Gents:I need a little advice possibly for a small hardware upgrade or maybe some more tweaks because I have had FSX sitting on the shelf for over a year and now installed it so I can run the JS4100 from PMDG.My machine is Asus M2N-MX-SE Plus2 GB 1066 RamRadeon 4650 1 GBAMD Athlon X2 6000 @ 3.2 GHZI have XP tweaked down to 77% free Ram before starting FSAutostartI think I have tried all the FS tweaks including PCI Latency.FSX runs but as soon as I switch to JS4100 things go downhill. I think it has to be a tweak or a hardware setting.Would a motherboard with more cache help? A different processor AM2 socket.If this should be in the hardware forum I apologize but I figured the PMDG pilots would be the best to ask.

Hey Rick,I will just add my little bit and then let the others jump in with more depth. The main two problems I see -1. You should be looking at a I5 or I7 processor or at least a high end core2duo2. I will assume you are using the 32bit version of XP? If so then your Graphics card is killing your system. You only have 2GB of ram and yet you chose a 1GB card, That combination will slow your system down. If you dont want to upgrade your system then at least get a good card with less memory (512 max)

Rick,Sorry man, but that system is pretty ancient in terms of what's out right now.I'd look at getting an i5 750 with a good cooler and overclocking it, that's the cheapest way into a good performing FSX machine. Get a P55-based mobo (I've been very happy with the MSI one I have) and at least 4GB of DDR3. Run Win7 x64 to take advantage of the RAM and remove the effect of the video card on user address space as noted above. FSX really needs 4GB to run optimally, 2 is not enough.

I'm running FSX with the same chip and 4GB of Ram and the PMDG 747x runs pretty well. Do you have all the FSX service packs installed or acceleration?The service packs made the biggest difference in performance for my system; I had to load both SP1 and SP2 since I have a copy of FSX from when it first came out. Acceleration includes SP2.

Rick,Sorry man, but that system is pretty ancient in terms of what's out right now.I'd look at getting an i5 750 with a good cooler and overclocking it, that's the cheapest way into a good performing FSX machine. Get a P55-based mobo (I've been very happy with the MSI one I have) and at least 4GB of DDR3. Run Win7 x64 to take advantage of the RAM and remove the effect of the video card on user address space as noted above. FSX really needs 4GB to run optimally, 2 is not enough.

Ryan:I guess it is like my ancient Yamaha here so it needs to be upgraded to a Les Paul.

Well the Les Paul was one of the first electric guitars so I don't know if that's a good comparison haha.

4GB of ram might help. I'm running a similar system (see specs). But don't have the J4100... I do however have fps intense acft such as F1 Mustang. Our systems are definitely on the low end my friend.

Gents:I need a little advice possibly for a small hardware upgrade or maybe some more tweaks because I have had FSX sitting on the shelf for over a year and now installed it so I can run the JS4100 from PMDG.My machine is Asus M2N-MX-SE Plus2 GB 1066 RamRadeon 4650 1 GBAMD Athlon X2 6000 @ 3.2 GHZI have XP tweaked down to 77% free Ram before starting FSAutostartI think I have tried all the FS tweaks including PCI Latency.FSX runs but as soon as I switch to JS4100 things go downhill. I think it has to be a tweak or a hardware setting.Would a motherboard with more cache help? A different processor AM2 socket.If this should be in the hardware forum I apologize but I figured the PMDG pilots would be the best to ask.

Hey Rick, Hamilton Ontario!!!, your so close to TigerDirect.ca, I would defiantly forget about trying to upgrade an old machine, I would defiantly check out tigerdirect store, if your not into building your own machine they have some pretty good deals on pre built ones there, would defiantly get an I7 system aswell.

Guys:Thanks for all the advice. My first PC was store built in 1986. I have built all the rest and I do most of my shopping at Tiger Direct. I was trying to keep the price down but after reading what everyone says I guess I may have to pry open my wallet and do a major upgrade.

Hey Rick, Hamilton Ontario!!!, your so close to TigerDirect.ca, I would defiantly forget about trying to upgrade an old machine, I would defiantly check out tigerdirect store, if your not into building your own machine they have some pretty good deals on pre built ones there, would defiantly get an I7 system aswell.

Get 4gb ddr3 ram at 1066mhz or 1666mhz, if possible change your GPU to a ATI 5xxx series, works great with FSX but all you really need with GPUS is a Nvidia 9800GT 1gb. Maybe even try get a new cpu cooler (arctic cooling freezer 7 pro from newegg -best there is) and overclock to a minium of 3.6ghz, youll see a big improvment.

I actually don't recommend ATI anymore - they've publicly stated they don't care about FSX users and won't fix bugs that have been present in the driver forever like the lines through 2D panels, lack of forced AF, V-sync issues etc. I recommend the Nvidia GTX285 now. Jury is still out on the new cards coming next month - I have my doubts about them because they're specifically designed for GPU-limited apps, FSX is CPU-limited. They may actually perform worse than the GTX284 in FSX as a result.

A GTX285? OVERKILL for FSX, FSX wants more CPU power and you won't see much of a difference between a GTX285 and a Nvidia 9800GT 1gb. I was originally going to upgrade my 8400GS (worst gpu with an i5) to a GTX 275, which is about $370 (in aus) did my research and im saving half the price by gtetting a 9800GT 1gb.

That may be accurate if you have a mid-end CPU but once you start playing with the big boys... i7's OCed to 4.0Ghz - you'll want the GTX285. FSX is more about a balanced system than anything - even the fastest CPU possible.

FSX needs more CPU power than GPU. He doesn't have an i7 He has an AMD X2 6000.

I actually don't recommend ATI anymore - they've publicly stated they don't care about FSX users and won't fix bugs that have been present in the driver forever like the lines through 2D panels, lack of forced AF, V-sync issues etc. I recommend the Nvidia GTX285 now. Jury is still out on the new cards coming next month - I have my doubts about them because they're specifically designed for GPU-limited apps, FSX is CPU-limited. They may actually perform worse than the GTX284 in FSX as a result.

Ryan, my english in