Hi Guys,yesterday I received a new system and am disappointed, to say the least. But maybe You can give me some ideas what to try.I ran FS on my "old" machine (Ath 2700XP, 1GB 333 Memory, Radeon 9800pro, NForce2 Board) with acceptable framerates, mostly in the 30's range, some compromises taken - no 3D clouds over addon scenery but maxed (replacement) AI.NOW I have here a Dual Xeon 3GHz with (for whatever reason, I didn't install it) 2 GB DDR-2100 RAM. I plugged in the 9800pro, installed XP pro, FS2K4, copied over my addons...well, the 2700+ performed *much* better. FPS now seldom crawl over 25 and i get LOTS or annyoying blinking "spikes" (short horizontal lines of random colors) all over scenery polys and aircraft. Sliders in FS configuration are equal or nearly equal to the "old" config.So, here come my questions...1) I still have 1GB DDR/400 left in another machine. Might it help if I put it in instead of the DDR-2100?2) Is the XEON processor at all appropriate for Gaming?3) Any idead how to get rid of the "spikes" ?Thanks,Torsten

Well I would definetly try the faster RAM for sure, however I always understood that the XEON was designed for servers and not much else, I could be wrong, but that's what I have heard and read.

What MOBO controller chip drivers, i.e., Intel, VIA, SiS, AMD, ALi, NForce, did you install? If none, you are using the default drivers which work fine for Office Products but not very good for gaming.W. Sieffert

Thanks, guys, for Your good intentions on helping me.I tried DDR400 RAM, reinstalling the chipset drivers, checked that the Radeon runs on AGP8x, played around a lot on the graphics settings until my girlfriend got angry about me ignoring her... Still, my Athlon2700 beats the new rig hands down, right away. Frames on the 2700 seldom come lower than 25fps while the Xeon seldoms gets over 22 (except when there's "nothing" to display like pure sky or plain plains (nice wordplay...).So I guess You were right, the Xeon is just inapt for gaming and I am downgrading it to "secondary backup" where I'll do my webdesign and photoshopping on, replacing the trusty old 2400+ I used for that.Thanks again,Torsten

Just one thing comes to mind, should I disabel hyperthreading? I remember to have read it causes issues on some addons or FS itself???Torsten

I don't think it will affect it, you can increase perforamnce a little, by settings FS to realtime on CPU 0, but having it on will not take away.