I was thinking of upgrading to the X800 XT from my 9800 Pro and was wondering how an X800 Pro performs with the default 3D clouds with 4x FSAA. Right now I can use 2x FSAA at 1152x865 res with full 3D clouds with good overall performance but 4x FSAA is too slow sometimes when flying near many clouds. I know the X800 XT isn't in the market yet but if the X800 Pro is going to give a good performance increase then obviously the X800 XT will give a better performance increase. Will the X800 Pro give a better performance with the default clouds while using 4x FSAA than the 9800 Pro?

Yes. Much.Sorry but don't know what else to say - the card isn't in the market yet, so apart from a few benchmarks on some of the sim sites there are no trustworthy results to rely on. But the X800 performs FSAA at roughly twice the rate of the previous generation of cards - that's not to say that frame rates double, just the overheads for FSAA are at least halved in the new generation of cards, enabling them to perform greater levels of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering for much less frame rate hit. What that hit will/might be in FS2004 we can't say until the cards reach the market. But I don't think the Pro is going to be necessary for FS. Save the money for a processor upgrade as well.Allcott

Although I haven't updated my sig, I have a P4 3GHz and there aren't any processors much faster than a P4 3GHz. I also have 1 GB dual-channel PC3200. I got a good performance increase from those upgrades, nearly double the frame rate in some situtations. However, using FSAA makes a significant difference in performance when there are overcast 3D clouds and was thinking that this is mainly video card related.

As mentioned in another thread you will surely get a performance increase. Check out www.hardocp.com:s review...But do yourself a favour when you get the card buy Far Cry or HL 2 or DOOM 3 when it comes out and see your jaws drop to the floor on what you will witness :DFS 2004 will never do it justice it

Yeah Far Cry is astounding - anyone who's into computer graphics owes it to themselves to play that game - I finally beat it last week!