Just did an emergency upgrade (Amd 64-3000+, 512m of Crucial Ballistix 3200, and ATI 9550se video card being the main items). I know the video card is not on the same level as the processor (this will be the second computer when I get my act together, so I did not want to go hog wild)...But I have an idea. With most sliders set pretty high I do get very good average frame rates (30-60 with no cap) as long as I don't do extreme view changes in the Seattle area. However, I do get pauses on final, and periodically, when turning steep or checking all views. I am going to increase the ram (1 more 512 stick of Ballistix), plus I will be (minorly) overclocking the whole system. I figure these measures should help reduce the pauses/stutters (as FS9 is so CPU dependent) and help to offset the 64 bit bus constraint....Any input greatly appreciated. BTW: the Video card does have 256M of ram onboard. Oh yeah... I will be adding Flight1 Meridian, Active Sky, Ultimate Terrain, and flying online - so the hardware workload will be increasing.

Hi Swanfly, IMHO, the display adapter will only make a difference when using particular resolutions/displays. 64-bit ones only have a fourth of the bandwidth of i.e. 9800pros or better. Here's a nice listing of Ati GPUs: http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?locat...&var1=88&var2=0If you scroll to the bottom, you'll find the same list for Geforces. Hope this adds to thoughts, good luck and kind regards Jaap

As a rule, I avoid anything with SE, LE etc in the name.Even the 9600 video"card" in my laptop has a 128-bit bus, as does the Geforce256 from 1999 ;)