Love the clouds hate the framerate. I need a new graphics card.system is 2.8GhzP4 AsusP4P800 512Mb Ram.Current card is FX5200, everything works great until the weather closes in, those beatiful clouds really kill the frame rate...It looks like the next major upgrade (FX5900 or ATI9800) is going to cost around $400.Is there any point in looking for something cheaper? if I do spend the $$$ will it fix the problem?Geoff

Hi Jeff,there are a few things you could try. First, there are a few sets of replacement cloud textures avasilable here in the library, which are greatly reduced in size, so that should speed up loading time a bit. Then play around with your graphics card settings, especially anti-aliasing. I'm not too familiar with nVidia cards, but I understand they have som AA options which allow you not to apply AA to alpha textures. This should also offer some improvement.Cheers,Gosta.http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2betateam.jpg

In a word - no. :) You'll see my specs in the signature, and I have difficulty with the stock clouds in FS2004. I agree with Gosta - find the FSW edited clouds, and get them installed. They have allowed me to go from 20% 3D clouds to a full 100% 3D with minimal impact. Granted, they aren't as deep as the stock clouds, but they are far and away **MUCH** better than the 2D and FS2002 clouds could ever be. -Greg

OK Guys,Thanks I'll give it a try....Geoff