Simviation Forums

Well, now that I have a new system ready, I need to get FS running well on it.  My system specs are below, followed by my current display settings.  I tend to get extremely bad framerates (5-10) in either heavy weather or high-density areas.  I know I need to lower some things, the question is really what.  Sorry if I misplaced this, but it seems the most likely place to go.  Good god, I feel like a newbie . . .

HP Pavilion Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
AMD Athlon Dual-Core QL-60 1.90 GHz
3.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G.0

Congrats on the new setup, getting the itch myself.

Going on the whole, 'no two setups are alike' premise, this is what I run for the settings I use:

XP pro
AMD Dual core 2.8
ATI1650pro 512
2Gb Ram

Based on your pics:

Pic 1: Max all sliders, no checks in ground shadows, sun glare, lens flare.

pic 2: same as yours

pic 3: 60mi/60mi/100%/ detailed/medium

pic 4: Frames @20 (for online use, works nice for offline as well)
       Checks in: Render to texture & Transform & lighting
        Trilinear filtering
        MIP: 5
        Lights: 8
        Massive

I also run 100% traffic, and Medium weather change rate.

With these settings on my rig, and also running a screenshot program, Active Sky 6.5, and FS Navigator I see 15-20 in very heavy areas with lots of traffic. (All addon, no default)

In the country it stays solid at 20.

Thanks, Shane!  Worked out fairly well, although I did have to turn down the weather a bit more.  But other than that - solid 20-25 throughout, even in heavy storms!

i dont know if it would help or hurt any (only 1 way to find out) but I would at least try Global Max Texture Size at Medium (1/2 way.)

other than that, i would go with what ShaneG has shared.  If it makes things worse, then nevermind put it back to Maximum and go with shane.  

My stats are below, and I also have Real Environment Pro, ArrCab (arrestor cables), FSNav, FSPassengers; Norton Antivirus.. and occasionally IE8 running in the background  .. and I still somehow manage to pull 15-23 (locked at 25) in Major thunderstorms / 99% AI, everything is MAXED except for the MIP MAPPING=5 \ Trilineaner Filtering \ Global Max Texture Size = Medium.

but as you can tell, you sys is A LOT better than mine, so you should / might be able to get better than mine.  

just trying to help, if it doesn't work.. sorry. Its good on my end.

You should be flying high with that system and FS2004. I would venture to say the problem isn't in the hardware or FS settings. The problem is Vista.

A few suggestions. Do a web search for Process Explorer or RIGHT-CLICK this link and SAVE LINK AS http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip

This is so much better than Task Manager. You can use this to turn off all the extra crap Vista runs in the background. I strongly suggest using the services of http://www.fs-gs.com. The money well very well spent.

Thanks, Skittles.  Just one issue: when I open the Process Explorer, I don't understand exactly what I'm looking at or for.  I'm not entirely sure which programs are necessary for Vista to keep working correctly and which I can simply shut down.  I tried using the included help file, but it seems to be corrupted or something similar.

Any advice?

[quote]I don't understand exactly what I'm looking at or for.