After all I know I'd say that 60fps in FS9 -- even without AI, most sliders not maxed, without 3D clouds, but with enhanced mesh, new landclass and a decent plane/panel which doesn't consume too much of CPU power (e.g. MAAM-Sim DC-3) -- belongs to the land of myths and fairy tales. Even on more powerful PCs this I wouldn't expect to ever achie this (e.g. I for myself have an Athlon 64 3500+ with 1Gig RAM, 3 HDDs (1 standalone and 2 forming a hardware RAID) and a 9800Pro, and since I'm a long time IT professional, I know how to tune FS and WinXP, but 60fps is far out of reach even on my mid-class system).Hardware is only beginning to become powerful enough to run killer apps like FS. Maybe it's possible with today's technology, but then only if you dig in your wallet deep enough to get one of those super-duper graphics adapters (but maybe they're not suitable for FS?) and multi-way machines capable to do SMP with several processors (or would it better to spread everything across a server blade forming a cluster or so?).If you look at the prices of current hardware, I cannot say that I'd expect the "real good" processors to be cheap enough for me by years end. Prices for components like top-level graphics adapters and upper-class processors are almost stagnating over long periods of time now.The FS hobby gets more and more expensive (especially when thinking of FS10 and Longhorn)...Andreas

60 hertz on a monitor is unbarable really. 85 hertz is better but you can still see the difference between 85 and 100 hertz believe me :)Now as well as frame rate refresh rate which is kind of a framerate for monitors means less or more depending on the application. F1 2002 which is a really fast game for example the speedsensation buy running 100 or 120 hertz over 85 hertz is phenomenal. I don

Even on more powerful PCs this I wouldn't expect to ever achie this (e.g. I>for myself have an Athlon 64 3500+ with 1Gig RAM, 3 HDDs (1>standalone and 2 forming a hardware RAID) and a 9800Pro, and>since I'm a long time IT professional, I know how to tune FS>and WinXP, but 60fps is far out of reach even on my mid-class>system).Just out of interest I tried for the max FPS in FS2004 with all settings at max except Terrain Mesh 85 and AI only 16% My system specs, at the time, are at the bottom of my web page -http://www.raysheppard.dsl.pipex.com/f16a/index.htmI have since updated with a A7V880,74gig Raptor and a Rad X800 pro but did not see a great improvement in FPS.My settings now are-[DISPLAY.Device.RADEON X800 PRO.0]Mode=1600x1200x32 PanelAsTexture=0[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=250RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.5 //scales edge, center,end,touchdown,runways RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.5 // scales VASI lights)RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.5 // scales approach light bars RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.5 //scales RAILs and ODALs)[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=0TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=85.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=20TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.800000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.800000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1442456[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=4DYNAMIC_SCENERY=0DYN_SCN_DENSITY=0DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=0SUNGLARE=0ShowTriggers=0LENSFLARE=0

In general, for puter video, anything over 16 fps will look fairly smooth. That is my personal cutoff point for smooth video. But, yes, faster will look more fluid. I find once you hit 25-30, you get the "fluid" smooth feel I really like. To me, over 30 is not really required, but I don't object...:) With my P4 2.4 and lower end fx-5200, I run anywhere from 60-70 at high alt cruise, down to sometimes below 10 at a big airport with major cloud layers and AI going. But those slow rates are fairly few and far between. I'm usually above 20, and sometimes closer to 30. I have my limit set at 30. I can go faster, but I prefer a more constant rate , rather than jumping from super fast to slow, back and forth. Also, they claim, if you set lower, it can help smooth things out overall, as it's like a governor on an engine...Being I can run at 60-70 at high alt, I can tell you the difference between it and 30 is pretty small. To me, 30 looks pretty smooth. Good enough for me anyway...Like one said, the only real advantage to being able to go that fast often, or at low alt's, is your low end rates will be higher. If you never dip below about 16, and don't stutter much, it will almost always look pretty smooth to the eye. Naturally, turns, and acrobatic stuff will require a higher frame rate to stay smooth looking. You can do 16 fps at cruise, straight and level, and still look pretty smooth. In a sharp turn, the little "tics" of the slower video rates will show up more. But the 20-30 fps rates will look pretty smooth in turns. MK

People must stop trying to declare a definite number where FS 2004 or any application is smooth.10 fps is definiatly not smooth, 16 fps hell no 20 fps no not really 30 fps okay now it starts to be relatively smooth, 40 fps yeah now it

The frame rate slider was designed to remove stutters, which plagued FS2000. You can have the frame rate slider at 16 and there will be NO stutters ;)

Or you can have it to unlimited and have no stutters. Really the frame rate slider on my comp don

Not completely true actually. Stuttering is generally caused by something on your system momentarily "hogging" a big chunk of cpu resources and basically stopping the sim for a fraction of a second. It could be a program running in the background, spyware, windows messeger, etc etc. You can lock the framerate at 16 and that might mask the problem (particularly if the stutter is very minute), but if you actually find the root of the problem and resolve it you'd likely be able to run the sim smoothly at much higher framerates (or even unlocked alltogether) with no stutters at all and have a much more enjoyable experience overall. I should note that I'm not referring to the momentary pauses that occur when you change views and the textures are loading - I'm talking about a persistent and regular stutter.

Well that I have never experienced and I just about always fly with unlimited. TrackIR likes high framerates gives smoother tracking. And then I can spot a difference in smoothness very easy from 40 fps and below so I don

Actually I was replying to MD83's post not yours. Personally I like the framerate as high as possible too (without sacrificing all the visual delights of course). The point is if you are experiencing stutters at any framerate, theres something going on on your system that is causing the problem. Locking the framerate so low that you don't notice the stutters as much would be a less than satisfactory solution for myself. I'd rather find out what was causing the stutters in the first place (becuase believe it or not stutters aren't inherent in the sim itself) and resolve the issue and then enjoy the sim at higher framerates...

Yep, it is getting more and more expensive. At this rate it won't be long before only the rich can afford flight simulator. The rest of us poor folks will just have to go fly real airplanes. Bummer.