Hi, THe reason is that it is recommanded to have a 512mb Graphic card as stated in PMDG 747-400 FSX website, and I am not sure whether I should follow that recommandation to get a 512mb card with slower GPU speed, or fast GPU with 256 mb ram. ( I am not going to spend 600 USD for those higher end graphic card with 512 mb ram like ATI1950 with 512DDR)thanksben

If you absolutely have to buy now, I'd see if you can afford $100 more or so and get an 8800GTS - it's by far the best bang for the buck card out right now. I've seen the 640MB one online for around $300 if you look for the best deals on sites like Newegg or Zipzoomfly

Yup, an 8800GTS is what I recently bought while build a new rig. I had a 7900GTOC/256Mb but opted for the not overclocked, more RAM (640Mb) 8800GTS. It was a fraction of the price for a GTX model and I could manually overclock when needed. I do feel that my 7900GTOC did not last very long (about one year) becuase of the factory overclocking and the inablility to underclock without corruption.

If you absolutely cannot afford the extra $100, I'd go with the 7950GT w/ 512MB RAM - the extra RAM is DEFINITELY a must with texture loading in FSX.

thanks...However, any foreseeable price drop for 8800GTS 640mb in future? Also, I want to get 2* 1gb of DDR2 800mhz ram, and there are many different brand and options to choose, with price range from USD90 to USD 200, could anyone gives me suggestions? (what is dual channel ram anyway?)Sorry about for asking so many questions... I am now doing a major computer upgrade project, a new motherboard, ram, case, adapter, DVD writer... except my CPU and harddrive (Pentium 940, want to wait a little bit and get the Core quad;)...so far, I have decided to get the motherboard with nvida 650 chipset, 8800GTS 640mb... I only only interested on playing FSX and FS9 with PMDG, and no other else. COuld anyone gives me suggestions on how to build a system which will cost around USD850 excluding CPU and harddrive...benthanks

Hi, I want to get a new video card using NVIDIA CPU, and my buget is about $200 USD... any suggestion?Besides that, which one should I take? a video with more memory but slower GPU speed or a video card with less memory but faster CPU speed (e.g. ECS N8600GTS-256MX+ and N7950GT-512MX)thanksBen

Ben1. Prices will probably drop when the GF9 series come out, but that's not until Christmas. It's already a pretty cheap card compared to the high end GTX and Ultra cards which are twice as much.2. RAM - dual channel is an operating mode that the motherboard supports - it basically allows two identical DIMMs in two slots to run in a sort of combined bandwidth mode that's faster than just having a single DIMM in there. There's a lot of good brands - I like OCZ personally, but I know a lot of people swear by Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, G.Skill, Patriot etc... Just go look around on www.newegg.com and see what's highly rated.If I were building a system right now, I'd do something likeASUS P5N-E motherboardCore 2 Duo E6600 CPU2GB DDR2800 (upgrade to 4GB later)640MB GF 8800GTSA good 600W or more power supplyA couple fast SATA HD's like the Western Digital RaptorCheap 18X DVD+-RW drive (Lite-On, Samsung etc)