I have 1024MB of RAM and it uses all of the physical ram along with some of the page file but I also run SB 2.xx, SBRelay, AS 4.5 and AVC. With a 3.2Ghz machine, the CPU useage is around 54%.

Eric i suppose your PMDG VC is very fluid in particular the 800 / 900 series? Its a toss up between a mini or major upgrade at the moment, i have the money but i want to spend it wisely its a case of $500 now for VC and Ram or $1500 for complete decent fast system, or wait 12 months when FS2006 comes out do (if it does) a major upgrade then.by the way those figures are Australian dollars.how fast is the ASUS V9570 GeForce FX 5700TD-256M with TV-out/DVI compared to my current card Geforce 4 Ti4200 128meg?

I would spend some money on the upgrade! Get the New Geforce 6600GT. It out performs the ATI9800 pro. Also put in an extra 512Ram for around $100 and you will notice a huge differance! 6600GT AGP price in QLD. There is AGP and PCI ( Get AGP for your board )http://www.computeralliance.com.au/parts.aspx?qryPart=44746600GT reviewhttp://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/gf6600gtagp1.shtml

hiive read on other hardware forums, that there is no major difference between getting a 128meg / 256 meg video card, is this true, is it better to save the $$$ and settle for a 128 meg V card?I dont think i will get the Geforce 6600GT this time around as my cpu will be the bottleneck, perhaps in 12 months when i do a major upgrade.

Clayton:You're asking good --and difficult!--questions.The answer is: for resource intensive hogs such as PMDG, you need to get a fully upgraded system. Period. The argument between vid cards and processors is endless and often fruitless to all but serious PC tech-heads. I don't get half the stuff they say anyway.For an intermediate fix, and depending on your $$ available, increase the RAM to 1GB and get a 256MB card. The additional RAM is CRITICAL and the 256 MB WILL make some visible difference since it will load more textures and more quickly, and will relieve your 2100 processor to some extent. How much? I don't know precisely, but somewhat. A lot more than a 128MB vid card.Will your processor be able to take full advantage of the features of such a 256MB card? Can't say totally. To some extent, yes.I face a somewhat similar situation to you. I have a DELL P4 2.53 Ghz, 1024 Rambus RAM, + Ti4600 card. I've done a LOT of tweaks over time, including the major FS-GS tweak process (which was great) and I run FSAutostart 1.1.1111, and have tweaked the DISPLAY settings and video card settings endlessly. Has it done some good? Yes: a lot. FS runs superbly. It is capped at 22 fps. It is smooooooooooooth as anything (!) and with most of my vast (and I mean vast) fleet of add-on a/c and cockpits, fps are consistently at 22/sec, the main exception being dense cumulus clouds when fps drop a lot. I can also run Ultimate Traffic at 75% with nary a stutter, but FSAA must be switched off for this.However--however--I do STILL (annoyingly!) have texture reloading issues with things such as POKSY models (just about any POSKY jetliner), and VC's in some a/c (such as the PMDG NG series) load with a slight delay and jerk/stutter, and frames drop in those VCs substantially. I've researched things hugely for my specific machine and concluded, I don't feel like upgrading. I toyed with getting a hi-end 6800 card but I've been advised I am "processor limited" for such a card. I did nearly get a 5950 card, but decided not to do so because it seemed like a marginal change. I'd like a nice 3.8 machine with hi-end everything, but I don't gots the dough to get one! So I'll live with this for now and the foreseeable future. Maybe in a year or two, I will buy a new PC.Hope some of this assists your thinking.JS

Clayton,Yes, I get very smooth fluid motion in the VC. I also run with all my sliders to the right with the execption of terrain mesh which is at 96%. I also have FSG's 38.2m terrain for all the US. Now I have run into those "out of memory errors" when flying into a couple of Simflyers sceneries but thats about it. All of the Fly-Tampa's stuff works like a charm as do most of the SF stuff. I also use FS Sky Worlds high framerate clouds though and not the more demanding ones. I will (within the next six months) put an end to this out of memory error crap by dumping another 1GB of RAM in my maching for a total of 2GB. I dare any addon to bring 2GB or RAM to its knees! After that (probably once FS10 is out), I will upgrade my ATI 9800Pro 128MB card. The 3.2Ghz P4 chip I have should last a while with those two upgrades I just mentioned.

