I have a P4 1.7 GHz, 256 MB RDRAM, GeForce 2 Pro (64 MB), 60 GB HDD.I'm generally quite happy with the performance in FS2002: The fps usually doesn't go down below 15 unless I fly in very dense scenery and/or a lot of AI traffic (which I often do...). With a cramped international airport the fps can easily go down to about 2.5.Other than that, the only problem I have with FS is that the textures tend to get blurry and not update frequently enough, but this seems to be connected to having lots of scenery and traffic too... If I fly slow over the Swedish forests the textures usually stay reasonably sharp.I'm hoping more RAM will make the textures, on both scenery, aircraft, AI aircraft, and panels, load faster and stay loaded in the memory longer. Maybe it will even help the blurriness problems a little.Is it a good idea to get another 256 MB of RDRAM? Or is a new video card better? (Getting a new system is out of the question right now. ;-))By the way, as far as I understand the RDRAM on my system has to be in pairs, and right now I'm not sure if I have two 128 MB chips, or four 64 MB chips (and honestly I don't know how many chips there's room for either - this computer came with almost non-existent documentation). Anyway, this means that I might have to buy more RAM than I actually need, just to get the "pairing" right. So obviously I don't want to do it unless it really is, well, worth it.Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

Open up your case and check to see how many sticks of RDRAM you have. Yes, 512Mb will improve your performance somewhat and will be worth the expense.Rob

Thanks for the reply.I've opened up the case, but it's so cramped in there I couldn't even spot the RAM - I suspect it's buried somewhere under fan cases and other stuff. And I'm not confident enough to start removing all of it to check. :-)OK, one vote for "worth it". ;-)Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

When I upgraded my 1g AMD last year from 256 to 512, I noticed a large improvement, not necessarily in frame rate, though I am sure it helped, but in view changes and things like that. Things tended to run much smoother, as I guess things could pre-load. Since that time I have gotten into utilities and add-ons like Flight Max, detailed Mesh scnenery, Active Sky and so on, so I am sure the extra memory is more important than ever.Tony

Diffenitly do it. 512MB of RAM is kind of the "magic number" of RAM right now. I've heard of people having problems with anymore less or more than that.Ryan-Flightpro08 :-cool VATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Senior Controller (C-3)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com|Taxiwaysigns.com] Scenery Designer-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 30.30 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition SP1*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 11298-----------------------------Click [link:ftp.avsim.com/library/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=&Author=Ryan+Fretwell&CatID=Root]Here to Download my New American Eagle POSKY CRJ-200!

Do it Martin!My system is P4 1.7 64mgGF2 Pro 512 Rambus DramGoes very well. I'll update my box and grahics card a month afterFS2004 comes out, when I see what cards & drivers arebeing recommended by the leading edgers.Peter Sydney Australia

Martin - Dunno why you are flying low over the forest of Sweden. Not much exciting scenery there. Nothing like out in, say, Colorado. I vote for 512 megs of memory. For a while, I had 768 megs of RAM (Best Buy kept selling it for free - I had to buy some!), and FS was smooth. I had to drop down to 384 megs when I switched motherboards. Even though my CPU speed went from 750mhz to 1.0 ghz, FS seemed slower. Then, I replaced teh 384 megs with 512, and voila - It was like a previous poster said - everything was smoother/faster/loaded easier. FS seems to use whatever memory you have to make things faster. I don't know if your FPS will go up - it may with all the AI aircraft. But, FS will run better overall. With the video card - I'd just update your drivers and see if you get any performance improvement. You might be surprised! awall

Do it. 512 is your lucky number with FS.

All "yays" I see. :-) Excellent.Except that negative comment about the supposed lack of scenery in the forests of my home country. Keep your negative comments to yourself please, "awall"! ;-)Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

Hey Martin!You need to look at my thread in the forum labeled "I doubled my RAM - Now What??? Any next steps???"I have the same system you have, except that I have a GeForce-2 Ultra video card.Sincerely,Dennis D. Mullerthttp://www.aavirtual.com/images/aav205_banner.gif[/img]

Hi Martin !I have a P4 2.0 GHz, with Geforce4 (64 MB) and thought it would becompletely OK with 256 MB Ram.But I did add on an additional 256 MB Ram, and it was a verybig improvement.Everything is so smooth now :-)Best regards Bj

I just received my two sticks of 256 PC2700 DDR Ram an hour ago. When I get home I'll put it in and let you know if it helps. I'm running 256 right now, which I'm going to completely remove as it's "Value Ram" and I believe it may be causing the stutters with changing views and sound. I'm replacing that ram with the two sticks (Crucial Memory).Hopefully I'll have good news to report ;-))))

I read the thread Dennis, and that's why I posted this one (didn't want to hijack your thread ;-)). Apparently there is a resounding yes - get more RAM!Have you had a chance to try FS out some more with your new RAM? Are you still not noticing much difference? And are you running (like me) a lot of addon scenery, mesh, panels, aircraft, clouds, etc?Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

FS2K2 uses about 350-400MB on your average day - if you can have all this in RAM, all the better. I think the biggest gain I noticed was the overall responsiveness of the sim. Menu's opened faster. Views switched quicker. Loading the sim took ALOT less time. Etc...