To all who could help,My computers preformance with FSX and the 744 is just horrible, settings are all set to minimum and I get a fps of 9 in the VC . So, I need to know what in my computer needs upgrading, or if I just need a new computer. In my opinion, its my processor, my specs are as follows: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, Intel Core 2 CPU 6400@ 2.13 2.13, No add-ons for FSX except PMDG planes....... What do I need to do?Thank you,Spencer Hayes

To all who could help,My computers preformance with FSX and the 744 is just horrible, settings are all set to minimum and I get a fps of 9 in the VC . So, I need to know what in my computer needs upgrading, or if I just need a new computer. In my opinion, its my processor, my specs are as follows: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, Intel Core 2 CPU 6400@ 2.13 2.13, No add-ons for FSX except PMDG planes....... What do I need to do?Thank you,Spencer Hayes

Well for a start I wouldn't even use that CPU for FS9

Well for a start I wouldn't even use that CPU for FS9

Ok, I'm looking more for what needs fixing, so, what need fixing, or do I need a new one?

Ok, I'm looking more for what needs fixing, so, what need fixing, or do I need a new one?

Well the cheapest option is to upgrade to the fastest core 2. The Wolfdale E8600 is the fastest but for FSX you really need a fast I7 or I5 and that means a new motherboard.

Well the cheapest option is to upgrade to the fastest core 2. The Wolfdale E8600 is the fastest but for FSX you really need a fast I7 or I5 and that means a new motherboard.

I figured that, alright then...:(

Well the cheapest option is to upgrade to the fastest core 2. The Wolfdale E8600 is the fastest but for FSX you really need a fast I7 or I5 and that means a new motherboard.

Errrr. No? NEED? No... An overclocked Q9xxx is a viable option. So long as the motherboard supports it...But this thread is off topic enough...

Just to help the framerates of FSX itself i would buy REX I did and it really helped my frame rates a lot. And it makes FSX look soo much betterGreat Addon for FSX

To all who could help,My computers preformance with FSX and the 744 is just horrible, settings are all set to minimum and I get a fps of 9 in the VC . So, I need to know what in my computer needs upgrading, or if I just need a new computer. In my opinion, its my processor, my specs are as follows: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, Intel Core 2 CPU 6400@ 2.13 2.13, No add-ons for FSX except PMDG planes....... What do I need to do?Thank you,Spencer Hayes

With that system you should be getting better framerates than that and be able to set some sliders in the mid range, assuming you have FSX patched to SP2 or Acceleration installed. I have a 2 GHz single core CPU and 2GB of memory and get better performance than you running the PMDG 744. The worst framerate killer in my experience is autogen scenery, with weather settings and complex scenery a close second. Out of the box, FSX autogen tries to draw far too many trees and buildings and you can limit this with tweaks to FSX.cfg. Also, there may be something running in background which is soaking up your PC resources, such as an overactive computer security software suite. In my experience bloatware like Norton and Mcafee are worse for your system than the problems they supposedly prevent. There are free antivirus programs available which are less intrusive and use far less resources.So before upgrading your system at great expense you should spend some time researching the various recommended tweaks to FSX. You'll need some autogen, but no more than "normal" setting. Make sure there are no resource hogs, malware or spyware running on your PC. You should be able to get usable performance that way. Of course, if you want to be able to run with the sliders at max and at high framerates, then a hardware upgrade will be necessary.Kevin Hall

I agree with Kevin. I am somewhat concerned with all this talk of high end systems, overclocking and so on. I have a dual core 2.66 laptop with 4gb and a 1GB video NIVIDIA 230 and everything in FSX works just fine. I really only fly the LDS767 but I am sure that the PMDG 747 which I hope to get soon would run equally as well. I get 25fps+ even with REX weather down to minimums at most airports - not LAX or EGLL obviously but it generally does work well. It sometimes seems to me that the more you spend on hardware the more problems people get.By the way I optimised framerates most effectively by setting framerates at unlimited, no water effects and removing DX10 preview and with all that get those 20+ with Scenery sliders mostly to the right hand side.Gerry

Errrr. No? NEED? No... An overclocked Q9xxx is a viable option. So long as the motherboard supports it...But this thread is off topic enough...

