Hi everyone.... I have a fairly high-end system and couldn't figure out my 6-10fps issue in FSX after doing all the tweaks. When I finally got around to working with the traffic (aircraft) sliders that I found something. (My Traffic 5) When I finally turned it all the way off, my FSP jumped to 25+. Even at 10% traffic, it was dragging the system down.I turned off the AI aircraft, and worked my sliders all the way to max on every setting and I still maintained 15-30 FPS (better with altitude of course).My system is a Pentium dual core 3.2ghz with dual GeForce 7800's running SLI (and overclocked a bit). I've got 2gb of ram and my hdd's are defragged and my system tray is quite empty.This tells me that perhaps the AI traffic is more CPU intensive than video card? My keyboard has a CPU/MEM usage display and it only shows the CPU working at 52% and the mem at 68%.Something in the AI package must be choking the system somewhere. Perhaps a bad texture? It's a bit mind boggling. I was surprised when I got the sliders up that high and still maintained good FPS.I was bummed when even a little traffic slows it down. Traffic is one of the things I enjoy most in FS. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.Any ideas? Thanks...

CPU 52% = 1 Core is 100% and the other core at 4%.Yup... AI is going to be a big problem for us with FSX. There is simply no room for it. As of now.Manny

i Bob. After seeing your post I did some tests. First I deleted the default traffic file by renaming it. My frame rates went up quite a bit. Next I installed my FS2004 Ultimate Traffic file, which is at least twice the size of the default traffic file. My frame rates went down some but not as low as they were when I had only the default traffic file. It sems like the default traffic file does drag down the frame rates a lot. Maybe there is some error in them. I also noticed that my FS2004 UT aircraft looked a lot better than the default aircraft. Maybe it has something to do with the aircraft default textures. Regards, Bob.

Hi,Yes, the amount of of AI Traffic that MyTraffic produces is CPU intensive. Thousands of flight are being processed which takes quite a bit of CPU. Since FSX takes a helluva lot of CPU(depending on your settings, autogen comes to mind here) and does not leave a lot much overhead for addons, and adding MyTraffic adds to the CPU cycles needed to process all those flights going on, you encounter what you have observed. When an AI aircraft is visible on your screen then that flight probably takes a tiny little bit more CPU and takes a little video processing."I was bummed when even a little traffic slows it down. Traffic is one of the things I enjoy most in FS. Hmmmmmmmmmmm."I take it you were used to FS9. FS9 didn't require as much processing horespower as FSX does. SO, add in the processing cycles needed for thousands of flights on top of an already CPU eating monster(FSX) and you get what you've observed. Believe me, processing those thousands of flight took CPU in FS9 too. But FSX needs more CPU than FS9, depending on the settings! Settings in FSX can be turned down to where it would probably take the same or less CPU as FS9.I'll say this, I also have MyTraffic X(5) and I get a hit from using it, for sure. However my FPS is just fine whenever I'm out in rual areas. It is bad now when I'm near cities(urban areas). The biggest thing I have noticed is that my FPS jumps around a lot when I'm in the vicinity of somewhat small to medium sized city areas(whereas it wasn't doing that nearly as much prior to adding MyTraffic X). In other words, how good my performance is depends quite a bit on where I'm at. I think it has a lot to do with autogen. I'm sure it does. I'm using some, I'll bet you are too just from the small sample of the description of your observations and the FPS numbers you have listed.Try flying the glider. See how your FPS are then. I get great FPS when using the glider. It still drops some when in city areas, but not near as badly. There's no doubt in my mind that using the glider takes somewhat of a load off. And as I have mentioned, when I use an aircraft such as the B58, B350 King Air, or C172, performance is fine out in the boonies. Many people on here seem to be of the opinion that, at this point in time with the hardware currently available, and using just about any amount of autogen, FSX is a Bush Flyers dream and a Heavy Metal(big jet) nightmare. I share that opinion. I'm thinking that I will stick to bush flying only in motorized aircraft. If I want to visit and land in a city, I'll glide to it with the glider. hehe.Regards,Jim

Hi everbody, AI indeed requires a lot of cycles, I've counted them once but then lost count. :-) As Manny mentioned, FSX doesn't leave a lot of 'em... A general observation I made over time, was, where 'pain levels' start per CPU. Ouch! Since FSX is fresh and still a bit of a pain (i.e. activation - making it 3:0 for the pirates!) ;-), here's some 'data' off the top of my head for FS9: To start, other AI-figures in this context: With FS9 and MT2006 @ 100%, 4 areas generate more than 550 movements; NY, London, Chicago & LA. Another 3-4 have 400-549 (i.e. Frankfurt), a handful 300-400, maybe 10 have 200-300, etc. The number for Hong Kong is 130. Zurich is 250 @ max density. Rom 180, Seattle 300, etc. To stress Hong Kong again, HK vs the 'New York --> Phllie corridor' is 130 vs ca 1300(!) movements! Crazy! :-) Just to point out that the same setting can have have 'slightly' different consequences. Combining these numbers with CPUs, the following observations were made over time in my 'lab' (@ high scenery settings): P4s started to struggle beyond 400-450 movements. AMD64s @ ca 550-600. Since I don't have a C2D I couldn't tell, but floating a guesstimate based on floating points, C2Ds probably are another ca 20% above an average AMD64. Anyway, hope this helps to see some of the maths behind AI trafiic. If you have questions or whatever, shoot! :-) To check the number of AI-movements around you (window mode), 'dial' Alt + T + T + E. I'ld be intersted to learn at which kind of AI-settings and specially where the 'choke' was sighted? Thanks and kind regards Jaap PS, the number of movements in MTX are slightly lower (15-20% compared to MT2006SP2). For now, I wouldn't recommend to go beyond 70% IFR & 40-50% GA. Mainly due to the potential lack of parking spots. Watch thy cycles, gentlemen! ;-) PPS - whilst at it :-), for the first time in history, AI packages can help improve performance despite higher amounts of AI movements. Maybe not as pretty as the originals..? One aspect of this 'phenomenon' are the reduced texture sizes, which have the greatest impact at maxxed 'Global texture quality' settings (something only 512MB cards can handle IMHO). MTX at full blast takes the GPU-mem load down by 60-80MB (@ GTQ-max) compared to default FSX. With more realistic or carefully adjusted AI-settings (necessary in dense regions) and of course depending on other details, these ca 20% less could signify the difference between a 'swapping and non-swapping condition'.