No matter how fast your CPU or GPU, clouds above 50%, full reflections and shadows, traffic higher than 2nd setting from top and overgrown trees, excessive objects and roads will kill your framerate. Kill the cars, reduce the reflections and shadows and bring back the clouds a bit and 30fps is average, sometimes it gets down to 25ish at NYC.

 

You have to pick your battles in XP. Clouds are needed for the environment aspects, and landing over a highway with some cars on it really adds the immersion for me. Shadows, well, some but not the best in the world will do. Reflections are nice, but especially with HDR, can cost a lot of fps and stability with lots of different bodies of water, each with their own reflections. But I will not flinch on Max Objects/Roads/Trees. Those are maxed out and the rest set so that I'll get acceptably smooth FPS, averaging 25-30FPS. If the average falls or stays below 20 for too long, I'll reduce something.

No matter how fast your CPU or GPU, clouds above 50%, full reflections and shadows, traffic higher than 2nd setting from top and overgrown trees, excessive objects and roads will kill your framerate. Kill the cars, reduce the reflections and shadows and bring back the clouds a bit and 30fps is average, sometimes it gets down to 25ish at NYC.

 

You have to pick your battles in XP. Clouds are needed for the environment aspects, and landing over a highway with some cars on it really adds the immersion for me. Shadows, well, some but not the best in the world will do. Reflections are nice, but especially with HDR, can cost a lot of fps and stability with lots of different bodies of water, each with their own reflections. But I will not flinch on Max Objects/Roads/Trees. Those are maxed out and the rest set so that I'll get acceptably smooth FPS, averaging 25-30FPS. If the average falls or stays below 20 for too long, I'll reduce something.

 

Couldn't have said it better. Clouds is the biggest FPS killer. The way I set my XP install is by first going to KSEA, setting a thick overcast layer, set ALL setting to minimim/none and then and only then, slowly start changing settings one at a time. As fvapres said, clouds, reflections and shadows will kill your performance in a heartbeat.

 

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