Why are so many people checking frames rates all the time? I have everything maxed out including unlimited frate rates. I use to lock the rates down to movie level (34frames). My computer had problems and shuttered. When I went unlimited and quite worrying about rates my experience improved greatly. Just defrag the hard dirve, update the graphic drivers, keep the computer cool, have at least 3GB ram, use more vitual memory around 3 GB of harddrive and fly the PLANES. Enjoy the flying not worrying about what rate you are getting. Yes I have all the complex add-ons including all the top payware planes and scenery. The only thing I plan to upgrade is my graphics card and eventually to FSX.Dell XPS 400 Dual core , 3GB RamATI Raedeon X300 128MB dual graphics card (128MB again) total 256MB80 GB external hardrive being use with 80GB internal hardive as virtual memory.3G DSL internet connectPayware (Maddog 80, PMDG MD11,Lvl D767,Captian Sim 757,PSS 757,Wilco Legacy Embraer,Aeroworx B200 ect.........Scenery and mess (ImageSim ATL, etc..., FSGenisis, FS Project etc...You get the ideaCarl Perry

Actually, movie framerates are 24 fps, but it's completely immaterial to videogames since the mediums are completely different. Why are people framerate obsessive? Becuase framerates are one of the primary ways of measuring and comparing system performance. They aren't the only thing that matters obviously, but they are a good indicator. Overall smoothness is important too, but at a low enough framerate, even when the visuals are updating reasonably smoothly things like control input lag start to become a real factor and everything starts to feel really sluggish and unpleasant.

Actually, movie framerates are 24 fps, but it's completely immaterial to videogames since the mediums are completely different. Why are people framerate obsessive? Becuase framerates are one of the primary ways of measuring and comparing system performance. They aren't the only thing that matters obviously, but they are a good indicator. Overall smoothness is important too, but at a low enough framerate, even when the visuals are updating reasonably smoothly things like control input lag start to become a real factor and everything starts to feel really sluggish and unpleasant.

If there are no shuttering and slide show affects going on how does that affect your controls or input? I thought frames rates deal with how the picture or view looks? If the veiw is smooth why would this case the flight controls to become sluggish? Sometimes textures my take a few seconds to load when I am flying into ImageSim KATL with traffic set at 80% of real world flight schedules but the SIM remains smooth and lands as if I were at a empty desert airport. Yes I am using Active SKY 6.5 on a 3G DSL line updating all the time. My point is too many people are looking for the genie in the bottle instead of enjoying how FS9 LOOKS on your own setup. Does it LOOK good and operate the same at crowed airports as well as deserted fields? If so who cares about what number shows up in the corner telling how good or bad the picture is at that moment. I bet some of the greatest moments and landings in some FS9ers usages have been foiled when they look at the frame rate below 15 for that few seconds instead of enjoying the viewTURN OFF THE FRAME RATE and ENJOY the flight.Carl Perry flying since Fs2k2 (7 years)

CarlYou are correct. Too many of us are frame rate watchers. We do need to just enjoy the sim. However, if you do move to FSX, you will gain a whole new respect for terms like "FPS" and "slideshow". Some people use the counter(among other things ) to find out how far they can push their equipment, or how much they need to upgrade. You have a great rig for FS9. Try downloading the demo for FSX, and see where you stand. Remember the demo has little AI and no complex airports.I'm just sayin'...Bob

CarlYou are correct. Too many of us are frame rate watchers. We do need to just enjoy the sim. However, if you do move to FSX, you will gain a whole new respect for terms like "FPS" and "slideshow". Some people use the counter(among other things ) to find out how far they can push their equipment, or how much they need to upgrade. You have a great rig for FS9. Try downloading the demo for FSX, and see where you stand. Remember the demo has little AI and no complex airports.I'm just sayin'...Bob

Already tried the Demo. The real thing would take up to much harddrive (15GB). I only have 9GB left on my internal hardrive because I keep all the scenery and the top payware software on the internal harddrive. FSX my work fine on my computer, the demo did. Same old FS9 versus FSX debate, toooooo many and sooooo much add-ons will not allow me to think about leaving FS9. We are talking 5 years of great freeware and payware add-ons. Its seems serveral developers ( who want to survive) are producing more payware for FS9. The debate is really about money now and not platform issues. FSX is BETTER but COSTLY at this time, even when they sold it for $20 US dollars on one of the major FS websites I still did not buy it for the future. I am even shocked at myself .Carl

