So, I am on holidays for three weeks, on a very hot day, too hot to be outside, I fire up my FSX (Accelerated). I see that my buddy Holger has put out a new FSX version of Tongass. Fantastic! I pull out the credit card and a short time later I have it installed and ready to go.I fire up FSX out of Wrangell in my Gumman Goose, reading 15 FPS, OK not bad. And away I go....opps studder, pop, hang, slide show. Now here I go again, I start another lengthy tweaking exercise. In the end to no avail. I just can't do just to FSX with my current dual core, 2 gigs RAM, 512 MB-1650 PCI Video Card.I give up, again.So its back to FS2004 for me again. This is so disappointing. All the new addons coming out and I can't enjoy FSX. Another poster was raving about his new quad core machine and it makes me drool.Hopefully soon I can sneak out and but an top end gaming rig without my wife noticing. Ya, sure thing.Still stuck with FS2004, but dreaming of the day when......

So, I am on holidays for three weeks, on a very hot day, too hot to be outside, I fire up my FSX (Accelerated). I see that my buddy Holger has put out a new FSX version of Tongass. Fantastic! I pull out the credit card and a short time later I have it installed and ready to go.I fire up FSX out of Wrangell in my Gumman Goose, reading 15 FPS, OK not bad. And away I go....opps studder, pop, hang, slide show. Now here I go again, I start another lengthy tweaking exercise. In the end to no avail. I just can't do just to FSX with my current dual core, 2 gigs RAM, 512 MB-1650 PCI Video Card.I give up, again.So its back to FS2004 for me again. This is so disappointing. All the new addons coming out and I can't enjoy FSX. Another poster was raving about his new quad core machine and it makes me drool.Hopefully soon I can sneak out and but an top end gaming rig without my wife noticing. Ya, sure thing.Still stuck with FS2004, but dreaming of the day when......

I'm surprised you can run FS9 with a PCI video card, time to upgrade!

Still stuck with FS2004, but dreaming of the day when......

Sent you a PM..

Sent you a PM..

firstly an extra 1-2GB RAM will help... What is your core speed? Also a DX10 card such as a 9800GT should suffice...If you have a slideshow usually it's because you're asking your system to do too much and trying to put through too much data on your CPU and GPU...Turn all the sliders down to minimum, then turn up your mesh and texture settings, then see what your frame rate is, then slowly turn on other features you want balancing what you feel is important to you...

Sent you a PM..

I will be in touch. Back to work after holidays.

firstly an extra 1-2GB RAM will help... What is your core speed? Also a DX10 card such as a 9800GT should suffice...If you have a slideshow usually it's because you're asking your system to do too much and trying to put through too much data on your CPU and GPU...Turn all the sliders down to minimum, then turn up your mesh and texture settings, then see what your frame rate is, then slowly turn on other features you want balancing what you feel is important to you...

Likely quite true, appreciate the suggestions.I could buy all new RAM I suppose and a new video card, I am sure that would help but I am thinking now that I should save that money, likely a few hundred toward a new quad core machine in the near future. Maybe Santa will be good to me...I can dream.

I will be in touch. Back to work after holidays.Likely quite true, appreciate the suggestions.I could buy all new RAM I suppose and a new video card, I am sure that would help but I am thinking now that I should save that money, likely a few hundred toward a new quad core machine in the near future. Maybe Santa will be good to me...I can dream.

