Hi guys,I have an itch for an upgrade. But will it make sense with my ole XP3200+ @210 MHz FSB?I would hate to see almost no noticable difference. I am running two monitors one at 1536x960 (16:10) and the other one at 1024x768 so there are a lot of pixels to render.Alex

Alex,I'm trying to work this out too, but I keep getting caught on the circular anti-logic of it all.Loop:My lowest FPS moments seem to be CPU driven (ie. changing between low res, no AA/AF and high res max AA/AF doesn't make the slightest FPS difference). I read of people on these forums making the jump to the latest gen video card series and reporting significant performance boosts (usually 2x or greater). What I suspect would happen if I upgrade video card only is that I will join other people with their 2X+ FPS boosts, but in every other area than the (seemingly) CPU limited scenarios where I really seek a performance boost.This logically suggests that a CPU upgrade is in order but, as I discovered in a thread I started two weeks ago, the boost from 7 FPS (in a specific complex) to more than 20 FPS suggests a near 3X increase in CPU horsepower is needed from what I presently have. Given that my CPU is already churning along at 3200++ speed, implies that I need to find a 10GHz CPU to achieve what I desire. But, wait a minute, there are those here with CPUs in the 3-4GHz range with latest gen video cards that only seem to rarely dip below 30 FPS, even in the most complex of scenarios. Now I'm already in the 3-4GHz range, so it must be my video card right? GOTO LoopSee what I mean -stuck in an endless loop! Best of luck in your quest Alex.Gary

LOL. Exactly my sentiments. Guess I will order the vid card and send it back if nothing spectacular happens.Alex

It would at the very least let you crank up the res, aniso and aa levels anyway.

"But, wait a minute, there are those here with CPUs in the 3-4GHz range with latest gen video cards that only seem to rarely dip below 30 FPS, even in the most complex of scenarios."Note that "the most complex of scenarios" is a *very* subjective "definition". For one person, it may be default KSEA with maxed settings, for another it may be the PMDG addon at KORD with a heavy thunderstorm and a traffic bgl file bigger than most people's harddrives. For this reason, some people's "most complex scenario" will be fairly CPU limited while other's won't be.This may help some:http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/gra..._charts-09.htmlNote however that he has set up a scenario that is not very CPU limited at all (some cards are getting over 80 FPS...). As you already noted; When the sim is CPU limited, the difference would be much smaller.As for 6800GT vs X800XT, it's a dificult choice. ATI only fairly recently introduced the X800XT (non-PE) as an AGP card. Previously, the 6800GT was the obvious choice because the X800 Pro was slower and the X800XT-PE and 6800Ultra too expensive. But now ATI seems to have a very good high-midrange card on their hands.

>Note however that he has set up a scenario that is not very CPU >limited at all (some cards are getting over 80 FPS...). As you >already noted; When the sim is CPU limited, the difference would be >much smaller.That is exactly the case. I know the link but don't trust it one bit as a benchmark for my situation which is more than what you describe as the latter complex scenario. In the benchmark's scenario my tweaked system almost runs as well as the high speed hardware. On the other hand, given the fact that my card has to render a lot more pixels than most other setups and keeping in mind that I have a 2 monitor setup with a 16:10 screen which I would love to crank up the res for the gain for me could be worth it.Be as it may for the moment I have decided to wait a litle longer until prices go down after Xmas. But that is a decision that more than once I had made and spontaneously reverted :-).Alex

Guys,having seen a 2 month old 6800GT at e-bay from a guy who got it as a gift, never used it, and prefers money over graphics at 360.- Euros I could not withstand. I clicked the buy now button. Damn.Hope I did the right thing.Alex

Does it make any difference with these cards to have 256 megs over 128?.Also I have just upgraded my CPU from an AMD1900+ to an AMD64 3400 (@ 2.4 gig), my FPS have more than doubled still using my old 4800SE card. How much more performance can I expect out of say a 6800GT card? The benchmarks on Tomshardware would suggest a further substantial increase but I find that a little hard to accept.Bruce

