Greetings all,FS now officially brings my system (P4 2.4GHz, 512 MB RAM, old-ish GeForce Ti4200) to its knees. With the LDS 767, ActiveSky and AI, I was getting not more than 1 or 2 FPS on approach - not a pretty sight, and I can't stand it. Now, I have read somewhere that the key to FS smoothness is really the CPU. I called my local PC store, and they can upgrade it to a P4 3GHZ, 1 GB RAM (although I would prefer 2 GB) for a very reasonable price (only P4 3GHz since I'd rather not change the motherboard, but that's not a final decision). What do you think? What about the Athlon CPUs?I also have the option of buying an entirely new system (Athlon64 3500, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD, not sure about graphics card).Comments are more than welcome, and I'm open to suggestions!Nicolas in hot, hot CYOW

Hi Nick.......Well,it pretty much depends on how much you are willing to spend.You stated your local guys could upgrade it at a decent price,but not the price itself! See what a new machine will run ya,then compare it to what it will cost to upgrade your present system.How much for the Athlon 3500 system? I would probably go that route(new) vs. upgrading.I would think you should be able to get FS9 running pretty well with what you have,maybe get some more RAM and a decent video card. Either way,,your 1-2 FPS landings will be history!Stan

If you look at my Sig I spent 1100 bucks on that, I used an old Soundcard, and Floppy/optical drive but and monitor but thats okay. I bought some stuff on Ebay for real cheap, and Newegg. Give me a budget and I can try and make some suggestions

Thanks,I found a place in Montreal (they deliver) that can give (well, "give") me an Athlon 3500, 1GB RAM, 120GB-ish HD, CD-DVD R/RW and a good graphics card (there's a number of cards in my price range for cards of USD 250 to USD 350) for about USD 900 (CAN 1100). However, there are so many graphics cards out there, I'm just confused. What's a good one? Would you go more Radeon or GeForce?Thanks again,Nicolas in CYOW

Radeon deff, it runs a little slower but much much better at higher res and high AA,AFIe at 1024x768 at 2xAF and 2xAA the Geforce might produce higher FPSbut at 1600x1200 4xAA, 16x AF the Radeon will kill.250-300? You could get maybe an X700 if you are willing to go 350-400 You could probably manage a X800 XT (what I have) on Ebay (like me lol). For AMD make sure you get 939 socket, not 754, and try and get PCIE, not AGP since PCIE is the future