Dear all,With interest, I have been reading different forums, all related to FSX and its add-ons. I have seen many different suggestions regarding fsx settings, tweaking etc and I have also tried that myself to optimize my PC's cabability related to FSX. Some of you may be thinking why Im creating this topic as the web is full of different kind of intstructions of tweaking etc and I apologize this in advance, but I decided to turn towards all of you pro's, who might have been earlier in the same situation as I am know, that maybe you are willing to help or at least advice me on this matter. I have been virtually flying for about two years now, and about 6 months ago, I bought completely new PC, just for FSX purposes. First of all, let me give the specs:Mboard: Asus Rampage III ExtremeCpu: Intel Core i7 960 3.2ghzMem: Corsair Dominator-GT 6 GB, PC3-12800 1600mhzVideo: Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750 GB 750 GB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, S-ATA II/300 (Dedicated for FSX)HDD: WD Velociraptor 600 GB, 10.000 Rpm, 32 MB, Sata III/600 (for Windows)OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bitThe system has not been overclocked.I have FSX and all related addons installed on separate HD as described above. My normal FSX add-ons when im flying, is more or less like below:FSX AccelrationREX - for better graphicsActive Sky X - for weatherAivlasoft Electronic Flight Bag - used via home network ie data provider installed in the FSX PC and the EFB on my old PCTraffix X - for the trafficMega Airport AmsterdamFSDreamteam New York KennedyRadar Contact - for ATCAES: for airport enchancementUsually flying either one of these:PMDG 747 or MD-11 - with FSCrewLevel D 767 - with FSCrewSuper pro 80SimChek A300I know there are a lot of things listed above and I understand completely that for example the Mega AP EHAM will eat up your frames like crazy. I hope you have the time to read this until the end as here are my settings in FSX:Please note that those settings not mentioned below (like dx 10 or anti-aliasing) are not ticked!Graphics Tab:Target frames: UnlimitedResolution: 1680x1050x32Filtering: TrilinearGlogal texture: fullLens flare: tickedAdvance animations: tickedAircraft:Hig-Res 3-D virtual cockpit: tickedA/C cast shadows on the ground: tickedA/C landing lights illuminate ground: tickedScenery:Level of detail: fullMesh complex: 89Mesh reso: 10mTexture reso: 1mWater effects: Mid 2.xScenery complex: Extremely denseAutogen: sparseSpecial effects: fullWeather:Cloud draw distance: 60mi/96kmRate for weather change: MediumDetailed clouds: yesCloud coverage: maxTraffic:Airline: 49%General: 18%Airport vehicle: noneRoad, ships and leisure boats: noneWith these settings, I get 13fps on PMDG 747 3D cockpit at Mega EHAM gate E19, during day time and only FSX running and no other add-ons. 2-D cockpit gives me around 17 or 18 fps and obviously these will change if you start to taxi and there's traffic etc. I used fraps to measure the frames as I cannot get the inbuild frame info displayed even it has assigned to certain key-command.Using the PMDG MD-11 gives me approx 1-2 fps more.If I change location to for example Helsinki (EFHK, gate 25) i get the followingMD-11 3D around 34 fps when at the gateMD-11 2D around 50 fps when at the gate747 3D around 29 fps when at the gate747 2D around 40 fps when at the gateDuring the night it is more or less the same, maybe during the taxi it eats a bit more due to lights etc. Now I have a work around this reducing the water effects to Mid 1,x which then gives me a reasonable fps for the same scenario I described above and I get approx 4-5 fps more in the 747 when standing at the gate. Obviously its not the ideal solution, as when you are flying coastal cities, the water looks completely /!&%¤! :Phbbbt:What Im interested is, to know whether this sounds normal with the setup I have? I might be naive, but I was sort of thinking that I could get at least around 20 constant fps even with add-on airports and a bit traffic. Is it completely wrong? Is there any chance (in reality) to tweak this to perform better? or am I expecting too much?Secondly (depending of your comments to above) I would like to know, well, get advise, is to where should I start if I want to expand my PC? Should I start adding memory? overclocking? I know, its been a long message and Im glad if you read it until the end. I would appreciate any feedback related to this to help me on my quest to make my FSX even more enjoyable!:Hug:I will gladly provide you even more information if necessary, I just wanted to start somewhere and see what kind of feedback I get, if anything at all... :-)Anyway, I would also like to thank everyone in general in this forum as I have already received a lot of other usefull information related to FSX and I cannot keep wondering the amount of knowledge most of the people in this forum has! A biiig thank you!:-)Best RegardsSeme

Well the onlies thing I would have changed is the HDDs. I would have installed the OS on the bigger and lower RPM HDD and FSX on the VR (600 GB are enough for FSX) and than I would have partitioned the 750GB so that the OS get´s arround 100GB and the rest for all kind of other stuff. The next you could do is switching the page file off, so that the HDD has a bit more ressources to read FSX related data. I think you won´t come arround the overclocking if you want to play FSX right. But you system is a fairly good basis.

