FPS Suggestions

You should be getting alot more FPS. I get between 21~30 (limited @30) with a simular computer.

No, 64bit won't help, FSX is a 32bit DX9 game. Have you installed service pack (SP1)? that helps some in FPS. You might try choking back on AIs, that's been the biggest FPS hitter for me. I also installed GA Traffic and now there's so much chat on 122.9, I can't talk to the tower!

Here's what runs the game well for me, At least when I stay out at regonals.
GRAPHICS
Target frame rate: 30
Full screen res: 1680x1050x16
Filtering: Trilinear
Anti-aliasing: on
Global texture resolution: High
Lens flare: off
Light bloom: off
Advanced animations: off
Informational text: Continuous
AIRCRAFT
Default cockpit view: 3-D virtual cockpit
Show cockpit ToolTips: off
High-resolution 3-D virtual cockpit: on
2-D panel transparency: 0%
Aircraft cast shadows: on
Aircraft casts shadows on itself: off
Aircraft landing-lights illuminate ground: off
SCENERY
Level of detail radius: Medium
Mesh complexity: 51
Mesh resolution: 19m
Texture resolution: 1m
Water effects: None
Land detail textures: on
Scenery complexity: Extremely dense
Autogen density: Extremely dense
Ground scenery shadows: off
Special effects detail: Low
WEATHER
Cloud draw distanse: 60mi / 96km
Thermal visualization: None
Simple clouds: on
Download winds aloft data with real-world weather: off
Disable turbulence and thermal effects on aircraft: off
Rate at which weather changes: Medium
TRAFFIC
Airline traffic density: 0%
General aviation traffic density: 100%
Airport vehicle density: 0%
Road vehicles: 100%
Ships and ferries: 0%
Leasure boats: 0%
Show aircraft labels: off

With this computer:

Intel DP965LT ATX mainboard (P965express chipset)
Intel onboard Azalia sound & 82566c LAN
intel Core2Duo E6600@2.4ghz
Generic intel approved thermally advantaged ATX case
Thermaltake 775D copperbase heatpipe cpu cooling fan
Corsair 4x1gb duel channel DDR2@667mhz note#1
Gigabyte nVida 8800GTX w/768mb DDR3
Memorex DVD-CD R+RW drive
Western Digital 1600YS SATA hardrive
Antec NeoHe 500watt power supply
Samsung 215TW 21" widescreen (1680x1050) DVI LCD
Samsung CX213TW 13" DVI LCD
winXp SP2

I get good FPS if I have the traffic sliders turned right down or off, but I wish I could have some traffic as it is very unrealistic to be the only jet at the airport.

Like the previous poster asked, do you have SP1 installed?? Also make sure you have the latest Nvidia drivers. They have come a long way for Vista in the last several months.

As far as traffic goes I rarely turn it above 35% or so. (if flying around busy areas) I feel like that setting gets me a good taste of other traffic without bogging down the system.

I do have SP1 and the latests nvidia drivers. I will just play with my settings and see what i can do. Does anyone know what kind of hardware you would have to have to play FSX with all of the sliders at max and decent FPS?

I do not have fsx but you have a pretty powerful pc there, and I think that you should be able to get playable fps with very high settings. Perhaps you should try reinstalling your graphics card and also fsx, incase an addon you downloaded for it is making you get the low fps. I also recommend cheking in your bios that any onboard graphics is disabled, becuase I had low fps for ages and disabling the onboard graphics solved the problem.

Hey also check your gfx card temperature. I hope its not overheated. Sometimes it underperforms then!
I was having a similar problem. Try downloading somethin like a pc wizard, its a free software which thoroughly checks ur system.