Hello highly clever people, i wonder if you can help me out...I was wondering what sort of performance I could get with Flight sim 2004 with a system based around Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz chip, 1024RAM, Geforce 6600 256MB AGP.....what do you think?At the moment im running FS on my laptop, pentium 2.8 chip, 512MB RAM, 64MB Geforce Go video card. It runs okay as long as i have traffic on zero percent, i usually have AA on, and full detail on planes, low Scenery detail. I find this is fine for my requirements, but id like to see some traffic at airports without getting highly jerky framerates. Which is why I thought about playing fs2004 on my desktop PC with above specs. I'm not sure if the newer intel chips are compatible with my mobo, such as a 3.4GHZ Northwood, my chip at the moment is northwood.Cheers for your help

Hi FD, since FS is a mainly CPU dependant 'thing', you'll likely not see much of an improvement or increased possibilities with a similar desktop system. Nevertheless, seen the higher amount of RAM and -probably- the better GPU, you should be able to get a smoother and more enjoyable experience. IMHO, the resolution is key and I would advise keeping it as low as possible, i.e. 1024x (and I hope you're using a CRT monitor). Good luck and kind regards Jaap PS: a 3.4GHz Northwood will not make much of difference either compared to the 2.8 you have. Maybe 1-1.5 frames at 20fps. The performance increase isn't linear to the CPUs.

Hi FD, the difference between a 2.8 and 3.4GHz P4 is probably a bit more than I mentioned. Sorry for that. It's more likely to be between 1-2 frames per second @ 20fps (a quick calculation error on my behalf). The sum is based upon the 'rule'; doubling your CPU's frequency results in ca. 40% more computing power. Hence such a swap should result in adding ca. 8-9% performance. You should also be able to fit the 3.4GHz Northwood on the mainboard you have, but you may need to upgrade the bios and will certainly have to check the OEM's homepage regarding compatibility. Hope this adds to considerations, good luck and kind regards Jaap

Hi, thanks for the replies. I will probably start playing FS on my desktop now. I seem to get pretty decent performance on my laptop, so the extra RAM and better graphics card should improve things a bit further. I do have a CRT monitor and im happy playing FS2004 at 1024X768 resolution.