Just built a new rig consisting of: Intel D875PBZLK mobo, Intel 3.0ghz 800mhz FSB, 1gig Corsair XMS pc3200 memory, SB Audigy Gamer, and my old GEForce4 ti4200.Now, on my old rig (a P4 1.5ghz with 512MB ram and the same video card) I was getting frame rates no lower than 16 or 17, any aircraft anywhere with all slider maxed except the 3d clouds and low water effects. With my new rig I cant get any higher than 5 or 7fps if there is a single cloud in the virtual sky. What am I missing? I have turned off several of the unecessary processes by way of msconfig and the services tab, and have tried disabling hyperthreading in BIOS (no difference by the way). Why was my performace so much better with the the old rig? I was expecting much better performace from this set up. Keep in mind that this is the same video card. My other two main games (IL2 Forgtten Battles and Call of Duty) both run much better at identical or better graphics settings.

Dumb question but I gotta ask. Did you reinstall your OS, or did you just stick your old hard drive into your new rig?Vin

Thanks for the reply. I did a clean install of WinXP pro on a brand new hard drive, the old hard drive is in there too but it is secondary and is for data backup only. FS2004 runs off the new HD which by the way is supposed to be faster as well.

Did you install the MOBO controller chip drivers, i.e., Intel, VIA, SiS, AMD, ALi, NForce?W. Sieffert

Hey man,A possible problem can be your new mobo is not running AGP at 4x or 8x. My computer, also a 3GHz, came with all the drivers installed, but the screwed up BIOS version that came in it did not allow any AGP faster than 1x, so I had to flash the BIOS with a newer version, then I was able to go into the setup and change my AGP to 4x.Like the above says, make sure you install all the new drivers, and get the latest video driver too. Also, get RivaTuner, this utility will let you know at what AGP setting your computer is running, and let you change it if enabled in the BIOS.

Thats what I thought might be the problem. When I go into the BIOS I am not give a choice of AGP4x or 8x just AGP or PCI. But I have checked the INTEL web site and have found that my version of the BIOS is the most current one they have. I also updated my mobo INF files with their updater as well. Why would I not be given the choice of AGP 4x or 8x?

Not exactly sure, but get RIvaTuner, it will tell you directly at which AGP you are working under.

I hope you didn't make the same mistake I made when I built a new system a year or so ago. I didn't plug in the extra power cord into the MB which provides extra power to the video card. I hadn't seen that in previous systems I built and missed it. There should be a power cord plugged directly into the video card (most), and one into the center of the MB (a square connection). My system worked fine on most occasions w/o this power cord connected but I sometimes had problems booting up and my monitor was still dark. I would reboot and I would have perfect video. Some days it would boot up w/o any problems so I didn't immediately catch my error. After about a month, I decided to reread the Intel MB Manual (ugh!) and discovered my mistake. If you didn't make the same mistake as I, then I suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the video card drivers, then running dxdiag to make sure everything is installed correctly. Perhaps the sound card needs to be reinstalled too as corrupt drivers will affect performance.In addition, as suggested by other users in previous threads, I would check out your memory sticks and make sure they are working correctly.Hope this helps.Jim Young