Hello, Try a circuit around Seattle international with the GPS off the whole time. Now try it with the GPS on and even try closing the window. It's very very smooth without the GPS for me, but as soon as I turn the GPS on - bad framerates and stutters. This is even after closing the GPS window! I'm looking into a way to close the GPS once the window is closed. I bet this is going to take some programming.I believe this is going to explain some of the bad performance near airports because It becomes worse and worse the closer I fly near an airport. This is of course if I had turned the GPS on in the first place. Otherwise- everything was fine. Bummer. I am curious if this is happening to folks with faster processors.? If you try this please post your specs and results.Thanks,Toddxp1600512mb ramati radeon le 8500

Good tip---the GPS is known for causing some issues..But even with the gps off, performance around airports suffers. I normally fly without the GPS--my Microlight as an example doesn't have it installed. Still, the approach of any airport is good for the loss of smoothness and fps...-John

If you really want the GPS in flight, try to declutter it. Although you loose a lot of the info displayed, it helps a little. But I too get a big impact on FPS like you.

I'm going to ask a dumb question. How do you turn off the gps?

Reply to #3. Depends on what you're flying. I just moved the Archer II from FS2k2 to FS9 with their patch. The Archer has a rocker switch for GPS on the panel. Check the radio stack for your aircraft.

John,I decide to try it on my computer - your observation about magnetic heading and airport approach slow-down.Don't laugh but on my PC (P3 500, G400 Max) I had to turn off many options including AA, autogen, clouds, AI, water effects, dynamic scenery, etc. But all high res ground textures I have at max, mesh at 20%. I frankly don't see any sensitivity to direction and whatever slow-down I see during approach is not worse than in FS2002. When I turn off the panel (W) I don't see any particular loss of fps when airport comes into view - I tested it on a smaller airport like Monterey, CA - it has multiple parallel runways and some buildings. Anyway, tried approaching to the west and then to the east - see no difference.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

I was starting to discount that theory anyway, But I have seen incredible improvement around airports by simply turning off the panel.... The panel never hit FS2002's performance, but it's good for a loss of 4-5 fps on my system. Leads me to believe that panels vs. slow cpus vs. FS2004 -- well, let's just say the slow cpus lose :)