I have a P4 1.3, 256+ megs of RAM and a GeForce 2 GTS. I get around 20-25 fps with medium settings for detail.I download an amazing looking scenery file for LAX including vehicles, jetways, etc. and the bottom line is that even with everything set to the minimum I was only getting 3-7 fps. What a disappointment.Is this based primarily on the video card, the CPU, or the RAM? I already have a fair bit of RAM so I'm wondering if moving to a GeForce 4200 ti would somehow give me the oomph to get decent framerates with complicated scenery, or am I just wasting my time? Are these things only usable by people with bleeding edge machines that are maxed out on everything?Any advice is appreciated.

All three are very important. You'll get the frame rate with the CPU, the smoothness with plenty of ram (256 is not enough) and the picture quality with the video card. If you try to get the best graphics with a mid range video card, you'll kill the cpu and thus the framerates. You can discount completely the framerate you're getting with addon scenery. If it's not optimized scenery, it'll kill any rig no matter what. So judge your performance with default scenery.

Just to add a datapoint here, I have an Athlon XP2000+, 512mb PC2100 DDR RAM, and GF4 Ti4200 128mb. I play with most detail sliders cranked up, but on LAX w/ taxiwaysigns.com signs added, flying my DF737 with max AI traffic the framerate still drops a bit when I switch to spot view and pan around. Running 1024x768x32 with 4x AA. It gets a bit choppy, but still quite playable. FS2002 is just a very complex program especially when you add high quality textures, lots of AI traffic and lots of visibility distance. So even with a pretty smokin machine (I get 10,000-10,600 on 3DMark 2001SE) there will still be a bit of slow down when you load it up with detail and a high number of plygons.

I upgraded from a GF2MX to a GF4-4200 and got better framerates overall, better AA, as well as scenery drawn out way further to the horizon.. very nice!However, on complex airports, the fps drop just as much as they did with the GF2!I don't know what kind of CPU it takes to handle this level of complexity.. based on the other posts, even hot CPUs are having trouble..

They haven't made a CPU yet that can handle 100% AI with all the sliders maxed. Wait till next year. I see Intel just demo-ed their PIV 4.7 gig machine. http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20020909S0098

Interesting info.I think what I will do is take off the taxiway signs and try to get a baseline with the default KLAX. Then I will add the simflyers KLAX back in and fiddle a bit.I would just love to have a jetway and a real parking spot for my plane when I land. I can live without the static planes and other bits but the whole shebang sure would be nice.Thanks