What are your System Specs??

[JBaymore]

[quote]One thing you will learn with the FS-GS service is FPS really dont mean much.

[SaVas]

[quote]what exactly are they selling there?

[Skligmund]

When I fan cooled, I was only able to get just above 2200 MHz. My temps then were about 145F.

Now that I water cool, during the summer, I run at 2336MHz, and my temps are about 104F (1.92V, stock 1.65). During the winter, I get around 3420-3450, and my temps are about 45 to 55F, depending on outside temperature. Yeah, thats right, during the winter, my radiator goes outside. NO fan noise, except for my PSU and my graphics car, but my next purchase will be a VGA water block, then only PSU fan noise....... Can't wait.

[Gixer]

Unfortunately overclocking will not solve all the issues flight sim may throw at you.  It has a lot to do with the way your hardware and software is setup (and which software too!)

You could go an buy a megga machine but if you set it up badly then it will still run FS2004 like a bag of  :-X

I like to think my spec is pretty reasonable and that I kep my computer clean and tidy and free from viruses and trojans etc.  I had made mistakes though and the FS-GS services highlighted all the little problems and made my sim run the best it ever has  ;D

[Skligmund]

No, my problem is having everything set to max, with a res of 1162X864x16. I know what my computer can do (notice: all my parts were e-bayed or got cheap in some fashon, I spent very little on what I have) and I don't overclock for flight sim specificly. I overclock because it is fun. I enjoy upgrading, and making my computer better in any fashon I can, and spending as little as possible. I know how to manage my system, I've built, installed and set up dozens of machines, and my permutations (which believe it or not, all started with an AMD k6-2 333 that was given to me 4 years ago) of 5 motherboards, 7 processors, 4 video cards, 3 sound cards, 3 harddrives (raid0 is 1 in my book) and 3 PSU's. I've fine tuned my windows installation to get XP pro installed in about 2 hours, with all my programs and documents and the latest drivers. I re-install every 4 to 6 months on principal, probably more of a habit from win98se (which was good at eating itself).

I've set this up where it was running well over 100 FPS, but it didn't look as good. I think I might go for a NFORCE2 dual channel motherboard, and get my RAM potential up higher. Maybe an Asus A7N8X-E.

[Gixer]

Michael has made my system run like this:

1600x1200x32

4xAA 8xAF

Everything maxxed

Smooth play anywhere  ;D

Nuff said.  I thought I knew enough about setting up systems etc before carrying out this service, I mean my systems are always tidy etc but what I was shown my FS-GS is a whole different ball game!

If your a gamer I would highly recommend there services to get your system setup for intense graphical stuff.  Yes FS-GS main aim is to get your sim working at its best but it can also be used for any other games you have etc so you do get a fair bit out of the service.  It was definately an eye opener for me!!!

If your happy with the way your system performs though thats cool.  I am just very happy with FS-GS services  ;D

You couldn't blame me really if you saw my sim or other games  ;D

[JBaymore]

Im an average consumer, who happens to enjoy flight simming as a hobby.

Savas,

Forgive me if I wasn't as clear as I should have been on that comment.  I meant the average Microsoft Flight Simulator consumer.

If you are an "average consumer" in regard to that... then I am the tooth fairy  ;).

Thousands of dollars of payware...a new kinda' high end machine to run the sim..... having a "computer consultant" set up the already good system just to run the sim...and a moderator on the best flightsim site on the web.    Average?  No... I don't think so.  

Fs2004 is a best selling title........ and for every one of "you" there are that owns it...... I'd bet there are tons of others that are VERY casual fliers with more "mortal" machines and budgets.  So I think the profile of the average MSFS consumer is a lot less "addicted" than you and I and some others around here.

best,

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

[SaVas]

Thousands of dollars of payware...a new kinda' high end machine to run the sim..... having a "computer consultant" set up the already good system just to run the sim...and a moderator on the best flightsim site on the web.     Average?  No... I don't think so.

Touche' my friend

But really, in all honesty other than the moderating of the best flightsim website, yes, I consider myself "average".

I have a few other 'hobbies' namely being an artist that makes the money I spend on my simming look like the give a penny take a penny jar at my local convenience store LOLOL

---Stephen

[chomp_rock]

My specs:
Intel P4 2.0GHz
1Gb DDR333 RAM
GeForce FX5200 256Mb
37Gb ULTRA 320 SCSI HDD C: drive
40Gb ATA 100 D: drive

I used to get an average of 25Fps with all of the sliders but Mip quality maxed but that number has steadily decreased to 15 since I started adding scenery.

[flightman]

Hi. Just joined the Forum and a recent flightsimmer so still learning a lot. At present running a Pentium 4 1.6 GHZ 256 meg ram 20 gig hard drive and just ordered a 256 meg graphics card. Don't want to spend to much on the system at the mo due to still learning the sim and want to be able to fly properly before spending loads. Have just ordered flight sim 2004 how do you think this will run and any reccomendations on the best settings to have it on. I am fairly computer illiterate so any advice will help me. Great site by the way and have learnt loads already. Will spend some more money on a system next year and any advice on what to buy would be helpful. Many Thanks.

[commoner]

Hi Flightman, welcome to the Forum....the Ram is going to let you down I'm afraid 512 would be my minimum but a GIG is what you want ...this sim sure loves it's Ram..commoner.

[flightman]

Thanks for that. As fairly new to this am not bothered about mega detail would rather learn to fly first. Would 2002 pro fair any better on my system. Mega site by the way guys. If i upgraded my ram would i then have a half decent machine to run 2004 on? Also how would 2004 run on my current system as listed above.

[commoner]

If you got the new card AND more Ram you would have a good chance with FS9 I would say...particularly if you are not hooked on the fancy scenery addons......not many of the guys on this forum have the thing really cranked up (suppose that will bring a few posts on the theme that "I DO..I DO"  ;D) and the ones that get close to it seem to suffer other things like dropped frame rates or stuttering near airports...

Look at the specs of other posters especially the ones who seem to be in trouble..see if they compare with yours.  Good luck..........Commoner

[JBaymore]

flightman,

Welcome to SimV.

If you take a look at a huge number of past threads that have topics generally relating to this subject you can get a feel for what is "up" with how demanding fs2004 is on hardware........ which in general is pretty demanding.

Some have said that they got better performance with fs2004 than with fs2002 on the same machine.... but that was WAY not my experience.

best,

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

[flightman]

Thanks for the info John. Have ordered a gig of ram to go with the 256 mb graphics card. I hope this will do the job for now. Talk about this simming being addictive!! Still it's worked out cheaper than getting a new machine. Hopefully the graphics and speed should be ok with this for now. Anything else you think i should get for now.