I just got a new rig built with an Intel Quad core Q6600, 4 gig of DDR2 ram, 2 500 gig HDDs, an Asus Nvidia 9800 GT with 512 ram, and Windows Vista Home Premium. It plays everything else wonderfully (just got Brothers in arms Hells highway, which people report as being problematic on even higher end machines, and that flies), but FSX, patched to SP2, barely gets above 9 FPS.I have to admit, that is with everything maxed out apart from the trafic, which is almost nil. Thing is, if I knock the sliders back to really minimum settings, nothing really changes. The Vista rating for my system is 5.1 (5.9 being the graphics card). I notice microsoft rate the game at 5.I haven't been through any of the CFG edits I seem to remember being out when the game was released. I heard they were incorporated into the service packs, and I find it hard to believe a CFG edit could have enough of an effect to still make it playable (I'd be happy to be proved wrong, though).Could it be a driver problem (It's come with 7.15.11.7824 installed, and Geforce PhysixX), or should I be overclocking? The MB is an Asus P5N-E SLI. I had a look in the manual and it says it comes with an "intelligent overclocking tool", though I coulnd;t see it in the Bios.Is it a card problem. I notice some chap on here commenting that he had Q6600 and a 9800 GTX and gets 50 FPSI have to say I'm really surprised about this. I can get better frame rates (about 16 or 17) on my old system, and that;s a 4 year old AMD XP3200 with a 6600 GT and 1 gig or ram. I just tested it, and on equal settings (sliders set to medium), the old machine gives me an average of about 15, yet I never get over 10 on the new machine. With the settings on the old machine maxed out, I get an average of about 7.5, which seems mad to me. Anyone got any suggestions where the problems might lie? This is really killing me.

Sorry, forgot to metion the Q6600 was rated at 240 Mhz (from memory).

Hmmmmm...I have less machine than you and my rating is 5.5. Which part is your lowest score? I run a cheap MB that I can't OC, so you should be able to do much better. Try turning off anti-virus while using FSX and see if that helps, or at leat telling it to ignore FSX.With the new drivers I get the best results with frames locked in the 20s and in full screen mode.Bob

Thanks for that. I get 5.1 on everything except the graphics card, which is 5.9.I know my board and card are clockable, but I was hoping I woudn;t need to do that, being happy with good visuals at anything around the 20fps mark. But the way it is now is ridiculous.

You have not really given much information, so it's hard to give you specific things to. But suffice it to say, you should be doing more than 9 fps with your setup in 99% of situations.At some point you are going to want to overclock that rig, because with the Asus board you have it is made to overclock, and besides, FSX will be much better at 3.0 ghz than it is at 2.4 ghz. But before you overclock, first do this:I would begin with all sliders left, default 737 loaded at runway 27L Heathrow (EGLL). Sit in the VC or however you normally fly. Frame rate unlocked. Press SHIFT-Z a couple of times to get the frame rate counter display going. Note your fps on a piece of paper. It should be 80-90-100-150 fps. (On my system it is 148 fps). If you cannot achieve some tremendously high fps with all sliders left, you have cross-installed drivers, or some similar interference issue.Now pick a slider, any slider, and move it one notch right. Notice its fps impact, if any. Write this fps down. Do this one notch at a time with various sliders, all the while writing down fps values.Pretty soon, you will get an idea about what hurts your system, and what does not.Framerate testing works best when you have your fps counter set to display AVERAGE FRAME RATE, and let frame rate stabilize. Search the forum for how to do this, I can't remember offhand--it involves an FSX.cfg file edit.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

I don't know how much to believe the rating system. I run the lowly Vista 32 Home Basic. 64 is supposed to be better. FSX is a killer. Do you get low fps even away from large cities? If so, than we really need to help you. If not, than it may be a slider issue. Although, I am able to run most sliders very high, some maxed, except air traffic. I run in DX9, no bloom, lens flare, or shadows. If your box is stock, what is the make and model? If not, post some more info on it.Bob

Thanks for that, much appreciated.It isn;t a standard machine - made up at the local comp shop. What other info do you want?Here's some stuff I forgot to mention:I'm running UTX Europe, and have tried disabling it, but it made no difference.I'm running Vista 32 bit.It was the first game on the machine - fresh install on virgin drive. Again, many thanks for the input, and tell me what else you need to know.All the best

You're not going to get much more than that maxed settings...you must be flying in dense areas, like large cities?I guess I'd check the CPU throttling - not sure if your mobo has it, but I know some motherboards throttle down the CPU when it's not being used by an intensive program, or something like that.You should be able to run MOST settings at high, be sure the following are turned off:BloomDX10 mode (vc shadows etc)2x high water (try it at 2x low or medium)Also, I'm not sure about those drivers. Try out the 175.19's or just go with the latest nvidia drivers from their site.

Just as a 'for instance,' here's a setup to make comparisons:This is [email protected]/4G-Ram@800Mhz/9800GTX+/42" monitor at 19x10 - in windowed mode - . Two other 19" monitors are running with other FSX windows (CDU's, etc) and email clients, flightaware web pages, etc.nHancer 8xS AA, 16AF, etc. (I think it's the AA 8xS, but something here is helping clean-up the Vcockpit).FSX setting tabs setup:Graphics: Frame target unlimited, Res, 19x10x32. Trilinear/AA off. Global Tex 100%. Lens Flare/Adv Anim on.Aircraft: Vcockpit. Hi-res on. Exterior Settings, all on.Weather: 60mi clouds. Scenery: Left side (These are all Vcard related except water). All sliders 100% except water at 2xLow and ground shadows off. Right side (These are all CPU related. Play with these for FPS dial-in). Scenery Complex 100%, AG 75%, GS off, SE 100%.Traffic (These are all CPU related. Play with these for FPS dial-in): 20/20/0/10/10/10.Installed scenery: UTX/GEX/FSG scenerys.From the Vcockpit.Default airplanes run run at a smooth 20FPS over dense urban areas. Running an LAX approach starting at ~ 5000ft, through rollout. fully coupled approach/autoland with both 744 and the MD11 needs AG to 25% and all traffic off.

Thanks for that, chaps. I don;t know if I'll get any time to do any comparisons with the setup there before Monday. I'll also check on the MB setup. I had another look last night and couldn;t see anything. But I don;t know if there's some separate utilities on the MB disk that need installing. Roll on Monday when the kids are back at school.Once again, many thanks.

Hi,I just tried it with sliders set as above, flew around NYC, and got an average of about 7.5 FPS.That's way below the 20 or so for a similar rig. Any ideas where I should start?

Default airplane? NYC is a bad place to start. Get the Seattle benchmark run from the Avsim library and use that for your dial-in.1st, delete your fsx.cfg file and let it rebuild. Then try both full screen, and non-maximized windows (in various sizes). Right now, full screen cuts my frames by 75%. Bloom off, water to 2xlow, scenery shadows off. DX10 off, traffic off (to start), and the rest. You are not going to get the frames I mentioned - in Any - case with Any CPU at 2.4Ghz. Ya gotta overclock it to 3.6. Until then, just decrease your exception target by 40%. (f of FSX) CPU Clock on a single core = FPS. Multi cores will not help FPS, only scenery loading or "blurries."

>>Any ideas where I should start? Don't overcomplicate for now. Start with all sliders left and default aircraft as I said in my earlier post. Then report back on what you get.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT