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...

I would like all you "smooth" flyers to do a test for me.Go to the default Atlanta airport with NO traffic and sliders wherever you want. Use the default 737 with clear skies and 20 mile vis. Go to spot view and watch the frame rates. Tell me the high and low, and please UNLOCK the frame rate. Then you can go back and lock it and see what it does also. I am interested in the results. I have been tweaking this thing every way to sunday with a CLEAN defragged HD and NOTHING running in the background. I get smooth frame rates most of the time, I'd say 80-90%, but in turns or near heavy scenery It does what I call a frame rate burp about every 10 seconds or so, otherwise very smooth with steady 30's frame rates and sometimes higher. Oh I also have applied the autogen fix and some cloud and texture changes which seem to have improved things a bit. I have a good Mobo, up to date drivers and decent memory. Everything Else i have running on this kit is fine. This sim is ok, its just not where i would really like it.Hornit

Howdy Hornit. Well, I'll take a look and see how mine does. Just want to clarify. When in spot view, do I move around ; or just select spot and watch for a few minutes. Also, what would you like me to "lock" my frame rate to, on this test. As I usualy, run mine unlimited all the time. A little more info, and I'll check it out for ya.Best,Dave

Hi HornitJust tried it with my new system( 1 week old) and results are..................Unlocked fps Max 73.9 Min 19.8 average 35+Locked ( 30 fps - my normal setting) Max 30, min 17.9, Average 28This was sitting on the end of RW09- looking around in complete 360- nil weather, nil traffic, 20mile vis. All sliders maxed, except Dynamic Addon (Medium)Water effects High,Screen res 1024x768x32( both monitors but FS only on the main)From the above it seems that maybe locking the fps lowers the average (?) but in terms of "what you see" I would be hard put to really see much difference.There is however a big difference in performance over my old K7S5A/Xp2000 setup- I know from experience that one would have been struggling to get above 25/27 Max in that situation- unfortunately can't try and compare as my wife now has that PC with no FS on it.(She wasn't happy when I suggested it might be nice to install FS and we could fly together !)DaveSystemSystem.(nothing overclocked)MSI KT6V-LSR(MS-7021)AMD Athlon XP3000.768 MB 333mhz DDRAMTi4200/128MB GPU.60.72 driversMaxtor 80GB HDD(7200rpm)Maxtor 40GB HDD(7200rpm)LG CDRWLG CDR 52Xo/b AC97 soundThermaltake 480W PSUWinXP- SP1.Direct X 9ASaitek Cyborg 3D Joystick

I just did this test and my results are.Locked at 30fps, I get min,max and average 30fps, it does not budge.Unlocked I get, 112fps max, 38fps min, and 55fps average.Not sure what this means in real world termsThis is with all sliders maxed, except trafficDan.

I have an old system from Jan. 1999, Win98se, P3@966, 512 MB, FX5700u and never try to run everything maxxed. I had scenery and autogen set at dense and my autogen .xml file is modified eliminating the urban objects and keeping the rural objects. Resolution 1600x1200x32 using 8x AF and the fsim AA.Measured with fraps at continuous sampling rate.unlocked2004-05-06 06:43:06 - FS9Frames: 806 - Time: 27439ms - Avg: 29.374 - Min: 29 - Max: 30locked at 24, my normal setting2004-05-06 06:43:56 - FS9Frames: 585 - Time: 24398ms - Avg: 23.977 - Min: 24 - Max: 25quick flight locked at 24, takeoff and landing on 9L2004-05-06 06:51:45 - FS9 flightFrames: 6755 - Time: 285494ms - Avg: 23.660 - Min: 20 - Max: 25Kurt M

Im just doing the test in outside view sitting still, pick something that looks like it has SOME challenge to it in the frame, though with no AI or weather to speak of it shouldnt be challenged much at all. Mine will go from 75 or so down to the 30's when unlocked, when Im locked it will stay fairly steady but if Im in spot view it will occasionally do a jump or big stutter, but frame rates remain pretty constant, its kind of weird that way. I would just like an explanation of why we see such a huge range when nothng is going on, even if your sitting still!!! I think its some kind of problem with the graphic engine personally. Im wondering if the frame counter in the sim is porked at this point.Hornit

> I would just like an explanation of why we see such a huge>range when nothng is going on, even if your sitting still!!!>I don't care about the 'range' - as long as minimum is above say 20 fps it is ok - I don't see any stutter. Also I personally don't see a big range at all. Yes, however the question remains why in a perfectly static situation frame rates can still be relatively subdued. You would think that in a case like this CPU should have nothing to do and screen should be simply refreshed with what's already in video memory - resulting in phenomenal fps. But this doesn't happen in MSFS and also did not happen in another simulator FLY! by TRI. So what we are seeing must have some explanation in the overall software architecture of these games. I wish someone could shed more light on it one day.Michael J.