Well the onlies thing I would have changed is the HDDs. I would have installed the OS on the bigger and lower RPM HDD and FSX on the VR (600 GB are enough for FSX) and than I would have partitioned the 750GB so that the OS get´s arround 100GB and the rest for all kind of other stuff. The next you could do is switching the page file off, so that the HDD has a bit more ressources to read FSX related data. I think you won´t come arround the overclocking if you want to play FSX right. But you system is a fairly good basis.

Guten Abend Germany:-)Vielen Danke, that was fast reply, keep 'em coming!:-) However, I did not fully understand this one: "The next you could do is switching the page file off"? Other than that, understood. At the moment I'm bit against it that I would change the HDD's, maybe in the case I need to format the whole HDD or need to re-install fsx etc then will consider that, so thanks very much for the suggestion, excellent!Any other comments? Anyone? as said, keep 'em coming:-)CheersSeme

Guten Abend Germany:-)Vielen Danke, that was fast reply, keep 'em coming!:-) However, I did not fully understand this one: "The next you could do is switching the page file off"? Other than that, understood. At the moment I'm bit against it that I would change the HDD's, maybe in the case I need to format the whole HDD or need to re-install fsx etc then will consider that, so thanks very much for the suggestion, excellent!Any other comments? Anyone? as said, keep 'em coming:-)CheersSeme

Well, the system often doesn´t use the inbulid RAM for all the data, instead it outsources some data from the RAM to the HDD and this will be used as virtual memory/RAM. This can slow down the sim a bit or can cause some shutters, like it did on my system but after the the upgrade to 8Gb and the disabled pagefile it is now runnig better with mostly no shutters.How toi disable the pagefile: Go on advanced settings in the system properties tab. You could check the net for the exact way, how to do it, cause I don´t have the english version, so I don´t know how the buttons to trigger are called in the english version.

Mboard: Asus Rampage III ExtremeCpu: Intel Core i7 960 3.2ghzMem: Corsair Dominator-GT 6 GB, PC3-12800 1600mhzVideo: Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750 GB 750 GB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, S-ATA II/300 (Dedicated for FSX)HDD: WD Velociraptor 600 GB, 10.000 Rpm, 32 MB, Sata III/600 (for Windows)OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bitSemeThank you Seme for your post, it is actually a great answer to my questionI’m working outside of my home at airport OAKN 4 years already.I have powerful Vaio Sony laptop and I run FS9 with medium performance on it, the FX runs only with basic and clear wheaterI’m going to home soon and was planning to build a new computer and spend about 2000 dollars on the main components + one thousand for the Imac monitor Reading your great info it shows that I have to wait another year to purchase the components to run smoothly FSXI’m very disappointed that few years after release of FSX is still impossible to run max with main add-ons and extreme weather, traffic, cars on the components worth 2500 thousand dollars dedicated to this program only . “I get 13fps on PMDG 747 3D cockpit at Mega EHAM gate E19,”This is bad; and thank you Happy Landings Jacek

Well, the system often doesn´t use the inbulid RAM for all the data, instead it outsources some data from the RAM to the HDD and this will be used as virtual memory/RAM. This can slow down the sim a bit or can cause some shutters, like it did on my system but after the the upgrade to 8Gb and the disabled pagefile it is now runnig better with mostly no shutters.How toi disable the pagefile: Go on advanced settings in the system properties tab. You could check the net for the exact way, how to do it, cause I don´t have the english version, so I don´t know how the buttons to trigger are called in the english version.

Hi Superpilotv2,Many thanks again, will try the "pagefile" trick and let you know.CheersSeme

Mboard: Asus Rampage III ExtremeCpu: Intel Core i7 960 3.2ghzMem: Corsair Dominator-GT 6 GB, PC3-12800 1600mhzVideo: Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750 GB 750 GB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, S-ATA II/300 (Dedicated for FSX)HDD: WD Velociraptor 600 GB, 10.000 Rpm, 32 MB, Sata III/600 (for Windows)OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bitSemeThank you Seme for your post, it is actually a great answer to my questionI’m working outside of my home at airport OAKN 4 years already.I have powerful Vaio Sony laptop and I run FS9 with medium performance on it, the FX runs only with basic and clear wheaterI’m going to home soon and was planning to build a new computer and spend about 2000 dollars on the main components + one thousand for the Imac monitor Reading your great info it shows that I have to wait another year to purchase the components to run smoothly FSXI’m very disappointed that few years after release of FSX is still impossible to run max with main add-ons and extreme weather, traffic, cars on the components worth 2500 thousand dollars dedicated to this program only .“I get 13fps on PMDG 747 3D cockpit at Mega EHAM gate E19,”This is bad; and thank you Happy Landings Jacek

