I have a P4 3.2 Ghz with 1GB Ram and currently have a Fx5600 Ultra (Chaintech) for the last 2 years. Everyone says a 6800GT card is much better for games (Doom3 Halflife etc) but I'm only a flightsimmer. Will shelling out 400 dollars give me better graphics or FPS or smoothness? Currently I get 10-15 FPS with max sliders in a dense environment (simflyers, ActiveSky) with a complex aircraft and about 35-40 FPS with bare min-medium settings in default aircraft over lower dense scenery. I realize this topic has been discussed many times and really appreciate any input you can offer me.-Mike

-What res do you plan to run FS at?-plan to use AA and AF? If so, how high?Depending on how those are answered, i might reccomend the X800. But let me see your answers first. :)

Thanks for the reply Chase, I currently run at 1280 X 1024 with 4X AA (Trilinear) and 8X AF. With a newer card I hope to bump up the AA but not the resolution on the monitor.

if you would like to run higher res, even higher AA and AF, id go for the X800. The higher Res, AA, AF, the more the 6800 suffers, while after a while, at a certain point, the X800 pulls ahead. Eathier card, but at a certain level, the 6800 drops. I like ATI anyways. I would reccomend the X800, great card like the 6800. But at a certain level, can out perform.Any thing you would like ot know, ask me. Most likely i can help ya out some how.

I'm also teetering on the edge of upgrading from my 4800SE to a 6800GT card. Current performance with an AMD3400+ (@2.4 Ghz) is about 5 FPS better than Mikes, but performance can degrade markedly with lots of clouds, so like him will I get value for money in upgrading? In my case I will need to lay out over 650 Australian dollars. I don't play any other games, only FS9. Am only considering an Nvidia upgrade, as I don't want to change from an Nvidia driver environment.Bruceb

Thanks for th info. Hmm X800, which flavor do you rec? X800 PROX800 XLX800 XTX850 Series??Hopefully a powerful card should help me through the next version of FS10, when it comes out.

Sorry but a Ati x800 does not in anyway outperform 6800 GT, no way. In fact its the other way around.OHN

There is a review in Computer Pilot Magazine of around 3 months ago of all popular graphics cards and how they worked with MSFS. The setups were identical as far as slider settings and options on the cards being on or off. No personal opinion, just hard facts. The 6800 GT was one of the highest rated cards, hence the one I ordered for my new PC. If you go onto their web site, you can order a copy of the issues, since they sell all the recent issues . www.computerpilot.com I can't remember which issue it was, but it was a recent one. Unfortunately, the article is not listed in the issue highlights, so you may have to send an email inquiring as to which issue it is that contains this comparison.

Yup, the 6800GT rocks in the AA and AF department.XP Home SP2Asus P4P800-SE Intel 3.0GHZDDR 400 D/C 2x512MBLeadtek 6800GT 256MB (71.84)SB AudigyMSFF2 & X45 throttleSee you in the fence...CYYZ

not sure if this is any help but i just went from a G4 ti4600 AGPx4 to a 6600GT AGPx8 and can't say i've noticed any improvment in FS9, but as you presnet card is lower spec than the ti4600 and your proposed card higher than the 6600GT you may notice an increase in performance. other games; GPL runs a lot slower with some image problems (black line around edge of texture tiles) in Open GL, and is so bad in D3D that the game is really unplayable in it. NR2003 runs better in D3D now than it used to in Open GL. Nerwer games seem to run a bit better but nothing like the improvemen i got going from a Voodoo 5 to the G4 ti4600.

I've just upgraded from a ti4800SE (essentially a slightly souped up ti4200) to a 6800GT and found the biggest performance gain is in heavy cloud. While you can maximise AA/AF settings without any FPS cost, improvements in image quality over the 2AA/4AF I was using with the old card is only marginal IMHO. In fair weather scenarios with few clouds hardly any performance improvement with the new card at least with my AMD 3400+ (@ 2.4 ghz) system. Not really all that satisfactory considering the 650 Australian dollars I paid. Just goes to show how CPU dependent FS2004 still is.Bruceb

Well I did it, I upgraded the card and you're right, FS9 is very processor dependant. Basically my FPS did not double or anything, HOWEVER my sliders are maxed and I use heavy clouds in ActiveSky, and with the 6800GT there is no slowing down in FPS.

I recently upgraded from a GeForce FX5950 Ultra (256MB) to a GeForce 6800 Ultra (256MB) and WOW what a huge difference! The 6800 Ultra is worth every penny...