Already tried the Demo. The real thing would take up to much harddrive (15GB). I only have 9GB left on my internal hardrive because I keep all the scenery and the top payware software on the internal harddrive. FSX my work fine on my computer, the demo did. Same old FS9 versus FSX debate, toooooo many and sooooo much add-ons will not allow me to think about leaving FS9. We are talking 5 years of great freeware and payware add-ons. Its seems serveral developers ( who want to survive) are producing more payware for FS9. The debate is really about money now and not platform issues. FSX is BETTER but COSTLY at this time, even when they sold it for $20 US dollars on one of the major FS websites I still did not buy it for the future. I am even shocked at myself .Carl

Well, I never said one sim was better than another, just that FSX will tax your system more. And that some people use the frame counter as one of the tools to help them tune their system.Bob

If there are no shuttering and slide show affects going on how does that affect your controls or input? I thought frames rates deal with how the picture or view looks? If the veiw is smooth why would this case the flight controls to become sluggish? Sometimes textures my take a few seconds to load when I am flying into ImageSim KATL with traffic set at 80% of real world flight schedules but the SIM remains smooth and lands as if I were at a empty desert airport. Yes I am using Active SKY 6.5 on a 3G DSL line updating all the time. My point is too many people are looking for the genie in the bottle instead of enjoying how FS9 LOOKS on your own setup. Does it LOOK good and operate the same at crowed airports as well as deserted fields? If so who cares about what number shows up in the corner telling how good or bad the picture is at that moment. I bet some of the greatest moments and landings in some FS9ers usages have been foiled when they look at the frame rate below 15 for that few seconds instead of enjoying the viewTURN OFF THE FRAME RATE and ENJOY the flight.Carl Perry flying since Fs2k2 (7 years)

um, yeah. Well obviously if the sim looks good and flies smoothly under all circumstances nobody cares about framerate. The framerate becomes important when there are problems - when the sim isn' tperforming like we would want it to. As far as how the framerate affects control input, it doesn't in and of itself. But when the system is struggling to maintain a framerate of say 18fps, you can bet it doesn't have alot of extra cycles to devote to user input. Also, imagine a worst case scenario of one frame per second. Everytime you make a move with the joystick, you have to wait a full second to see the result of that move. By the time you see it and respond, you've moved a pretty huge distance again - before too long you end up playing a sloppy game of catch up. I personally can't stand that sluggish control feeling that comes as the frames drop. Its not as apparent in FS as it is in something like a racing simulation where you are a few feet away from the other cars on a track going 175mph. There, every milisecond counts. In FS where the distances between objects are far greater you can be fairly comfortable down to pretty low framerates. I still personally dislike the fps dropping below 30 though, and 60fps is my "nirvana" point...

For me framerates are very important.First of all, setting unlimited in FS9 is user-to-user different. Some may experience more fluidity with unlocked frames, simply because in certain situations they achieve very high frames.But setting unlimited frames generally is a bad idea. One of the reasons is that sound stutters more often, for example, on my computer, if I fly PMDG 737, and set unlimited FPS, it stutters.You will also get general scenery stuttering when using unlimited frames. Yes, things will move quicker, but when disk access is needed, you will see a stutter. Tested it all on my system.And FPS are usually a good sign if your sim is fluid enough or not. If you can maintain more than 30fps (I limit my sim to 40), you have a good chance that you will be enjoying your sim enough. Then you can also see which addons take much FPS away. It's good for comparison and I am glad they are there. They show me a lot and help me continually optimize my system (I do have more than 300 scenery addons and many payware aircraft).And in FS9, there is a noticable fluidity difference between 40, 50 or 60 and even 100fps. This has nothing to do with movie fps (short explanation: movies have motion blur, fs9 doesn't, that's one of the things that impacts movie fluidity).

Why are so many people checking frames rates all the time? I have everything maxed out including unlimited frate rates. I use to lock the rates down to movie level (34frames). My computer had problems and shuttered. When I went unlimited and quite worrying about rates my experience improved greatly. Just defrag the hard dirve, update the graphic drivers, keep the computer cool, have at least 3GB ram, use more vitual memory around 3 GB of harddrive and fly the PLANES. Enjoy the flying not worrying about what rate you are getting. Yes I have all the complex add-ons including all the top payware planes and scenery. The only thing I plan to upgrade is my graphics card and eventually to FSX.Dell XPS 400 Dual core , 3GB RamATI Raedeon X300 128MB dual graphics card (128MB again) total 256MB80 GB external hardrive being use with 80GB internal hardive as virtual memory.3G DSL internet connectPayware (Maddog 80, PMDG MD11,Lvl D767,Captian Sim 757,PSS 757,Wilco Legacy Embraer,Aeroworx B200 ect.........Scenery and mess (ImageSim ATL, etc..., FSGenisis, FS Project etc...You get the ideaCarl Perry

Congratulations?Some like to spend a little time optimizing to get the best out of the sim. Others enjoy tweaking and building rigs. Still others (mostly the younger simmers) are stuck with what they have and must make the best of it until mom/dad decide for an upgrade in 5 years or they hit the lottery.Besides, results vary, as you probably should know. A comparable low end system like yours typically doesn't run that well unless tweaked with. And I see you mention no AI traffic, which is a must for me. Also, you mention no weather add ons. That is also a must-- and it's gotta be maxed, too. The question is, "why are more people not stuck on performance"? :(

When I went unlimited and quite worrying about rates my experience improved greatly.

