I have the Radeon 9800 pro graphic card and have it set like thisAnti-aliasing on the graphic card is set at 6xAnisotropic Flitering is set at 16xTexture Performance is set at High QualityMipmap Detail Level is set at High QualityWait for Vertical Sync is set on Application PreferenceTRUFORM is set at Always OffI also have the Anti- Aliasing in FS2004 off and all the other sliders that have to do with graphics set all the way to the right.Now is this setup the best way to run FS2004?

Yes. If you run at 1600x1200x32 res; 4xAA is enough. Also, if you find you need more speed ie; when texture demands get real high, you can try running with the AF in performance mode. Chris' FSW clouds help and the autogen fix is also a help. Neither really distracts from the eye candy the sim has to offer.

I run at 1280x1024x32. That is the highest setting I can have with my monitor.

That's the way I run mine. The only difference is that I have the vertical sync off. FS2004 isn't fast enough to worry about texture tearing and the vert sync being off seems, for unknown reasons, to improve the framerate a little bit in some situations.Doug

What does the vertical sync do?

It syncronises the frame rate of the game you are playing to the refresh rate of the monitor. However, that of course doesn't mean that you get 75 fps if you run a refresh rate of 75 hz. What it means is that the next frame in your game won't display until the next vertical refresh occurs on your monitor.So, here are some specific examples if you were to set the refresh rate to 75 hz with vertical sync on:1. Frame rate = 80 fps. Refresh rate = 75 Hz. Actual fps = 75.2. Frame rate = 60 fps. Refresh rate = 75 hz. Actual fps = 37.5.3. Frame rate = 35 fps. Refresh rate = 75 hz. Actual fps = 25.As you can see, by enabling vertical sync, your frame rate is going to run at the refresh rate divided by 1 or 2 or 3 or 4, etc. If you don't enable vertical sync then the frame rate "ignores" the monitor refresh and simply churns out whatever frame rate the game is capable of at any given moment.Some people (including myself) notice artifacts by disabling vertical sync (a slight "jumpiness" or stutter in the image and image "tearing"), whereas other people don't tend to notice or don't mind it. The tearing you often hear about is because the next frame of the game is in the progress of being drawn on the monitor whilst the monitor is also in the middle of refreshing the individual lines. This is of course different to movies where there are so no such things as monitor lines to refresh and the entire image is refreshed on the movie screen at precisely the same instant. I myself prefer to have vertical sync on and I set up my games to achieve as consistent a frame rate as possible - somewhere around the monitor refresh rate or in the case of FS2004, exactly one half the monitor refresh rate by use of the frame rate slider.The reason many people report improved fps by disabling vertical sync is hopefully explained by my examples above. If you take examples 2 and 3, the actual frame rate is much less when vertical sync is on, because the frame rate is limited to a maximum of one half (in example 2) and one third (in example 3) of the refresh rate. In the case of example number 2, the frame rate would have to equal or exceed 75 fps in order to syncronise at the full 75 hz of the monitor. So anything between 38 and 74 is effectively a waste in that particular example, because it will be forced to limit itself to 37.5 fps. In the case of example 3, the 35 fps frame rate isn't quite enough to syncronise at one half the monitor refresh rate, so it has to syncronise at the next lowest multiple. This is 75 hz divided by 3, which equals 25 fps.Although it would seem that enabling vertical sync is therefore the cause of a big performance drop, properly set up it can result in exceptionally smooth and consistent onscreen animation.

It syncronises the frame rate of the game you are playing to the refresh rate of the monitor. However, that of course doesn't mean that you get 75 fps if you run a refresh rate of 75 hz. What it means is that the next frame in your game won't display until the next vertical refresh occurs on your monitor.So, here are some specific examples if you were to set the refresh rate to 75 hz with vertical sync on:1. Frame rate = 80 fps. Refresh rate = 75 Hz. Actual fps = 75.2. Frame rate = 60 fps. Refresh rate = 75 hz. Actual fps = 37.5.3. Frame rate = 35 fps. Refresh rate = 75 hz. Actual fps = 25.As you can see, by enabling vertical sync, your frame rate is going to run at the refresh rate divided by 1 or 2 or 3 or 4, etc. If you don't enable vertical sync then the frame rate "ignores" the monitor refresh and simply churns out whatever frame rate the game is capable of at any given moment.Some people (including myself) notice artifacts by disabling vertical sync (a slight "jumpiness" or stutter in the image and image "tearing"), whereas other people don't tend to notice or don't mind it. The tearing you often hear about is because the next frame of the game is in the progress of being drawn on the monitor whilst the monitor is also in the middle of refreshing the individual lines. This is of course different to movies where there are so no such things as monitor lines to refresh and the entire image is refreshed on the movie screen at precisely the same instant. I myself prefer to have vertical sync on and I set up my games to achieve as consistent a frame rate as possible - somewhere around the monitor refresh rate or in the case of FS2004, exactly one half the monitor refresh rate by use of the frame rate slider.The reason many people report improved fps by disabling vertical sync is hopefully explained by my examples above. If you take examples 2 and 3, the actual frame rate is much less when vertical sync is on, because the frame rate is limited to a maximum of one half (in example 2) and one third (in example 3) of the refresh rate. In the case of example number 2, the frame rate would have to equal or exceed 75 fps in order to syncronise at the full 75 hz of the monitor. So anything between 38 and 74 is effectively a waste in that particular example, because it will be forced to limit itself to 37.5 fps. In the case of example 3, the 35 fps frame rate isn't quite enough to syncronise at one half the monitor refresh rate, so it has to syncronise at the next lowest multiple. This is 75 hz divided by 3, which equals 25 fps.Although it would seem that enabling vertical sync is therefore the cause of a big performance drop, properly set up it can result in exceptionally smooth and consistent onscreen animation.

Thanks for the tip. I turned off the vertical sync and I did notice I gained a couple of frames. I also noticed that when I had the vertical sync on I did have a "jumpiness" in the spot view, now I don't notice it anymore.