After two years of tweaking and following the advice of the experts here in the forum I am finally enjoying my fsx experience. It was a lot of trial and error. I have a computer that was bought off the shelf at walmart. Like so many others I expected the experience to be awesome right out of the box. Well we know how that goes. One of the first things I learned in the forums was you need to upgrade your video card. To make a long story short, after setting up fsx per nick can't emphasize that enough things started to look up. After that it was a matter of patience and trial and error. Some things worked and somethings did not. I did double my power supply and that was one of the kicks in the pants that my sim needed. I am running my fsx with scenery complexity extremely dense, autogen density very dense. Mesh complexity 100, Mesh rez 5m, texture rez 15cm, water effects low2x, special effects medium. I am using texture max editor and running texture resolutions at 2048HD. I have UTX GEX, and REX. Also using Enhancer set up per nick. Just trying to point out that it is not hopeless and it can be done. As so many have said each computer is different. But the biggest help has been all the advice and information that has been given by fellow simmers in this forum. And I thank them for making my fsx experience really awesome. You guys rock. :(

The key component for FSX is the CPU and it's core speed. How is that in your system?

The key component for FSX is the CPU and it's core speed. How is that in your system?

I am using a compaq preario sr2264wm AMD 64 athlon. Would like to upgrade the cpu someday if I could ever figure out what cpu would be compatible with the rest of my computer

After two years of tweaking and following the advice of the experts here in the forum I am finally enjoying my fsx experience. It was a lot of trial and error. I have a computer that was bought off the shelf at walmart. Like so many others I expected the experience to be awesome right out of the box. Well we know how that goes. One of the first things I learned in the forums was you need to upgrade your video card. To make a long story short, after setting up fsx per nick can't emphasize that enough things started to look up. After that it was a matter of patience and trial and error. Some things worked and somethings did not. I did double my power supply and that was one of the kicks in the pants that my sim needed. I am running my fsx with scenery complexity extremely dense, autogen density very dense. Mesh complexity 100, Mesh rez 5m, texture rez 15cm, water effects low2x, special effects medium. I am using texture max editor and running texture resolutions at 2048HD. I have UTX GEX, and REX. Also using Enhancer set up per nick. Just trying to point out that it is not hopeless and it can be done. As so many have said each computer is different. But the biggest help has been all the advice and information that has been given by fellow simmers in this forum. And I thank them for making my fsx experience really awesome. You guys rock. :(

Here are my computer specs if anyone is intrested

Warren,It's great that you have a sim experience you are happy with.I just recently reached this level, myself.One of the main things I believe a lot of simmers... And those new to MSFS... Don't realize is FSX can and does run well relatively speaking, but it does not run well out-of-the-box, or particularly well on stock proprietary hardware (like the PC you bought). FSX is not a game.I say this without the inflated ego a lot of people like to use (non here on AVSIM) to show they are superior, but to emphasize MSFS is not a console port designed for the lowest common denominator systems a.k.a. low to mid-range, outdated hardware most people are used to when they think "PC Game".MSFS is also not a game in the sense it has a large number of features one can tailor to improve performance as well as the kind of virtual flying they like to do.Like I said, on another thread, people are so used to the "set and forget" mentality and a lot of times don't take full advantage of the flexibility FSX offers for tuning the sim for better performance. A lot of this is due in large part because most console ports don't give the user this option. The other factor is everyone just wants to put all the sliders to the right and just "forget about it". It doesn't work that way. This game uses outdated code and doesn't take advantage of modern hardware like most other "games" do. This is something none of us can change. But if we know that... Then we can work with what we have and make the best of it.Also...This is not a shot across the bow at FS-GS, (or whatever the service is called)...But I would never pay anyone to tune/tweak my PC for a game/sim. Ever.Granted, I am a "geek" and know how things work on a PC... And I always do my research into whatever games / apps I buy... But even if I was not, I think learning how to do a lot of the tweaks and fixes yourself makes you a more knowledgeable person in the long-run, for obvious reasons.Yes, it will take some time.Yes, it might take longer than if FS-GS does some magical tune up and FSX runs flawlessly.Yes, you will fail and sometimes make things worse and then have to start over again.However, it's this lengthy process that I believe is the real "value" of learning how to improve your simming experience. The good news is you can then pass that shared knowledge and experience on to others who might be having similar problems, or who are where you were when you started simming. Pay-it-forward...

You can have the best cpu, motherboard, fastest ram, video card, and fastest ssd hard drive, but without great add-ons like Orbx, REX 2, GEX, UTX, and the payware airplanes, you would not be able to fully experience FSX at it's best.I finally found the joy too. Thanks FSX SP2 and payware developers. I've waited decades for this opportunity.