only 1.8fps with reasonable spec machine

😳 Something wrong here
Even though the GFX card is not very good,it should run with much higher FPS than that
Here is a very old link where a FX5200 ran,with a few Fs tweaks @ 25FPS

Have a read of it here ➡

https://forum.flyawaysimulation.com/forum/topic/1121/video-card-question/

Try a few if not all of those settings and come back to us

So I have a dumb question...how high have you set your graphics? I've gotten my 64mb Nvidia card + 1 gig of ram to run at 15-20 fps in high traffic, and 30s w/no traffic, but I definitly don't run my graphics sliders way up by any means!

Try getting the latest drivers for your card. That can be good for a lot too.

Anonymous wrote:

Hi, I have just installed FS2004 on my
AMD64 3000 on a Asus KV8
512MB RAM
FX5200 128MB
Win XP SP2

I know its not a screaming fast PC and in particular the gfx card is a bit weak but cant beleive its only good for 1.8 fps and its really unresponsive to key presses and crashes now and again. Most settings on low @ 800x600. Ive reinstalled and tried it with and without the 9.1 update and the obvious things like defragged HD, shut off unused apps like MSN messenger etc. Tried the DirectX upgrade from MS and as it did nothing I assume its up to date, I've also downloaded the latest drivers from NVidea. I've neveer had any problems with the PC and the older games like doom2 colin Mcrae Rally all run fine on it.

I've just ordered a NVidia 6600GT but get the feeling there are other problems that just updating the gfx card are not going to solve, any ideas?

TIA wayne

Hi Wayne, you sound like a pretty savvy user, so I'm wondering which anti spyware/adware programs you are using? My PC is no better than yours and I can easily run at 20 frames with all sliders maxed out. I've talked to many users who have tried adding just one more anti-spyware program and then found the culprit stealing their frame rates. I have Webroot Spy Sweeper and NAV for regular sweeps, plus I have MS AntiSpyware which is fast, free, and good. Also AdAware, Spybot S&D, and SpyBlaster. The one to try first is "HiJack This!" which is free from: (dead link removed)

Please forgive the spyware blathering if you've already tried all of the above, but that is it more times than not. Hardware-wise, how many modules make up your 512K of RAM?

Hope we can help you find a resolution.

Thanks for the suggestions but I'm still stuck, here ae some answers to peoples helpful questions:
I've got the MS spyware & Spybot, I tried the hijackthis and I could account for all the things in its list so dont think its spyware. I also have AV and firewall running and generally run firefox so hope my machine is rreasonably protected.

I have tried the latest drivers for the card and just tried a motherboard upgrade for the VIA4In one and the onboard sound card and none of these have helped.

Its a single stick 512MB.

I have tried fiddling with graphics settings, set them to those suggested from the link rom tomthetank then generally turned things down to the point where it looks like space invaders rahter than a modern flight sim but still no luck.

Appreciate anymore suggestions
Wayne

Have you tried the Omega drivers?

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

One other thing to try is to turn down the quality of the sound (seeing as you have onboard sound)
Goto your windows control panel

Try this program and see if it helps. It should.

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2948/fsautostart-v11/

The weird thing is that even my notebook PC which isn't as fast as Wayne's desktop and has fourth the video RAM, still gets a solid 20 FPS with most sliders high. I can't remember seeing a rate as low as 1.8 on either of my machines ever.

Wayne, what happens if you disable antialiasing in your video card (it should also be unchecked in FS9 and remain that way)?

That motherboard uses the VIA chipset. While VIA makes a good chip you need to be running up to date drivers. An out of date AGP driver can do very bad things.

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

Grab the 4in1 drivers and install.

I use about the same PC:
512mb RAM
3.06GHz Processor
Nvidia GeForce 5200 128mb
80GB Hard drive

and with all the graphic settings on maximum and very very high, the highest it can be, the game runs smoothly. Maybe you have too many programs running on background or some irrelevent programs.

Another idea for you.

Onboard sound can sometimes cause FPS issues in games. This is because onboard sound uses your processor instead of its own dedicated processor. This can cause 'choppy' graphics.

It might be an idea to try lowering the accelerated sound.