Hi, just stumbled onto this thread.... FWIW I am running FSX (including Tongass of course) on my old 4400+ dual core machine with 2 Gb of RAM, and with a long-in-the-tooth GeForce 7900GTX with 512 Mb on board. I did install Windows 7 on it..... runs pretty well, no slide show, and not even THAT much difference with my QuadCore 9550.I think you current graphics card is long overdue, and with some settings tweaked, you should be able to enjoy Tongass and other FSX titles just fine.Francois

This may sound harsh (it's not intended to), but....If anyone is using a computer that won't run FSX "out of the box" (RTM) without all the sliders maxed, then purchasing addons for it is really kind of silly. Quit spending money on addons for FSX to "improve" it, when you can't even run the CORE RTM version in an acceptable manner.Your FIRST goal should be upgrading your hardware, and in the case of FSX, we have reached the point where it is entirely possible to get a computer that WILL run it...WITH some very, very good third-party addons....very well. An I7. WITH the appropriate amount and type of memory, an appropriate video card, and hard drive configuration.Yes...it will cost you money. But it makes more sense to spend it on something like that all at once instead of "jury rigging" an old computer with a new video card, or a "little bit more memory", etc. FSX is still CPU intensive. The CORE upgrade that you make FIRST should be a new CPU. Period. Adding the other stuff to an old CPU is in most cases a waste of money. Benn there, done that, not worth it. Save up until you can afford an upgrade to a CPU that will let you do the other stuff AFTER the CPU upgrade...or ideally at the same time.Rick

My beast (below) always churns up a respectable 23-24 frames at Seattle (and at 3840 x 1024). My base is Renton for VFR and SEA for the Maddog, ASA/REX and FSPassengers. I use nHancer, setup per Nick's instructions, o/c the cpu a bit, /3GB switch, FSX SP2 running XP SP3. 32 bit, and been that way since November '06. The only mod was getting rid of the ATI 3870 and switching to the nVidia 9800GTX. This card made all the difference. At that time that lot set me back $1700 (Can) - and I can now buy it all NEW for about $500. Yes - I need (read "want") that i7, but I also want to retire sometime in the next year or so, so I'm hanging on to this one for a while longer. It all depends on the price, Rick. You can't spend other folks money 'cos you don't know their circumstances. 24 frames at Seattle with 20% airline traffic, no road or sea traffic, water at 1xhigh - all the rest pretty high or max - is good enough for me, and I expect Mr Wallis might check around for these same parts, because they do work. :(

PJ,I agree with you on most of the points you made. No...I can't spend other people's money. But THEY can spend their OWN money in a way that makes sense when it comes to trying to "make the move" from FS9 to FSX.The OP himself said he fired up FSX (after no doubt having given up on it at least ONCE in the past already because it didn't perform well on his computer), "saw" that Holger had released Tongass X, then pulled out his credit card and bought it.What was he expecting? That Tongass X would improve his FSX performance???The difference between system requirements for FS9 (and it's addons) vs FSX (and it's addons) are two worlds apart. Folks in these forums state on a daily basis things like, "I can run FS9 maxed out with all my addons for it on my computer. But FSX won't run worth crap on it." No kidding?I still take the stand that if you want to make the transition from FS9 to FSX, the FIRST thing you need to do is upgrade your CPU. No amount of memory, the latest and greatest video card, or any other hardware upgrade is going to get you to the point where you will even be able to come CLOSE to "maxing out" FSX, let alone running it with a plethora of addons you bought for it that add to the CPU workload of an old CPU. FWIW, I don't have an I7 yet. I'm running a Q9650, 4 GB memory, GTX280, 1 Terabyte storage in Raid 0, TH2G 3-monitors (with a 4th monitor on the side), everything optimized to work together (note I did not say "tweaked"..."tweaking" isn't necessary, and is a waste of time, if the system runs at the maximum capacity it is capable of, due to proper user setup and maintenance. You can't "tweak" anything that is already running at 100% capability). Like you, I am happy with FSX...but even I can't "max out" FSX with all the addons I have. Will I upgrade? Yes...but not right now. Purchasing an I7 right now doesn't make sense to me. The performance gain I would get isn't worth it. However...I'm "saving my money" for about 9 - 12 months from now. Why? Solid State hard drive prices will come down and storage capacity on them will increase also. New video cards will have Display Port Adapter capability, allowing the use of the new TH2G Display Port Adapter edition to run larger resolutions across bigger monitors without the current bandwidth restrictions of DVI. And by then, the next generation of CPUs will no doubt be better than even the I7 of today...which I will need to handle all that stuff. THEN, the cost of the "upgrade" will be worth it...and the money spent will be also.What anybody else should do is up to them. It's their money. But if they are running anything slower than a Quad Core now, they shouldn't be thinking of throwing any more money at that system in an attempt to "upgrade" it for FSX. It's wasted money. Live with what you have now, even if that means staying with FS9. Save your money until you CAN buy a CPU upgrade and the memory and video card that will make spending the money worth it, as far as FSX is concerned.Rick

