I'd imagine most every one is running NT5 (Vista and later) by now, if only for the 64 bit support.

In that vein, it'd be interesting to see if there's any correlation between Windows own gaming performance index and what we're seeing here.

For info, my gaming box has a six year old mother board and CPU, the rest has been updated from time to time, the latest additions being my (apparently very slow) SATA disks; and I'm happy enough with raw performance (design, on the other hand, don't even go there!):

6.1 Determined by lowest subscore

Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz 7.1

Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB 7.1
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 7.6
Gaming graphics 4095 MB Total available graphics memory 7.6
Primary hard disk 117GB Free (250GB Total) 6.1

Edit: Seeing as it's a Windows game, perhaps in future we can drop minimum req. hardware and start using the Windows index instead, for example: "You'll need to pull at least 5.9 to run this..."

should have been about 10 diferent questions to that poll, 3 is not enough

This is way too simplistic. Game runs smooth when you are all alone in the sky but with major grahic anomolies in land and sea. Also, when things heat up and the sky gets crowded, sound drops out, FPS slow dramtically and all the other stuff that has been covered. Amazing how this alpha mess was released. Whoever made that call should get out of the business.

In one of the many other performance threads someone threw Quad SLI at the thing and the results are surprising. It shows the game needs quite a bit more optimization to go not to mention adding missing content.

So relax and enjoy your other sims as I do. DCS A10 has really come into it's own and we are about to get UP3.0 RC2.

...no you read correctly, its a 5570.and i know that my graphics card is a weak one,..all im saying is, that before the patch i had better performance with higher video settings.and much less stutters.

Running well everywhere with everything maxed out, including SSAO, @1920X1200; some short stutters here and there not disturbing at all though, recorded at 6-8 fps by the built-in frame counter.

Cheers,
Insuber

PS: damn flickering shadows present though ... and popping out objects even at short distance.

I picked the last option, it does run over land but the freezes are back with the latest patch. Infact the freezes came back ever since they changed how game loads the land, ie loading larger amounts less often i think it was.

Went for the last option "Tuning well over sea. Land still causing problems." as any res lower than native gives a horrid quality.

I've tried and tweaked everything I can come up with but nothing seems to affect the frames to any extent except the ingame video settings where Land Shading and Shadows cost the most.

My native res is 2560 x 1440 and that'll give me Black Death result of 4/29/62 (min/avg/max).
If I turn down res to 1920 x 1080 I get 1/43/97 (min/avg/max).
Stutters alot.

My vid settings are on the minimal acceptable level. I hope that optimized patch, better catalyst drivers, upping RAM and perhaps a RadeonPro/ATI Tools profile will give me enough fps to turn some settings up cause I want the game to look good.

When you say minimal acceptable level, what does that mean? Low quality?
You said your game stutters a lot...does that include at 1920x1080 resolution?

I find it really puzzling. Your frame are actually very good in the Black Death track, but if it's at low quality then it's not so good, especially since you have a fine system.
What are your frames per second in the Black Death track if you put all settings on 'high' at 1920x1080?
I ask because for reference I get an average of 26 frames per second on those settings*, and yours should be a fair bit higher than that.

*That's not my in-game settings; I just use those settings for reference.

1920x1080 everything highest setting except for trees. Run 45 to 50 over water, 35-45 over land, 20-25 low over cities. The last Navida upgrade did wonders. Got me 10 more fps to where I am at now.

Just having to much fun flying that other sim right now with the new campaign patch. Solid 60fps in the air on that one.