Now, having installed an additional 1gb of DDR RAM, I find I have just under 1gb of memory sitting there on the sidelines with not a whole lot to do. If there are any hesitations ever in FS9 for me now, it has to do with either loading (vs executing I believe) .wav files, or during an online weather update in ASV. It would seem one could take advantage of this extra ram by setting up a ramdrive, copying both general and aircraft-specific .wav files into the ramdrive for obvious reasons.Anyone had success with this?Noel

The bottleneck for sounds will not be resolved at all by creating a RAM drive. The bottleneck is the input/output side of the soundcard solution you use. And before that you'd need to show that there is any `lag` in the display of sound information in the sim, which there isn't as far as I can tell - the sounds are so far down the `pecking order` in the base code of FS that even if you could double their throughput you wouldn't see a single frame per second increase. Also, how could `faster` sound improve the sim, when, as long as you have a separate sound card it's the CPU/Software in the sound card that dictates throughput - and that isn't influenced by RAM drives, or else every studio in the world would store music in RAM drives while working with them, and they don't.What sound card do you have installed?Allcott

There sometimes IS lag Allcott. Many have noted the very slight hiccough that sometimes shows up when new (.wav files that have not yet already played in that session) sounds play in FS9. Why is it that the second time the sound plays, there is zero hiccough? This certainly would seem to isolate the audio processor/driver itself, no?Also, I use a very nice if not profession audio file editor called GoldWave. They make a point of highlighting the differences between RAM-stored edits, and disk stored edits, and this presumably because it just takes more time and resources to edit to and from a disk than from RAM. Audigy 2, and Delta Audiophile 24/96.BTW, where do you get your kernal level knowledge about FS9 base code from?

I find it interesting to sometimes turn off all sounds in FS and let the kids do the audio. Seems they always try to compete anyway, why not let them have free run? Usually of course this is immediately followed by playing the Quake 2 soundtrack over FS to settle the ol' beastly nerves. Nothing quite like trying to land a heavy at O'Hare with screaming kids and Sonic Mayhem's "Big Gun" playing in the background...I wouldn't notice a drop in framerates if I turn sound back on, though, just like I didn't notice any increase whatsoever when it's disabled. Perhaps the soundcard handles it all, without relying on CPU power to handle anymore than it needs to.Or perhaps my cache is sufficient?CPU access and Cache play the major factor in this issue, so I'd go with size of RAM and type/quality of sound card.Yet that's only guess, seeing as how I haven't tried to chase down a non-existant (for me, anyway) problem. I don't think that trying to place the sound anywhere else, even cached in RAM, is going to do any good, and in fact may hinder the FS process altogether by keeping other key FS processes out of memory?Meh. My post is BS. I'm just shooting the breeze with y'all on this one. Friendly Neighborhood Threadjack!Oh, and please move this to hardware :D:D:D-JeremyThe Ozark DogfighterHappy Flying!