Iv'e had FSX now since February and for the most part I guess it has been running pretty well. I bought my latest system just for FSX, cause I was told it should do just fine. I have been averaging about 25 fps in most areas, but that's the strange thing I noticed about FSX. Compared to FS9, FSX isn't as consistent. I mean you could be doing great at 25 -40 fps then all of a sudden come into an area like San Francisco and frames drop to 10 or so. This happened to me just yesterday. I also get occasional pauses or stutters I guess they're called, but more in an area such as San Fran. I've tweaked just about everything I can think of with the help of NickN's tuning steps, and AlacrityPC to shut down all unnecessary programs and services before starting up FSX. When I start up an addon aircraft such as the LD 767, I am probably pushing everything to the limit, but I am still OK until I hit an area like San Francisco where fps nosedives and the stutters and pauses take away the enjoyment.Before touching down at KSFO, I noticed things getting a little choppy, so I turned down traffic settings to 20% and although the landing was OK, there were annoying pauses right near touchdown and a framerate bordering on 10 or so.I'm hearing of simmers getting great consistent performance with FSX, and I'd love to be one of those. Things are adjusted according to NickN's reccomendations as far as settings in the program are concerned (I was afraid to try anything I didn't understand that envolved typing new config settings in Windows itself. All adjustments I made were in FSX windows with sliders and checkboxes) and I can't think of anything else to do to make things smoother. I guess I need advice from the experts out there that really understand the program and windows well and what makes FSX tick. I'm even willing to upgrade hardware in my system or add memory if necessary (when flying the 767 the sim sometimes locks up completely - "FSX is not responding" and I had to reboot and start over - isn't this memory related?) or add a new video card. (I've heard that NVIDIA cards are better for FSX than ATI?) Any help will sure be appreciated. Here are my specs:Gateway FX6800-01e with Vista HP-SP2, 64 bit, (Windows Experience Index 5.9 for whatever it's worth), Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 GHZ, 3.0 GB DDR3 Ram, ATI Radeon HD 4800 series video,ATI HDMI Audio, Realtek High Def Audio. As I said, performance is up and down, depending on the scenery area. Fine one minute then down hill fast. I'd like to get some addons such as a good whether program in the near future, but would like to stabilize and build up the sim first. Any help will surely be appreciated. Thanks. Regards, Tom

The most important action to reach your goal would be to over clock your Intel Core i7 CPU 920 to ~ 4 Ghz.

You could try enabling the in-game AA for some more fluid frame rates. That might contradict many other posts, but in my case it helped me quite a bit. I would also add a little bit more memory - 2x2GB dual channel is now as low as $50 and a very good investment. I doubt that your 3GB is all matched. You can also check, if FSX is using all cores (in taskmgr) and eventually adjust you AffinityMask in fsx.cfg. Last but not least it could be the ATI card - I don't have one, but I have read quite a few posts that they're having problems with anti-aliasing. Not sure.Good luck!!

I think your lowest rates are combo of add ons, settings, hardwareand where you are flying.Hardware:ATI Video cards can offer great frame ratesbut are impacted by 3D clouds as I recall.Test it by turning off all weather, and see if that helps, if so, you can decide if an nVidia card is worth the cost to allow better flight in weather.CPU speed, you have a nice setup but as the poster said above FSX excels with CPU's clocked higher and higher, say at 3.8GHz or more.Since you have a branded (Gateway) PC, you may or may not be able to over clock it.You would have to look in your bios first to see if its possible.If so and you decide to venture to the overclocking route, you would need a 3rd party CPU cooler too.If the bios does not allow overclocking then you would need to replace the motherboard to one that does.Addons:How does your framerate compare around KSFO with a c172 vs the big addon jet?Some areas and addons just over tax even the best setups,Tokyo is another example.Settings:Take a read of the suggested settings in the Vancouver Plus FSX manual, p 22-23http://www.fsaddon.com/download_files/Vanc...olor_Manual.pdfHolger and his team make some very useful points, in addition to Nicks great guides.Ever consider being a bush pilot instead :)Most systems are fine with the great Tongass X addon using bush type planes.In the end, FSX settings that work in one area just will not in another.FSX with a default c172 can run at 30 fps locked in 95% of the time, but change to a big addon jet and try to land in some major cities and your rates will drop significantly.Good luck !

