Maintaining constant FPS

[Virtual_Pilot]

Hey all,
I need some help. When I am in the default Learjet 45 with the Anniversary colors, sitting at KSTL, Lambert-St. Louis International, than my frames per second thingy goes like this every time it switches:

FRAMES/SEC = 8
FRAMES/SEC = 50.2
FRAMES/SEC = 9.3
FRAMES/SEC = 49.7

So basically it switches from around 10 to around 50.

These are my system specs:
2GB RAM
1.86 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (So does that mean its got 3.72 GHZ in total of processor?)
256 MB nVidia 7300 LE Graphics Card (Just downloaded new driver yesterday)
Dell Dimension E520
Windows Vista Home Premium

So it's supposed to be like a office/work computer, but I modified it online before ordering it and made it a decent gaming computer.
I had FSX running and looked at the task manager, the system was using 1.19 GB of RAM and 35% CPU. Is there a way to check how much of the Graphics card it is using? Is there a way to make it use all of my RAM and all of my CPU?

I would definately say the graphics card is the thing that could most use a replacement, like 512MB.

The final question, will somehow pushing the computer to use all of the RAM and CPU give me better and more constant FPS? If not, is there some other way? Or will getting a better Graphics Card solve it all?

Thanks,
Virtual_Pilot

[DONTREADMYUSERNAME]

Did you download SP1? It will help bring out the full potential of your dual core....

[Virtual_Pilot]

Yep, downloaded SP1

[Virtual_Pilot]

And Yankees suck, ftw. Go Cardinals!

[Nick N]

That card may have a very tough time in FSX

but you can review some things here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 8514/60#71

And in your case, it would appear you are trying to run UNLIMITED frame lock. Its OK to try but in this case with such a restricted card I think locking it will be needed, probably somewhere around 18-22

[Virtual_Pilot]

Alright, I will probably buy a new card down the road

[Virtual_Pilot]

What card should I buy that would work best with the RAM,CPU and whatever?

[justpassingthrough]

What card should I buy that would work best with the RAM,CPU and whatever?

I can make a suggestion. Black ZR1, a member here, has a very similar system as you. NickN went through it with him and helped him clock up his CPU and memory. He was running a 8800GTS 640 and was getting good results! The thread was called FSX & SLI, but ended up being nothing to do with SLI. The thread got a lot of attention because NickN ran through everything from FSX, to BIOS settings, to clock settings and upgrades in it with him. http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 72157609/0

I think the hardware upgrade stuff started right around page 10 or so. That thread is quite old and was before SP1. With SP1 we have all found the settings to be different. The moreupdated stuff was in the link NickN posted.

The particular core2 processor you have is not very fast but it sure beats quite a few others. I think an 8800GTX 640 would be about the fastest you would want to use because the processor would bottleneck anything faster. It will probably even bottleneck the GTS somewhat.

The next one down would be either a 2900XT 512-1GB or a 7950GX2

You do need at least 512 for FSX. The more the better.

I have a 7900GTX 512 and it does well in FSX, but that too quite a bit of tweaking (never ending on low hardware    )  but I wish I had one of the 2900's or 8800's


I will be shopping next month for an completely new system

[EGNX]

Sounds you just need to lock your frames at around 20-25 or so. You can do it by going into the display settings in FSX.  ;)