From what I remember, the individual frames of a film are somewhat blurry as opposed to the individual frame of a sim [which is not blurry]. That could be the key factor in all this. I don't know, I'm just guessing.
No.. video is sharp
Let me put this in a visual example:
VIDEO 40 FPS
______|______|______|______|______|______|______|______|______|______|
40 of these frames every second and exaclty ONE per .025 seconds without missing a beat
Its CONSTANT .. it never changes from one frame to the next. The video will always remain at its locked speed for every frame displayed.
3D GAME RENDER 40 FPS but does not seem smooth
_____|_______|__________|______|_______|___|___|_______|____|_______|
40 of these frames every second and BUT even though 40 frames get rendered in that 1 second time period they are not equal in transition time due to all sorts of different load changes on the system or a system that is not correctly set up. This is where tweaking and load balancing the computer with the sim is critical.
3D GAME RENDER 24 FPS and smooth as glass
_______|________|________|________|________|________|_______|________|
24 of these frames every second and even though rendering will never be EXACTLTY ONE per .041666 seconds, the difference is so small you dont see the changes.
The computer and the sim are in balance with each other. Loads do not cause severe transition changes, therefore the visual looks exactly the same as example #1
Thats the best I can do to make it clear with a forum post example
I ran an x800xt overclocked with it locked @ 22FPS for a year and I cant see the difference in smoothness and flight over my 7900GTX. The visual are cleaner and there is more to look at with the 7900GTX but with the exception of very, very heavy load situations there is absolutely no difference in how smooth my sim runs between 22 and 34 frames on two very different cards... nothing
I lock the 7900GTX @ 34 because lower it throws the sim out of balance with the computer and higher I get micro stutters in heavy traffic airports. @ 34 it is in perfect harmony with the loads being applied.
Flight sim is not couterstrike or other games... it is calculating a hell of a lot more in the background than a simple "shoot-em up" game. If a computer is not set up to FORCE the system to give FS9 all the resources it wants and at the same time the sim settings are not balanced for/with the available resources, the rendering will be choppy, stuttered and blurry no matter how high the frame lock is making it to on the counter.
Everybody makes the same mistake ... jack up the frame lock thinking since it will go that high they should set it that high. The fact of the matter is it should be set to about 35-45% LESS than what the card can do in FS9 so if the card can easily hit 50-60FPS with the sliders maxed @ 100%, cloudy day and 90% AI traffic, the frame lock should be between 24-35. The exact number requires testing and trial/error.