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Is the X850 the only Radeon choice? I'd think that any of the X800 series would be less expensive, but still have far more capability than FS9 needs.

Yes, X800s seem almost impossible to get - they have in theory been phased out by ATI in favour of the 850s,M.

Hello Everyone,I spent just about $4,000.00 on my system. I have no complaints while using FS9. I now have PMDG's 737 600-700-800-900 as well as LDS 767. I have Ultimate Traffic at 100%. When I fly out of KSEA I get 29.8 FPS while I have them locked at 30FPS, my screen res is set at 1600x1200x32.My system is as follows=======================Pentium IV Extreme Edition with L1, L2, L3 cacheNvidia 6800 Ultra Extreme video BoardAsus P4C800 E Deluxe MotherboardMitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB MonitorSoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS Sound boardAsus DVD RW DriveSony Double Layer DVD RW Drive2-Gig RamThis system is worth EVERY PENNY!!!Mike

Re: the graphics card choice.SLI may currently be a non starter for FS - then again they may fix the issue next driver.Could always set up some four screen love in the meantime...

>Yes, X800s seem almost impossible to get - they have in>theory been phased out by ATI in favour of the 850s,>>M.ATI released the X850 because the yields on the X800XT PE in particular was so low. ATI have said in interviews that they expect the X850 to be easier to produce.As for getting the X850 or 6800 GT it

With all the options now spinning round my head like angry bees, the excitement of getting such a nice new machine is beginning to wear off! Another (and final!) option would possibly be to get an SLI system, with the FX55, but with only one 6800GT for the time being. It sounds as if the SLI problem in FS9 may be sorted at some time in the future, at which stage it would be possible (and cheaper than at the moment) to pop in another 6800GT card.On the other hand, I could just draw a line under this and choose the X850XT - that's my gut feeling.Martin :-)

Well the truth is wether you get a X800 or 6800 as long it

Slightly off topic. Since I do a lot of video capture, I'd like to know if anyone used that feature on the X850 XT PE and how good is it in that respect.Thanks.Abe

I've sent a support message to NVidia about SLI support in FS9 in the future, and will post back here with their reply.Martin

Interesting response from both ATI and NVidia. Having sent a very specific question about FS9 and SLI to both comapnies, ATI sent me an auto-reply (looked like it anyway) telling me to go to to their website and use the product comparison guide. Useless, and nothing to do with what I asked.NVidia sent me a short, but relevant answer:"FS2004 is very CPU limited even with a single graphics card. The game will not scale because it is not limited by the GPU. No profile was created because there would be no performance benefit with using two GPUs."No surprises there, but useful confirmation that if your principal concern is Flight Simulator (and I assume that applies to many if not all posting here!) then an SLI setup is going to be pointless - in the future too, unless FS10 et al become less CPU dependent, which I doubt.So, I shall be going for my AMD 64 FX55 and one solitary NVidia 6800 Ultra. The card will cost me the equivalent of $220 less than an ATI Radeon X850XT, does slightly better in than the ATI card in the online tests I have read - and its manufacturer seems to put a bit more effort than ATI into asking customer queries properly.Martin

... "answering" I meant in the last line, not "asking", of course! Duuurrhhh....M.

Hi Martin, thanks for posting Nvidia's reply to your query. Very decent answer I must say! Please allow me to hint you about one detail; the Ultra uses a lot of energy which it -obviously- transforms into heat and this can be disadventagious for stable FS9 operation. Specially, if the mainboard chipset is located right above the PCI-e slot. IMHO, you could save a few bucks by going for a GT and i.e. save up for S-ATA II drives, which are to be released soon and which are supported by the nForce4 chipset (S-ATA II = ca. 180 MB/s transfer rates, no joke!). I'ld only go for the Ultra if good cooling is safeguarded and you want to use displays with DVI connections only (or you want to play other games at high resolutions). Some GTs could have 2 DVI outputs (i.e. Gainward?), but I'm not sure. Hope this adds to thoughts, good luck and have heeps of fun with your new FlyTendo! Kind regards Jaap

Thanks Jaap. In fact, I replied to ATI saying how useless their answer was, so they sent me a better one today:"SLI is Nvidia technology and dual ATI cards will not work in SLI configured motherboards. A single ATI card will work in these motherboards.ATI has not officially announced any product similar to the SLI configurations of Nvidia.Since no SLI like cards have been announced by ATI I do not have any infomation about Flight Sim compatibility.Searching for ATI AMR on line may give you some useful information but not of it is yet official".Fair enough!Your point about Ultra v. GT came at a good time, because I all I have left to decide now is which of the two to get. I hadn't seen that the Ultra runs that much hotter than a GT. Where, if I may ask, did you get the information? I'd like to read up a bit more...Martin

Hi Martin, great question! Unfortunately, I couldn't point you to a specific homepage right now. Anyway, the Ultra comes with 2 Molexes and uses ca. 120-130W if memory isn't failing. The GT only has one Molex and consumes 90-105W. AFAIK, Ati's X800XT uses approx. 85-90W (like the 9800pro) and the the X800pro fries about 70-85W. These numbers can vary as it also depends on the OEM of the cards. I.e. MSI produced a 9800pro card which used over 100W! I'm unaware whether they were able to correct it? With CPUs is the same story. The FX55 is the first AMD chip to use over 100W (I believe it's ca. 115W). The 4000 'only' specifies a TDP of ca. 90W. AIM, if the mainboard chipset is located right above the display adapter's slot(s) which in return is usually inline with the CPU, heat may become a prob. And this is besides the fact that all these energy amounts add to the running costs. Or take harddrives for example, without a ventilator in their proximity (or a decent air flow), they run much warmer and the HD-heads will go into auto-recalibration mode more often (besides a reduced MTBF when running warm). So, the best thing you can do is to get a nice case which offers a lot of provisions for additional fans (after all, you're building a combo for permanent max performance). To give you an idea, I've got a case with 5 extra fans (3 in, 2 out) and beyond 15-20 minutes into operation, this ensures that temperatures do not fluctuate anymore and sowith leads to a sys that will perform very regularly thereafter. Finally, an overdimensioned PSU adds to heat too and in many cases raises the running costs to an even higher level... Therefore, all in all, just like carefully selecting components, it's just as important how you intend to assemble the entire sys. I like the way you're going on about this and carefully collecting ideas and then -hopefully!- succesfully selecting your components. Ooops, before I forget Martin, when thinking display adapters, perhaps think display first and just make sure you include a thought about ones you might want to connect one day (meaning: during the lifetime of the components). One line within the category of my 'wise speak', is, it doesn't make any sense at all to use a 6800Ultra for a 17-inch CRT @ 1024x. So, maybe just concentrate on the kind of connections you require, possible displays (--> resolutions), software you want to use and the right kind display adapter (as the word 'adapter' states) will surface almost automatically. Hope this adds to ideas again, good luck and kind regards JaapPS, you can check this link for tech data on the AMD64: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Techni...39_7203,00.htmlHere's a nice technical comparison chart regarding display adpaters (unfortunately, minus power consumption details): http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?locat...&var1=88&var2=1I'll see whether I can dig-up some specifics on the display adapters. Can you read Dutch or German? IMO, it's a pity Tom('s Hardware) and the other boys don't seem mention these kind of specifics...