Agree, but the FS9 clouds are a big performance hit at least for my set up, so I can use more clouds with FS8 with less performance hit. They don't look as nice but achieve the effect of my plane popping out of the clouds at 500 or so feet without my fps dropping to single digits. I know I can drop the visibility but that is more of a fog like effect. So I usually fly with fair weather in FS9 although I am now trying to incorporate active sky into the mix with some performance hit but I think this is maninly due to the extra cloud layers, again must play with the settings. Also trying different cloud sets to see what impact they have. By the way I usually get 25-30 FPS with the Dreamfleet 737 in FS2002 and get 18-24 with similar complex add ons in FS9, off course it doesn't have a virtual cockpit which may be a reason for higher FPS. Keep in mind I run dual monitors and after flying like this cannot go back.

I have to check on this.