FS9 on my new system

[Travis]

Well, now that I have a new system ready, I need to get FS running well on it.  My system specs are below, followed by my current display settings.  I tend to get extremely bad framerates (5-10) in either heavy weather or high-density areas.  I know I need to lower some things, the question is really what.  Sorry if I misplaced this, but it seems the most likely place to go.  Good god, I feel like a newbie . . .

HP Pavilion Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
AMD Athlon Dual-Core QL-60 1.90 GHz
3.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G.0

[ShaneG_old]

Congrats on the new setup, getting the itch myself.

Going on the whole, 'no two setups are alike' premise, this is what I run for the settings I use:

XP pro
AMD Dual core 2.8
ATI1650pro 512
2Gb Ram

Based on your pics:

Pic 1: Max all sliders, no checks in ground shadows, sun glare, lens flare.

pic 2: same as yours

pic 3: 60mi/60mi/100%/ detailed/medium

pic 4: Frames @20 (for online use, works nice for offline as well)
       Checks in: Render to texture & Transform & lighting
        Trilinear filtering
        MIP: 5
        Lights: 8
        Massive

I also run 100% traffic, and Medium weather change rate.

With these settings on my rig, and also running a screenshot program, Active Sky 6.5, and FS Navigator I see 15-20 in very heavy areas with lots of traffic. (All addon, no default)

In the country it stays solid at 20.

[Travis]

Thanks, Shane!  Worked out fairly well, although I did have to turn down the weather a bit more.  But other than that - solid 20-25 throughout, even in heavy storms!

[Capt.Propwash]

i dont know if it would help or hurt any (only 1 way to find out) but I would at least try Global Max Texture Size at Medium (1/2 way.)

other than that, i would go with what ShaneG has shared.  If it makes things worse, then nevermind put it back to Maximum and go with shane.  

My stats are below, and I also have Real Environment Pro, ArrCab (arrestor cables), FSNav, FSPassengers; Norton Antivirus.. and occasionally IE8 running in the background  .. and I still somehow manage to pull 15-23 (locked at 25) in Major thunderstorms / 99% AI, everything is MAXED except for the MIP MAPPING=5 \ Trilineaner Filtering \ Global Max Texture Size = Medium.

but as you can tell, you sys is A LOT better than mine, so you should / might be able to get better than mine.  

just trying to help, if it doesn't work.. sorry. Its good on my end.

[Skittles]

You should be flying high with that system and FS2004. I would venture to say the problem isn't in the hardware or FS settings. The problem is Vista.

A few suggestions. Do a web search for Process Explorer or RIGHT-CLICK this link and SAVE LINK AS http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip

This is so much better than Task Manager. You can use this to turn off all the extra crap Vista runs in the background. I strongly suggest using the services of http://www.fs-gs.com. The money well very well spent.

[Travis]

Thanks, Skittles.  Just one issue: when I open the Process Explorer, I don't understand exactly what I'm looking at or for.  I'm not entirely sure which programs are necessary for Vista to keep working correctly and which I can simply shut down.  I tried using the included help file, but it seems to be corrupted or something similar.

Any advice?

[Skittles]

[quote]I don't understand exactly what I'm looking at or for.