OK. I know there is a Forum dedicated to tech questions and flight sims.But, maybe I won't violate the policy by asking here.After doing all the AI work for KORD in FS9 last night, my machine was brought profoundly to its knees.Frame rate was probably around 1.5.I have to upgrade.What is the best single upgrade I can pursue to increase FPS?I may just do a sequential upgrade, motherboard, processor, video card, RAM over the next 6 months.Current system= P4A 2G, 512 RAM, GeForce 3Ti200 64mg video card, Intel mobo.Any suggestions from those experienced in the area?Thanks!!Hope I'm not being too blatant in the violation department. If so, I'll quietly go ask in the hardware forum. This Forum, however, is most comprehensive of all of them.Rick (KMKE)

biggest slowdown for you is your memory. at least 1 gb, running windows XP and the most graphics intensive game to date (FS9) I'd suggest getting 2 gigs if your motherboard supports it

I do not think it is the memory. I also only have 512 MB DDR and get really good performance (Heathrow on the ground with UT, Traffic at 75 %, all other sliders maxed, except mesh at 84 and water detail low, gives me approx 17 - 20 fps).Your video card is ancient, you should have a card with at least 128 MB. But the most important system part for FS2004 is the CPU. 2 Ghz is not enough.Conclusion: I would upgrade the CPU and the GPU to the highest standard you can effort.WolfgangMy sys specsP4 2.4 Ghz512 MB DDRATI Radeon 9800 128 MBWin XP Pro

Reccomendations for better operation of your system:Am using almost an Identical setup, except your ATI card is better. Yet, get framerates on the ground of 13-14 fps, and in the air of 19.4-19.8, when locked at 20fps... Yet, have a LOT of AI traffic at all commercial and GA airfields. If using W98, ME, et.al. Upgrade to XP it will virtually eliminate "Blue Screen Errors" Ive only seen one in two years. If you have other Crashes with the FS, it will eliminate most of them, your entire system will operate much better, and faster.IF you are using XP, without SP2, installing it will give you a frame rate boost, and make many other improvements. The FS was created with XP, and the FS patch was undoubtedly created, with SP2 installed. If not using XP, by all means upgrade to both, there are too many reasons to do so, to repeat here. Do a Google search for "RegCleaner"Set the "Options, Registry Cleanup, Method" to Automatic. Then, click on "Tools, Registry Cleanup, Do them all." This will delete all _invalid_ registry keys, etc. First time I ran it, it deleted 287! Even if you have Norton One button cleanup, it does not get them all. Ive run it after running Norton, and found as many as 17 invalid links. (Running norton after RegCleaner can result in finding 3... so I use both.) Each time you add or delete something from your HD, it can leave an invalid link. Even something as simple as deleting a picture you no longer want. Over time, they can slow your system to a crawl. I run it each day after deleting anything. Find if deleted from Control, Remove Software, the majority of the time it leaves links to what was deleted. Many software demo's or paywares which gives you a free trial, leave links in the registry, to prevent you from using it over, and over. They also even leave folders with junk in them. You can get RegCleaner free, I've used it with W98, ME, XP, and I'd not do without it after using it.If not using Adaware, and Spybot, its a good idea to begin. They can get rid of a LOT of programs which tell companies where you are surfing, and more. Each time they do, is slows down your system as they use bandwidth. If there are hundreds of them on your system, the time they use is significant. Removing spyware, can also leave invalid links in the Registry, so run RegCleaner after doing so, I'd run it at least once a week. Sometimes I run it daily.... It makes your operating system work the way it should. When set up in this manner, then I'd use ONLY ProjectAI for Commercial aircraft, and GA-Traffic for GA... THEN, I copied my entire _aircraft_ folder to a backup folder. Deleted all flyable aircraft which I never use, and left only three that I do fly. If you have a _lot_ of flyable aircraft, which are being used as AI, this will drag your system down to those framerates. Bob

What kind of traffic update did you do at KORD... On my system at KORD i have between 1100 and 1250 flight per day, and the FPS is about 25-30 (depending on the clouds).AI traffic can be flawless or can start a nightmare... It all depends on the type of aircraft you are using. If you put up many very detailed aircrafts, then you don't even need an airport as big as KORD to put your system in slow motion. Double check the type of aircraft you put at KORD - use ''LOD FRIENDLY'' aircraft from Project AI. Other than that, upgrade you memory.P4 3.6Ghz 1Gig memory NVidia GeForce FX 5600

This is what I did at KORD:Add approx 40 flights using FS Painter, Aardvark, and a few PAI AI aircraft. All commercial types that are default have been removed from the FLight Plans.I also use Waldron-Tomkiewicz AI GA aircraft, along with some from Mike Stone. Default GA in use are KingAir, Baron, and Cessnas.But at KORD, those are slim to none.I use Win XP with SP1 installed. SP2 is still a question mark.RegCleaner is an interesting proposition and I will look into it. But I don't delete much since I don't dowload anything except flightsim scenery, aircraft, or docs, and of course e-mail.I've decided to start with the video card, then add at least 512DDRRAM. My mobocan only accept a P4 2.8G due to changes in the frontside bus speed with higher rated CPUs.Any and all advice is welcome, so Thank You all.

I'm not sure about those aircraft you mentionned - i don't have them. Something you could try is to change your aircraft file (in your AI traffic) to replace the one you add by default aircraft and see if the situation is still that bad. Do a copy of your current file, change the aircrafts to the default B737 and B747, recompile and give it a try. If it's better, it means that one or many of the aircraft you're trying to use are not at the right LOD (level of detail) for AI traffic. An aircraft not suit for AI will pull all the FPS to it, if you got many of the same in one place, then all the fps will be ''sucked'' by them. As i said in my previous post, i have up to 120 planes at KORD from time to time (1200+ per day) and FPS is still at 20 or more. You mentionned SP2 in your possible upgrade as being a question mark... Why ? i'm running SP2 here. Took me about 45 minutes to complete the upgrade (including the download) + 10 minutes to do the security stuff. No problem at all to upgrade and no notification of software not able to run. Alot was said on that update/upgrade, but so far i have'nt seen any of the forecasted nightmares we were told.Having said that, i'm not sure it does have an effect on FS; unless you had many problems before.