Hopefully soon I can sneak out and but an top end gaming rig without my wife noticing. Ya, sure thing.

Be a man! Stand up for yourself! Sneak it in while she's asleep... :(

PJ,What anybody else should do is up to them. It's their money. But if they are running anything slower than a Quad Core now, they shouldn't be thinking of throwing any more money at that system in an attempt to "upgrade" it for FSX. It's wasted money. Live with what you have now, even if that means staying with FS9. Save your money until you CAN buy a CPU upgrade and the memory and video card that will make spending the money worth it, as far as FSX is concerned.Rick

Can't speak for everyone else but I am running FS-X on a dual core Athlon 6400+, 2GB RAM and 512MB 9800GT PCI-E video card. I haven't got Tongass but I do have FTX which I believe is similar. I get 30-60fps flying around the countryside and 15-30fps in cities and photoreal areas that are quite taxing.My sliders are all mid-range, autogen is only one setting down and the scenery complexity slider is maxed out. I have applied a couple of the tweaks available from the FTX forums, mainly the max trees per cell and max objects per cell.I could spend $1000 and get higher frame rates and better detail into the distance, as well as more smoothness, but at the moment I'm quite happy with the bang for the buck I'm getting with a system that would seem to be only a bit better than yours. However I am a bit uneasy about your PCI video card, if you're running that because you don't have a PCI-E slot then it might well be your motherboard that is the root of all evil.

Who said I had a PCI only video slot? You are confusing me with the OP, I think. The last thing I would do is put a PCI only MB in a liquid-cooled tower. :( Rick

Can't speak for everyone else but I am running FS-X on a dual core Athlon 6400+, 2GB RAM and 512MB 9800GT PCI-E video card. I haven't got Tongass but I do have FTX which I believe is similar. I get 30-60fps flying around the countryside and 15-30fps in cities and photoreal areas that are quite taxing.My sliders are all mid-range, autogen is only one setting down and the scenery complexity slider is maxed out. I have applied a couple of the tweaks available from the FTX forums, mainly the max trees per cell and max objects per cell.I could spend $1000 and get higher frame rates and better detail into the distance, as well as more smoothness, but at the moment I'm quite happy with the bang for the buck I'm getting with a system that would seem to be only a bit better than yours. However I am a bit uneasy about your PCI video card, if you're running that because you don't have a PCI-E slot then it might well be your motherboard that is the root of all evil.

I can bring my I720 to it's knees if I don't have FSX setup correctly using NickN's guide. Even then I had to mess around with all the sliders to find that perfect balance between performance and scenery. I would highly highly suggest using it when making the transition to FSX. There really isn't any hardware out there yet that can run FSX with everything set to max including bloom and the AI at max. There is also a lot of optimization in the code that ACES probably didn't get to. I know that SP2 did some cool things, but at the end of the day, we will have to rely upon 3rd party developers out there who love the sim to optimize and make it better as best they can.I agree with everybody else here though that the PCI card might be a little bit of an issue.

