Frame Rate Solution (Really Works!)

[sunlord_clave]

I have so far tried Frame rate fixes and solutions of all sorts but none of them have worked as good as this one in my ageing pc (128mb ram, 32 mb graphics etc.) By trying this the results you can expect are:

1) Much Much more smoother flights (especially in big airports like heathrow etc.
2)Frame rate ALWAYS sticks to the number you have specified.
3) Faster responses when switching views etc.
4)Overall smoothness in the game including loading etc.

You will really love your game after trying this. Here we go...

Now, I am not sure if this will work in graphics cards other than NVidia geforce. I dont know if you should try it. But people with geforce, this is definitely for you. Make sure you have the latest NVIDIA drivers (not anything else) installed.

1) Open up the fs9.cfg which is located in \Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9\FS9.cfg

2) Find the entry (on some computers there will be two) named DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200.0

NOTE : In your computer the "GeForce4 Ti" will be replaced by the graphics card YOU have. I have a GeForce4 so mine shows up as GeForce4 Ti.

3) Replace that entry with DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP (inside the [ ] brackets)

Save the cfg file start your game and try it! Note: Make a backup copy of your cfg file before trying it. Also, I am not responsible for any problems that may occur (no one has reported any till now)

If you want to extend your frame rates a tad more, compress your fs9 folder in program files.

[commoner]

Hi Sun....gave your suggestion a go and initial tryout looks good.......I have the not so powerful Radeon 9200 and changed to   [DISPLAY.Device.RADEON Drivers on Win2K/XP ]  this undoubtedly made quite a big improvement even to my British Airports scenery but wonder if anybody could explain why...Strange  to say when I fired up, the screen res had changed but I adjusted that and now ok...hoping things are as good as they seem...thanks for that...commoner

[RollerBall]

Sorry I'm sceptical. Check your cfg file again after you've fired up and run FS9. Mine was just rewritten back to the original version by the system. Therefore absolutely no change in FR.

[f-16]

I changed mine and FS did not change it back. It seems that I get a 2-3FPS improvement on mine.

[Smoke2much]

I tried this and like rollerball Nothing actually changes.  Further down the config file an extra line is added with the old information.

[xFLAMESx]

[quote]I tried this and like rollerball Nothing actually changes.

[commoner]

Sorry I'm sceptical. Check your cfg file again after you've fired up and run FS9. Mine was just rewritten back to the original version by the system. Therefore absolutely no change in FR.

...Mine did write another original version lower down the list...I changed that and it wrote yet another lower down still....no idea what is going on here but I have a very dense version of Meigs Field scenery and locked at 20fps it holds that and very smooth too....originally I never saw more than 12 for this and jerky with it...., so a big improvement for me.....I'll continue to investigate..........commoner

[f-16]

I wonder...
To the ones that see the CFG file changed back..
Are you using XP? Perhaps that is the problem?
I'm using 2000 and my CFG file has NOT been changed. I modified the line as mentioned and it has stayed that way..

Perhaps the OS is doing this?

[commoner]

Nope..I am using Win XP......the line doesn't change back just writes another lower down the list..change that and get another as I said....each time I change it the Sim starts in 800x600 res and I have to change back to my normal 1028x 768 res..still getting much better FRs though....commoner  :-/

[f-16]

I'm beginning to think that I modified my CFG wrong for this. Here is what I did:

SOUND_QUALITY=1
//DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440.0
[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP]
Mode=800x600x32
RenderToTexture=0
[DISPLAY]

Did I comment out the line correctly? I did not want to remove it all together.

[sunlord_clave]

That should look like this

SOUND_QUALITY=1
[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP]
Mode=800x600x32
RenderToTexture=0
[DISPLAY]

[f-16]

But that line does look like that. It's the line I commented out that may be the problem. I don't want to remove it, just comment it out. That should not be a problem.

[afi0yz]

Wow, i can't find my fs9.cfg.  I know i have seen it before

any help?

[f-16]

Do a file search on the drive. Thats the way I found mine. It's not in the FS2004 folder. It's burried in the settings and documents folder..

Do a search for "fs9.cfg" should come right up

[MattNW]

For the Fs9.cfg file you have to set your search settings for "hidden files" or you won't ever see it. Also you have to have the folder it's in set to display "hidden files".

This fix came up not long after FS9 came out. Some people claimed great performance increases and others nothing at all or even a FR decrease. I tried it back then and found no differences at all. If you do try it make sure you have a flight saved and try before and after on the same flight. Often people will think they are seeing a huge improvement when it's only due to a different position in the sim. You gotta expect a FR increase when the AG density is low from when it's high. If you don't test in the exact same location under the exact same conditions then you can't really tell if anything's been improved or not.