Five ways to get the most from FSX
To say fsx is demanding on your computers hardware is an understatement to say the least, there is a lot of debate as to why this is, poor outdated coding comes to mind, but for whatever reason it's a safe bet to say that you need a computer with a lot of horsepower to really get the most out of it.
All is not lost though and it is possible to get a fairly enjoyable experience from fsx no matter what specs you have and there are some tweaks and tips floating around that can really help improve performance.
Here are a few that helped me
1. CFG Tweaks
There is a huge range of tweaks that can be done to the fsx.cfg file and out of all the modifications i have tried these have probably giving me the biggest change in performance.
I found this site in particular to have a massive collection of cfg tweaks:
http://www.highflightsimulations.com/fsxcfg.html
All is not lost though and it is possible to get a fairly enjoyable experience from fsx no matter what specs you have and there are some tweaks and tips floating around that can really help improve performance.
Here are a few that helped me
1. CFG Tweaks
There is a huge range of tweaks that can be done to the fsx.cfg file and out of all the modifications i have tried these have probably giving me the biggest change in performance.
I found this site in particular to have a massive collection of cfg tweaks:
http://www.highflightsimulations.com/fsxcfg.html
2. Replacement Textures
I ran across this tweak whilst surfing youtube and although it did nothing for my slower laptop and only a slight improvement for my new rig it definitely shows promise on some machines.
It's a collection of replacement DDS textures for some of the main scenery folders, changing them from DXT5 to DXT1 and in theory this means your computer doesn't have to work as hard to keep up. sounds good right? well for me this has not made a huge difference and gives some textures a undesirable appearance.
No harm in testing it on your computer though, just make sure to back up the original texture in case you want to revert back to default.
I ran across this tweak whilst surfing youtube and although it did nothing for my slower laptop and only a slight improvement for my new rig it definitely shows promise on some machines.
It's a collection of replacement DDS textures for some of the main scenery folders, changing them from DXT5 to DXT1 and in theory this means your computer doesn't have to work as hard to keep up. sounds good right? well for me this has not made a huge difference and gives some textures a undesirable appearance.
No harm in testing it on your computer though, just make sure to back up the original texture in case you want to revert back to default.
http://www.mileswebsolutions.com/FSXTextureConversion/
3. Defrag, and keep your pc clean
This one is pretty straight forward, defraging your hardrive once a month and keeping your pc clean of old files taking up space is a sure way to imporve any computers performance. It's also a good idea to keep your registry clean of old registry entries, there are plenty of programs out there that will automatically scan your registry and fix errors.
4. Time to upgrade or downgrade?
Of course there is only so much these tweaks can do for a system that is bottle necked by a slow processor and/or video card. The best way to get ultimate in game performance is to upgrade your hardware, and fsx will devour everything you can throw at it.
There seems to be two main schools of thought when it comes to fsx hardware, those who believe the video card is the key and those who swear by their dual and quad cpu's, truth is both will equally affect how well the game runs. It all comes down to your budget when it comes time to upgrade.
If upgrading your computer isn't an option for you just yet then how about downgrading to FS9?
5. Not ready for the next generation?
When i use the term downgrading to describe switching to the more system friendly FS2004 i do so with admiration for FSX's older sibling. There is a huge following of devotees and developers out there not to mention plenty of add-ons available that make fs9 a great alternative for the next generation of eye candy obsessed flight simmers.
This one is pretty straight forward, defraging your hardrive once a month and keeping your pc clean of old files taking up space is a sure way to imporve any computers performance. It's also a good idea to keep your registry clean of old registry entries, there are plenty of programs out there that will automatically scan your registry and fix errors.
4. Time to upgrade or downgrade?
Of course there is only so much these tweaks can do for a system that is bottle necked by a slow processor and/or video card. The best way to get ultimate in game performance is to upgrade your hardware, and fsx will devour everything you can throw at it.
There seems to be two main schools of thought when it comes to fsx hardware, those who believe the video card is the key and those who swear by their dual and quad cpu's, truth is both will equally affect how well the game runs. It all comes down to your budget when it comes time to upgrade.
If upgrading your computer isn't an option for you just yet then how about downgrading to FS9?
5. Not ready for the next generation?
When i use the term downgrading to describe switching to the more system friendly FS2004 i do so with admiration for FSX's older sibling. There is a huge following of devotees and developers out there not to mention plenty of add-ons available that make fs9 a great alternative for the next generation of eye candy obsessed flight simmers.
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