All else being equal, I'm finding that the Carenado C208 is giving me a solid hit of 3 fps or so on average even against other Carenado planes. I switched between the Bonanza and Caravan and there is definitely a difference. I can't be too sure but it almost seems like the Cargo version may impact by another 1 fps or so but too close to be sure. Flying the Bonanza in Tongass Fjords X with heavy cloud cover I can do in the mid-teens on average. Not great but I'm not getting stuttering either so its managable. Switching to the Caravan I'm dipping down into the single digit territory at times which is just not workable.

For me, I find that the FPS hit is a little stronger than the Bonanza! However, I don't ever find it unusable. You should see if you can contact carenado and have them send some standard def textures if possible!I hope that helps!

Hi Bandsma-Can I ask what your graphics card, CPU and ram are? In the review I wrote for this product for AVSIM, I metioned that a 1gb graphics card may be required to avoid a FPS hit, this may be an issue for you.

It is likely the issue for me then as my graphics card is only 512MB.

If you post your PC specs, I can give you so info that can help you increase those FPS. Mainly your CPU and Ghz, RAM, Graphics Card and OS ;)

I'm using a Macbook Pro running Windows XP. It has a Core 2 Duo @ 2.4Ghz, 3g RAM and Nividia 8600M GT

I'm seeing the same issues which is a bugger because it's such a great aircraft and I'm running [email protected] and a gtx470. I guess that's the nature of the beast.

I purchased the Carenado C208 today and i have noticed significant frame rate drop compared to the stock 208. My only comparison so far is flying in Orbx Pacific Northwest, my settings are quite high but when I switch between the stock and the Carenado versions of the 208 I see almost a 20fps drop. In fact I am down to around 11 FPS at times on landing which really is almost unacceptable. I am running a GeForce GTX460M with 8gigs of Ram and the processor is Intel Core i7 i7-740QM / 1.73 GHz. I would hope this is good enough. Is there anything that can be done to help with the FPS?

I purchased the Carenado C208 today and i have noticed significant frame rate drop compared to the stock 208.

It's a completely different aircraft. You cannot compare with respect to performance.

I am running a GeForce GTX460M with 8gigs of Ram and the processor is Intel Core i7 i7-740QM / 1.73 GHz. I would hope this is good enough. Is there anything that can be done to help with the FPS?

With those specs, the problem is either with your laptop configuration/settings or your FSX install/settings. It's not the Carenado.

Yes it is the Carenado 208. There is a frame rate drop with it but as you use payware, even two from the same maker, you will notice different results. They all have a larger draw on your system then default aircraft but that's the price we pay for the eye candy. The same applies for addon scenery, weather addons such as ASE, etc. As they use your resources they will slow your system. Just do a quick search of the forums here and you will find many an article on the subject and a few suggestions on system tweaks to help compensate.

Yes it is the Carenado 208. There is a frame rate drop with it but as you use payware, even two from the same maker, you will notice different results. They all have a larger draw on your system then default aircraft but that's the price we pay for the eye candy. The same applies for addon scenery, weather addons such as ASE, etc. As they use your resources they will slow your system. Just do a quick search of the forums here and you will find many an article on the subject and a few suggestions on system tweaks to help compensate.

With the specs that Mauleflyer posted, the Carenado C208 should not be causing a 20fps drop. There is something wrong with his laptop configuration or FSX configuration (or combination of).

Regardless of the specs he posted all things being equal if the drop happened after he installed the C208 (and only happens when using it) and nothing else has been changed it is reasonable to say the C208 is causing the issue. There could be other factors; however, since he didn't state that info it can't be inferred. As such the C208 is the best place to start troubleshooting. Should he be seeing that much of a drop? No not at all but pointing that out doesn't help fix anything. It is merely restating what he already knows, that something is wrong. At this point it should be noted that others have experienced a reduction in frame rates; such as the thread started by shiver9. Again I suggest searching the forums here for tips and tricks on improving frame rates. Something may hit the spot and if nothing else you can check that FSX is configured as best as it can be given that each system is different. You may also want to try an uninstall then installing the C208 again, you could have simply had a bad instillation. So, Mauleflyer, I recommend doing a search of the forums to see if you have FSX configured correctly which includes checking your fsx.cfg file. Here is http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html one excellent tool that should help with improving frames and general performance. You can find the thread on that tool by searching around the forums.