Hi Bruce,"Does it make any difference with these cards to have 256 megs over 128?."Not so much in this sim, but certainly in other high end apps that extra memory helps alot. I went from 128MB to 256MB a couple months ago and I saw a slight decrease in texture load times. Also, the larger memory amount helps when the system caches data to the card."How much more performance can I expect out of say a 6800GT card?"The newer gen video cards will certainly offer you a more balanced system after your recent system upgrade. You won't see a huge increase in FPS (mine increased 30% when I went from a 9800 Pro to the X800 XT-PE... until I cranked up the eye candy), but what you will enjoy is a much nicer image quality. With the new cards 4X (or even 6X) AA is possible along with 8X (or 16X) AF. Some of the newer cards also offer more tweaking options that allow one to set the drivers just as they want them. Texture load times (when changing views) will also decrease. The equation works something like this:Fast system (CPU/Mmeory/M/B/Clean OS (well maintained with minimal apps running in the background and up to date drivers)) + good quality video card = smooth and pleasant simming experience.Hope this helps,Greg

You have a faster processor than me, mine is an XP2800+. I just installed a BFG 6800 GT and am extremely pleased with the results. I cannot tell you about any frame rate numbers, before and after, since I never run that counter. I base all my tweaks and observations simply on how smooth the sim flies. With the 6800 GT, I have no stuttering and no pauses. I get excellent results flying VFR over MegaScenery with absolutely no blurries.So, to answer your question, upgrading to the 6800 GT made perfect sense for me.System specs:K7N2 mobo with XP2800+ cpu1.5 GB RAMBFG 6800 GT video cardTwo 80GB HD's in RAID 0

Bobby,you didn't mention what card you did upgrade from. Did you have a 9800Pro or XT?Alex

Thanks Greg. I will need to weigh up the extra cost of the 256 meg version against the modest benefits in FS9 - I don't play any other games.Bruce

Alex,I am so glad that you can be a crash test dummy for the rest of us pondering this very issue :-wedge Can I ask while you are waiting for that new fire breathing video card that you run a few benchmarks on your current system for before and after comparisons. I obviously have a vested interest in the heavy CPU use situations, so can I ask that for at least one of your benchmarks that you set up the most FPS-busting scene that you can conjure up (eg. detailed airport like EGLL, complex aircraft, max AI - preferably UT, multilayer cloud cover, detailed mesh/landclass if you've got it, full graphic details - including aircraft and scenery shadows). It is also better if you use a known test entry routine (eg. clean boot, FSAutostart, FS 2004 to saved benchmark scenario) then use a program like FRAPS to give you the average FPS over say a 30 second period. I hope I'm not telling you how to suck eggs here, but I'd really appreciated a clean before / after comparison.Your results will help me in my purchasing decisions. I am still punting that these new flasho video cards only make a minor improvement in the areas where FPS dips the absolute lowest (seemingly CPU-bound by my assessments) and that slick CPU/memory core combinations like the latest P4 or A64 really make the difference, but I am just as happy to be wrong. The bottom line for me is that I want to inject my FS bucks where they are most useful and hopefully you can help me, and others, pondering such decisions. :-bigangelGary

oops, sorry.I build machines and made the conversion to 3 machines. I chose the BFG6800 GT because of many positive reviews of that card (including the lifetime warranty) and it was readily available at the time.One was from an ATI 9800XT to a 6800 GT, another from a Gainward 5950 ultra to the 6800 GT, and the last one from an eVGA 5700 256mb card to a 6800 GT.The first 2 are configured the same as I stated in my last post. The difference was, of course, I had to be sure to clean out the old ATI drivers before installing the NVidia drivers. In the last two, I just installed the new card. All use an Enlight 420w power supply. The 66.93 NVidia driver works fine.In all 3 machines (obviously more so in the 3rd one) the improvement was noticable. Some would suggest that I run a benchmark program or at least turn on the FPS counter. It is simply my personal philosophy to tweak for "smoothness" of the simulator rather than chasing a number.I can't say what will work specifically for you but, if nothing else, remember that you will be jumping from your present 8 pipelines to the 6800's 16 pipelines. Here are the important specs you need to know to help you decide. The 6800 spec is specific to the BFG vendor since it is a stock overclock card.ATI 9800XT pipelines-8, engine clock-412 MHz, Memory clock- 730 MHzBGF 6800GT pipelines-16 engine clock-370 MHz, Memory clock- 1000 MHz Hope this helps you.Bobby

The board wouldn't let me edit the last post.If you want me to, I can run the new version of 3DMark05 for you so you have hard numbers to compare. Here is their site in case you don't have their latest version: http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark05.shtml