One problem that I have always had with FSX is that there is ocasional stuttering where the display actually stops for several seconds and more often just for very brief moments. This is particularly annoying when I am on an approach. I recently started displaying the frame rates and find that they vary considerably. The target that was automatically set for my ATI Radeon 1300 graphcs card was 21 fps. Right now I am running it at 24 fps but it does not seem to make any difference where I set the target because the frame rates just continue to vary from around 2 fps up to the target and continue to exhibit the stuttering problem. I am running VFR add-on Scenery but I seem to recall that I had the same problem before I installed the add-on scenery. My system has dual 3.2 gig processors and 2 gig of memory. Another interesting aspect of the problem is that when I run Battle of Britain it runs very smoothly with no stuttering problems. Can anyone shed any light on what may be going on here. Before anyone asks I control the times when XP and Norton updates are done and when the Norton scans occur so that there is no conflight with FSX.

... I installed the add-on scenery.

you need to adjust your detail sliders to find a 'sweet spot' for your system. this takes time.

Battle of Britain it runs very smoothly with no stuttering problems. Can anyone shed any light on what may be going on here.

FSX is different than battle of b.. stating that game A, B or C as running 'fine' and FS is 'slow' are 'apples to oranges'. FS uses more memory, more CPU cycles and taxes the GPU more than others. FS is it's own animal.

Before anyone asks I control the times when XP and Norton updates are done and when the Norton scans occur so that there is no conflight with FSX.

turn OFF the anti-virus; as in it is not running, as in it isn't 'protecting' you system one bit. if you don't it will scan each file that is accessed by the game ... which are many when you come in for a landing as the 'world detail' is being populated with taxiways, aircraft, cars, trucks, building, etc.--

you need to adjust your detail sliders to find a 'sweet spot' for your system. this takes time.FSX is different than battle of b.. stating that game A, B or C as running 'fine' and FS is 'slow' are 'apples to oranges'. FS uses more memory, more CPU cycles and taxes the GPU more than others. FS is it's own animal.turn OFF the anti-virus; as in it is not running, as in it isn't 'protecting' you system one bit. if you don't it will scan each file that is accessed by the game ... which are many when you come in for a landing as the 'world detail' is being populated with taxiways, aircraft, cars, trucks, building, etc.--

Another thing to realize is that it doesn't matter in FSX what your frame rate is, all that matter is what you see on the screen and that it's smooth to you. On my old system I only got about 15 to 20 FPS but it was smoother then my buddies who was getting 30 to 40.

One problem that I have always had with FSX is that there is ocasional stuttering where the display actually stops for several seconds and more often just for very brief moments. This is particularly annoying when I am on an approach. I recently started displaying the frame rates and find that they vary considerably. The target that was automatically set for my ATI Radeon 1300 graphcs card was 21 fps. Right now I am running it at 24 fps but it does not seem to make any difference where I set the target because the frame rates just continue to vary from around 2 fps up to the target and continue to exhibit the stuttering problem. I am running VFR add-on Scenery but I seem to recall that I had the same problem before I installed the add-on scenery. My system has dual 3.2 gig processors and 2 gig of memory. Another interesting aspect of the problem is that when I run Battle of Britain it runs very smoothly with no stuttering problems. Can anyone shed any light on what may be going on here. Before anyone asks I control the times when XP and Norton updates are done and when the Norton scans occur so that there is no conflight with FSX.

Try running with the target frame rate set to unlimited - I find this smooths things out for me with higher indicated frame rates - however don't get hung up in the FPS counter, or you'll be forever chasing your tail, instead turn it off and tweak your settings until the sim looks smooth, or smoother, to you.I highly recommend you read Nick's FSX Tuning Guide if you have not already done so. It covers another important item as well, namely, defragmenting your disk.Read here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Ya...?num=1208959973Note: if you do take Nick's advice, be sure to follow it in the order it is written, and do not skip any sections - it's written in a structured, methodical way.

Another quick trick is to use windowed mode versus full screen mode. Turn down the water slider to at most 1x High to see if that helps. Turn off bloom. Turn off advanced animations as an experiment. Make sure your drivers are up to date, and defrag the drive that FSX is on (although NickN's guide is very specific on how to do that). Most likely, you will need to play with sliders a lot. My guess is traffic issues, you might want to bottom those slider out. Lots of traffic generates a lot of graphical overhead on approach, which causes the issue you describe. In addition, major passenger airline traffic will call upon the use of animated jetways in FSX, which are huge frame rate killers. Unless you need to know that the jetway is connecting to that 747 three terminals way while you are on final approach, just turn that stuff down or off. There were no animated jetways in the Battle of Britain as far as I recall, unless they showed up in the Director's Cut. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff Reviewer AVSIM

... however don't get hung up in the FPS counter, or you'll be forever chasing your tail, instead turn it off ...

this negative 'feature' of FS, the ability to show the game's framerates, has caused so many, so many, SO MANY people get hung-up on a number and loose the forest (enjoyable game-play) while looking at this single tree (a frame-rate number).--

hi,I remember that I found a tip which gave me a 100% frame rate increase. Well, from 1 FPS to 2FPS....Seriously now. I've tried nearly everything only to get meager improvements. To tell the truth I was fed up with all those so called tips which improved FPS by 0.00001%. Now with no traffic at all it is OK. But the best tip that I have used was that free program called game booster. Easy to use and effective. Give it a try.Now FSX is flyable and I am beginning to enjoy it (but my favourite sim is still...censored)

Thank you all for your advice. After digesting what was being said I did a fair amount of tweaking with the sliders and have managed to get enough performance improvement to make FSX viable. There is still an issue of some stuttering but it seems to be primarily during taxiing. I also have had a few several second stops but not nearly as many as before and the smoothness on approach and landing seems to have increased. As an aside I did try Game Booster some time ago and found no improvement related to its use. In fact it disabled my headphones and VrInsight M-Panel. I could probably have played with it to avoid whatever service caused that problem but given that there was no performance improvement I did not feel it worth the effort. I do sense that there may be some inherent performance issues within FSX's software that will always be there regardless what tweaking may be done. I also wonder if surveyed how many people would say that FSX runs absolutely smoothly for them regardless of the system resources. Interesting. Again, thank you all for your responses. They are much appreciated.

Do you change your views much as you taxi, or look around? I remember from FS9 having to do that at the gate to allow the sim some time to load all the textures in. Otherwise, Flight Sim will load lots of textures as you taxi, which can cause stutters. I don't even think about it as I do it, just habit now. That might help a little.When you say "regardless of system resources", I would kindly suggest that would qualify any answer as to how FSX would run. If I was scooping money out of Fort Knox, or if I was heir to Saudi oil, then I should be able to construct a computer that would run FSX at maximum settings at top speed frame rates. Even then, though, FSX isn't a perfect program, and I imagine it might show a few bugs from time to time. FSX grinds to a halt on all systems for things like scenery reloads. Still, FSX does have its charms...Even without Rockefeller-type backing, a high-end quad core with some tweaking and a hot fast graphics card should probably allow FSX to max out. I've never seen it for myself, but I am guessing if you poured what $3K? $5K? into a top gaming system, you'd be set.Most of the rest of us put up with flights that have the occasional hiccup. Some folks end up with some nasty issues, though, which is hard seeing as how FSX isn't getting much love from Microsoft these days. I tend to fly in underpopulated areas, which makes for decent frame rates (40s), nice scenery (if it's not in the desert), low traffic, and no jetways. Heathrow to O'Hare I stay away from. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM