GMAX models suck the life out of my scenery

Your probably low on memory ( for this sim) by not having enough, having too many programs running in the background, older video card or too many useless slides maxed out.

How about listing your system specs.

Dell Dimension 3000
2.8Ghz P4
512 MB RAM
Intel Extreme 3D 2 (in motherboard) 128MB

I suspect I'll need more RAM

Yes, and if you can do something about that video card that'll help also. The card is most likely using some of your ram (shared) for itself.

Yes it is shared (128MB). I have to look to see if the Dimension 3000 has a slot for a graphics card. I suppose the easiest solution is to put 2GB RAM in the box.

CrashGordon wrote:

Yes it is shared (128MB). I have to look to see if the Dimension 3000 has a slot for a graphics card. I suppose the easiest solution is to put 2GB RAM in the box.

Yeah those integrated graphic adaptors are a money savers for Dell, but you really don't want to running a graphic intensive program like FS2004 with one. I am sure your mobo will have the slot for a new graphic board. The two gigs of RAM, even one gig of RAM and a good graphic card should do it. Spend the maximum you can afford on the card.

The mobo has 3 PCI slots of which 2 are available. Most of the graphics cards I see, other than AGP, seem to be PCI-Express. I'm not up on the "newfangled" hardware specs, so I am uncertain.

As far as I know all the PCI cards are old they are only making PCIE and AGP.
A typical Dell, no AGP slot, too bad.
Check around but I doubt it, you better check and see how much ram that board can handle.

That's what I thought. The board will take 2 GB The built in card uses 128 MB.

In the mean time, I believe there is a utility that enables one to unload other programs when FS is being used and restart them when FS is exited.

Now if I could only remember the name of it.

This is the program that you are talking about.

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2660/fs2004-speedup-07-beta/

Many thanks. Just downloaded it. Will report how it works. 🙂

I wish I could say it helped. Not only didn't it help the problem, but I found it caused things to come to a halt for several seconds at a time. I wasn't having that problem, otherwise.

Oh well, until I install more RAM, I'll just fly other planes. Lord knows, I have enough of them. 😉

Odd, it usually woks quite well.
More ram soon, try www.crucial.com .

That's where I always get RAM. Always works, they process orders quickly and free shipping.

I figured I was pushing the limits of what I had. The scenery works great except when I fly gmax models. Thanks for your help.

Let us know how it works out when you load the new ram. You should see an overall improvement in not only the sim but in you machine also.

After all this discussion, I found a Project OpenSky 767 in UPS livery, a gmax model, that doesn't cause my scenery problems.