(Before I get shot in the leg for not posting this in the hardware forum, I think my problem is software related and not hardware.)I've been trying to tune my FSX for 2 weeks without much success. Been using a couple of guides (esp. Nick's @ Flight1)Here are the specs:Quad Core i7 956 @ 3.2 GHZ6 GB of RAMWindows 7 64 bitNvidia GTX 280Nvidia Drivers: 195.62 + nHancer (AA Combined 4xS, AF 8, VSYNC On)Scenario: I tend to get better frames with scenery settings close to max (esp. autogen), Wx settings on mediumPMDG MD-11 @ Boston (FlyTampa) with moderate addon traffic (10 aircraft max): 17-19 Frames (I get the same performance with the default 737...)PMDG MD-11 @ Aerosoft Madrid X NO traffic NADA 9-12 frames.PMDG MD-11 @ Anywhere else not near airport 55 Frames......-Weather hardly makes an impact on my system. I use REX (non HD clouds).FSX.cfg mods:I tried most of them, "jobshedule..." makes it slower so its gone, "Bufferspool" works best at 4800XXX or 0, the only one I haveI really think I should be getting more frames at airports. I'm getting great performance during the whole flight till I am almost over the threshold and then frames are down. Especially Madrid I get 40 frames on final, then they drop to 15, and when I am at the ramp they are at 9-10.What am I doing wrong or what could I change? Sam,

Hi,Big airport add ons will put a heavy load on a system and you need to lower the display settings to maintain a smooth flight.Try to reduce your autogen setting to Normal. When flying IFR flights with the heavies you should be able to sacrifice some autogen.Make sure that you have Ground scenery shadows and bloom disabled.Decrease the Airport vehicle density and set the Land and sea traffic sliders to zero. If you really want some cars on the roads, set it to 10%.

Thanks for the input! Shadows and Bloom have always been off.I get about 5-7 MORE frames with autogen on very dense or/and max than on normal.Sam,

I get about 5-7 MORE frames with autogen on very dense or/and max than on normal.

That's odd! Very odd. But leave the autogen slider at the position that gives you the smoothest flight with acceptable fps.

Simply let your CPU chip run at ~ 4 GHz :(

That's odd! Very odd. But leave the autogen slider at the position that gives you the smoothest flight with acceptable fps.

I don't think it's that odd. According to NickN's guide, it's normal to get more fps with higher settings for Autogen and density. He explains why in his guide. Of course, it could be different for different people, what with all the variables involved in different 3rd party products andsuch.

Simply let your CPU chip run at ~ 4 GHz :(

Yep: there's not too much difference between 3.8 and 4 gig but there's a huge difference between 3.2 and 3.8.http://forums.pureoverclock.com/showthread.php?t=5736 This is the "4-gig club" website.

Get your CPU up to 3.8 or 4.0GHz as others have said, that should help with the performance problems. Make absolutely sure you have adequate cooling for this though - use CoreTemp or RealTemp with Prime95 to stress test - if you see the temp get anywhere near 80C, stop immediately. You may need to raise your Vcore voltage to get these speeds stable, but be aware doing that adds a ton of heat.Put your nHancer settings to 8xS AA and 16X AF - it's not going to cause any drop on a GTX280. The AF setting especially needs to be at 16X, you're going to see blurring at 8X. Pretty much any modern graphics card can run 16X without any performance hit.

Also regarding your choice of scenery, those products you mentioned are hard on the frames to begin with,Try Aerosoft Lisbon or UK2000 Manchester, both are nice and frame-rate friendly.O/C your PC if you are comfortable with that.

Get your CPU up to 3.8 or 4.0GHz as others have said, that should help with the performance problems. Make absolutely sure you have adequate cooling for this though - use CoreTemp or RealTemp with Prime95 to stress test - if you see the temp get anywhere near 80C, stop immediately. You may need to raise your Vcore voltage to get these speeds stable, but be aware doing that adds a ton of heat.Put your nHancer settings to 8xS AA and 16X AF - it's not going to cause any drop on a GTX280. The AF setting especially needs to be at 16X, you're going to see blurring at 8X. Pretty much any modern graphics card can run 16X without any performance hit.

Thanks guys!Most likely going to do that. I'll check my cooling to see if it can handle it.I tried 4xS AA and 8X AF and I get more stable performance below 20 frames, no jaggies but a bit blurrier.Is there anything else I can do from a software point of view?Sam.

(Before I get shot in the leg for not posting this in the hardware forum, I think my problem is software related and not hardware.)I've been trying to tune my FSX for 2 weeks without much success. Been using a couple of guides (esp. Nick's @ Flight1)Here are the specs:Quad Core i7 956 @ 3.2 GHZ6 GB of RAMWindows 7 64 bitNvidia GTX 280Nvidia Drivers: 195.62 + nHancer (AA Combined 4xS, AF 8, VSYNC On)Scenario: I tend to get better frames with scenery settings close to max (esp. autogen), Wx settings on mediumPMDG MD-11 @ Boston (FlyTampa) with moderate addon traffic (10 aircraft max): 17-19 Frames (I get the same performance with the default 737...)PMDG MD-11 @ Aerosoft Madrid X NO traffic NADA 9-12 frames.PMDG MD-11 @ Anywhere else not near airport 55 Frames......-Weather hardly makes an impact on my system. I use REX (non HD clouds).FSX.cfg mods:I tried most of them, "jobshedule..." makes it slower so its gone, "Bufferspool" works best at 4800XXX or 0, the only one I haveI really think I should be getting more frames at airports. I'm getting great performance during the whole flight till I am almost over the threshold and then frames are down. Especially Madrid I get 40 frames on final, then they drop to 15, and when I am at the ramp they are at 9-10.What am I doing wrong or what could I change? Sam,

What are you using for traffic as far as aircraft? How is your performance with the ai traffic off? I use UT2 for my traffic and it really boosted my performance epecially at big airports. I wouls keep you airport ground vehicles at minimum or off.