Hi there everyone - I am currently running a PIII 1000MHz pc with win 2000 prof and a 64Mb Radeon 7200 graphics card (on the system properties, it says i have 261Mb or RAM, so im guessing thats really 256Mb?). Whilst this is normally ok to cope with FS2004 and PSS A320/A340, I am finding that I am experiencing low frame rates (in the 4's and 5's) when taxying around with alot of traffic on (PAI and others). This is not too bad when i'm flying as I normally get around 15 - 20 fps. I unfortunately cannot start or especially end a flight at an airport with alot of traffic because of this low fps.I am considering purchasing a new graphics card (128Mb or even higher) to help this situation and I was just wondering if it would be worth me buying a better one, or would the improvement in performance be pretty marginal because of my relatively low CPU speed. I'm not sure if simply getting a better graphics card is the answer, or if its my CPU and RAM that need upgrading to see better FS2004 performance?Anyway, thanks for reading all that, i know I've gone on a bit! I appreciate anyone who has any opinions on this...CheersSteve

Steve - I'm afraid that what you see now is about the best the P3 is going to do. I wouldn't upgrade the graphics as the CPU is just too much of a bottleneck. Adding some physical memory will help the overall framerate as it will reduce some of the stutters but more RAM, per se, will not increase the maximum framerate, e.g., the 4-5 FPS will still be 4-5 FPS. (The low FPS problem is primarily one of the CPU having to compute a large number of polygons in dense scenery situations. That's why the FPS is OK in the air but not so good moving around on the ground.) Doug

Hey Doug,please see my specs in my signe...I run a AMD 3200 and have 1GB of RAM and a middle range graphic card etc.At ground of addon airports like UKscenery2000 EGLL pro or KJFK from Simflyers AND Manhatten from Aerosoft, I get a real FPS problem there.Is this now a problem of my graphiccard? Or the slow RAM I use? They cannot make 400MHz, they do about 233 MHz. Where could and should I upgrade my hardware, if I had the money for it???See attached my dxdiag output textfile.

Hi Steve,Would agree with with Doug and Torben on this. I ran up until recently very similar spec, in fact 866mhz piii. The difference being 512mb single stick ram and gf4 ti4200. AI really hammered me to the point of a nearly full upgrade. Tough call I guess - possibly gonna have to live with AI level a bit down, and in the mean time, try and save a little bit more money up (Santa time soon ?)I waited (and saved) nearly 4 years to upgrade mine.Good Luck....Ed :-)