PLEASE HELP!!!!

[N2744X]

Hi everyone,
                  I'm new here, so ill start with a little about myself before i get into my SERIOUS ISSUE. I am 14, from Chester, NY. I have been simming for over 6 years, and have had every sim from 98 through FS9. I use a CH Yoke, Pedals and Throttle Quadrant, A HotSeat Chassis with Dolby 5.1 Surround, and a Cessna 172 electrical panel for f2004. Now for the bad news...

After buying my new graphics card about 4 months ago, I have actually been seeing worse framerates than my older card. I HAD a NVidia GeForce MX440, which I replaced with an NVidia GeForce 6200OC. People have told me that with my current system, I should be getting 25 frames FULL TIME, locked at 25. The frames are jumpy as hell, even when locked to 20. In a period of about 10 seconds, my frames will do this:
20
18
12
18
16
15
12
16
20
7
14
12
17
All in about 10 seconds.
Aircraft that should run on my system just fine..so say others... run like absoloute crap. The Veneaviones Turbo Commander 690 sued to run just fine. Now the frames jump all over the place. I have been forced to lower my settings to such lows, I am not comfortable telling you. . Still, the frames are bad, even with those low settings. Here are my system specs:

Dell Dimension 4600
Samsung Syncmaster 225BW, 23inch, widescreen LCD monitor
1gb Ram
Nvidia GeForce 6200OC (OverClocked)
Intel Pentium 4 2.80Ghz Processor

People say that I should be able to run the CaptainSim 757 with no trouble @ 25fps steadily. I just want some real help with this problem, so if you can help, it would be greatly appreciated. I want to be able to enjoy Flightsim with relatively high settings in places like NY JFK.

Thanks...but maybe im just dreaming.

Joe

[ashaman]

Well, actually the 6200 is not that powerful of a card. It's the low end of the 6000 series ans as such is not thought to give power. To have good framerates with a 6200 a lot depends on the complexity of the graphics rendered. If the screen begins to be a little too crowded of complex 3d constructs even a 6800 can show its limits, let alone a 6200.

Another bottleneck of a system displaying FS9 is the CPU and the memory. Undoubtedly the videocard is important, but FS requests a good CPU too, to calculate AI and the various other variables pertaining to flight simulation. And the memory to keep said variables from being swapped too often on the HD. Are you sure you're not under-equipped about CPU or memory?

[N2744X]

I am positive that I have 1gb of memory, and a Pentium 4 2.80ghz Processor if that is what you are asking. I am positive about all the specs I listed. Its the Jumping frames going from 20 to 16 to 18 to 12 etc, that i want to be gone the most.

[visualchaosfx]

Dell Dimension 4600
Samsung Syncmaster 225BW, 23inch, widescreen LCD monitor
1gb Ram
Nvidia GeForce 6200OC (OverClocked)
Intel Pentium 4 2.80Ghz ProcessorJoe

Option A

I'd upgrade your memory to 2GB and get a Nvidia 7600 GT.

I'm assuming that Dell computer came with all softwares installed on it i.e. Microsoft Works or Office, some type of anti virus software and other software that isn't going to be used.

Option B

My Advice (and its up to YOU if you decide to do this)

Go to the dell website, look up the model of your desktop computer, and download all drivers for that particular model of computer. Create PC recovery CDs or buy them from dell. Then get you a copy of Windows XP Pro or Home. Delete the old partition on your hard drive then create a new one and install a fresh copy of Windows XP. Then install the new graphics card (See suggestion above^^) Install appropriate drivers for the system and graphics card. Run the game and you'll notice a big difference. I did this same exact thing to my Compaq desktop computer. I had trouble playing Medieval 2 Total War and bought the lower end graphics card thinking it should work and it didn't. I have the PMDG 747 and TrackerIR setup and I use the virtual cockpit all the time now when I fly and I don't have any lagging issues considering just about everything is turned to Medium high or high settings in FS2004. Medieval 2 Total War plays great on my system as well.

You can try Option A and see what that does. If it helps cool if it don't you can try out option B. If you try option B and for some reason doesn't work for you, don't blame me for it. It was a suggestion. 8-)

[visualchaosfx]

I am positive that I have 1gb of memory, and a Pentium 4 2.80ghz Processor if that is what you are asking. I am positive about all the specs I listed. Its the Jumping frames going from 20 to 16 to 18 to 12 etc, that i want to be gone the most.

Right click my computer - select properties -  and it should tell you what system you have in the General Tab.

[N2744X]

I appreciate all of the help that ive gotten so far. The 2gb of ram i can do, but i dont have a PCI express capable motherboard.....I think. Ho do I find out? If not, is there a way to upgrade so that my PC will accept a PCI Express card?

[JerryH]

One more item to check.  Does your FS9.cfg file know about your new 6200 card.  If the .cfg hasn't been updated, then the sim won't be using your graphics card properly.

If that's the case, then exit FS and locate the FS9.cfg file.  Rename it FS9old (or whatever you like).  The next time you run FS, it will create a new .cfg file.  You can then edit the new .cfg and add any tweaks that were in the old one.

Regards,
JerryH

[JBaymore]

N2744x,

Hi and welcome to SimV.

From my experiences with fs9 (fs2004), I'd say that with the system you are running you are getting about what I'd expect..... if you are trying to run the sliders maxed (full detail, etc.).

Look at my system specs in the trailer below.  That configuration still does not run fs9 maxed out all that well.  Discussions with a former VERY well respected member here (Nick) confirmed my supossitions that my system will not run it maxed with good fremerates.

Try turning down some of the sliders / effects and see what happens.  Start off with killing the AI traffic.  Then decrease the water effects.

Also look for the thread that Nick wrote on setting up Windows for maximum performance.  

And at the LEAST, even if you feel uncomfortable following Nick's directions on Windows, make sure that nothing is running in the background.

best,

......john

[FSFLYER2]

Set the FPS slider to max.
I have, and get more often than not 75fps.
My own build PC as follows:- MSI board K8M NEO-V/K8T Neo-V, Sempron 3000,
Nvidia FX5500 256ram, DX9.0c. 1.5Gb memory. And keep the rubbish out of the files.
Oh, FS9 has its own HD, and I start FS9_nocd.