[Always Wondered..Am I geting the best FPS on MSFS 2002/2004]

Try comparing benchmarks with a program such as 3DMark2001SE. Only way to compare all the "apples and oranges" of MSFS variables.

["Distant Flicker" Issue with nVidia]

I've migrated from an older system with a GeForce 2 GTS 64MB DDR video card to a "mighty fast" system with a GeForce 4 Ti4800 128 MB DDR card. Though my score with 3DMark 2001 SE has gone up from 2500 to about 13,500, I now have "flicker" with distant texture, with several recent versions of vNidia driver, including latest - 52.16. I can't find any change of FS2004 settings that makes this go away. Ideas?

[A Benchmarking Standard for this Forum?]

It might be helpful if participants in this forum could provide a benchmark based on some standard, instead of just talking fps in FS, which can be highly variable depending on settings, current scenery, etc.

As an example, I've been using freeware 3DMark2001-SE for several years to benchmark my system video performance. During the time I operated with an ATHLON 1200 with GeForce 2 64 MB DDR video, I was able to see my benchmark increase from ~2500 to ~3500, by means of VIA driver and nVidia driver upgrades. Recently, I moved to a P4 3.0 gHz 800FSB 1 GB DDR system board, with Ti4800 128 MB DDR video card. It was quite meaningful to see my benchmark of increase from 3500 to ~13,500, with the cpu only accounting for about half the increase, based on speed ratio. Clearly, the 800 FSB, 8X AGP, and Ti4800 card (a Ti4600 with 8X AGP), made a huge difference - something I had not experienced to such a degree with other upgrades.

Suggest that FSGS specify a benchmark for support forum participants so that users can provide a quantitative measure of performance and FSGS can quickly get the "big picture" on user peformance.