If enough of us give suggestions I am sure one of them will work 😉

I think your problem is that you have other programs in the backround running without you even knowing it. For example, let's say you have some sort of Adobe Acrobat software. Everytime you start your computer, the program thinks it's so important that it automatically opens on start-up. Your PC probably has many programs like this. The programs aren’t spyware, their just programs that you probably use, but don’t need them open when your not using them. All these programs do is take up resources, make things slower, and the worst is that you don't even know their running. What you want is that the programs only open if you click on them, right? To fix this try the following. Go to Start, then Programs. In the Startup file, right click and delete every program in their. THIS WILL NOT DELETE THE PROGRAM. ALL IT WILL DO IS MAKE IT SO THAT FOR THE PROGRAM TO OPEN YOU’LL HAVE TO OPEN IT. After that go to Start then Run. Type in msconfig. When the msconfig window pops up, clear the “Load Startup Items” box, then click OK and restart your computer. This will ensure that when you open FS2004 next time, that will be the only application running, making for better performance.

Hi All, please keep the tips coming, I'm sure one will be right in the end. I'm at work at the moment and will be away this weekend but will keep trying all the suggestions.

I am pleased to see that others are using a similar spec machine and that my gut feeling that there is something wrong rather than just a low spec gfx card was right.

I have tried some of the ideas, VIA 4in1 drivers, turned sound off in windows control panel and low settnigs in FSim. I have shut off most running things that are started up by default but am sure there are more as task manager reports 320MB of RAM being used beofre I even start FSim so effectively I'm down to just over 200MB of RAM. Willtry the SW suggested earlier.

Spotted there was a BIOS upgrade for my motherboard could that make a difference? I'm not overally keen on doing it and risking being left with a dead board but if its helped anyone else I might try it.

Someone at work suggested my PSU may be too low a spec and the gfx card is not working properly for 3d, its a factory built machine and have other games like half life running fine so may not be that, any thoughts?

If I (you guys) sort it what I'll do with the 6600GT when it arrives I'm not sure, well I needed a joystick and couldn't help myself clicking a few more things into the order

Thanks again
Wayne

G-Unit wrote:

After that go to Start then Run. Type in msconfig. When the msconfig window pops up, clear the “Load Startup Items” box, then click OK and restart your computer. This will ensure that when you open FS2004 next time, that will be the only application running, making for better performance.

a bad way to fix this problems. There are some very essential and important programs that need to start on startup and if they don't, the whole computer will be f***ed up. I suggest you do it one by one, click on the startup tab, and uncheck all the programs you know you dont need. If you are unsure about one program, then google it, and there are websites that confirm if the startup program is important or not. The most famous website is lulutilies or something like that

^Twistedsucker is right about doing things one step at a time--that is the correct way to troubleshoot for sure.

wth101: I would hold off on upgrading the BIOS unless someone could tell you positively that it was the problem. More testing first, perhaps? Do me a favor and try the following:

• Load the default Cessna, clear weather, default airport, daytime
• Press the ALT key to bring up the menu bar; choose Options>Settings>Display
• Click the Hardware tab
• Drag the slider for "Target frame rate" all the way to the right so that it says "Unlimited"
• Click OK to return to the sim screen
• If paused, press 'P'; press 'Y' for slew mode.
• Tap the F4 key once to gain some altittude, then press F2 to stop
• Tap the number 9 key at the top of the keyboard once
• Tap the number 0 key once as soon as you see nothing but sky through the windscreen
• Press SHIFT-Z until "FRAMES/SEC=" is displayed

What is your frame rate?

Tried the flight suggested and still only got 1.8fps, doesn't matter what settings I use I always get 1.8fps then after a few minutes it gets real slow and sometimes locks up.

I tried a new gfx card aNvidia 6600GT and got exactly the same frame rates, I'm gutted cost me £150 and I only really got it to play this game.

Anyone suggest anything else before I re install windows cant think what esle to try myself

Thanks Wayne

This is unreal (as you well know yourself!). After doing those tests and getting 1.8 FPS looking at the sky, and having purchased a hot gfx card, it seems like more extreme action must take place. What about the updated BIOS?

Also, which version of Windows, XP Home? If it does come down to reinstalling win you might as well take the oportunity to get it really optimized, and for that Black Viper's site was always the best (unfortunately it has been down for some time now, but I can point you to archives on the internet archive wayback machine).

wth101 wrote:

Tried the flight suggested and still only got 1.8fps, doesn't matter what settings I use I always get 1.8fps then after a few minutes it gets real slow and sometimes locks up.

I tried a new gfx card aNvidia 6600GT and got exactly the same frame rates, I'm gutted cost me £150 and I only really got it to play this game.

Anyone suggest anything else before I re install windows cant think what esle to try myself

Thanks Wayne

I've had the same problem. It was another usb joistick.Try to disconnect all usb devices exept your main joistick.