Well, I've reinstalled FSX and tweaked with all I can do, OC'd my Q6600 as far as I can, (3.4), and I'm flying the Mustang at 24 fps real nice EXCEPT IN RAIN. The stutters in rain are pronounced. I've installed 256 clouds to try to help but still a lot of stutter. It seems Nick thinks there is nothing that I can do, as my CPU doesn't have enough throughput to use a GTX 285 and the GTX 260 is no better than my 8800 GTX. In the old days, (FS 2002), moving to a wider data path helped in the clouds. Why not now? Why not a GTX 285?Kdub

Well, I've reinstalled FSX and tweaked with all I can do, OC'd my Q6600 as far as I can, (3.4), and I'm flying the Mustang at 24 fps real nice EXCEPT IN RAIN. The stutters in rain are pronounced. I've installed 256 clouds to try to help but still a lot of stutter. It seems Nick thinks there is nothing that I can do, as my CPU doesn't have enough throughput to use a GTX 285 and the GTX 260 is no better than my 8800 GTX. In the old days, (FS 2002), moving to a wider data path helped in the clouds. Why not now? Why not a GTX 285?Kdub

Upgrading graphics cards won't help much in FSX performance, and you can definitley use the GTX 285 with your Q6600. You wont get as high performance as 1,000 Core i7 965, but you will get GREAT performance, though. Look @ 3DMark06. Some people have VERY high scores and they are running on Q6600s. Your CPU should be able to handle it.The problem with the clouds though, seems normal to me. In clouds the FPS reduces a bit, because unlike other games with volumetric clouds that render well on the GPU, FSX is CPU bound, and they use a weird technique of rendering clouds. The "3D" clouds in FSX are actually a bunch of 2D billboards and the system has to render each billboard. This puts a hit on the system. If you have HD clouds, try reducing the resolution.

I get stutters in clouds when I set AA outside the game. Try using in-game AA/AF and set your driver to "let the 3d application decide". The often recommended 8x AA in the nvidia driver seems to AA the clouds, which causes the stutter.

I get stutters in clouds when I set AA outside the game. Try using in-game AA/AF and set your driver to "let the 3d application decide". The often recommended 8x AA in the nvidia driver seems to AA the clouds, which causes the stutter.

I'll try that. In the mean time, Nick may be correct. I went to the Nvidia website to look at the 285. There is a utility there to tell you how your PC will benefit from the 285. The utility declared that my 3DMark score would go down if I upgraded to a gtx 285 from 15500 3DMarks to 15000! :(