Ok here goesSystem specs:Asus p4b533EIntel P4 2.4 512l2 CacheATI Radion 9600pro 1Gig RamM-Audio 2496 Sound Card (semi pro multichannel sound card it's drivers are very good and I feel its as stable as a sound blaster (which I hate))Plug Ins that I run:1) FS Meteo2) Ultimate Traffic3) All The FS Genisis Terain4) FS Navigator5) FSUIPC6) Active CameraMy frame rates are all over the place. I also have a sound related stutter. One would think that with the p4 the 9600 pro and the ram I would be able to hit a lock at 20 FPS would would make me happy...My sliders are set according to One Tin Solders tweak guides and I run the autogen and cloud fix's I also run a combination of the water enhancment and vilks water...The stutter is not to major and I could live with it, but my frame rates bounce consistantly causing a major stutter. I have just tried to blow away my FS install and start from scratch. I have updated my mother board drivers and have checked for spyware. I run FSAutostart and kill all un-nesessary processies and programs before flying.The rates constantly bounce from say 15 down to as low as 1... when i look around the craft scenery pops into place (blocks of grey popping in) clouds and weather seem to kill performance.I would run active sky 2004 but I had some difficulty with the company and became annoyed when i purchesed there WX program weeks before 2004 came out and was not offered a refund...but thats another story I have a #### about vendors comeing very soon... FS Meteo does well for me right now, especcialy if i just have it download world weather and fly through that and have it stay off line it gives it more of a feeling of flying into different weather types... Anyway I am at a loss for what to do to tweak this out...

Try just running the stock sim without anything but yourself in a default aircraft without anything but a clear sky and tell me what you get. I'm thinking looking at that list your running too much to hope for anything decent frame rate wise. Never heard of that sound card, may or may not be an issue.let me know what you get for frame rate, no AI please.Hornit

Sure not a problem as well I am starting the re-install...Would you like the fs9 config file stock or tweaked as per OTS?Also would you like me to actually set the traffic to 0%

Further InformationGraphics CardAA 2x - Quality (bounced this before to performance)AF 8XTexture - High Quality (also played with this)MipMap Detail - High Quality (played with this as well)Vertical Sync - App Preference TrueForm - OffMemory After FS AutoStart 864MBstock Testing(Above Graphics Settings, No texture changes, config file has been modified as explained in multiple tweaking guides, no add ins)KSEA Default Day Flight No Weather 18 FPS at low 20(locked) as high flying twords seattleKSEA Default Day Flight Fair Weather 14 FPS at low 20 at high seemed to avg in the 17-18 range

Ok now try the same thing and put all your video card settings to the highest they will go. Make sure you have latest drivers and AA is off in the sim menus. In other words AA to 6X Anisotropic to 16X and everything to quality, with vsync and truform off.Now whats the frame rate? Dont lock it this time.Hornit

I noticed an increase (#####??!!??!!) in performance but an occassional pause stutter, also scenery loaded slower (changing views)...So on the ground i would hit close to 25fps with the occasional jump into the 30's when changing views on pre roll it dropped to about 19Adding weather did not seem to impact the frame rates to horribly much the worst problems now are the sound stutters and the pause stutters...

To set the record straight: FS04 was released in August and Active Sky 2004 was released in December.JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

And in late october I purchased Active Sky WX... Not knowing that a fairly major rewrite was a few weeks out....-which is what i meant by weeks before 2004 came out, i was speaking of active sky 2004 not fs 2004 -

Hi,on my system I have stutters with my DLS-router and a program called Clockman ON. As soon as I put them OFF I have no stutters. Obviously all addons and devices that are 'very active' have a negative impact.Maybe it helps.Ciao, Peter

I have found that AI at more than around 45% even brings my PIV 3.0ghz machine with 1G and a 9800 pro to stutter and slow frames. The bottom line is there is no free lunch when it comes to all these add-ons. I dont use real weather, just make my own and keep it that way all around. AI stays below 45-50% with some of my own plans and most of UT's airline stuff. I put sliders about 3/4 of the way right and run with about 20-30 miles visibility. AI and weather coupled with ANY add on scenery will bring even the best systems into the teens if you turn it all up. If I shut off AI and go with one or two cloud layers its great. If I then Add AI and a few nice sceneries with an aircraft like the Eaglesoft Citation X then it can get a bit choppy. Its just the way it is I'm afraid. This sim has ALWAYS pushed the limits of hardware, even well after it's release.Hornit

Not to beat a dead horse - this part probably belongs in the AS2004 forum anyway... but the ActiveSky guys did offer a special deal for existing wxRE owners, and they also started discussing the "next" version even before FS9 was released...Now then, back to topic. :) Can you provide more information re: your hard drive? Spindle speed, cache, that sort of thing. Also if you've got it set up in any "special" way such as RAID. You're trying to load a *lot* of stuff - could the load time (i.e. time to physically read it off the disk) be an issue? I've noticed that on my system. I've (finally!) got two hard drives. They're physically very similar, but it makes a dramatic difference with such simple things as just having the swap file physically isolated from FS9.