Since I got my system over two years ago, I've become aware that the newer add-ons were really sapping frame rates. A couple of weeks ago I discovered two things which have made an enormous difference. 1) BIOS. When my system was built for me, I specified I'd be using flight sim software, so I mistakenly assumed it would have been set up for optimal performance. However, I recently stumbled across the handbook for my MSI KT4V-L mainboard, and saw a reference to CPU clock settings in BIOS. Apparently, the board defaults to a CPU clock setting of 100 MHz. However, I knew mine (AMD Athlon 1900+)should be running at 133 MHz (which it doubles up to 266 MHz). I bit the bullet, pressed on startup and explored the BIOS settings. The CPU clock was indeed set to 100 MHz, so I bumped it up to 133 MHz. (While I was there, I also looked at the video card settings, and enabled AGP Fast Write). The improvement was immediate and stunning. Fps increased threefold.2) Sound card. My board has on-board sound. Apparently, though, this eats up mainboard resources. For all of about

Whoever built your system should have known what FSB should be set! I would be concerned about their level of skill in PC building to overlook this crucial setting when custom building a system.Jock in a Frock