Errrr I already suggested the cheapest option to the OP and the wolfadales are the most stable in a overclock if you want to go down that route. I never said his only option was the I5,I7 but if he is buying a new proccesor then why not pay a little extra and get the new Sandy Bridge I5? They are very cheap and extremely fast.To the guy suggesting that upgrading hardware just causes more issues, thanks for the tip, I'll get my Commadore 64 out of the basement and reload FS4.The bottom line is FS needs raw CPU power so no point kidding yourself otherwise, buy the fastest CPU you can afford and follow all the FS tweaks and keep your machine as clean and efficient as possible. The funny thing is 90% of the FS videos I see on youtube have crap performance, yet I see comments like 'Wow how do you get such good framerates' so I guess everyone has there own view on what's usable and whats not.

I agree with Kevin. I am somewhat concerned with all this talk of high end systems, overclocking and so on. I have a dual core 2.66 laptop with 4gb and a 1GB video NIVIDIA 230 and everything in FSX works just fine. I really only fly the LDS767 but I am sure that the PMDG 747 which I hope to get soon would run equally as well. I get 25fps+ even with REX weather down to minimums at most airports - not LAX or EGLL obviously but it generally does work well. It sometimes seems to me that the more you spend on hardware the more problems people get.By the way I optimised framerates most effectively by setting framerates at unlimited, no water effects and removing DX10 preview and with all that get those 20+ with Scenery sliders mostly to the right hand side.Gerry

A few weeks ago I get a tip from Kaspar Peterson on this forum here. It realy helps me to get beteer framerates with an older system.He said:- Try putting all your sliders to the right (yes, I said right) apart from water (1x High), Autogen (dense) and special effects (medium).- Set your frame rates to Unlimited- Set cloud coverage to High and range to 60 or 70.First it didn;'t help, but I did get better scenery with the same framerates. After I changed the water to 1x low and the rest like Kaspar said, it gave me much better framerates. (VC J41 13-15 fps and outside J41 23-26 fps at mega airports) Maybe it is not spectacular improving, but it is enough to fly smoothly.And I use FS booster version 2.9.XX. I don't know exactly what it does, (the first version didn't do anything :( ) but if I use this version, I get 4 fps more (average)Good luck with it.Eric

Another thing worth mentioning is AI traffic. If you wish to fly with AI traffic, take some time to install some packages from World of AI. This will remove the default AI traffic which is a real frames killer and use the World of AI models instead. This alone will improve your frame rates. Also, it has been said that the sweet spot for FSX is when your CPU hits 3.0 Ghz. I went from a Core 2 Duo at 2.18 Ghz to a core i7 at 2.66 and saw little change. When I overclocked the i7 to just over 3.0 Ghz, it was like flipping a switch. Maybe investigate what you can get your CPU to do in an overclock. Goggle search your CPU and motherboard in regards to overclocking. You may need to upgrade the CPU cooler though.Have fun,Chuck

Errrr I already suggested the cheapest option to the OP and the wolfadales are the most stable in a overclock if you want to go down that route. I never said his only option was the I5,I7 but if he is buying a new proccesor then why not pay a little extra and get the new Sandy Bridge I5? They are very cheap and extremely fast.To the guy suggesting that upgrading hardware just causes more issues, thanks for the tip, I'll get my Commadore 64 out of the basement and reload FS4.The bottom line is FS needs raw CPU power so no point kidding yourself otherwise, buy the fastest CPU you can afford and follow all the FS tweaks and keep your machine as clean and efficient as possible. The funny thing is 90% of the FS videos I see on youtube have crap performance, yet I see comments like 'Wow how do you get such good framerates' so I guess everyone has there own view on what's usable and whats not.

I didn't see anyone say that. If you're referring to my post, I suggested sorting out configuration issues first, then see if performance is good enough. The only "issue" with upgrading hardware is cost. Clearly you feel nothing less than maximum available CPU power is good enough. Fair play to you if you can afford to keep upgrading to the latest and greatest. Remember though that when FSX was launched the CPUs you recommend as essential didn't exist, nor did multi-core support, yet people still ran it OK.Kevin Hall

Well the cheapest option is to upgrade to the fastest core 2. The Wolfdale E8600 is the fastest but for FSX you really need a fast I7 or I5 and that means a new motherboard.

And new memory....