Hi everyone,I just got FSX and I am very impressed with the graphics but my computer just isnt giving me any decent frame rates. My computer is a Sony Vaio VGC-RB53 with a 3ghz Pentium 4 procceser and 500mb of ram and the graphics card is still stock. My question is, will upgrading to a better graphics card significantly help my frame rates and overall FSX expierience? I assume the answer is yes but how expensive of a graphics card will I need to purchase to get decent frame rates above 20 fps in high detail settings and can you guys recomend any to me? Is there also any good cards that I can get fairly cheap?Thanks.

Well, you need to ask yourself some things first. Do you like the way it looks now?, reff. to either going for a DX9 or DX10 card. DX10 should give a more nicer overall experiances and cards are more expensive (since so little are/if even allready availb.)but needs Vista (You upgrade)to run, DX9 cards are vairly cheap, run on XP but only gives the display you currently have, higher settings than you default card, but not the nice smooth (it does render but brings down frames, DX10 should be more powerful cards) bloom, very high water etc.. settings Do you have AGP or PCIe?. One thing you definatly dont need to think about and just do, is beef up your ram to 2GB, 500mb is just too little to run fs.

thanks for the help, I think ill go about getting more ram before I try to upgrade my graphics card.

Sir,512 MB for running FSX is like entering a Volkswagen Beetle in the Indy 500. You will need:1. At least 2 GB of RAM. This is the max that Windows XP can use. In reality 3GB to 4GB is what FSX requires but then,2. You will need VISTA to use RAM over 2GB, for which FSX was esigned, and3. You will need a Direct X graphics card which will only run on VISTA, and are yet not on the market.Even if you go to 1GB of RAM you are waisting your money. FSX was designed for VISTA, and Direct x. My advise is to put FSX on the shelf until they begin to come out with platforms over the next six months or so capable of giving you what FSX has to offer. For the present you are better off with FS9.PS Most of the add on FS9 aircraft and scenery will not work prperly on FSX. This means a huge replacement investment.Stanner