I've also seen an improvement in frames after installing the new Nvidia drivers (52.16) and it keeps it steady when locked at 24 f/sec but after flying for about 10 - 15 minutes the stutters are back. Sometime a stutter could take a second and sometimes even close to 2 seconds. It drives me nuts!Is this related to the memory leak that was reported as a bug in FS2004 - or what could cause these stutters?Also something else that I've noticed that are very strange. If you look at the pictures attached you will see screenshots of the same spot with no change in settings but only the AA and AF in die Windows Display Properties.Notice the darker blue'ish one is the AA8 and AF8 setting and if you look at the Autogen you will see less buildings than in the pictures taken with the AA2 and AF4 settings. As a matter of fact it becomes lighter as you bring the settings down. I did not change anything with the Autogen density but it shows less autogen with AA8 and AF8.For the guru's out there, if you have an AGP8x card, what will be the best settings for FS? (i.e. AA and AF in Windows Display Properties)Where do you see that the card's AGP8x is actually activated because I can not see it anywhere? (I have the latest BIOS installed)But it is the stutters that are my main concern ... what, where, and when is my question because the rest of my machine is tweaked to a T.Any help will be appreciated.ThanxT

I think they need to call COF, Century Of Stutters instead. I too had the same problem, no matter what plane I used.. No matter what my display setting were at the result was always the same. I have found some relief with the 52.16 drivers and setting my Anti Aliasing too 2Q from the desktop, granted you have too deal with a little shimmering, but I am running 30 FPS and abosolutely no stuttering.Good Luck.

Im stutter free and the new drivers seemed to really smooth things out for me. It really must be system specific. I have all sliders maxed though I am running 2D clouds. With a a FSD GMAX Cheyenne running Im still getting a very smooth 28-32FPS in almost all flight environments and in almost all weather (only down ro mid 20's at big airports).P4 2.41.5GB Ram128MB GeForce 4 Ti 4400Windows XP

Can't say I've seen any difference from 45.23, perhaps a little better performance in certain situations.I just need to see about the 2x FSAA, whether it works now - with 45.23 2x FSAA caused menus going bad... flickering.

I do not mean to be nasty - but where on the box for FS2004 COF (or whatever they want to call themselves) do they say you need a P4 2.4 with 1.5GB RAM and a 128Mb GF Ti4400 to be able to have a sim that will run smooth ...???If I have a P4 2.0 with 500Mb DDR and a FX5600 Pro with 256 DDR on board RAM it should be ENOUGH, shouldn't it ...???And it only happens after a while of flying, if the problem is hardware related, it should be stuttering from the moment you say GO! but you fly and it is smooth and then it starts - the first one, the second one and before you know it, every 30 to 40 seconds. Surely it must be FS related because I never ever had it with FS2002!AnywayLet me go and practice my stuttering ILS's with my Vickers Vimy or Lockheed Vega or some other God forsaken aeroplane.T

I can sense your frustration, but just recall the launch of FS2000 - the moans were exactly the same. It simply needs better, more powerful hardware than the average simmer possesses. FS has ALWAYS been that way.And you are right. Nowhere on the box does it state what it takes to run FS smooth. That will because `smooth` is a poor definition, with everyone having their own interpretation, smoothness is definitely system-specific, and us simmers cannot resist moving those sliders to the right, even though every fiber in our being tells us that our systems can't cope. Try setting the default settings in the sim and see how smooth everything gets! It looks like poo, but it sure is smooth.I'm really liking these 52.16 drivers, but for those who want to experiment StarStorm has his modded 52.16's available thhrough the www.guru3d.com forums - there are two versions the 52.16x and the 52.16xQ which offers some of the best visual quality I have EVER seen, but makes FS so un-smooth I had to change back. Other systems might be different. T, you should try the 52.16x's.Allcott

AllcotMy definition of 'smooth' is also relative, but it translates to 'not having to swear', 'not feeling so frustrated that I want to delete the whole damn thing from my computer'. Because I run GrandPrix4 with all the sliders to MAX and no stutters; I play DukeN with incredible graphics and all the sliders and AA and AF to max with NO stutters; I still fly with FLY! and there is NO but NO stutters ...I doubt if any driver will fix this accept a complete upgrade to a Pentium4 3.3Ghz with 2Gig RAM and a 512DDR VideoCard and I find that ridiculous!Something else should be done - and I've posted it before but I think that if I was to release a flightsim at the price they did and the following is abscent or a bug, then we SHOULD 'demand' (such a strong word!) a patch:1. The drop in frame rate after flying for a while (most players reported this!)2. The fact that you can not request runway lights in bad visibility and have to wait until it drops below 5mi to get approach lights and 2mi to get runway lights3. The online weather update every 15 minutes are not accurate and if it wasn't for Chris Willis' clouds, the default 3d clouds are unflyable unless you have a Pentium 7 with 4 Gb RAM4. The strange fog behaviour arround mountains5. The power settings for some aircraft are totally unrealistic while the same aircraft with the same *.air file will perform completely different in FS20026. The problems with video cards (reflections, 2d panels, stuttering etc.) while the same video card will have no problem in any other program7. The bizarre problems with some bridges and other autogen objects8. The zig zag vectoring by ATC for landing while you could still not request a 'straight in' approach and ATC clearance for a take-off on a active runway with a 15 knts tail wind9. The mess with timezones10. The TOWER view (where you look at your plane landing in Heathrow from the tower in Boston)11. Sound problems (this is a FS2004 bug because no other game or program put any sound in a loop or distortion) and the relationship with DirectX12. Aircraft that jump up and down at certain airports, a terrain problem, mesh or what ever? 13. The bleed through of ground textures where taxi ways dissapear. (All of this at default airports)14. The blurries that people experience and the endless tweaking of your FS9.cfg file15. The fact that Pete Dowson have to PATCH their bugs with a module; that Chris Willis has to make new clouds to PATCH their frame eaters; and other people's work trying to make FS run 'smoothly'Enough saidEnjoy your weekendT