A breath of fresh air!

[Hornit 3]

I went and did a flight in 2K2 tonight to remind myself what sharp antialiased textures look like with smooth frame rates. I am currently baffled as to why I cant run 2K4 smoothly for any length of time. I have sliders backed way off and not using AA at all and I still see stutter and pretty large frame rate fluctiation even with Chris's clouds and some other texture fixes. I have tried a lot of stuff and it seems something here is causing a huge bottleneck but I cant figure out what it is. What is bugging me is the fact that i cant even approach similar settings to 2K2 with fs9 as a lot of other folks are saying they can.It will run pretty well most of the time, but i get some cripling one to two second long stutters which can drop the frames from the mid to high twenties (locked 28) right down to almost single digits. It seems to happen on approach to even small airports a good bit. Anyway, im not gonna sweat it much, it looks great, but I smell a new video card in my future soon. GF4 4200 128mb card just cant cut the mustard in this sim. Oh Im running a p4@2.9ghz, 512mb ddr and WIN98se.Runs everything else flawlesslyand smooooooth!Hornit

[Guest JonP01]

In a way I'm glad to read these sorts of posts. There could not be a bigger let down than installing the sim on Friday this week and being unexpectantly disappointed. At least there has been enough things - good and bad said about this sim - so that I'm not expecting any miracles. And this time, unlike the last 4 MS sims I've bought, I'm not upgrading any hardware for this one. If I can't get it to run as smoothly as FS2002, then I'll be staying with FS2002.

[SteveLewis 0]

Hornit, I concur. After all the tweeks I've done including Chris' new cloud textures, I'm finally getting frames in the 20s with the exception of those 1-2 second pauses that seem to occur whenever I am turning (taxiing and flying). I'm at the point of looking at going from Win98Se to XP Home and adding 512 Mb of RAM or getting a new video card to replace my almost brand new MSI GeF4200Ti 128Mb card. I don't know if I can justify the cost of either/both (around $250/$450).

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I doubt it is the Ti 4200.. I have one as well, and FS2004 definitely outperforms FS2k2 on my system..Have you turned down water effects and clouds for a fair comparison?Clouds definitely cut into performance.. try custom clouds, Cirrus (few) at 10-12,000 feet, 50 miles visibility.When I go back to FS2002, I find less attractive scenery and lower framerates..The only difference with your setup, is that I'm running WinXP..Before this system, I used the same Ti4200 on a Celeron 1000 with Win98SE and flew with 1024x768 to keep fps up.. With your power, you should be able to handle 1280x960, but try the lower resolution and see..My rig: P4-2.4 512 Meg PC2700, Ti4200-128 with 30.82 drivers.Framerate locked at 25.

[Dark Moment 0]

My thoughts exactly. I've even - for the first time in years - lost interest in downloading stuff for it. Roll on FS2006! Meanwhile, FS2002 DEFINITELY stays. All those add-ons, all those tweaks; I'll keep trying with FS2004, but by golly it's frustrating. Love the autogen, clouds, trees, colours ... but WE HAVE TO BE ABLE TO FLY.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

[SteveLewis 0]

I'm thinking that XP + 512 Mb more PC2100 SDRAM is my answer. Probably not my video card if I can just get the 30.82 drivers installed in place of my 43.45s.

[Guest daveg4otu]

Steve-Go ahead and change to XP- It will be worth itHere I have the same Video card as you.I've got Dual Boot - WinME and XPpro,with a copy of FS2004 in each OS.FS2004 in XP consistently outperforms the WinME setup.In the XP setup I can run with pretty much everything maxed and still get20+ FPS in complex scenery situations and mostly run at 30(locked)- this is after 10 days of tweaking on both copies.The WinME setup is always 2 to 5 frames slower no matter what I do. For reference my system(not the fastest - but not too slow)--AMD Athlon 2000XP (@133/133)ECS K7S5A Mobo 3.1 :04/29/02 Rev BiosSiS 735 Chipset Rev 12 x 256mb DDR RAMGeforce4 Ti-4200-8x 128mb DDR AGP(not overclocked)AGP 1.16 WHQL . 4403 Detonator XP Drivers2 x Maxtor 40GB HDD (7200rpm)LG 8x4x32 BurnerLG 52xDirect X 9.0 final Windows ME/ Windows XP pro dual bootBIOS Settings- DRAM Timing Ultra. CAS Latency 3T,RAS ACtive 6T,RAS Precharge 3TL1 Cache Enabled.L2 Cache Enabled.Sys BIOS Cache Disabled.DRAM Drive Slew Rating - FastDave

