I have noticed a significant decline in performance since upgrading from Windows Vista (32 bit) to Windows 7 (64 bit). I'm not entirely sure why this is happening, so any suggestions would be appreciated. So far, I have followed the usual suggestions- disabling display themes/unnecessary background programs, driver updates, etc. I have recently installed Windows 7 and all my add-ons. I've run the disk defrag provided by Windows (have not run O&O defrag yet, but even still, my system should be pretty optimal. However, with default aircraft, I can barely get above 8 FPS on the ground. With payware such as PMDG, around 4 FPS.Under Vista, this would normally be between 12-20 (locked at 30), so I don't understand why my performance has decreased. I also have used NHancer to optimize my video card (with the latest drivers, 196.XX installed). Sliders are at 80% or more to the right (nearly or close to maxed out). Again, under Vista 32 I had virtually no issues (only occasional OOM issues). Now, I get stutters, low frame rates and slow loading times. Not sure what to do. I've used a hex editor to flag my FS9.exe as able to handle more than 2gb memory. My system specs:Dell XPS M1730250 GB HD (x2)Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTXVirtual memory- 1024 MB4096 MB installed/4094 MB available Speed 667 MHZ dual DDR2 SDRAMIntel Core 2 Duo ProcessorCurrent 1.80 gHzMinimum 1.20 gHzMaximum 2.40 gHzCache 4096 kb(Power scheme at Max performance). DX9 also installed...Does anyone have any tips or suggestions so that I can get back in the air again? 3FPS is unusable and I am really at a loss here.Thanks,Justin

FS9 has a patch FS9.1, are you using it? And I don't think you need to hex edit the executable when using the patch. Maybe someone else will know.Follow Nick's guide here http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041And remember that there are a couple of sliders that will really swat the frame rate one of which is AI aircraft.I think flight sim'n is a little tough on notebooks.You could try running FS9.1 with a properties compatibility mode for Windows XP.

Try setting the Mipmap slider to 4 or less in FS9 display settings

you should do a fresh reinstall of windows if possible (without the upgrade).Try using o&o defrag first though.I brielfy used fs9 on windows 7 64 and it ran realy well. Appeared more stable than FSX aswell.you obviously tried it without nhancer and your modded fs9.exe yeah ?

Problem solved... it was a defective AC adapter and motherboard that caused my performance woes. I got a warning in BIOS on start-up but ignored it since the computer was still registering an "unknown" adapter providing power. Further research shows that even with an AC adapter in, if it defects, performance will degrade as if the computer were running on battery power, i.e. extremely slow, "energy efficient" CPU processing.With the new parts installed now, on the ground I'm getting between 23-30 FPS (maxed out at 30) even with PMDG. Load times and graphics are also exponentially better. Glad it wasn't something more "serious." The parts were covered under warranty too!--Back to the long hauls! (SFO-SYD tonight)Thanks for everyone's input-Justin