Well I just dont know anymore. sometimes I really hate computers.When I first installed Accel/SP2, I had texture problems (green runways and LOTS of black squares where lights should be and cockpits VERY slow to load). I decided to install lower resolution textures from FEX (512 instead of 1024). That seemed to help the cockpit problem and helped with blurries that had been reintroduced.I was unable to take screenshots while running FEX (which bothered me a lot -- but thats just me).It seemed as though performance was slowly getting better. The screenshot utility had started working (initially it would not work at all) but it wouldnt work while FEX was running. The blurries seemed to be improving and the black squares were appearing less often.I just took a few flights to get performance info and suddenly the screenshot utility works again with FEX. I dont get it. whatever.I guess the enxt step is to see if the F18 causes my system to become unstable like it did at first. (hard reboots)anyway...for what its worth...here are performance pics:at idlehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/180256.jpgFSX SP2http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/180257.jpgFSX SP2 with FEX runninghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/180258.jpg

>>I had them last night with new potatoes and asparagus tips.>>The pots and asparagus tips were veeeeeery nice.>>> LOL!! :D

Dave,That's good data (and the community can use it. Thanks for reconsidering!)I think you can remove RAM from your thinking as you appear to have a very similar setup to most people (i.e., not running too many other processes while attempting to run FSX)Focus instead on your CPU usage. As you can easily from the graph, when you run FSX, your CPU is maxed out. You don't have the overhead for add-on products that require processor (like FEX). That's just adding to your computer's workload, and there is no more free processor cycles for it.I think I definitely am getting some benefit from the multi-threading capabilities of the Intel chip (800 mhz front side bus) over your AMD offering, although they are fairly comparable in most respects.I'm not totally satisfied with FSX. I have a pretty high-end system (although definitely not the latest). Sometimes (coughTokyocough) FSX just crawls. So, I just fly elsewhere ... which is a shame because ACES put a lot of work into Tokyo.If I was in your spot, I'd uninstall FEX, dial back the autogen, boats, cars, etc. until I got acceptable 16-20 frame rates and call it a day. Even with this type of a setup, FSX is far superior to its predecessor.Cheers,Kevin

Hi Kevin,"You don't have the overhead for add-on products that require processor (like FEX)."It's unlikely anyone will be running FEX while FSX is active. FEX is merely an attractive and convenient way/front-end to install alternative textures, whether they be clouds, sky or water. Once you have made your choice and FEX has installed same, FEX can be closed prior to starting the sim. In any case, even with FEX running in the background at idle, which it would be, I've checked and the executable uses 0% CPU time. I have seen little or no performance impact by using FEX except, that is, when I tried installing the high resolution clouds 1024x1024 (default: 256x256). I dropped to 512x512 and all's well :)Mike