Just wanted to pass on my recent experience with my Radion X800 XT PE video card. I decided to turn on "wait for vertical refresh rate" to its max setting to see if image quality was better in FS2K4. What I got instead were frame rates which almost brought my system to its knees. I was getting an average of 30 FPS and higher within FS2K4 and suddenly got frame rates which struggled to get above 20 FPS. Flying my PMDG 737 the frames went below 10. I thought I had a video driver problem and then remembered I had changed the wait for vertical refresh rate setting. Turning it completely off my FPS went back up to frames over 30 FPS. I never realized one setting could do so much damage to my FPS. So, if you have vertical refresh rate turned on, I highly recommend you turn it completely off. There is no visible change to the image quality with it on. This should work with all systems but FYI, my system specs are as follows:Dimension XPS Intel Pentium 4 Processor 560 (3.6GHz) with Hyper Threading TechOne GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz256 MB PCI Express x16 Radeon X800 XTSony Trinitron 21" CRT MonitorAA is set at 4XAF is set at 4XMipmap is set to QualityTruform is turned offHope this helps some of you suffering frame rate blues.Jim Young

Hi Jim,More info about vsync and it's effect on buffering here: http://www.teamradeon.com/articles/guides/...vsync_guide.aspCheers,Greg

Excellent article! Thanks for the link Greg. Jim

Very good article. I recommend reading it especially you experience what is commonly refered to here as "micro stutters".So, if you want really smooth FPS in FS, enable VSync and lock your framerate to an integer fraction of the refresh rate. E.g. 85 Hz with framerate locked at 28 (and make sure your system achieves over 28fps constantly too).I normally disable VSync. Since my LCD only supports low refreshrates (60, 70 and 75 hz) I don't get enough fractions of the framerate causing big changes in smoothness as it switches between e.g. 35 and 23 FPS. The teraing doesn't bother me much (you get used to it).

JimmiG, I am interested in the part of your response where you say you have disabled the VSync due to your LCD refresh rates of 60, 70, and 75 Hz. I was under the impression that refresh rates did not apply to LCD monitors, especially if they are running in a true digital input mode. I have a ADi 19" A905 LCD and I can either plug in an analog or a DVI cable. Right now I only have the DVI cable so my question is am I really getting a true digital input from my Radion 9800 Pro? The control panel on the front of the monitor is confusing as to which mode I am actually in and the manual that came with the monitor is even more confusing. Of course the tech folks at ADi are not in during the holidays. What led me to this thread in the first place was that I am trying to find out a way to get rid of sparkle effect that appears in FS2004 on mainly vertical scenery objects and over the ground in the distance while flying low in a faster aircraft like the 737 compared to the 172. Looking at an object at less than 90 degrees seems to make the problem worse. I usually do not see this sparkling effect when I look out either side window in flight, only when in the exterior view mode and or through the front windscreen. Am I experiencing the tearing that was discussed in the Radion link? If so, how is it to be minimized, especially now with the LCD monitor? This was always a problem with my old CRT too but my refresh rates were ususlly in the 85 MHz range.Terry