Sure, Max autogen and scenery complexity at 40 fps is easy depending on your other settings and the resolution you run at. Saying, "If you can't do that on an i7, you are doing something terribly wrong", is really too broad of a generalization. Especially considering the range of other hardware involved along with the graphics settings both inside as well as outside the simulator. Not to mention the altitude and distance you are from the scenery and what other add-ons are involved. FSX with very high settings and a high level of AI with weather can drop even a well oc'd i7 to it's knees...unfortunately.

Agreed. My specs are below and I'm still struggling in Manhattan. In the default Cessna I hit an occasional 20 FPS but was more offten down in the 10-15 range. That's flying the Hudson Corridor at 800-1000 ft ASL with AI air and ground traffic relatively high, per the original Nick N tuning specifications. Also using the FPS Limiter set at 30. Weather theme was Fair Weather. I can do much better in Seattle (15 lowest, 20 on average) but there's something about NYC... To those who say that FPS isn't everything - you're right. My Hudson flights are choppy. My Seattle flights are smooth, even at low frames, and feel OK.Alan

Agreed. My specs are below and I'm still struggling in Manhattan. In the default Cessna I hit an occasional 20 FPS but was more offten down in the 10-15 range. That's flying the Hudson Corridor at 800-1000 ft ASL with AI air and ground traffic relatively high, per the original Nick N tuning specifications. Also using the FPS Limiter set at 30. Weather theme was Fair Weather. I can do much better in Seattle (15 lowest, 20 on average) but there's something about NYC... To those who say that FPS isn't everything - you're right. My Hudson flights are choppy. My Seattle flights are smooth, even at low frames, and feel OK.Alan

Yikes. In Seattle with megascenery installed, ultimate traffic 2 at 75% on both GA and heavies, GraphicsX enhancement and all kinds of other misc addons, I am a solid 30fps sitting on the runway in my dodo helo. It gets down to mid 20's here and there around KSEA but once I'm out of there it's a solid 40-50fps even with water on 2 medium and autogen on high. I'm running a 920 o/c'd to around 4ghz so we have similar performance. Are you setting the fps limiter within fsx? You should be getting better performance than that. My E8400 system that I just replaced got better than what you're getting.