Improving FS2004 performance on Dual Core processors

Since 3 days ago I am the proud owner of a Intel Dual Core e5200 processor on my FS9 computer.

As Microsoft Flight Simulator 9 is not taking too much advantage of the multicore processors there is a trick you can use to balance the load between the two cores. I had some framerate problems (mostly in clouds) with the new processor and I noticed this fixed them.

You need to do the following each time you start FS2004.

1) Start FS2004

2) Open the windows Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and then click Task Manager in the menu)

3) Go to Processes Tab in Task manager

4) Locate fs9.exe in the list and right click on it

5) Select Set Affinity from the popup menu

6) Make sure CPU1 and CPU2 are both checked (as in the above image)

7) Click OK

That's it, if you are already playing you should notice the load spreading on both cores now and a performance increase in the game.

Remember: You need to do this each time you start FS2004.