John,

I decided to respond to your request for tips to speed up AFPD in the public forum - it may help someone else down the road.

First, I would check the specs on your video adapter as I outlined in my earlier (might actually follow this post) post. I would compare that to the requirements and notes on the IPACS (author of AFPD) website here: http://www.aerofly.com/requirements.html

Scroll down through the whole page because there are good notes at the bottom.

I'm not sure what PC you said you had but you should be able to add a graphics card IF you have an available AGP slot on your motherboard. Some PC's that come with built-in video (sounds like that's what you have) do not add an AGP slot for an add-on card and some do - you have to check your model of PC you have or, email the brand and model and I'll see if I can locate info on the web.

Most (not all) systems with built-in video share the main memory of the computer and therefore causes much more overhead to the system and does not give optimum results for video intensive applications. I would guess this is the case with your system.

BTW, XP (as well as Win2000) support multiple video cards so adding a second card to your system (if you have the AGP slot) will not be a problem.

Hope this helps,
Randy
Columbus Ohio