Here's my little story. I've just upgraded my system from an Athlon 2800 XP, 1GP 3200 memory and 6800GT 256mb.Now Athlon 4200+ X2, 2gb 3200 mem and an ATI PCIE 800XL. This is just an interim card until the DX10 cards become available.I can now run FS2004 with everything maxed, FSHotseat and Activesky 6, Traffic 2005 set at 60%, 6xAA, 16x Anistropic filtering at 1280x1024 at KJFK and get around 25fps upwards. Nirvana.I was initially dissapointed with the demo performance. I work in IT so of course the first thing I did was to bump everyrhing to max. Getting around 8-10fps in heavy areas.After some hours messing with the sliders this is what I've ended up with and I'm delighted.Graphics1280x1024 32Antialiasing app controlledAnistropic filtering app controlledGlobol Tex very highLens flareadvanced animationsAircraftAll except aircraft casts shadowsSceneryTerrain and water defailt apart from water effects x2 lowScenery objectAll as high as they goWeatherDraw distance 60miDetailed clouds mac coverageTrafficAirline 70%GA 34Airport ground veh maxLand and sea traffic all at 35%I'm getting a 20FPS average even when low over trees and with heavy scenery in the distance. Drops a little to cache then up to the 20's again.The scenery ... Well the LOD, mesh and texture sliders don't seem to make the slightest difference to the look of the game on my system. It does however knock around 5-8 fps off when all set to high so I've just left 'em.The killer for my system is the water. 1 high and i'm flying along at 30fps+. Start playing with the 2's and I hit a bottle kneck. I can live with the water at 2 low and just hope my new DX10 GC helps later in the year !

I'm wearing blue underpants.

>I'm wearing blue underpants.Please excuse me. Must be a Brit thing because I don't have a clue what you mean by that ?

I think the issue with water in your case is your graphics card so that should be good news to you. I have everything maxed except for water. X2 low, same as you. I prefer the look at that setting. I get 25 fps locked at 25. Some drops to 20 and back up during some refresh points. Dave________________________________________AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego @ 2.6MhzNForce4-A939 mobo 1G FSB2x1G Cosair XMS Ram on dual channelsSapphire Radeon X1900XT Video Card @ XTX23" Apple Cinema Display @ 1920X1200Soundblaster Live24Saitek Cyborg EVO TrackIR4

>I'm wearing blue underpants.Smells like spam in here.

Neither do I :)btw nice find.

Thanks Dave. It was a nice surprise to get the X800 for such a good price. Around

It's not a secret - we've all known it for years. What you have "discovered" is the one constant truth with all versions of MSFS - the more one has available to spend, the better will be the framerate :-) .Doug

>Here's my little story. I've just upgraded my system from an>Athlon 2800 XP, 1GP 3200 memory and 6800GT 256mb.>>Now Athlon 4200+ X2, 2gb 3200 mem and an ATI PCIE 800XL. This>is just an interim card until the DX10 cards become>available.>If it were me I would have migrated the 6800 GT over to the new system. 89 pounds is 89 pounds eh? You mention that the water effects kill your frame rate. Well, that must be your card. Water has little effect on frame rates with my 7800 GT card.>I can now run FS2004 with everything maxed, FSHotseat and>Activesky 6, Traffic 2005 set at 60%, 6xAA, 16x Anistropic>filtering at 1280x1024 at KJFK and get around 25fps upwards.>Nirvana.>6 x AA? That's weird, that must be an ATI Catalyst setting. Also, this confuses me. On one hand, you say you are using "Application Controlled" AA. Well, in MY FSX demo, you can either check AA, or uncheck AA. No 4x, 6x ,8x or any of that. On the other hand, if you are using 6x AA, then you are setting AA in your driver, NOT in the application itself. So which is it? That confused me.>I work in IT so of course the first thing I did was to bump>everyrhing to max. heheh. What does working in IT have to do with bumping all sliders to the max?? hehe. If anything, an IT-person should be more cautious and methodical with the sliders. :)Rhett

>If it were me I would have migrated the 6800 GT over to the>new system. 89 pounds is 89 pounds eh? You mention that the>water effects kill your frame rate. Well, that must be your>card. Water has little effect on frame rates with my 7800 GT>card.As I said in my second post 2 which is two posts above yours :'Thanks Dave. It was a nice surprise to get the X800 for such a good price. Around

What in the world is a TVR?

>What in the world is a TVR?:-)http://alex2522.tripod.com/car_i_like/tvr_tuscan_s_03.jpgNot mine just a convinient pic and same colour.

Have a look here for info on TVR's.www.tvr-eng.co.ukStill prefer my MGF though.cheersChris

Hey Cloud Tiger,I see the same positive affect as you when I reduce the Watereffects from Max 2.x to Low 2.x. I can try High/Mid 2.x andthey increase my FPS slightly, but nothing that matches theLow 2.x setting.For me, setting Water effects to Low 2.x increases my FPSto just under 25FPS. I have all other scenery & traffic sliders setto the max (far right). For the other tabs, most everything elseis also set to the far right. I don't have Light Bloom checked(that still impacts FPS by 5-8 FPS).I have a Dell P4 - 3.4GHZ, 1GB RAM, GeForce 6800 256MB PCI Video.Thanks for the tip!JerryG

Just wait until all that water is replaced with Autogen-laden scenery with lots of buildings and highways with cars. I wonder what kind of frames you'll be seeing then.