Microsoft Flight Simulator X

[wacki]

Bought my dad flight sim x for christmas. He has a 2.4Ghz, 1 GB ram and ATI all-in-wonder 9600 video card. It's a much faster computer then what the requirements on the box say. The game works, but it seems like it's getting *maybe* 5 frames per second.

My dad is certainly open to upgrading his computer so he can play this game. For those that have used this game, is it worth switching to Vista? Also, what is the minimum requirement for a video card? Am I going to be forced to buy one of those tornado inducing vacuum sounding video cards just to play the game in high res?

 

[swtethan]

let me tell you... only a 8800gtx will play that game smoothly, and that pushing it.

 

[swtethan]

and you need something like an overclocked 6400 or 6600

 

[LanceM]

FSX is horrible about this. No one I know seems to run the game smoothly without spending big bucks on big upgrades. Unfortunately, I have no specific tips.

 

[wacki]

let me tell you... only a 8800gtx will play that game smoothly, and that pushing it.

and you need something like an overclocked 6400 or 6600

???????? First you say only a $800 card will cut it. Then you say a $60-$120 card will do?

 

[rise]

no, he meant e6400/6600 cpu.

it runs great on my rig but its pretty much what he described-
6400 @ stock
8800gts @ stock
2 gigs ram

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: rise
no, he meant e6400/6600 cpu.

it runs great on my rig but its pretty much what he described-
6400 @ stock
8800gts @ stock
2 gigs ram

ah, thankyou. I haven't paid any attention to CPU's since the original Core 2 Duo came out. My bad.

 

[Mutilator]

Finally downloaded the demo this weekend and saw in the readme it said to make sure you go into options and customize your video settings especially if you're running an AMD processor.

I went in and set everything to high and it ran fine on my system:
Athlon XP 3000+, 2GB RAM, X800XL vid card. I imagine you should be able to get at least to medium settings on that PC. By default on my PC target FPS was set to 20... I changed it to 30 for the hell of it. Haven't played enough to see if it made a difference or not.

 

[Random Variable]

Flight Simulator X should run better in Vista and under DX10.

I can get a consistent 20 FPS on my computer with all the settings set to medium high. Sometimes I like to increase the settings to ultra high to see the extra little animations (like moving jetways) but then I get about 10 FPS.

 

[AdamSnow]

I have a P4 2.8c, 1gb RAM, and a 6600GT video card... ran like crap...

Im in the process of building:

C2D 2.4ghz, 2gb RAM, 8800GTX... let me tell you, it BETTER play it smooth or I'm going to snap...

 

[Gautama2]

Specs in the sig, and I can run the demo at ultra with 20-30 fps

 

[Random Variable]

Originally posted by: Gautama2
Specs in the sig, and I can run the demo at ultra with 20-30 fps

That's impossible with a 7600GT.

 

[Gautama2]

Well its what I get. Though there arent any big cities to really flex my card in the demo.

 

[geokilla]

Your FSX actually worked? Mine didn't work....It kept on crashing.....

Check my forum thread.

 

[blackllotus]

I run with FPS near 20 with a 6600 GT

 

[AdamSnow]

Originally posted by: blackllotus
I run with FPS near 20 with a 6600 GT

with everything turned off flying over the ocean?

 

[blackllotus]

Originally posted by: AdamSnow

Originally posted by: blackllotus
I run with FPS near 20 with a 6600 GT

with everything turned off flying over the ocean?

No. Doing GA flying around my home town. Plenty of AI traffic going into KPHL and KEWR though.

 

[swtethan]

yeah... okay

 

[getbush]

Buy FS2004 on the cheap as a holdover? It'll be a while before I get FSX due to teh hardware requirements.

 

[AstroGuardian]

That's not what i am experiencing...

I have Athlon 3500, 1gb ram, GF7600GS and it runs great with medium settings. Can't tell you about the driver version....

 

[Jeff7181]

It's my understanding that FSX is multi-threaded, so a dual core CPU helps quite a bit, especially with a bunch of AI aircraft around you, like at airports.

 

[AdamSnow]

I just tried it in my new system...

E6600 2.4ghz C2D
2gb PC8000 RAM
8800GTX XXX Video card
680i motherboard

For my test, I threw everything to "Very High" detail, highest resolution I could pick and started to fly out of New York City... Smooth as can be, I don't know how to get it to display FPS, but let me tell you it runs GREAT! so much detail... autogen looks great... I'm impressed!

 

[Random Variable]

There is no "very high" setting.

 

[AdamSnow]

Originally posted by: Random Variable
There is no "very high" setting.

Sorry, at work so I didn't check...

I went to "Custom" for graphics settings, and moved everything as far to the right as I could...