I'm afraid I lost patience with FSX long ago, straight out of the box, with my available hardware at the time.
I had to reduce all my setting to run the sim almost to zero, so that it appeared little better than my FS 2000, whereas my FS 2004, straight out of the box, ran smoothly. It just needed a few add-ons to make it look prettier!

I still reckon that FS 2004 was an excellent piece of Microsoft flight simulator programming at the time, (following after FS 2002). They got it right, almost first time, with little or no problems from then on.
Whereas FSX was, and still is, a constant battle to get it to operate to our individual satisfaction, as can be witnessed in the various FSX Forums, ever since.

For newcomers, starting out with FSX, and very impressive hardware, there should be very few problems, and no doubt it is the version to continue into the future, but for me, progressing through the various versions since FS '98, FSX came as a serious shock to the system...including my hardware system, at the time!

I still have a feeling that FSX was programmed in Compiled BASIC, whereas FS 2004 was programmed in proper Machine Code!... ...(Sinclair Spectrum/Timex Zilog Z80 48K)... ...!

Life is far too short to re-program FSX all over again!... ...!

I will obviously keep my FSX for the future, while I enjoy my FS 2004 in the meantime, and my big bag of Chocolate Cookies... ...!

Paul...(The fight continues!)... ...!