For those experiencing CTDs and low frames.

Thought I'd share a couple of tips. Apologies if others have posted similar suggestions.

• I have come across a few posts reporting CTDs when exiting their flights. Mine is doing the same but changing planes to something else before ending the flight stops FSX from crashing
• While ferrying the NG from Renton (KRNT) to Boeing Field (KBFI) I experienced two CTDs in succession. Having flown very stable flights without any issues before I assumed it was just due to flying in FSX's notorious black hole, so I commented out UsePools=0 and added PoolSize=5000000 in the [bufferPools] section of fsx.cfg. Just in case I also reduced the number of trees and buildings to 3000 and 2000 respectively. This cured the CTD in this area immediately.

I am currently running an nVidia 8800 GTS 512 (while I wait for a GTX 560 Ti) and perhaps, for some people the video card could be the culprit. I am getting very good framerates (depending on area where I am flying) but disabling FO's displays and reducing AA a notch from 12xS to 8xS helped raise the framerate slightly in areas where I was dropping to 15-20. In flight I am seeing 30-34fps (with FPS locked at 36). I am running an i5 2500k OCed to 4.5GHz with the FSX and nVidia inspector settings optimised with help from the Italian developers behind the Skunkworks F-104 Starfighter. I am happy to share these tips with optimisation if you're struggling with your FPS rate.