PJ,I agree with you on most of the points you made. No...I can't spend other people's money. But THEY can spend their OWN money in a way that makes sense when it comes to trying to "make the move" from FS9 to FSX.The OP himself said he fired up FSX (after no doubt having given up on it at least ONCE in the past already because it didn't perform well on his computer), "saw" that Holger had released Tongass X, then pulled out his credit card and bought it.What was he expecting? That Tongass X would improve his FSX performance???The difference between system requirements for FS9 (and it's addons) vs FSX (and it's addons) are two worlds apart. Folks in these forums state on a daily basis things like, "I can run FS9 maxed out with all my addons for it on my computer. But FSX won't run worth crap on it." No kidding?I still take the stand that if you want to make the transition from FS9 to FSX, the FIRST thing you need to do is upgrade your CPU. No amount of memory, the latest and greatest video card, or any other hardware upgrade is going to get you to the point where you will even be able to come CLOSE to "maxing out" FSX, let alone running it with a plethora of addons you bought for it that add to the CPU workload of an old CPU. FWIW, I don't have an I7 yet. I'm running a Q9650, 4 GB memory, GTX280, 1 Terabyte storage in Raid 0, TH2G 3-monitors (with a 4th monitor on the side), everything optimized to work together (note I did not say "tweaked"..."tweaking" isn't necessary, and is a waste of time, if the system runs at the maximum capacity it is capable of, due to proper user setup and maintenance. You can't "tweak" anything that is already running at 100% capability). Like you, I am happy with FSX...but even I can't "max out" FSX with all the addons I have. Will I upgrade? Yes...but not right now. Purchasing an I7 right now doesn't make sense to me. The performance gain I would get isn't worth it. However...I'm "saving my money" for about 9 - 12 months from now. Why? Solid State hard drive prices will come down and storage capacity on them will increase also. New video cards will have Display Port Adapter capability, allowing the use of the new TH2G Display Port Adapter edition to run larger resolutions across bigger monitors without the current bandwidth restrictions of DVI. And by then, the next generation of CPUs will no doubt be better than even the I7 of today...which I will need to handle all that stuff. THEN, the cost of the "upgrade" will be worth it...and the money spent will be also.What anybody else should do is up to them. It's their money. But if they are running anything slower than a Quad Core now, they shouldn't be thinking of throwing any more money at that system in an attempt to "upgrade" it for FSX. It's wasted money. Live with what you have now, even if that means staying with FS9. Save your money until you CAN buy a CPU upgrade and the memory and video card that will make spending the money worth it, as far as FSX is concerned.Rick

Fair enough. I might have asked for this. I thought perhaps if I set my sliders down low shut off the traffice, gone with simple clouds etc I might have been able to get some fairly decent flying around this area as there is no (little) city detail. Anyway, it didn't work, the package won't go to waste because eventually I will get the new system with the horsepower to run the darn sim. By the way my specs are:AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core, 2 gigs RAM, ATI Radeon 1650X PCI Video Card, dedicated onboard 300 gig flightsim SATA HD.I have made the decision to not upgrade but save and buy a new system. Perhaps if I can sell my old principle residence which has been on the market forever I can "sneek" off and buy that new machine "while the wifes asleep".

So, I am on holidays for three weeks, on a very hot day, too hot to be outside, I fire up my FSX (Accelerated). I see that my buddy Holger has put out a new FSX version of Tongass. Fantastic! I pull out the credit card and a short time later I have it installed and ready to go.I fire up FSX out of Wrangell in my Gumman Goose, reading 15 FPS, OK not bad. And away I go....opps studder, pop, hang, slide show. Now here I go again, I start another lengthy tweaking exercise. In the end to no avail. I just can't do just to FSX with my current dual core, 2 gigs RAM, 512 MB-1650 PCI Video Card.I give up, again.So its back to FS2004 for me again. This is so disappointing. All the new addons coming out and I can't enjoy FSX. Another poster was raving about his new quad core machine and it makes me drool.Hopefully soon I can sneak out and but an top end gaming rig without my wife noticing. Ya, sure thing.Still stuck with FS2004, but dreaming of the day when......

just tell her it does the dishes! the down side there is you will have to have them done before she gets home everyday :( worth it I think :(