Anyone know if there are some major advances in CPU or video card technology hitting the market soon? I've been contemplating a new rig but can afford to wait a bit if I have to to take advantage of some new stuff if it's worthwhile. Thx!billg

Well I can tell you I'm waiting.First, I'm sure you know Dual Core is here, but no (major) benefits to current games. Rumour has it that new ATI and NVidia chipsets are going to be released in the fall, if you want more info, they will be similar to what's in the next gen consoles (ie. PS3 and XBOX 360).Still waiting for an FS10 announcement, which is pretty much guaranteed to be better than FS9 but it sounds like a complete overhaul of the graphics engine, so we may lose all those addons we have now.If you ask me, there's way too much coming fast on the horizon. We haven't even mentioned Windows x64 which just hit the store shelves in Japan today according to THG.I think waiting, especially if what you have today runs FS9 ok, would be the wise choice.

>Still waiting for an FS10 announcement, which is pretty much>guaranteed to be better than FS9 but it sounds like a complete>overhaul of the graphics engine:-hmmmNo F10 announcement of any sort yet you claim it "sounds" like a complete overhaul.... :-lolWhere are those "sounds" ??Sorry but I could not resist this one.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

>Anyone know if there are some major advances in CPU or video>card technology hitting the market soon? I've been>contemplating a new rig but can afford to wait a bit if I have>to to take advantage of some new stuff if it's worthwhile.Better wait. It all depends which way MSFS goes - is it going to take advantage of the upcoming multi-core CPUs or 64 bits or both. And how soon? Suffice to say nobody knows anything concrete on the subject.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

Thx for the replies. I was thinking this version of MSFS, but you're right, I should be thinking the next one and see what kind of hardware that is going to need. My rig now is working pretty good--I still drop close to 10 fps in fairly heavy traffic and weather around major centers, but I can live with it. Other than that, it's pretty smooth. I haven't tinkered in a few mths! Thx again.billg

No problem Michael,All FS10 stuff is purely rumours and speculations. When I said it 'sounds'; that

Yep, I'm waiting too but I might go for an intermediate upgrade and sit out the first round of dual core offerings.AMD seems to be making noises that they want to keep their single core line viable for a bit longer:(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/22/amd_dual-core_games/)If so, they'll hopefully push down the prices on their new "venice" single core chips like the 3800+, which seems to be a good overclocker.I have an older model clawhammer 3200+ 754. It is holding up well but if I can swap it out with a 939 board and a good overclocking CPU at 3800+ stock for a few hundred dollars, then that's a decent upgrade.Anyone else out there with an older model AMD 64 thinking about their next upgrade step?

Seeing that FS9 actually benefits from running on the X64 beta I would guess that would be true for FS10 as well 64-bit optimized or not. But I can

Hi Par,I keep hearing about how great x64 is with current software. That certainly is good news.Microsoft seems to require one to have XP Pro to be able to upgrade to it. So I'm not sure what most XP Home users would do, other than ofcourse to upgrade to Pro and then to x64, pretty expensive I think.It looks like ATI is moving faster and ahead of NVidia for the next chip; The XBOX 360 will have it by the fall. I would guess that NVidia will speed things up just to be in this virtual race (kind of what happened in the Dual core race).We can only hope that Microsoft can take into account all that is coming, but I doubt that very much. As alot of it won't make mainstream for quite some time; and after all, that

Well as I see it Microsoft want to sell as many operating systems as possible wo why not include support for it? 1. The obvious advantage of 64-bit.2. more people buying windows X64 MS makes more money :)They will of course not make it 64-bit exclusive but I just can

I agree with that.Of all the new things that are coming (CPU, GPU, OS), it would make sense that the next FS will at least support 64bit; after all, it is the only new 'big' thing coming to PCs from Microsoft themselves.It has been mentioned a few times that MS may consider bringing out FS in conjunction with the next 64bit mainstream OS (Longhorn?) as an event of sorts, but that would be quite the wait.Whatever happens, I am certain that the next FS will be amazing. It seems that every version of FS has been that much greater than the previous one. One can only imagine how great the next one will be.Having said that, it is plausible to consider at least that they may well be planning an 'interim' next version, a kind of halfway between FS9 and a big future FS release if they're trying to keep their release cycles predictable.