Lastly, I did my FSX.CFG tweaks, and things are actually pretty smooth. I feel kind of bad for fixing my own problem and just taking up space here. I don't really know what I did differently this time around. I swear some things just boil down to pure luck sometimes.About 100 FPS after all optimizations.NGX drops me down to about 40 FPS. 60 FPS drop. That's so harsh. But so worth it... lol

@DVA7209Can you post your specs ? I just upgraded from an Athlon to a Phenom 960T BE and right now my OC is 3.4 ghz and I can already see a difference in FSX with max settings, I feel so much happier and imagine if I had those SB hell I would never leave my captain's seat :)

" . . . I feel kind of bad for fixing my own problem and just taking up space here. . . " You've got to be kidding! Not when this kind of information is shared. Forums are all about information sharing, advice and assistance!But there is a cost! You've got to share more than you did!What are we looking at here? FSX 100% default?Can you share FSX's settings?Can you share FSX's configuration file?" . . . About 100 FPS after all optimizations." What are the 'optimizations'? That kind of information would, I'm sure, be valuable to a number of us.And can you elaborate on your answer to Word Not Allowed's question regarding the Intel Management Engine? The information offered leaves me wanting more!Regards,JJ

Hey ironmaiden, my specs are on the first post of the thread.JJM, no that's not FSX 100% default. I like to install all of my "needs" first, before doing performance testing...which includes:

• Real Environment Xtreme with 2048 res 3D clouds, 1024 res cirrus clouds, water effects on high 1.x.
• FS Global 2010
• And some other, non performance impacting things like AutoStar X (increases night sky realism), Lumberjack (clears trees before runways...useful for small airports), grass textures from Real Environment Xtreme's website, and ENB series light bloom mod.

My FSX settings are:Anti aliasing off (forced through Nvidia Inspector to 4xS).Filtering - Trilinear.Global textures - Very high.No lens flare or light bloom...advanced animations on.//Aircraft global setting - Medium high.//LOD Radius - LargeMesh complexity - 70Mesh resolution - 10 (FS Global requirement)Texture resolution - 1 mWater effects - High 1.XLand detail textures - onScenery complexity - Very denseAutogen density - NormalGround scenery shadows - offSpecial effects - high//Weather - ultra high//Traffic - (Airline/GA: off for now. I'll probably just be flying on VATSIM anyway. Might add a little some day). Airport vehicle density - minimum. Road vehicles - 5%, all others 0%.I did not manually edit my FSX.cfg file. I let Bojote's FSX tweaking site do the work for me...highly recommended. That's what boosted me up nearly 30 FPS from the default fsx.cfg.http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.htmlBy optimizations, I meant using the tweaked fsx.cfg file. I can't attach it to this post because it tells me I'm not permitted, but basically all I did was used that website's auto tweaks, customized for my own hardware. If anyone really needs it, I think these are all of the tweaks it made:[bufferPools]RejectThreshold=131072[Graphics]ALLOW_SHADER_30=1HIGHMEMFIX=1[JOBSCHEDULER]AffinityMask=14[Terrain]SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=2[scenery]SmallPartRejectRadius=4.0When I'm up actually flying and seeing the the planet from thousands of feet in the air, I may decide to increase the LOD radius in the cfg file a little depending on the level of blurries. For now I'm going to leave it alone.Edit - BTW...the flight is the default 737, Boeing house colors, fair weather, in the day time preset, in Seattle on 34R (active runway)...if anyone wants to compare how they're running to what I was getting.

Why this?[scenery]SmallPartRejectRadius=4It´s useless IMO, and only limit the awesomeness of FSX!Objects will disappear, runway lights, AI in the distance, autogen, it´s a totally limiting tweak.- and this you can turn down to Low 2.xWater effects - High 1.XBojote?!!!Why oh why, with the fast CPU´s today??Useless...That "Tweaking Tool" need to be adjusted, or removed.

Now I know it's not in stormy weather, so it's not really a controlled test.

Indeed. Settings and different view will certainly get different results. Next time try FSXmark11 I guess.Glad you're happy now however.

Thanks DVA7209 for the information which provides a base for comparison purposes. Regarding Bojote's tweaking tool, I've used it on several occasions and find it very useful. My results are not as impressive because our systems are very different. But in a few months when I've completed a new build, I may be able to attain similar results. And 40 FPSs with PMDG's 737NGX is something to look forward to if that is achievable while taking off or landing at, for example, KSEA with moderate weather and air traffic.Regards,JJ