Looking for improved 737NG performance I purchased a new computer: P4 3.2 Northwood processor, Intel D865GLC Motherboard, 1 GB Ram and an ATI Radeon X800 video card, all in a larger cube dedicated to FS9. Norton Anti-virus is installed. I use Active Sky and Ultimate Traffic. The machine runs hot (even though I started with the Prescott chip and exchanged it for the earlier Northwood). The exhaust air is 40-42 degrees C. Display/traffic sliders are gernerally set mid way. In the air, frame rates (locked at 30) are at or near the top end for the first couple of hours, but they drop below 15 close to or at the large airports. Thereafter frame rates drop to around 20 in 2D, 15 or less in VC, and below that in spot view. Hat switch view changes in 2D cause stutters throughout. I do not think I have any hope of adding any scenery enhancements or airport addons as I did on my previous machine.Happily my supplier is determined to do what he can including changing to an Athlon chip if I wish. I would be grateful for any advice, suggestions, or comments on what I might do to improve my flying machine.Peter Lowry

Hi Peter,While the AMD 64 CPU's are generally recognized as the better choice for gaming today, your system should do well.First and foremost get rid of some of the junk on your hard drive. You mention that you have Norton installed... you don't need it. There are plenty of other options available, and many are freeware. AVG and Avast are very good anti-virus packages.Are you using Ken Salter's FSAutostart? It is the gamers best friend, and is available here in the library. Take some time to study and learn it and then use it for all your games. Also, visit Blackviper's site to better understand which services need to be running and which do not. You'll be surprised. http://www.blackviper.com/index.htmlRegarding your heat issue, this is a very good choice for your system http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-118-113&depa=0 Also, Thermalright make truly outstanding options for air cooling. Additionally, you need to make sure that plenty of air is moving thru your case. Be certain the case fans are properly located and turning to move air from the front and then easily exhaust it out the back.Good luck,Greg

I recently moved up to the A64 (from an XP3200+) and found that performance increased anywhere from 50 to 100% from my previous setup (all sliders to the right). Having said that, I can still conjure up combinations of performance-demanding addons like AS2004, UT @ 100% and the PMDG 737NG that bring my frame rates into the mid-teens and even down towards 10FPS at a fully (and I mean FULLY) populated and ATC-active KORD. Perhaps a faster video card would bump me up in these scenarios but, given that I get virtually no difference in FPS between no and full (6X/16X perf) AA/AF, I don't think I will see much resultant gain.Generally though, at medium complexity and populated airports, any weather condition and my trusty PMDG 737NG steed, I pull 30-40 FPS on the ground and 30-100 (very weather dependent) in the air and down to 25 FPS on approach. I am presently flying around Africa with my VA and quite regularly see my FPS in the 40-60 band with ocassional spikes past 100. Overall, I am very satisfied with my jump onto the A64 bandwagon, and being able to overclock up to 3800+ speed certainly helped in my quest.On the heat side of things, I haven't seen my CPU temp go above 50C, even with overclocking and minor overvolting. An interesting point to note is that the A64 multipliers and core voltage can easily be changed on the fly. I am using a utility called RightMark CPU Clock, which allows me to set minimum and maximum multiplier/voltage configurations, which are auto selected depending on CPU load. I would use AMD's cool and quiet feature of this CPU, but it doesn't allow me to bump my Vcore up at the same time, and I need that extra 0.05V Vcore at 2.43GHz for full prime95-withstanding stability :).Right now I have the CPU forced to the minimum setting (4x multiplier, 0.9V Vcore giving 1.08GHz CPU speed) whilst in cruise at FL370 in the PSS A340 over Algeria with a scattered cloud layer at 16000ft, all sliders right and 6X/16X AA/AF. I'm getting about 20-25 FPS (not bad for a 1GHz CPU hey!) and my CPU temp is 33/34C in a case temp of 30C in a 24C room. :-kewl Obviously, I don't run my system like this all the time, but it does show just how cool the A64 can run and still punch out semi-descent performance.I wish you luck in your quest for frame rates, but if there is one thing I hope you take away from my experience it is that even the fastest of current hardware can't tame the FS-with-addons FPS beast in every situation.Gary

I want to thank all three of you who have taken time to respond to my inquiry. I have the Zalman copper cooler and would hope I do not have to contemplate water cooling. There must be hundreds with systems similar to mine operating FS9 satisfactorily. It looks like I am in for trying to achieve incremental improvement, something I had expected would not be necessary with the "power" I have. Thank you again.Peter.

>There>must be hundreds with systems similar to mine operating FS9>satisfactorily. Peter, There area but people often realize there is a limit to even what the fastest computers can do with FS9 therefore folks go for some compromised settings. It may be purely a matter of you expecting too much from your system. Also, as someone else told you Norton Antivirus may be something to look at. I use Avast - it is free and has very little impact on performance.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

Gary, what did you use before upgrading?RH