CoD for Starters?

[mangaroca]

Hi,

I have had this sim for many months now but was afraid to start it due to the issued it had after release. It's been a long time since I bought it and I know there were many updates since. I hope to spend some time with it as I'm a big fan of WWII aircraft and flying in general. However, after launching the game and choosing to fly straight away (default options) my PC started choaking...

Is there any way to make this sim work for me?

I know there's a Technical Forum but as I said I was away from CoD since it was released and all the explanations are gibberish to me. Please, help me set up this sim!

My rig:

Win7 64bit Home Premium
Phenom II 6core @ 3.2GHz
16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
Radeon HD4890 2GB DDR5
Hotaw Warthog
TrackIR4
Saitek Rudder Pedals

Somehow, I don't believe it's too weak to run this game in med-high settings...

BTW, I got my copy of CoD from STEAM...

Thanks!