Edward,You're correct. However one thing is missing from this thread. It's troubleshooting 101.While I'll be the first to admit that the Carenado C208 will cause a fps hit (show me an addon that doesn't), and I'm experiencing it. However there are a couple things that people should try/consider before saying a product is bad, or is causing a performance hit (note I said "performance hit", not fps hit):- Not all setups are equal. Even two identical machines with the same setup can yield different performance benchmarks.- When you install X, and say "X is causing a huge performance hit", that is absolutely meaningless. The only time it would be meaningful as a troubleshooting statement is if it's the ONLY addon you have and you just installed it after a fresh install of FSX.I find it very hard to believe that a properly configured/tuned FSX rig (that meets the minimum specs) would result in such a reported performance hit (~20 fps). I'd highly recommend disabling ALL addons (disable them from your dll.xml, exe.xml, and make all addon scenery inactive), then reboot. Start at a field in the middle of nowhere with the default C208, note performance. Then load the Carenado C208. If you don't see the same significant performance impact, it's not specifically the C208, but rather a combination of settings/addons that is causing the problem.

I am not new to flight simming however I stopped several years ago when FSX came out and I was spending more time tweaking and screwing with my machine then flying. I had hundreds of dollars invested in FS9 and is was running pretty good when I took the FSX plunge. I pretty much burned out and shelved it all. My new machine was purchased not necessarily as a gaming machine but sort of a compromise. I purchased an All-In-One ASUS ET2400 XVT computer, it is not a laptop but a 24" HD touch screen All-in-one. As I said it was not purchased with FS in mind but I certainly thought an i7 processor with 8 gigs of Ram and a 1.5MB graphics card and 3D Nividia capability (including during FSX) could handle it. I can make games like Black Opps look silly on this thing. Anyway despite my telling myself not to go crazy on FSimming again apparently I could not stop myself. In two weeks I have purchased UTX, GEX, REX, and FXT. Even with high settings and stock AC I was getting 25 to 75 FPS consistently in FTX PNW territories. The 208 was the first add on AC that I purchased and as I have mentioned, it has brought the frame down to 12 to 17 at times, especially while landing which is when you need it the most. During flight it is around 25 to 45 fps. I have been tweaking again and downloaded another skin that may have helped. I think I have an acceptable compromise but it is just that. I fly real low, in the real world they call me tree hugger, so high settings are important to me. My point of my initial post was to make sure I was not seeing something that others were not. I think there is a general opinion that the Carenado 208 has frame rate hit issues. To the extent that it can be mitigated can be argued. While I think it is a nice add on, I can't figure out why it has such a FPS hit over the default 208. I just don't see that many differences between the two. If someone knows one or two tweaks that can improve the FPS please let me know. I really want to spend more time flying then tweaking and I would rather push this puppy to the back of the hanger then lower my scenery settings.Thanks

Mauleflyer,Unfortunately I still think the problem is system/FSX related for you. I know you don't want to spend ime tweaking, but a couple things you can check to isolate the problem.On a side note, you have a laptop. It might not look like a laptop, but for all intensive purposes, it's a laptop (you have a mobile CPU and a mobile graphics card in that thing). The CPU is much lower power and running at 1.73GHz it will slow things down. There is a HUGE difference between the GTX460 and GTX460M which also might be causing you problems. In all honestly, I'm surprised that you're able to run FSX with the detail you desire. However, this aircraft should not be causing you a 50% hit in fps.I would recommend what I posted earlier about doing a test flight with no scenery addons active, in the middle of nowhere, with no weather. Compare performance (not strictly FPS) of the default C208 and the Carenado. If you see the same 50% hit, then you can begin looking at your FSX.cfg file and the aircraft itself.In the end, I think your problem is still going to be hardware related, in that your hardware can't handle all those scenery/graphical addons and then start throwing complex a/c add-ons into the mix without come compromise. You've inferred that you don't want to sacrifice visual quality, so that doesn't leave much to be tweaked. Again this aircraft will cause a slight fps hit (if fps if what you primarily judge performance on), however the 50% hit you're experiencing.... something else is going on.Of course, could be that your system is stable and happy running your addons, and the C208 put it over the edge so it's not struggling to keep up and/or shifting processing priorities.Only troubleshooting will tell for sure.Cheers,