Howdy Folks,I have been running FSX on a 4 year old AGP machine since FSX was released. For the most part, I got away with it by basically turning everything down in the sim and just sticking with FS9. I had plans to upgrade the home machine toward the end of 08 but I did need to purchase a Laptop for work and such. I ended up getting a Dell 1520 with the following specs:2.2ghz Core 2 Duo2 Gigs of Ram8600m GT 256 Nvidia120 gig driveI recieved the laptop yesterday, and to be perfectly honest with you, I'm stunned at just how well it handles FSX. It easily doubles the performance I was seeing with my old P4 2.8 gig AGP machine. I can run Medium to High settings on everything and still see 15 to 20fps over a pretty crowded area. I will admit that I am quite happy with 15fps as I remember playing early sims on machines that could not handle anything above 2 to 3 fps.The only problem I am seeing with FSX is of course blurry textures and a real bad case of stutters. I was wondering if any of you folks could throw an idea or two my way to improve on these issues. I have searched a little on the forums and have seen a fellow by the name of "Gary" who has a 1520 as well speak of cfg changes made to improve things. Perhaps he could jump in as well?Kindest Regards,-John

John,I do not have a problem with blurry textures and stutters, which is strange considering our systems are essentially identical. The only thing I can think of is that I am running the drivers as they came on the notebook, so perhaps if you have updated any of them, especially if they are non-Dell released like video drivers, then you may want to try rolling back to the original install.The other thing I found, which I believe is common to all Vista installations not just on the 1520, is that if you run FSX in windowed mode like I do, you have to set your task bar to autohide, as the appearance of the windows start icon over any of the FSX screen causes a drastic drop in FPS and likely stutters as well.I have not made any cfg changes, as I find FSX SP1 runs just fine on it without having to make such changes.Gary

Hi Gary,Gary, I'd like to ask you a question. How come you are running FSX in windowed mode, rather than full-screen? Isn't full 3D rendering only happening in full-screen mode?Just curious.Thanks,Mitch

Mitch,This is a habit from my multi-screen desktop, where I need to run in windowed mode to see all the other stuff I have running on the second monitor. Full 3D rendering does happen in windowed mode and since you can make the menu bar disappear inFSX, you are only left with an unobtrusive window bar.Gary