I read in another forum that the general rule of thumb for locking FPS is if FPS float most often around 31-33, lock FPS at 30. Now with my framerates on the ground they are usually in the mid to high teens (lower at crowed airports) and when I'm at cruise altitude my framerates are usually in the 20's. What should the framerates be locked at?

> What should the framerates be locked at?I would suggest that they be locked at the lowest number that you personally can live with. I can live with 15 and my system can provide 18 - 20 most of the time. I keep mine set to 15 and I have no stutters and no pauses. R-

Hello Joseph,Why don't you try unlocking frame rates altogether? When you do this, you let the graphics engine decide how much it can give in light of your other settings.This gives me very good results, and it is surprising that this option is not better known.To unlock frame rates, set slider to maximum.Best regards.Luis

Unlocking your framerates is not a good idea. Sure you may see an increase in your level of FPS but it WILL be at the cost of visual quality. This is even more important if using a subpar videocard. Read the thread below that will explain why.http://forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=sho...sg_id=130&page=Bobby

I agree. I've never locked the framerate and have never seen a blurry. The problems seem to come when the framerate is locked at a significantly higher value than the CPU can produce. But I've never seen any problems at all with it set to Unlimited.Doug

Before I have the framerate slider set to "unlimited" and when I would be flying at cruise altitude I did get blurry textures (to fix the blurry I would pause the game, advance the timer to 8x, then back to 1x and let the computer redraw the scenery) My framerames would also go down alot when I ran into the really puffy type clouds in the game.So now I locked the framerates at 10, I will take a flight later to see if this setting does anything.(My grapic card is a GeForce2 MX 400)

Depending on mood, it's either 30,35 or no lock. But NEVER lower, as I like rates at least in the upper 20's as a minimum, which is usually possible. I really havn't observerd much difference over the last 1 1/2 years. I don't have what I consider a blurry problem either. And still the same system, which I'll be using for FS2004. Athlon 1900XP/Geforce3Ti500.L.Adamson

During the AVSIM Conference last year, Richard Goldstein (scenery designer) and I discussed the fps slider with a couple members of the MSFS design team and it was our firm conclusion that locking your FPS slider at 15 or 16 FPS was the best solution to the blurries. Many will argue that they can see the difference if their fps falls below 33 FPS and I contend that this is certainly true, if you were viewing a movie film or DVD or other such media, but this is simply not the case with a processor generated digital presentation on a computer monitor. The biggest problem is the error in referring to how FS is presented onto your screen as FPS or Frames Per Second when it should have been SRPS or Scan Rate Per Second. Regardless of what anyone claims, the average person cannot see or detect any visual difference once the scan rate has exceeded 11-12 fps (or SRPS), though many have argued that they can. I don't want to say that it is impossible to see the difference once the FPS is above 12, but its highly unlikely. Its also possible that there are little green men on Mars, but I find that highly unlikely as well.Because this argument has run its limits, I will offer you one suggestion and you can take it or leave it, but I would say just lock your FPS slider at 15 or 16 FPS and then forget about it.Bear!

So now we know the secret to those great screenshots!!!!!!!! LOLI have mine losked at 22 and they rarely go below that, works for me on my Athlon 1.4 with a radeon 7200 64 mb card. can't wait till I get my new system up and running, Intel 875 800 FSB and a Radeon 9800 pro, WOO HOO! Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

Okay.... I'm arguing! :)I've read that it's the other way around when viewing a monitor. As in being able to detect higher fps than when viewing film for instance. As to myself, I easily detect fps between 12 & 30. With higher fps, this sim becomes more fluid like X-Plane. If I bog X-Plane down, it looks more like MSFS at fps in the teens.For higher altitudes, 12-18 fps is fine. But for low level mountain flight that I prefer, upper 20's to 30's is great.L.Adamson

I'm with you Larry. Anybody who says they can't tell the difference between 12 FPS and 30 FPS paid way too much for their hardware :-) .Doug

I did many tests here and fluid simulation is above 30 FPS, probably 15 should be fine if FS could keep a constant frame rate, we know it isn't true, so FPS above 30 compensates for some frames dropping and less stutters is showed. I got a smooth simulation locked at 40FPS, or if monitor frequency at 100hz, FPS locked to 50. I know many people will say it is too high, but I preffer fluid simulation over scenery redraw (what is minimum in regular speeds (bellow 400 kts at 1x))Ulisses