Generally speaking, there are two things which impact this. The speed of the video card is one. The amount of free RAM available is another. If you are using Vista and still have "SuperFetch" enabled, it will cause stutters to happen, and be very noticable when using the high resolution textures.
What is "superfetch" and where will I find the option to disable. Also having trouble finding the acceleration option for the on board sound.
I get 5.9's on that Windows Indexing thing for performance and the game looks tremendous with wide screen 1440 X 900 with hi res textures and everything set to max settings for eye candy. 35 - 60 FPS in a dog fight. But I too get the mini freeze from time to time. As if its loading the textures or something.
Just got the thing a week ago. Other than this it runs great minus a Saitek X52 issue.
OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001
System Type X86-based PC
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) 9600 Quad-Core Processor, 2310 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS M2N-SLI DELUXE 1302 Velocity Micro Edition | A51, 10/29/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) Not Available
Total Physical Memory 3.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.20 GB
Total Virtual Memory 6.20 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.31 GB
Page File Space 3.29 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Name ATI Radeon HD 3870
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9501&SUBSYS_25421002&REV_00\4&3B84D1CA&0&0078
Adapter Type ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9501), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description ATI Radeon HD 3870
Adapter RAM 512.00 MB (536,870,912 bytes)
Installed Drivers atidxx32.dll,atidxx64,atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.cap,atiumd64,atiumd6a,atitmm64
Driver Version 7.01.01.849
INF File oem24.inf (ati2mtag_RV630 section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1440 x 900 x 59 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xEFFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xFDCE0000-0xFDCEFFFF
I/O Port 0x00007C00-0x00007CFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967292
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys (7.1.1.849, 3.99 MB (4,179,968 bytes), 12/1/2008 5:14 PM)
Name SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio
Manufacturer Analog Devices
Status OK
PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_11D4&DEV_198B&SUBSYS_104381F6&REV_1004\4&126DB3B9&0&0001
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\adihdaud.sys (6.10.1.6140, 316.50 KB (324,096 bytes), 12/29/2008 8:28 PM)
Name High Definition Audio Device
Manufacturer Microsoft
Status OK
PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1002&DEV_AA01&SUBSYS_00AA0100&REV_1000\5&6A36E96&0&0001
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\hdaudio.sys (6.0.5840.16387, 230.00 KB (235,520 bytes), 11/2/2006 6:25 AM)