FPS: Euroland vs US

[northridge]

Since I started simming in 2002 I have flown in Europe; the only times I flew in the US was the default airport just to check out a 'plane or a setting.
I recently flew a tutorial of a payware airliner into a major US airport and was amazed at the considerable drop in fps, even before lining up and having the airport in full view.
After a couple of 'experiments' (that's the word I use for 'mucking about') with default airports and a couple of payware demos I realised that the principal culprit is the surrounding autogen. There is just so much default a-gen around a typical large US airport compared to say, Rome, Madrid or Zurich that even before you take into account the fps hit of the airport itself, things are slowing down. On my (getting a bit tired and constipated) rig the difference is between high teens and low teens.
Has anyone else found this?

[Blueskya320]

Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into it. If the airport is located in a more urban area you will have more autogen buildings and thus a drop in FPS. Clouds are a main killer. Also, how busy the airspace is. If you are flying somewhere like Chicago or New York/Philadelphia, the sky is littered with planes, many of which you can't even see, which kills the FPS. Also depends on the amount of AI traffic at the airport and layout of the airport. Example: I always get bad FPS flying into EDDF because of the whole line of planes in your view during approach. I generally get lower FPS in the US also, but that's due largely to the addon scenery I have.