OK, I'm sure this will irritate some people here, but I had to share my joy with those who will appreciate this kind of news. I had been frustrated with my FS9 performance for quite a while. I've got a Dell 4550 P4 2.53ghz, 512mb generic Ram, and a GF5600FX Ultra 128 video card. I have always demanded that my sim give me the most frames per second (who doesn't right?) at the cost of all the eye candy and things that make FS9 look more realistic. I used to think that yanking all the sliders in my video card control box to the left would increase my performance. It did, sometimes, but at 50 FPS with stutters, what's the point. I have suffered through this since FS9 came out. Yesterday, out of complete frustration, I decided that I would like to see how slow this computer would run if I moved the sliders out to the right. So I moved AA to 6 and AS to 4, changed the performance mode to "quality" and left the framerate slider in FS at 30. Restarted FS around dusk in Mexico City, and HOLY CRAP BATMAN!!! The sim looked great, and what was better, it was SMOOTH AS SILK!!! I was completely stoked! I looked at the framerate counter and it was hovering around 25 and dipping to 19, but I honestly couldn't tell the difference!!!! I am really happy to have tried this. All that is to say, that those with slower systems like mine, might give this a shot and see if they actually prefer lower frame rates for better fluidity in the sim.No negativity please, as I am only sharing my joy, not directing anyone in how to help their system. Hope someone tries this and it works also!!!

You'll get better results turning AA off and using a higher resolution instead. AF is still necessary though for texture quality.

glad to hear that! i know how you feel. my computer is about like yours but i upgraded the CPU to a AMD3000 and am running EVERYTHING at 800x600 and at ALL the default settings, changed my desktop resolution to 800x600 also. i threw up a post about it too out of shear joy. everything defaults to the higher side and is running VERY smooth even when using real world weather at big airports. it's amazing. if your new config doesn't pan out you might try the defaults. it looks great even at 800x600 and it's what the machine WANTS to run at, as long as it's default. have fun. william

Albaro, I just tried going from AA 8 and 1280x1024 to AA 2 and 1600x1200 and there is a noticible performance increase. Everything still looks good, got all the eye candy and no jaggies. Hmmm, thx for the tip...billg