This is a nice card. My main two PC pastimes are FS9 and TW04. I can't believe how nice this card is for stability, image quality, adjustability, and performance. I had very decent perf with my 9700 Pro, and it was like pulling teeth to go back to nVidia after all these years with Radeon cards. But I can tell you 100% this thing is an excellent piece of hardware, is exceedly stable and really looks sweet, IQ wise that is. I bought the BFG GT OC from and I am finally at 4xAA, 16xAF, all sliders, and I mean ALL sliders maxed, default clouds, and we are smooth sailing in all conditions so far. We are running ActiveCamera, ActiveSky w/ 7 cloud layers, FDC, and some PMDG aircraft, as well as the Citation X. The stock driver is a real winner, and should only improve from here. I am using the Image Sharpen slider in the Color Correction section of the driver and this adds even more clarity. From a diehard ATI fan, I can wholeheartedly recommend this product. As a side note, for the last 15 months we have had online TW04 issues with lockups, and a few other things that had us completely perplexed as to the cause. Not an issue now with this product. Never had a lockup in FS though with my Radeon.Bang for buck, it competes well with X800XT from all the benchmarks, albeit the XT takes the crown in performance in several other games, though not all. In FS, when you compare apples to apples (ie, maxed out settings at 1600x1200x32 4xAA, 16xAF) it is highly competitive with X800XT, and hence for the lesser cost right now, you come out well with the 6800 for FS9 IMHO.I will definitely give the image quality crown to the 6800 GT when contrasted with my Radeon at the high settings above. This was my biggest apprehension in going with nVidia. Not an issue for thsoe of you who are on the fence. I have a monitor that will pick up the finest detail, so it is a sensitive comparison for image qual.Noel

Excellent to hear. Can't wait to pick mine up and give it a good run.Of course that means a new installation of Windows.. ah well

John, what's the deal with reinstalling Windows? Did I miss something?Noel

"John, what's the deal with reinstalling Windows? Did I miss something?"I was wondering the same thing???Noel... the new nVidia sounds Sierra Hotel. Me thinks they're gonna sell alot of those. Nice performance/cost ratio makes it a great choice.Greg

Hey John, I just took up the 737NG out of KSBA with Santa Barbara's typical summertime fog and marine layer. Using 7 layers of Active Sky and everything else to the max she did bog down pretty good. I haven't had that experience yet with this card. I am running my CPU at 2887 right now, and I have a 3.06 coming Monday which will go to 3.6 I'm just about certain, so hopefully I will squeeze some more out of this old Granite Bay board. Frames dropped to 14 at times, but the weather was very complex and I think it just maxed my racehorse out. Image qual on the 737NG was extraordinary though :()Noel

You chaps aren't missing much :) I just like to do a new install every time I get a new videocard. Just a habit I've got into. And my Windows install could do with a cleanout and tweak.My CPU is rurnning at 3.6, so it ought to run FS alright now :-hah

You are set John--enjoy :()

as for TW 04. Let me just say that EA is the devil. There is a reason why on the launch day of the NV40 the nVidia guys bragged about how well their 6800 ULTRA run Tiger woods 04. EA is also rumoured as a publisher that will release a sequel to an A title that will only support shader model 3 and 1.1. So EA is definiatly the bad guy in the gaming industry they say they want to stop producing PC games too and I sure hope they will. I would rather see them go out of business though.But glad you like that 6800 GT it surely is a great card :)

So you can get a consistent 30FPS on FS with everything maxed out, flying in weather with this video card?

Using the newest WHQL drivers.Where is this image sharpening at ?

Let me just say TW04 is an incredible game. And also, the 6800 GT DOES run TW04 extremely well, as in perfectly well. MS also is bailing out of the PC golf industry--they just don't make money at it apparently. I'm sure EA will be bailing to, but certainly not before releasing TW05.Noel

I am not using those drivers. I am using the 6.1.2.1 set that came with the card. The image sharpening control is in the color correction tab. Noel

Bo, you need to refine your question. All possible conditions (weather wise), in any aircraft? If this is your question, the answer is . . . a definite NO! You know FS enough to understand you must control ALL variables to have any meaningful performance estimates.Noel