Paid me bucks with heightened anticipation for this new release of AS, only to find myself re-enjoying default FS weather. On first glance, weather looked very interesting, but low and behold, even at the lowest cloud setting (low, on the slider at the bottom of the interface, and 100% 3D, clouds out to only 30 miles), performance SUCKS WIND. Moreover, there is an annoying stutter every 6-8 seconds, unless of course I disable UPDATES. Even with this performance is horrid compared to default. Then I go to the NWS via the nifty kneeboard, and see recent reports of 2 miles visibility at Glacier Intl. AS2004 shows lots of cool, performance sapping clouds, but with quite high visibility--as in maybe unlimited. I refreshed. No change. I killed weather and loaded FS weather--2m visibility, 24.9 frames/sec. Looks very decent, no stutters. I set up things as the instructions state, having to sacrifice cloud density down to the lowest setting on the bottom slider to get 6-11 fps. I love this quote: "Detailed Clouds and Cloud Coverage Density should also be at Maximum for thicker, more detail clouds. Reduce these sliders only if absolutely necessary toincrease performance." Herky jerky video as I taxi along. I have a decent machine which performs fine with default and FSMeteo.On the brighter side, the weather did look a bit more interesting. But alas, can't seem to use it :((.I'll take suggestions, but so far, this looks nasty. From the comments of some and from Damien, perhaps I'm missing something in the setup.Noel

Yeah you got a good system. I've also set it up exactly as indicated but I changed my clouds to FSW 32 bit set and the frames have been MUCH better. I've been flying with PSS's A330-340 with its excellent FS9 flight plan importation and it has been absolutely fantastic. However, I tried with PMDG's 737 (SU2) and regular FS clouds and the frames were bad - both before and after I purchased and used AS 2004. I then tried PMDG with the FSW cloud set and I was still taking unacceptable hits (4-8 fps) while using the VC!. Indeed, I see PMDG have said themselves they don't recommend third party weather addons with their product. So it appears some planes may get cranky and draw the life-blood out of your system. PMDG's very nice plane with SU2 has done exactly that. It has given me the WORST fps than any plane I have (now succeeding in that ignominous category PIC A320).So if you don't have FSW's nice 32 bit cloud set get it and try. But then again some planes may not like AS 2004.P4, 2.8 ghz 533 FSB, 1 gig ddr ram, Radeon 9700 TX 128 mb video (latest Omega drivers)

Noel:Hmmm. I am going to assume that you are not trolling and trying to start something here, but, rather, are having a real problem.The experts around here can, and will, help you solve your problem. I can only give you my observations.I have to admit that I have had only one session with AS4 so far. But, I have not noticed any significant difference in frame rates when not using radar. This is with a default installation and not waiting to read the manual :+ . This is significant because I won't be purchasing my new Athlon 64 system until next month. I am currently running a screaming Athlon 1.2GHz system (Well,it was screaming when I bought it!). I just flew out of Asheville, NC Regional in heavy snow with multiple cloud layers and was getting 17-19 fps with zero stuttering. I won't waste your time with all of the details of how I had everything set.The point that I am trying to make is that even with an underpowered system like mine, I am able to have very satisfying weather with AS4 -- much more so than with FS9 weather -- with no significant framerate hit.Don't give up. Your purchase was well worth the money spent.Regards,Wilson

Would assume your using XP Home or Pro? You dont mention it in your system stats. This is sometimes a stretch on if it may help, but every little bit helps. Have you leaned down your copy of XP yet? I have a similar system to yours, except a oc'ed to 3.2ghz(2.6 native) and a 9700 Non-pro. Although I still have VERY limited addons installed, I'm running almost everything at max sliders with FPS lock set at 20. I usually run at around 20fps even with default clouds still, haven't tried FSW's yet. There are times when it does dip to 10-15fps but doesn't happen much.Check out blackviper.com for some info on what services you can disable. My Xp Pro is down to 18 processes showing at bootup (think it used to be 34). And only about 100mb of memory (and 80mb of pagefile) used on bootup.The only thing that kicks my computer around the block so far is in the Radar setting, turning that up to the max, whilst in some nice fluffy cloud banks. Frames drop to under 10, but leaving it on default usually keeps me in the 20 neighborhood.Edit: Ahh there I see it Win 2k Pro.. ok. So guess these Xp tweaks wont apply to you. Although there is some W2k tweaks at Blackviper too..

Well, this is encouraging, though I"m not sure where to turn other than 32 bit cloud textures. I tried Chris Willis's High FPSv2 cloud set and again find them too soft and lacking in definition. To me they just look poor by comparison to default FS. And again, with default FS weather I get very good perf. So the question again seems to be, why is AS having such extreme impact on this system? Seems straightforward to me: it's just much busier weather. I run Win2K and a super lean boot and it runs FS just great.Noel