Hi Epza,Thanks for your post! Yep, to be honest it is a bit disappointing to spent 2500 eur for completely new system and still get miserable fps in some scenarios... On the other hand, the more powerfull pc you have, the more you want to install add-ons etc stuff with your FSX which in the end results less fps... I quess I should try to "give up something" to get better fps... if anyone has any tricks on their sleeves, please let me know:-)Happy flyingCheersSeme

Check out bojote's shaded 3.0 mod and his FSX.CDC tweaker. Links are in his signature. These can boost your performance a ton.

Alex & Superpilotv2Thanks for the suggestions, I think so far disabeling the pagefile made most of the boos in my system... Not 100% sure yet, it needs more airports to be tested in:-)Anyway, just wanted to thank you for these If anyone has more suggestion whatsoever, let me know please:-)CheersSeme

Looking at your FSX settings, one easy change would be to reduce your graphics from 32 bit to 16 bit. This should help your frame rate and I doubt that you will see any difference in the 'looks' of the sim. Also, make sure that you settings use the 'native' resolution of your monitor.

Dear Paulb,Thanks for your suggestion. I just tried your trick, changed to 16bit and native resolution and result was no single fps more than previously.... :Cry:Thanks anyway for the suggestionCheersSeme

Hi Seme,Just a note to encourage you. I had an ASUS P6TD Deluxe with an overclocked i7-930 to 4.3+ and enjoyed approximately double your posted EHAM FPS in extreme loaded conditions with a 480 GTX. However, since no two scenery settings are ever the same, nor are hardware configurations, let alone FSX cfg fixes, the comparison is not exact.Serious overclocking of your CPU is the only thing that will go a long way to making you happy in you frame rates and smoothness. Without it, the need for speed simply cannot be met no matter what you add or delete. If you will take that i7-960 to 4.2 to 4.4 you will be flying high, otherwise not. Increase your speed to increase your speed.It's rather simple. There is no real shortcut without extra GHz.Kind regards,

Seme,Since you're flying complex jets into congested areas, what you're seeing is a normal significant decrease in performance.The only way to improve performance is to either lower the settings, fly a different plane, or buy the fastest processor and GPU you can find.Today you can run an i7 2600 with a good cooler at 5ghz and if you pair that with a gtx 580, you should expereince improved performance.I can't say for sure that you will be in the 30s while you approaching KJFK with sliders maxed, but most likely not in the teens.Stephen can confirm the actual performance.

Hi Seme,Just a note to encourage you. I had an ASUS P6TD Deluxe with an overclocked i7-930 to 4.3+ and enjoyed approximately double your posted EHAM FPS in extreme loaded conditions with a 480 GTX. However, since no two scenery settings are ever the same, nor are hardware configurations, let alone FSX cfg fixes, the comparison is not exact.Serious overclocking of your CPU is the only thing that will go a long way to making you happy in you frame rates and smoothness. Without it, the need for speed simply cannot be met no matter what you add or delete. If you will take that i7-960 to 4.2 to 4.4 you will be flying high, otherwise not. Increase your speed to increase your speed.It's rather simple. There is no real shortcut without extra GHz.Kind regards,

Hi SpiritFlyer, Many thanks for this feedback, even it was not really the thing that I wanted to hear, at least now its clear for me that the only way to increase the fps is overclocking or buying the fastest cpu in the market. Thanks for this feedback, now I know the way forward!Cheers!Seme

Seme,Since you're flying complex jets into congested areas, what you're seeing is a normal significant decrease in performance.The only way to improve performance is to either lower the settings, fly a different plane, or buy the fastest processor and GPU you can find.Today you can run an i7 2600 with a good cooler at 5ghz and if you pair that with a gtx 580, you should expereince improved performance.I can't say for sure that you will be in the 30s while you approaching KJFK with sliders maxed, but most likely not in the teens.Stephen can confirm the actual performance.

Hi DJJose,Thanks for your comment as well, really appreciate it. I think I know the way forward!:-)Need to start exploring the internet regarding OC ;-)CheersSeme

You will need to overclock your cpu as this is the problem and bottleneck you should try and get it upto atleast @4.0ghz or 4.5ghz to play at max settings as fsx is cpu heavy and will need the overclock and headroom to run maxxed out with 30+fps smooth with all your addons etc