I would like to know if a upgrade from Athlon XP 1800+ to 2200+ willresult in a noticable better performence in FS9.

Very small increase. Your graphics adapter still plays a big part in the FPS.W. Sieffert

>Very small increase. Your graphics adapter still plays a big>part in the FPS.>What if we instead say 2400+ or perhaps 2600+?

Are the external bus speeds going to be the same, i.e., PCI, AGP? Are you intending to replace your RAM for higher speed RAM to ensure, it can read/write at the new speeds?I don't know what percentage gain you might see!W. Sieffert

>Are the external bus speeds going to be the same, i.e., PCI,>AGP? Are you intending to replace your RAM for higher speed>RAM to ensure, it can read/write at the new speeds?I use FSB 266 MHz and the 512 Mb RAM is om 333 MHz. I have AGP 4x graphics card. Even though I consider a new graphics card myquestion is about the increase from 1800+ to 2400+. Replacing motherboard and RAM would be to expensive.

Assuming your mobo only supports 266 FSB speed you cannot go higher than 2400. The 2600 based on the Thoroughbred core was discontinued some time ago so to use 2600 you'd have to change the mobo (and most likely the RAM as well) to support Barton and later cores.Allcott

>Assuming your mobo only supports 266 FSB speed you cannot go>higher than 2400. The 2600 based on the Thoroughbred core was>discontinued some time ago so to use 2600 you'd have to change>the mobo (and most likely the RAM as well) to support Barton>and later cores.>From Soltek I have got the answer that I can use 333 FSB and that it has been tested OK but they gives no guarante. Also in such case I need to upgrade my BIOS to a beta version.That makes me cautious BETA usually means unfinished less stable in addition to given no guarantee.So I suppose an upgrade will be made to 2400+ if it will happen. Question is will it give a significant boost in performence with FS9?I also consider replacing my GeForce4 MX 440 graphicscard. Is it maybe best to spend all the money on the graphicscard?

I would definitely update the graphics adapter. For NVidia, try the FX5900 Series.Combining an updated graphics adapter with a reasonable update to the CPU will give you a boost in performance. The graphics adapter will provide more functions not available on the MX440, such as water reflections.W. Sieffert