4 cards will render a very pretty picture...compare POSKY aircraft with a GF 3 and a GF 4 night and day! For FPS sheer horse power check www.hqsim.com for the latest review of the newest INTEL offers and the testing done with MSFS 2002....27 FPS....! Thats with the standard scenery now with simflyers....guess what...probably fairly down a bit...! Dont be sad about the Ti4400... I love mine dearly...it renders every thing beautifully but I did not buy it to increase my FPS...my AMD XP2100 takes care of that!!!RegardsTony Ascaso, RN

Hi,The visual quality is much improved over the TNT2. I thought I may have seen even a small increase in FPS. I even think it may have gone down by 1-2 FPS on the Simflyers sceneries. I have not maxed out everything I am running the card at 4X Anti and 1024x768 32. I am very happy with the card but I a little surprised coming from a TNT2 to a Geforce 4 considering the advances the latter has in GPU technology. I am looking forward to AMDs next gen procs!P.S - My FPS on the generic scenery is quite high.Thanks again,AMD 1600XP @ 1800XP 1.50 (10.5 X 143)EPOX 8KHA+ VIA KT266A 1GB INFINEON PC2100 DDR (2x512)Leadtek GF4 4400 A250 TDIBM 60GB ATA100 7,200RPMQuantum 20GB 5,400RPMSB LIVE 512V350 Watt PSUWINDOWS XP PROGood judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.

Were you running the TNT2 card with 4x anti..?

I just recently arrived back at my home in Virginia from a tripto California where I have a P4 1.6. Installed a PNY GF4 4200 64mb and was getting FRs in the 70s in rural areas. Got >10 at KLAX where I was getting 5 with a ATI 180 Pro.Got so excited I took the 4200 back and upgraded to a Vision Tek Extasy 4600 128mb. Caried it on the plane so it wouldn't get damaged. Got home and installed it it my system (AMD 1.4gb on an ASUS A7A266 and would you believe I cannot get over 20 something?And thats rural.I even put in the new 40.** drivers and no help. I did a DXdiag and noticed that AGP texture acceleration is not available and the button todisable it is greyed out. What does this mean?I have a hard time believing the 200 Mhz makes that much of a difference. Or is it the AMD?Warren