Hi guys. I've read a lot of threads about "what system is the best?" and I appreciate all the knowledge that's here. With that in mind, I'm not looking for recommendations about what is the best hardware, but I'm interested in hearing about your real-world experience. Has anyone out there achieved the "Holy Grail" of smooth performance at high-density airports in an add-on aircraft with complicated weather?Is there anyone reading this post who can sit at KSEA with all the sliders to the right, with a ramp full of AI traffic, with 5 layers of Active Sky clouds, in the level-D 767, and show framerates above 20 all the time?(A little blip down to 17 here and there isn't a big deal, but slowing to 12 fps when a jumbo taxis by means you haven't captured the Holy Grail.)The lucky gentleman who authored this post:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=12204&page=seems to have captured the Holy Grail, with fps remaining above 20 no matter what he throws at his computer. But of course, his system is top of the line in every respect--a real thing of beauty.Is anyone else getting 20+ fps at all times? If so, what kind of CPU, MB, RAM, graphics card, and hard drives are you using? What is the minimum setup needed to glimpse that Holy Grail? ---Will

I think hat many need to understand as with this post...you can set a lot of hardware up to run FPS but with what quality, what AA, AF and rez?What weather? What time of day? FS9 will run to sets of textures over the terrain at dusk/dawn if everything is "on" Etc. Etc.Just saying hard to get Apple to Apple comparisons if you are not careful.

I think most are more interested in the hardware for FSX than trying to CPR on this antique.Yes I love FS2004 and have invested alot of money in addons and still buy a few but Im not going to throw any more money at it. Alot have and still are trying to find the holy grail setup but the problem is that the latest greatest cutting edge stuff does little and usually does nothing but expose the sims weaknesses.I am enjoying it for what it is and not trying to force it by throwing money at it to be something it cannot be.

Thanks JimJam, your comments are very much appreciated. But I'm wondering about the whole FS philosophy. It seems like FS has always designed a platform that runs a few years behind the hardware that's available to make it go. Like now: I bought my computer about the time that FS9 came out, and with the default Cessna things are cool. But with only a few add-ons (ActiveSky, Level-D, Ultimate Traffic) I get 10-12 fps at "major" airports.I'm not comlpaining about what MS did. They just built cpapbilities into their software that overtaxed what computers could handle at the time.Why should we assume that FSX will be any different? In other words, if you buy a perfect rig for FSX tonight, why would you think that in 6 months it would still be adequate? I anticipate that no matter how good FSX is, there will be ways for MS and add-on developers to very quickly create bundles of awesome "must-have" add-ons that will bring us all back to 10-12 fps.So that brings me to the idea behind my original post. Designing a system that could find the Holy Grail for FS9 makes sense. The hardware is much, much cheaper now than it was 3 years ago. And it will take an equally long time before FSX irons out all its kinks and makes its way onto fast, cheap CPUs. In the meantime, why not settle for a fast and fluid FS9--which would actually be quite a fine sim if it could run reliably above 20 fps.So: is there anyone out there who has managed to run FS9 at 20+ fps under all circumstances, or is that a true Holy Grail--mythical, elusive, unobtainable?---Will

"They just built cpapbilities into their software that overtaxed what computers could handle at the time."Not capabilities, just more graphics and things going on that the cpu's and cards could handle. And still do!They didnt design the sim looking into the future,especially 4 years or so which is back to my point. The sim doesnt support todays latest greatest hardware or programming techniques.My best freind of 20 yrs own a computer store.Most of his gaming customers are into the latet games,shooters,online war games. These programs use and take advantage of todays hardware and upgrading and keeping current makes a big difference in speed and graphics quality.Computers cost me nothing and I get to tinker with alot of the latest hardware and I have not found the "holy grail". Other than speeding up access times,loading and cutting down on stutters, nothing I have tried allows you to crank up all the graphics settings with ai high without occasional dips into the teens. Throw in Active Sky weather,high end addon plane,My traffic 2006,Fspassngers,Ultimate terrain,Bev and I dont care what kind of super computer you have. The old graphics engine cannot push it fast enough to keep up.BTW- My main computer that I have fs2004 on,all 17 gigs worth, is a AMD 3400+,Asus a8v deluxe, 6800gt,2 gigs ram all tweeked. The borrowed computer we experimented with was pci express, with various cards, tried dual proccessors,SLI ect, the performance difference IMo was minimal. Again,better load times,some fps gain in high density areas and ability to run higher rez. But NO holy grail.

Having almost the identical system as the above except with an ATI 1900XT, it does fly, but is it also very obvious that FS9 due to it's age can not really get a good return on the investment.Games like Black & White II, Need for Speed Most Wanted, etc are purely in the staggering catagory in the improvements over my old P4 3.2 gig & ATI 9800XT system.Since I have both machines side by side, I can do some pretty decent comparisons and I have to honestly say all the money in the world is not going to make FS9 run much better due to it's dated code.When a game other then FS9 gets an almost tripling of frame rates running maximum detail (20 fps to 60 fps) and FS9 gives you 5-10 FPS, you pretty much know it's the code, not the machine.Unless you have a burning desire to spend money now, put it in the bank and wait for Vista to ship. At least then you will be sure that the stuff you buy has Vista drivers for the hardware.Having seen some of the claims of the next FS speed improvements and seeing how *current* code screams on the latest hardware, I really am forced to support those claims based on what I personally see here with high intensity graphics games. It is simply saying just how dated FS9's graphic routines are that they can come out with such an improvement.

Well what a great subject, here is my two cents, I have been using Microsoft since the 98 days, and im not impressed with the explanations on why we cannot get above 20 frame rates, I have been upgrading vid cards, cpu, s just to keep up with 98 thru fs9, I have bought vid cards costing five hundred dollars, I buy or upgrade cpu, s just about every year and when it comes to FS9 I have to cater to its needs, tweak this or tweak that, in fact it is the only game that I know of that I have two tweak on a daily basis, I have doom , unreal , fear, etc. , and all I have to do is turn it up and none of those games talk back to me, except FS9, it bosses me around.Im not going out to buy any more equipment just to get minimal results, I have spent well into the thousands on this beloved hobby, (and I probably will continue because im hooked)JSo from my experience yeah you can go out and buy the best system out there and you will find it still is not enough. You will still find yourself in the most used part of the game and that is the settings section:)Microsoft gives you the specs on the system you should have to run there software, well that is if you are running all default planes with no add-ons what so ever, and guess what I still only get 29 30 35 fps. And gentleman im well aware of all the anti, AA, setting s and stuff. All im saying gentleman is that FSX will probably be no different, and it will demand the most of your machine giving no respect to what ever vid card you have or cpu, this is from my experience only, oh and one other note I also wrote a long email to nvidia about there product, and they said with there high end cards they guarantee 100 fps or more on games if not it is the software manufacture we need to look at HHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMm.Avsim will be having a conference this year in Washington D.C. and it is close enough for me to attend, and Microsoft will be sponsoring Avsim, I will be there to ask a whole lot of questions:)Oh and by the way Avsim congratulation on your new sponsorThank You.................................Robert