Ok, I can not thank anyone with info/opinion enough...My pc:- Intel D875PBZ motherboard (800FSB, HT)- Intel Pentium4 3.2 Ghz processor- 1 gigabyte PC3200 (400 MHz) DDR SDRAM memory (2 512k chips)- Seagate Alpine 120GB 8MB Cache SATA Hard Drive- ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256MB Video card- CreativeLabs Soundblaster Audigy2 sound card- 300W power supply- (no other PCI cards installed)- 6 USB ports in use (printer, joystick, external hard drive, mouse, palm sync cradle, Sandisk 6-1 card reader)- MS Forcefeedback 2 Joystick- Logitech dual-optical wired mouse- MSWeird (internet) wired keyboard- Mitsubishi DiamondPro 2020u 21" monitor (CRT)BIOS- AGP aperture size set to 64- lastest BIOS flashed (from Intel's site)S/W- Catalyst 3.7 video drivers- latest drivers from CreativeLabs for sound card- Windows XP Pro everything at latest rev.- nothing in system tray except Norton systemworks (disabled) and the safely-remove-hardware icon and clock- startup folder empty- no other major xp tweaks performedVideo Control PanelD3D - 6 AA, 16 AFFast Writes onFS9 Settings- 100% 3d clouds- MIPMapping at 4- H/W lights at 6- Terrain mesh at 90- Extended textures on- lens/sun glare both off- scenery objects and aircraft shadows off- one other setting (don't remember the name) at land only- global texture size at Massive- Resolution 1280x960- aircraft texture at High- clouds out 40 miles- visibility to 90 miles- special effects slider at HighDoing a Cessna 172 (stock) with 2d cockpit, weather to major thunderstorms, daytime. Sitting on active KLGA runway (N by NW departure), getting about 24 FPS. On climbout, shoots up to its lock at 34.9/35. Turning west and flying over Manhattan at about 700-1000 feet, FPS shows around 18. Looking out the left window, it's showing 14 or so. Then, once I'm over the river heading in to New Jersey, it goes up to 21-24. Then, basically it stays there pretty much through to landing at KEWR (22L or 22R, whichever I'm being blown toward!). Is my system ok or is there something wrong with it? Even just sitting on the runway in my Cessna at KSEA on a sunny day, it's showing about 21 or so. I'm conerned I might not be able to handle some advanced plane/scenery add-on's.Also, when I boot my system in to BIOS and let it sit there for about 15 minutes, the processor temp goes to 53 degrees C and stays there. Is this normal for a P4 3.2?Thanks so much again. My system is brand new and I was looking at as close to a no-compromise FS2004 experience as I could get for around $2k+.sj

Hi there,the frame rates aren't too bad by any standards (well, FS standards, that is :)). However, you could try to reduce anti-aliasing and run at a higher resolution instead. Your monitor should have no problem with 1600x1200. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro, and it doesn't really seem to care what resolution I'm running at - I haven't noticed any difference in performance between 1280x960 and 1600x1200. But the higher the resolution, the less anti-aliasing is needed, so you may be able to improve your performance and picture quality at the same time :). Also, I haven't seen any difference in picture quality between 16x and 8x anisotropic filtering, so that could be something to try.AGP aperture size is another thing - some people like to keep it small, for others it's the bigger, the better. It seems to depend on your individual system. Try changing that, and see if it does anything for you. Personally, I haven't noticed any difference in performance after changing the aperture size.Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Thanks for the feedback, Gosta. The main question was whether this was normal for a system like mine or if maybe something's wrong with it and shoul be getting more. One thought I had was to upgrade the power supply. Also, I guess I will start another thread for my temperature question.sj

Actually, I was wondering about your power supply, but then I thought maybe you have a Dell, whose PSs are rated lower than their actual output...I had a 300W PS, which gave up at one point, so I replaced it with an Enermax 460W unit. Apart from running cool and stable it is also extremely quiet, so if you're thinking of upgrading, I would highly recommend that one.As to your system's performance, I'd say it's within the range I would expect. Maybe slightly on the low side, but a few tweaks here and there should help to improve it. After optimizing all the hardware, it's really down to personal preference - which features of FS do you care most about? Would you rather lose some clouds, or some autogen, or maybe you don't mind, if the mountain in the distance isn't displayed in its correct shape. On the other hand, if you'd like to keep them all, you could try a compromise, by selectively eliminating autogen objects. For example, I have deleted all the small objects from the 'default.xml' file in the 'FS9/autogen' folder. That gave me a boost of a few fps in dense areas, but without losing the new autogen buildings completely (yes, I still have the funky chicken joints...). Basically, feel free to experiment, but remember to make backups, and for those more radical tweaks, create a restore point in XP beforehand, so you can go back to your previous settings if things go wrong :). Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Gosta: Would you happen to know if a stronger power supply (it's not Dell but rather an MPC) would affect performance or only help contribute to a nice long operating life?I think I'll try tweaking the BIOS and XP first and then see what other FS compromises I need to make, if any. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming NYC (mega)scenery.Thanks so much,sj

Hi SJ,A stronger power supply will most definitely contribute to a nice long operating life. As far as performance goes, you will not notice any difference in FPS. What it will do is ensure that all the components get the correct voltage etc. and thus make for a more stable environment (less crashes and happier components :)). Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg