Hi all, I am planning to upgrade my decrepit old Athlon 1200 to something that runs with good frame rates,etc, I recently read an article by flight dynamics guru Rob Young in PC Pilot where he stated that to really have a good "flying experience" it is essential that your system is capable of running at at LEAST 25 fps. with this in mind I just want to get an idea of what people are using in terms of CPU, memory and videocard and what sort of frame rates they get with all settings set to high (not completely maxed out) and with AI turned off as I cold care less about other traffic flying around. appreciate any tips u have might have as well. cheers.

I am already getting 25fps with AI turned off and almost every setting, save for cloud distance and resolution, maxed. My specs may surprise you....Edit:And to give you an idea of the sim quality, all these shots were taken with 25fps or better performance:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&mesg_id=133686

I have mine tweaked to death with the replacement clouds and running at 1024 for maximum FPS. Here is a spot view shot, the VC is a little slower although not in the air. No stuttering whatsoever which is what I wanted. I have never been so FPS happy ;-)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/74593.jpg[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/betaimg.jpgAMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | WD SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 |

randykeep tweakingyou should be getting double that;)

@ Megascenery??? Let's see your shot bud ;-)[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/betaimg.jpgAMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | WD SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 |

looks more like mega-no-scenery...sorry, couldn't resist:-lolsure, no probsend me the scenery:)

Randy,How is your refresh of instruments/gauges while in VC ? And when flying through clouds at the same time ... Michael J.

AMD64 3400ATI9800XT512MB1600X1200X32 Screen resolution50-60 FPSHope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

P4 at 3.1ghz, Radeon 9800 at pro speeds, 1G of DDR and a fast clean HD. I get about 30 or so but is it smooth? Nope, its pretty good about 80% of the time, but If I go try spot view or a bit of AI or some complicated weather it will stutter. it's not a bad stutter, more of an inconsistency in frame rate that I see. It can go as high as over 100-150 in certain situations, but it wont stay there. I run my sliders something less than max for just about everything except terain textures. There is not a system made that will allow you to have all your cake and eat it too. FS9 was not made to handle the load of AI you can get like with PAI and UT. Add-on sceneries make it worse and the autogen bugs inherent in the sim dont help any. Personally I dont believe many folks when they say it runs smooth either. Running the frame rate locked does NOT help on this system. It may on someone elses but I doubt it. A sim is not smooth if its not running at at least 25+ frames per and it stays there 99% of the time. Its evident that this sim has its problems when you are sitting on the ramp with a default aircraft in basically clear weather and the frame rate in spot view changes every second or so, sometimes by 5-10 fps!! Get the fastest cpu you can, the fastest bus speed and memory and the best video card your money can buy. Then you will enjoy the sim, but it wont run it all at the same time!Just my two cents worth.Hornit

Personally I dont believe many folks when they say it runs smooth either. Well then you really don't have any hope eh? FS testing is what I do all day long everyday and before I burned up my old computer (about 3 weeks ago) I thought pretty much the same way you did BUT when I say smooth I mean no stuttering at all. FPS might not be the issue many folks have but stuttering so if you tweak correctly you CAN run smooth even with weather like me..[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/betaimg.jpgAMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | WD SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 |

"FPS might not be the issue many folks have but stuttering so if you tweak correctly you CAN run smooth even with weather like me.."Agreed. I don't have stutters. I use the average framerate counter (when I use one), and I rarely see any change in FPS more than 5%... and only then near busy, high poly count airports.Greg

"I recently read an article by flight dynamics guru Rob Young in PC Pilot where he stated that to really have a good "flying experience" it is essential that your system is capable of running at at LEAST 25 fps"He's wrong. I get 20 fps with no weather, and 15 fps with weather and I can say my sim is smooth. My flying experience is great. So this so called expert may be speaking for himself(he needs those 25 fps), but for others we don't need em.

>He's wrong. I get 20 fps with no weather, and 15 fps with>weather and I can say my sim is smooth. My flying experience>is great. So this so called expert may be speaking for>himself(he needs those 25 fps), but for others we don't need>em....and you're right, Fred. This sim performs quite smoothly even at relatively 'low' frame rates providing you have no stutters. Drivers are the key and I have noted the Omegas to be particularly good performers on MY system (especially the latest 2.5.36b), and....wait for it....fast writes enabled = nooo stuttering (on my system), despite what all the self-appointed experts say!Mike

I'll have to jump in a disagree here, there is a remarked difference in the flying of the sim when the framerates are increased.It feels so much more fluid at 30fps than it does at 15, there is just no comparison.on the other side of this, I have found flying with a lot more than 30 fps, 50+ makes the sim feel wierd, I just cap mine at 30fps, that way it gives the computer room to breath and iron out any potential "stutters".The thing you need to get into your head is that your performance is more than just the sum of the 3 main components.There is a lot to be gained in the quality of the components and there assciated software, just by buying a 3ghz CPU and an nice card is not going to guarantee you good performance, there are so many more variables to it than that.Just for the record, I have a P4 3Ghz, 1GB Ram and a ATI9800pro, using this I get a very steady 30fps, with all sliders maxed, this includes a very large amount of AI traffic too.Dan.

I have everything standard and maxed out useing normal clouds full AI full deatail on the ground and I have a solid 20fps its all i need my system is a dell 8300 se specs below...i am very happy with them very happy...Oops i have cloud max didstance set to 40mile as I really only do light GA and dont need that much cloud around...