Hi GuysMy normal departure airport is UK2000's Stansted Extreme which can get very busy at times, especially early in the morning, with a serious amount of Ryanair & easyjet traffic. Without a doubt, this does have an impact on frame rates, which usually sit around 18-20fps with all this traffic. Frame rate limit is set to 25.However, the other day, i decided to fly out extremely early. At the time, EGSS was absolutely full to brim with AI but, as it was so early, none of it was actually active. Frame rates then sat solidly at the 25fps limit.As no expert on this subject, i'm just wondering if this compounds the fact that FS9 is truly more CPU intensive than GPU ? Am i correct in assuming that, although the AI hadn't "woken up", the workload for the GPU was no different to that if it had ? Hence, once the AI starts to wake up, any drop in frame rate is down to the CPU unable to provide the required horse power to maintain it at 25fps ? Basically, what i'm concluding (wrongly or rightly) is that, in my case, a graphics card upgrade would be a waste of time and money.Just wondering if someone could comment on this observation...RegardsGary

It's been my experience that AI draws resources even though they are asleep. The vid card still has to draw the model and the textures.My frames were much better after installing a new card with on board memory.KJ

AI which is not moving has less of an impact upon the CPU than AI which is moving - even if you cannot see it. At EGSS - the EGLL and EGKK traffic do have an impact on your performance.The AI which is in view does take more resouces.When AI wake up 15 minutes before their takeoff, expecially early in the morning, it may involve loading the additionaly texture - lightmap .BMP. Even if the lightmap does have to load - the AI aircraft will add extra graphics calls to display the lights.Another possible issue is the change in LOD as your aircraft / eyepoint moves closer or farther to AI aircraft.For FS2004, I found getting my RAM up to 2GB and a 512MB graphics card make all the difference in the world - without upgrading my processor.