Hello,after buying a rather expensive new Dell-PC in March this year, I thought an "old" program like FSX would run perfectly on it, without the necessity for unwanted compromises.However, that isn't the case. "Out of the box" it wasn't any good really, so I looked for and implemented a number of tweaks found here and elsewhere (especially *******' tweaks and SM3 mod). This brought the framerates to just acceptable numbers.However, especially at altitude over water with setting 2.x, the system is brought to its knees with fps down to 15- (with water 1.x, it's 30+).I am specifically wondering if - with this rather fast system - I am having a settings problem, or if parts of the hardware indeed constitute a "bottle neck" and need to be upgraded.The goal would be to have weather and scenery sliders to max or at least very good and water at least 2-low. AA needs to be set to at least 4 with the highest mode (I think it's Super-Sampling, can't check from this computer) - I found the latter to be necessary to actually remove jaggies from FSX, since all but the highest AA modes are pretty sh*tty for this card.Any advice is appreciated.Dell Studio XPS 8100 with Intel i7 860, 2.8GHzRAM: 4x2048GB 1067MHz DDR3 Dual ChannelHD: 7200rpm S-ATA mit 1TBGPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5770OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. Regards,Robert

Hello,after buying a rather expensive new Dell-PC in March this year, I thought an "old" program like FSX would run perfectly on it, without the necessity for unwanted compromises.However, that isn't the case. "Out of the box" it wasn't any good really, so I looked for and implemented a number of tweaks found here and elsewhere (especially *******' tweaks and SM3 mod). This brought the framerates to just acceptable numbers.However, especially at altitude over water with setting 2.x, the system is brought to its knees with fps down to 15- (with water 1.x, it's 30+).I am specifically wondering if - with this rather fast system - I am having a settings problem, or if parts of the hardware indeed constitute a "bottle neck" and need to be upgraded.The goal would be to have weather and scenery sliders to max or at least very good and water at least 2-low. AA needs to be set to at least 4 with the highest mode (I think it's Super-Sampling, can't check from this computer) - I found the latter to be necessary to actually remove jaggies from FSX, since all but the highest AA modes are pretty sh*tty for this card.Any advice is appreciated.Dell Studio XPS 8100 with Intel i7 860,  2.8GHzRAM: 4x2048GB 1067MHz DDR3 Dual ChannelHD: 7200rpm S-ATA mit 1TBGPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5770OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. Regards,Robert

Robert, you need to get your CPU above 4ghz for good results in FSX.  I have a 870 running stable (and cool) at 4.2ghz   Check the threads to see the best way to tweak your GPU.jja

Over clocking makes a huge difference - but it won't completely resolve your disapointment. The cpu has not been built yet (except those using exotic cooling for hyper overclocking) that will run FSX well in situations where you are driving a detailed complex airplane, through multitple cloud layers flying under 10,000 feet over detailed scenery. Does your Dell bios allow you to OC? I think they do now. They didn't in the past. Tom's Hardware Guide website has some very good articles on overclocking - how to do it. I'm sure if you posted to the hardware forum here, someone would be happy to help you with the settings. I have an i920 ocd to over 3.8 ghz - but flying the MD11 through the clag as you decend I still see 12 - 15 fps. At take-off I'm often under 20 fps. At cruise I'm over 45 on average. I've tried everything tweak wise, but that seems to be about the best I can do. Sadly, the cold fact is that we still don' t have the cpu horsepower to really run FSX with all the bells and whistles. To optimize: - OC your cpu as close to 4.0 as you can get it- Ditch your stock cooler and buy a third party one - Find a frame friendly set of clouds- Back off the water - it is one of the most CPU hungry effects in the sim- Back off the dynamic scenerey - also CPU hungry- Fly framerate friendly airplanes - the Citation X from Eaglesoft is excellent on frames yet makes no comprimises on systems fidelity. Captain Sim's products, on the other hand, tend to be very hard on frames because they build beautiful but complex interiors for the planes (and you can't turn off the cabin...)- Buy a latest generation video card - do a search on the forums for the best recomendations. But you need the top of the line to draw clouds without stutters. And you don't bother with SLI. FSX is not optimized for it. - Fly into low-urban areas - another good pitch for the Citation because it is common to see it in smaller airportsColin

Hi,It's the AA super sampling with that card. I see the same thing in both FSX and FS9 so I needed to back off one step. Yes, a few more jaggies but a lot more FPS. I wish I had never purchased that card when I was re-building my computer in the spring.

Autogen and AI are the two big frame killers in FSX (IMO). I find using FSX for G/A flying is awesome and having to sacrafice very little eye candy (ORBX and REX running).Tis the reason I use my old tried and ture FS9 for big iron flying. No sacrafice there, lots of AI and so on.Best of both worlds..... :(