Finally. A Graphics Card and Some Setup Questions

[ske]

Many thanks to OBIO for his advice on my choice of graphics card. I got it used off Ebay for $22 (including shipping), and I am very happy with it. The most I'll do in addition is to bump the RAM to 4 gig. But that will be down the road a little bit

So...

What is the First Thing You Sacrifice for System Performance?

My system: Pentium 4 3.0 ghz, 1 gb RAM, Nvidia 7600 GS 256mb, MS XP Pro.

FS 2002 Pro, CFS 2 and 3, IL2S1946.

CFS3 seems to be the biggest system hog of all.

So what gets cut first first in the program setup, and on down from there?
I can run all but CFS 3 at the mostly maxed settings (CFS 3 crashes the system when maxed out)

Thanks!

[OBIO]

I spent a good bit of time testing various settings in FS2004 to get the best performance and the best visual results. I found that the biggest frame rate killer is clouds. I am attaching a screen shot of my cloud settings...not sure how similar FS2002 is to FS2004 in regards to settings....but the best way to find the right set up for your system is to try various set ups.

Also, lock your frame rates down low...20 to 25 frames per second. I have seen no real difference between flying with frames locked at 20 and with frames locked at 40...other than with frame rate locked at 20, more system resources are freed up for visual rendering. CFS2 at 20 frames per second is horrible, but FS2004 at 20 frames per second is smooth. Don't know what the difference is but flying FS2004 at 20 FPS is a real joy, flying CFS2 at 20 FPS is a pain in the butt.

OBIO

[OBIO]

Ooops, thought I was starting a new thread...sorry.

SKE

Your system and mine are very very close. I have 2 gig of RAM and twice the video memory. Same processor though. I run FS2004 pretty much full out on every thing except clouds (see above) and water effects (which I have set back to about 50% simply because I don't like the look of the water at higher settings. I have my frame rate locked at 20FPS. Other than having Rhumbafloppy's new world mesh installed, Real Environment Pro, a replacement water pack (R-Water....by a guy name Roger), and a different environment map (for reflections), my install is pretty stock (other than the huge number of aircraft)....at 20 FPS, FS2004 is super smooth, looks great, and the lowest my frame rates have dropped is 19.5 FPS, and that was with some pretty severe weather going on and flying over a large city with lots of tall buildings. I do have one plane that I just recently added (can't remember which one at the moment as I add 2 to 5 planes per day to my collection) that drops my frame rates to single digits in VC mode....must be a gauge confict in the VC that my system does not like.

Having said all that, if you add another gig of RAM to your system, you will be able to run FS2002 PRO full out with out a hitch. 256meg of Video Ram is more than enough to handle anything you throw at it...there are folks running less video RAM with FSX...and that sim is a resource HOG....as is CFS3.

OBIO

[aeromed202]

There are also decent replacement clouds out there. OBIO is right on about those sucking up FPS. The replacements boast smaller (faster loading) filesizes but you will have to decide on appearance.
There is also a file called Soft Horizons which basically blurrs the horizon edge at any sight distance, which I think is more realistic. It also claims to help with FPS.

[ske]

Thanks guys!