I would also add a little bit more memory - 2x2GB dual channel is now as low as $50 and a very good investment. I doubt that your 3GB is all matched.

Don't forget the i7 uses triple channel memory, and with it being an 'OEM' PC, you can bet the existing 3Gb will be matched.A 6Gb kit would be ideal (as as 64-bit OS is being used), along with overclocking the i7, as has already been mentioned..

Don't forget the i7 uses triple channel memory, and with it being an 'OEM' PC, you can bet the existing 3Gb will be matched.A 6Gb kit would be ideal (as as 64-bit OS is being used), along with overclocking the i7, as has already been mentioned..

Correct. He can go with 2 3 gig kits or one 6 gig kit. Because you bought an OEM PC, you will want to check the brand and timings on the ram if you decide to add a second 3 gig kit. It might be easier just to hit newegg and buy a 6 gig kit. Windows Vista loves 6 gigs or ram.

Thanks for all the advice guys. What do you mean by a memory "kit"? Do you mean just adding 3gig memory sticks? Also, I have heard a lot about overclocking in the past but don't know much about it. How is it done if indeed it can be done on my system? Does overclocking lessen the life of the processor? Thanks again. Tom

I think your lowest rates are combo of add ons, settings, hardwareand where you are flying.Hardware:ATI Video cards can offer great frame ratesbut are impacted by 3D clouds as I recall.Test it by turning off all weather, and see if that helps, if so, you can decide if an nVidia card is worth the cost to allow better flight in weather.CPU speed, you have a nice setup but as the poster said above FSX excels with CPU's clocked higher and higher, say at 3.8GHz or more.Since you have a branded (Gateway) PC, you may or may not be able to over clock it.You would have to look in your bios first to see if its possible.If so and you decide to venture to the overclocking route, you would need a 3rd party CPU cooler too.If the bios does not allow overclocking then you would need to replace the motherboard to one that does.Addons:How does your framerate compare around KSFO with a c172 vs the big addon jet?Some areas and addons just over tax even the best setups,Tokyo is another example.Settings:Take a read of the suggested settings in the Vancouver Plus FSX manual, p 22-23http://www.fsaddon.com/download_files/Vanc...olor_Manual.pdfHolger and his team make some very useful points, in addition to Nicks great guides.Ever consider being a bush pilot instead :)Most systems are fine with the great Tongass X addon using bush type planes.In the end, FSX settings that work in one area just will not in another.FSX with a default c172 can run at 30 fps locked in 95% of the time, but change to a big addon jet and try to land in some major cities and your rates will drop significantly.Good luck !

Thanks Jack. To answer your question comparing the heavy jet with a C172, I tried my default C172 around KSFO also and framerates and performance was about the same as with the LD 767. Regards, Tom

Does overclocking lessen the life of the processor?

If over clocking is done in a moderate and careful way the life of your processor might be reduced from approx. 12 years down to to 11 years and 11 months. :( Over clocking is rather easy. You will find plenty of tutorials in the net.

Thanks for all the advice guys. What do you mean by a memory "kit"? Do you mean just adding 3gig memory sticks?

When you buy a 'kit', all the memory sticks are matched so that they work in harmony with each other.If you buy three seperate sticks, they may have varying degrees of quality, use different memory chips, etc.

I found that the airport vehicle traffic setting is a major contributor to problems around high density areas.Just my 2 cents worth.

I found that the airport vehicle traffic setting is a major contributor to problems around high density areas.Just my 2 cents worth.

Add freeway traffic to this list.. now we're up to 4 cents :(

Not all the PCIe slots are the same, make sure you've got your video card in the fast one. nhancer tells you (sorry, been a while) somewhere how many lines are in use. Should be 16.Of course this happened to a friend of mine, not me.