New to forum!!

[FlyBill]

HI ya simmers, Well im new to the forum somewhat, but, Im currently flying fs2000. Well, I just got fs2004 and I hope its better than fs2000. I've read some topics on Frmrates and settings etc....I will let ya know what I get on my system. I have a Athlon 2.8+ processor, 512K 2700 ddr ram, Windows xp sp2, Gforce card, cant remeber what size. I hope this Sim is better. I also have real flight time in a Cessna 172. I will be installing it tonight after work, Looks like I will be up all night flying...LOL. Any suggestions with settings will help. I will be posting with questions..

[ReverseThrust]

Welcome to SimV!
There are many people here who are experts on maximizing performance.  Just check the screenshots forums to see the amazing quality some here get from thier pcs.  Good luck, and enjoy your stay at Simadhouse... er, SimViation!

[alrot]

Greetings and Welcome to Simv.two things you have a great machine to run fs9,and a lot diferent between fs2000 and fs9 its like typewriter,and a PC
 Cheers FlyBill

[JBaymore]

Flybill,

Welcome to SimV.

best,

................john

[SaVas]

Welcome aboard Flybill!

My recommendation is to have 1 gig of Ram since ram is pretty cheap nowadays, its a worthy investment

---Stephen

[codered]

A 128MB graphic card doesn't hurt either.  What I have found out though is you need 1 GB ram, 128MB card, a processor that can crunch the numbers very quickly, and a power supply that is able to run it all effeciently.

Welcome to the Forum.  Glad to see all the new faces.

[Graycat8524]

Heya FlyBill,

Welcome to SimV!  Just for comparison I am currently running a custom-built PC (I built it myself) with an Intel 2.4 GHz CPU, 1 Gig DDR RAM, GeForce FX 5200 128 MB, and Windows XP SP2.  So my PC is roughly equivalent to yours (I don't know about the graphics card).  

If you wish to know everything about your PC (but were afraid to ask) go to Start, then click Run.  In the entry field type dxdiag (uppercase or lowercase -- it doesn't matter).  Then click OK.  You may wish to click the Save All Information button at the bottom of the Dxdiag window.  Just save it on your C:\ drive.  This will place a new text file on your hard drive called dxdiag.txt.

You can open the Dxdiag.txt using Windows Notepad and read all of your PC specifications including graphics card type (under the Display Devices section), the drivers you are currently using, your DirectX version, hard drive capacities and amount of space used, etc.  You can refer to this Dxdiag text file any time you have an issue and someone on this board wants to know your PC specs.

In my opinion there is no comparison between FS 2004 and FS 2000.  The latest version of FS is infinitely better!  I should know since I've owned and used the Flight Simulator (and all of its various incarnations) since the very first version was introduced about 20 years ago.

Since our PC's are similar you will most likely get very good framerates (without any Add-ons).  I have all sorts of Add-on Aircraft, Scenery, Sounds, etc. and I get 30+ FPS in the city and 45+ FPS in the country (With all of the Graphics Options sliders maxxed out).

You did mention in your original post that you have the SP2 upgrade for Windows XP.  This is a very good thing.  When I upgraded XP to SP2 I didn't notice any real increase in FPS, however, I did notice an overall improvement in the way the scenery textures looked.  

One recommendation I would make is to download and install DirectX 9.0c (if you don't already have it).  

If you don't have it then you can download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a9b6820-bfbb-4799-9908-d418cdeac197&DisplayLang=en

On my PC I noticed that it did increase my framerates by about 10%.  Not much -- however, with as much stuff as I have on my FS 2004, every little bit helps!

[jordonj]

welcome!

FSAutostart and FlightSim Manager are excellent for squeezing better performance from older machines...