Gotta agree with Carl on this. I had my framerate locked at 24 forever, because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. Saw someone else's post somewhere about setting it to 'unlimited.' I did.... and now it's a whole new world for me. Results may vary, but for me, ground textures seem to load much faster eliminating scenery blurries.Thsnks,Steve

Congratulations?Some like to spend a little time optimizing to get the best out of the sim. Others enjoy tweaking and building rigs. Still others (mostly the younger simmers) are stuck with what they have and must make the best of it until mom/dad decide for an upgrade in 5 years or they hit the lottery.Besides, results vary, as you probably should know. A comparable low end system like yours typically doesn't run that well unless tweaked with. And I see you mention no AI traffic, which is a must for me. Also, you mention no weather add ons. That is also a must-- and it's gotta be maxed, too. The question is, "why are more people not stuck on performance"? :(

I fly out of ImageSim KATL with 80% of real world traffic set using Active Sky 6.5 max out. It dosen't get any busier than the world buiest airport. using this as a model I now can tell real good or bad add-ons that affect frame rates including some payware planes. AI Advark planes, PMDG MD11 and FS Gensis landclass creates a wonderful experience. Yes you have to learn to tweak your system and acquire the right add-ons where you are not worrying about frame rates. Carl Perry

I fly out of ImageSim KATL with 80% of real world traffic set using Active Sky 6.5 max out. It dosen't get any busier than the world buiest airport. using this as a model I now can tell real good or bad add-ons that affect frame rates including some payware planes. AI Advark planes, PMDG MD11 and FS Gensis landclass creates a wonderful experience. Yes you have to learn to tweak your system and acquire the right add-ons where you are not worrying about frame rates. Carl Perry

so basically what you are suggesting is that people need to stop worrying about framerates...except when they are tweaking and trying different add-ons to determine how they effect framerates. :( I too have pretty much settled on unlimited for the in-game framerate lock. Like others, I find the sim runs more smoothly, seems to have to reload textures less often, and loads them more quickly when it does have to load them.

I'll second the motion to use FPS Unlimited. But my experience is that adequate RAM is needed to take advantage. In my case, significant smoothing occurred as well, after bumping up to 2GB.Alex Reid

Firstly, just for the record, I look fps at 40 as I 'think' unlimited gets me more blurries.To the OP, with that system, I see NO WAY of getting 'fluid' performance with major add-ons unless you running 800x600 resolution. I have a e8500 at 3.6, 8800gts 512(overclocked), etc etc and still see fps drop to mid 20s at the same airport (KATL) with 6 or so DXT3 512x512 cloud layers with AS and 300+ AI around me in a PMDG or comparable(yes i have many years of tweaking experience). I call 30 fps a min to fully enjoy this sim. If you believe your system is getting you the performance you need, you should try running it on a high end system, you'll be blown away by the difference. Smoothness=realism. I don't know about you, but i strive for realism with my sim and 30fps just doesn't cut it. And yes, fps has a lot to do with control smoothness and overall sim performance. FPS not only dictates when the actual visual frames update, but also indicates how often wind effects, control inputs, etc are updated, yes the more fps, the 'smoother' the sim (yes there may be stutters at high fps, thats a different story).Also that whole argument about movies running at 24fps just ####### me off. Next time you're at the movies, please take notice of a scene where the actual camera pans around at a decent rate. You'll notice it looks very broken and far from fluid, but most scenes in movies involve the camera stationary or with little movement and just zoom, so it appears very smooth. Unless you want to sit parked in your sim cessna on the taxiway looking at AI take off in front of you all day, 24fps just isn't enough to give you a realistic experience.

Its acctually bad to have your frames on Unlimited, because you are telling flight sim that is doesnt matter what you get. From 1-100. Unlimited means "No limit" there for, yes, there is no limit to how HIGH it can go, but nor is there for how LOW it can go...I sigjust you lock somwhere around 30, after all, anything higer and you couldnt tell anyway. Humans can only see 30 FPS.