[Guest BobKK]

I think the answer to smooth performance with FS9 is having XP as your operating system and at least a 128MB video card.FS9 runs better and smoother for me than FS2002. No more "jumpy" a/c movement when in spot plane view. I'm getting 20+ fps even with dense 3D clouds and speaking of clouds, they are fantastic, FS2002 doesn't even come close. And next time you fly into LAX, check out the airport, it looks like the real thing in FS9.P4 2.0a512MB RAMXPNvidia FX 5600 Ultra w/128MB RAMBob K

[1mikel151 71]

I'd try that, but can't as FS2002 is gone! LOLJim I feel for ya, it baffles me that some, including myself, have great performance and even on an older system and others are having nightmares with it.The main reason I uninstalled FS2002 was the performance, in order to make it look good I had to install all the 3rd party addons and design my own scenery, YET this is what ruins the performance in the sim, catch 22. With the autogen slider cranked I am able to enjoy the enahanced scenery, objects, buildings, trees, etc, in FS9 without the need to add much at all and get better performance than I did with FS2002. I did a VA flight this morning in AK and I turned on the FPS counter for a second out of curiosity, it pegged 38 fps a few times, I can't remember the last time, if ever, I saw that in FS2002.I really hope you get this worked out!!Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

[brucek 38]

Interesting thread. I have XP as my main OS (which can be installed on any HD partition- mine's on D:), and still have Win98 on C:. I run 1G of PC-2100 with XP, using an ATI 8500Pro card and a 1.8G P4. I've tried removing one stick of RAM (Win98 doesn't like more than 512M), then re-booting into Win98, where I have another instance of FS9 installed. I see many more stutters in Win98, and I've tried booting into XP with only the 512M installed and it's still better than 98. It's strange that XP is actually slower (by 2fps for me), due to the processes running I guess- but the sim appears to be much more fluid- maybe the memory management? Bruce.

[Guest]

Well, I

[Dark Moment 0]

<<<>>>Wheeeeeee ... does NASA know you've got that, J.P.?And to think, Airbus instruments run on the 386 chip ....Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

[lmponte 0]

Well, I'm pretty sure something is not going ok with your system.You should be able to run FS2004 smoothly. My advice is tto try and install new drivers... I'd try the old 30.82 and maybe the newer 44.23, recommended by MS. If that fails, go to DXDiag and check if everything is ok there (pay special attention to AGP Texturing).That's all I can think of...But PLEASE, don't go rushing out for a new card before sorting this out...it seems to me that if you don't solve this now you'll have the same problem with the new card.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/30195.jpg___________________________________________________ Lu

[Guest Boone]

It boggles the mind! For what it's worth I've got a lowly P4 1.4 with only 256 MB PC800 RAM using WindowsME and FS9 performs better for me than FS2002.Sure I've tweaked the sliders, but none are below half way and some are even maxed.Regards,Boone

[gregger 0]

Dave! You have a 2000XP and 512 RAM and a Ti-4200 and you've maxed your sliders and have 30 fps in FS9? Wow! I have the same setup but a 2400+ (I even have the same mobo) and I sit around 8-12 fps under cloudy skies with my sliders way back :(I'm gonna print out your sig there and check out your BIOS settings on my rig. You got any miracle tips?All the best,Greghttp://members.rogers.com/gmoffatt/images/ERJ_CRT.jpg