Eric:You can't be serious about dumping ANOTHER 1 GB of RAM into your PC, surely? It'll lie idle. What's your RAM usage reading during FS9?Your CPU % use is impressively low. If you add another ton of RAM, I think you'll be wasting a lot of h.p.JS

>>Eric:>>You can't be serious about dumping ANOTHER 1 GB of RAM into>your PC, surely? It'll lie idle. What's your RAM usage>reading during FS9?>>Your CPU % use is impressively low. If you add another ton of>RAM, I think you'll be wasting a lot of h.p.>>JSJS,Before starting FS9, I have about 25 processes running. 4 of them are related to firewall/anti-virus which I must leave on as I am on broadband and fly online. So, I have FS9, AS4.5, SB 2.xx, SBRelay and AVC running on Windows XP w/ SP2. In addition I run FS9 with all sliders to the right save the terrain mesh at 96%. I have 10 layers of clouds selected with AS4.5 (the max allowed). I fly almost always into SF or Fly-Tampa scenery with all eye-candy activated. Right now (till the LDS 767 gets released) I am flying the PMDG 737 around. I use 1600x1200x32. I have a 21.3" viewable LCD monitor and 1600x1200 is the native resolution (and looks darn good to). With my 9800Pro 128MB card, I have AF set at x8 and AA at x4. Now with all this, I am averging right around 1GB while at the airports and btw 875-950MB in the air. I am going to wait and see what kind of load the LDS767 puts on the computer before buying more RAM. The PMDG bird requires (through personal testing) around 150 to 200MB of RAM.

Yesthanks for all the tips guys, its really given me something to think about, i do have the money to upgrade to a completely fast system however when thinking about the whole equation, and sometimes me not playing FS for months on end (i.e ive just got back to it after a 5 month lull) i think the best course of action at this point in time is to upgrade the card and get a gig of ram, which will cost around $400 - $500,then perhaps when Fs2006 comes out and i start to drool again, i will consider a huge upgrade in 12 months time. Yes, ofcourse this game is very CPU dependant as well.

Why not do it in two steps: first, add 256 or 512 Meg of memory and tune your video card.That does not cost a lot and will help with the smoothness..Fly it for a while and see how you like it.If you have later drivers than the 56.72 series, go back to that level. Also: no higher than 2XAA and 4XAF.It really helped in my case.If you still feel like paying out money:Get the fast video card, but get one that you will want to keep when upgrading the overall system! Otherwise, it is money down the drain..In my case, I was able to minimise stutters by going from 512 to 768 Meg and reducing things like AI traffic and weather. Changing the fps limit from 30 to 25 also had some effect..I'm going to stay with my old video card a bit longer, since a new one is a lot of money...P4-2.8, 768 Meg PC2700 RAM, GF4 Ti4200-128, with 56.72 drivers, 1280x1024x32 resolution and 2XAA and 4XAF enabled.

hi Bert,just looking at your specs, you have a 2.8gig rig there, whereas mine is 1.7gig (AMD2100) so you have a big advantage there.

True, but even folks with faster processors have reported stuttering, so optimizing your system is not a bad thing..

Eric:Wow, that is HEAVY stuff! That is a ton of work for the PC. I see your point more clearly now.Impressive.....!JS

Bert has a great point. The term "optimizing" is crucial. My system is a fairly average mid-end P4 by now. Indeed, the Ti4600 card has been trashed by many "experts" although I find it works very well indeed for me on the whole. With regard to optimizing, the thing to do is to work with DISPLAY settings carefully and methodically, to establish an average range of fps you can live with. I spent days if not weeks working on my DISPLAY settings and haven't hesitated to change them from time to time. Ditto with the video card "Advanced" settings such as FSAA.Then you also have to work at cutting down or turning off various PC programs and applications (using something like FSAutostart) in order to "optimize" the guts of your system when you play with FS9. Certainly turn off antivirus since most antivirus apps kill frames; I have ALL of my "shields" turned off during FS9 sessions although I know some folks shudder at such a thought. I don't.Optimizing is a BIG part of the equation and not be underestimated, even if you run a 3.8Ghz machine with a 512 MB (not yet out, just exaggerating for emphasis!) video card.JS

hi JSwell the system i got now is dedicated to FS only so i dont have many other applications running, i do fly online alot so i do have Squawkbox and the other applications it needs on,i've decided to get 512 2700 ram and see the difference, if im still not happy i will upgrade the card, i will report back on the weekend.