Hi everyone, I've been puzzled for 5 days now as to why after a major card upgrade. Now granted, my system isn't what you'd consider a high end system. P4 1.8, 512MB RAM, Geforce FX 5700 Ultra. I've done a lot of reading and have tweaked everything in the OS, as well as things within FS as per the hardware optimization guide post in this forum. I am still unclear regarding hardware AA optimal settings on the card they say 2x AA and 4x anisotropy as a rule of thumb, not sure. The 3Dmark score on this system right now is 2800, which I thought was pretty good for that CPU/RAM config. The FPS difference between my old Geforce 3 Ti200 and my current card is marginal at best and I think there is something out there I'm missing or eating up the FPS. I can't afford to upgrade at this time so I have to get the best of what I have for a while. The lowest FPS at a busy airport (KATL for example) I see is 7.5 using real weather and the highest is 18-20. Yesterday I was flying to CVG in rain and storm clouds and my FPS dropped below 5 FPS to the point the sim was unplayable until I turned off Traffic and autogen...Is there anything at all I can do to improve the situation under this config? Any help would be welcome.NickSETTINGS:OS XP Professional SP 2XP services disabled according to blackviper.comStartup services and startup folder emptyVideo SettingsImage quality HIGH PERFORMANCEvsync OFFAA OFFAnisotropy OFFForce mipmaps NONEFS 9.1 settings:Hardware:1280x1024x32T&L ONRender to texture OFFAA OFFFiltering TRILINEARFPS limit 31mipmap quality 4Rendered lights 2global texture detail MEDIUMScenery:Terrain mesh complexity : 70Terrain texture size: HIGHTerrain detail: LAND ONLYWater effects: NONEDawn/Dusk texture blend: ONExtended Textures ONScenery complexity VERY DENSEAutogen VERY DENSEDynamic scenery OFFsunglare, lens flare ONWeather sight distance 80mi, cloud draw distance 50mi, 3D cloud % 80, detailed, cloud coverage HIGH.Traffic:PAI Ai Traffic set to 25%

That is about all your going to get. I have a Soyo Dragon2+ 1.8GHz system. I get about the same FPS you are getting with a GF4200 128MB card.Basically, you are not CPU limited. The more AI and other stuff that needs processed is what is causing you to have the lower FPS. Ten FPS and above usually will not cause you system to stutter.Can you imagine the poor saps using the MS minimum system!!??W. Sieffert

I don't think I can imagine. I've found that in order to get a decent performance in heavily populated airports I need to turn off autogen when taxiing, enable traffic, and the opposite when I take off. During landing in stormy weather I have to turn off AI traffic and leave on autogen and if it's really bad (<8 fps) I also turn off autogen.Nick

Well you have quite complex mesh and autogen which both are very demanding on your CPU so you are quite CPU limited. Especially since you are running with no aa and no aniso whatsoever. You can try increase image quality settings you may note you don

You mean it actually helps to have AA and anisotropy on the video card turned ON? My experience shows me that there's no performance degredation when I have them on.Nick

Yes that

I turned both up (4x AA 8x ani. and set to quality) and indeed I don't see performance reduction. Better quality though I guess..oh well at least I got something out of the purchase...