I originally posted this in the hardware forum but I think it sufficiently significant that it should be seen in the FSX forum:"You can see my post re upgrade opinions in the hardware forum where Jaap questioned my AGP aperture. When I eventually found it (in the advanced BIOS) it was set at 32MB - did a bit of reading on the forums and changed to 256MB and my blurries have gone! Obviously very worthwhile looking at. I will try and tweak some of my other settings now and see whether I can improve the fpsNigelVancouverMy System:AMD Athlon 64 3500+Gigabyte GA K8NS ULTRA-939 mobo ATI Radeon X800XL video card AGP 256MB (Omega drivers)2GB Kingston PC3200DDR RAMMaxtor 80GB 7200rpm hard driveMaxtor 200GB 7200rpm hard driveCreative Sound Blaster Live! with latest driversNEC FE950+ crt monitorCHProducts PCI yoke and pedalsWindows XP Home edition with SP2DirectX 9.0©Cooler Master 600W power supply Five case fans

What this bios setting does is allow your videocard to use part of the main PC RAM as though it was video memory. The drawback is that you get less system memory. But it can help a lot, although this is much slower than having the memory on your vid card.You don't want to overdo this setting though as you'll take too much system RAM away.The ideal I've found is to have at least a total of 256MB available for the videocard if you've 1GB of system RAM. So if you've a 128MB videocard, then set an equal amount for the AGP aperture size.It's probably not worth letting it go below 64 no matter what your memory.I think I've currently got mine set on 256GB, with a 128MB videocard and 1GB of total system RAM. It's probably too high a setting for the other games I play, but has helped with FSX.

http://www.rojakpot.com/showFreeBOG.aspx?lang=0&bogno=32Greg

I assume that if my bios doesn't have an AGP aperture option, that my graphics card is a PCIe and doesn't have an AGP aperture? Or is there someplace else I can set this than my bios setup?Dell D810 with 64 MB ATI Mobility X300Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

That was true in my case. I was set at 64mb when I wasrunning FS9. I had some trouble when I first cranked upFSX, and the AGP aperature was one of the first things I looked at. I upped it to 128, and that cured quite a bit. I upped to 256, and maybe slightly better, so I left it there. Once I did that, I didn't have the blurries unlessI overdid the autogen and sapped my vid ram dry. So I don't overdo the autogen. I noticed another thing today about the frame rate slider.Setting it to "unlimited" does indeed seem to give a betterframe rate in some, or maybe most areas. With FS9, it didn't seem to matter much, or maybe works differently.IE: if a box was capable of 25 fps at a certain location,it would do that 25 whether set to "40", or set to "unlimited".But I did some tests over Houston, and found that in an "average" area, running "unlimited" was giving me maybe 5+more fps vs running it at "40". With it set at 40, I'd maybe average 15-16. With it unlimited, I was getting in the highteens, bumping over 20 quite a bit. There is a downside tho..It doesn't seem to be a "magic bullet" as far as dense airports.I tried Miami, and it would start faster at unlimited, but usually idle back to near what it was doing at "40". But in an average area, I do see an increase in the averageframe rates when set to unlimited. So I think I'm gonna keepit at that instead of "40". Whats kinda weird about this is I'm talking about areas that get 20's fps. Not even closeto 40..But sure nuff, on my 9800pro, "UL" is better in mostplaces. I'll test more though just to make sure it's notsome fluke. BTW, this has been mentioned before, but thoughtI'd throw in my positive results.MK

Could someone assist as I am not a pc specialist like many of you, and not quite confortable in getting into the bios, and I would like to try this agp aperture tweak.To enter bios, you just press F1 just before OS start (Black screen ?), is this correct ?How do you identify the line to be amended (agp, video memory ?)Once updated, you just save (s) and exit (e) ? Is this correct ?Please kindly advisePatrick Switzerland

>Could someone assist as I am not a pc specialist like many of>you, and not quite confortable in getting into the bios, and I>would like to try this agp aperture tweak.>>To enter bios, you just press F1 just before OS start (Black>screen ?), is this correct ?>>How do you identify the line to be amended (agp, video memory>?)>>Once updated, you just save (s) and exit (e) ? Is this correct>?>>Please kindly advise>>Patrick Switzerland>Diferent machines/BIOS's follow different procedures. It usually tells you on the boot up screen unless you use a boot Logo.Dell is usually F-10, most machines you just need to tap the delete key a few times before you get to the Windows screen.Try the Delete, Dell try F-10, no luck, try looking in your docs.If it's an Award BIOS it's most likely Delete.Go to "Advanced Chipset Options"The line is usually " AGP Aperture", highlite it and press enter you should see:3264128256highlite the one you want and hit enter again.Then tap the escape ESC key to get to BIOS interface.Highlite "Save and Exit"Y (yes)hit enter and it will boot.

Hi, I'ld like to add a couple of words to the article Greg posted. Since it doesn't mention a 512MB setting, I fear it might be slightly outdated? IMHO, a 128MB aperture seems good start with 256MB GPUs. Less would be counter productive because FSX easily sends 200-300MB to the card. If you still get the blurries, perhaps increase agp-aperture to 256? IMHO-2, we shouldn't move too close to our physical memory limits. I don't know when 'it' is triggered, but I obtain the most regular performance, if I don't exceed my GPU memory by ca 80%. FSX seems to be a lot about RAM-tuning. Besides, why not reserve a fair chunk for your agp-aperture if you have 2GBs? As far as I would dare to judge, it's probably better to swap to RAM than the HD. With 1GB FlyTendos, users will obviously have be more cautious with their aperture. Leaving you with a tonguebreaker: I presume the article assumes lower amounts of RAM are in our boxes. :-) With lower amounts of RAM, the article is 100% precise. Just to add to thoughts... :-) Kind regards Jaap

PatrickIf you have the mbo manual look in there. I have a GigaByte mbo with the Award BIOS, and my AGP aperture is in the Advanced BIOS which is accessed once the main BIOS is up and showing, then you press Ctrl-F1Good luck but follow the BIOS instructions explicitly!Nigel

>Patrick>>If you have the mbo manual look in there. I have a GigaByte>mbo with the Award BIOS, and my AGP aperture is in the>Advanced BIOS which is accessed once the main BIOS is up and>showing, then you press Ctrl-F1>>Good luck but follow the BIOS instructions explicitly!>>Nigel>>>Thats what I was trying to point out to him, they are all different.The problem when some of my customers come in with a machine that uses a boot up logo, it gives no clue what key presses get you into the BIOS.It dont matter if it's Award, AMI, Mr. Bios, etc.I fumble around until I find the right deal and rese the boot up logo from BIOS if possible.They seem to allway's misplace the manual?

My AGP size is set to 128 megs. I have 2 GB RAM and a 128 ATI 9800Pro video card.