First let me tell you that this card is worth every penny. I had an x800xt pci express and the new 7800 gtx blows it away. I never thought that I could put all the sliders to the right and still have a smooth fs 2004.Good Bye ATI.JoseIntel 925xp 4 3.4 ee1 gig of ram2 raptors in raid oaudigy sound card

Hello!Sounds interesting. I'm currently using a rather old ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB DDR and I have slowly been looking for a new one as the new sceneries and aircraft in FS demand more and more resources. Is it really possible that you can have all the sliders max with LevelD 767, F1 ATR etc and with Heathrow Pro scenery for example??

Good to hear that :)I'll be getting my 7800GT with a 3700+ San Diego in the next few days. Can't wait :)!Regards,Alex

Jose, I've been looking at a new card myself and trying to make up my mind. I don't run any thirdware programs so to speak but I realy like to get the max out of the FS 2004. I get pretty close to max but have to cut sevral sliders back a little and NO 3D clouds because FPS drops to 6-8. My systemP4 3.2 Ghz HT1 MGB DDR RamIntel mother board with a PCI express open200 Hard driveDVD double layer burner(On board sound thats go to go)(on board video thats go to go)Just wandering about your system and the FPS you are getting and how many screens you were running, filter, lighting settings and so on.Thanks for your time Scot.

The 7800 GTX will help you considerably, especially with the clouds.To give you an example I ran all the weather sliders to the right, loaded all the fs9 scenerios had no problems at all. The card handles great. With the x800xt the sim would stutter, slow down, whatever you want to call it. Let's just say that with the x800xt the sim did not run properly.You will be impressed with the 7800gtx. It's like going from the TNT Video card to the ATI 9800 PRO when we had FS 2002 . The increase was dramatic back then, and so it is with this new card.You will still need the fastest processor money can buy if you're using high density sceneries like Manhattan or Fly Tampa International. My current system will drop to about 15fps in these areas. It could just be bad scenery. Fly Tampa San Francisco, I get 30fps. I don't think that this is really a videocard problem because with the default scenery I get over 30 consistently with all the sliders to the right and maximum clouds. If you own megascenery then loading times can easily be reduced by disabilng extended textures. But overall the card is delightful.Today, I placed an order for the AMD 64 FX-57 and the Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard because I want 25fps in these dense areas. I strongly feel that I will be able to achieve this performance with the 7800 gtx, CPU, and motherboard combination.I think the hardware to run fs 2004 is finally here. I can now breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy every bit of this sim. I only use one monitor, but you can setup more than one.Hope this helps.Jose

I thought I let everyone in the forum know that this new system really brings out the best in FS 2004:Asus A8N SLI PremiumAMD 64 FX-57XFX Geforce 7800 gtx1 gig of RAM2 Raptors in Raid 0Audigy 2 SoundcardI can now run Megascenery NY along along with Manhattan with all sliders to the right and achieve 25+. Weather, clouds, dense sceneries, all look beautiful with this new system. I ran the test with the Piper Meridian, an airplane that never performed well on any prior system (10-15fps.) Now I get over 25fps! I'm extremely excited and very happy with the investment. I just want to simply say that there are really no short cuts. All the tweaking and re-installing did very little for the performance of FS 2004. The solution was in the purchase of new, much faster hardware. It's an extremely costly hobby, but if you consider what a real airplane costs to own and maintain, this hobby is a bargain.Plus, you don't have to leave the convenience of your home.Jose OteroCFI, CFII

Its a nice card because it supports HDR and pixel shader 3, so does the other Nvida card from the 6000 series but they are too slow. Most new games will be using shader 3 and HDR and here ATI is behind right now.I wont be upgrading my vidcard now because i have a ATIxt850xtPE and the difference in performance will be less than 5 %, so its not worth it, but it sucks that my ATI card doesnt support HDR and pixel shader 3.If you want to see the difference its makes, download the new demo of AOE3 and make sure bloom and shaders are set to very highest settings, its beautifull. I have another pc with a 6800GT card so i can the see the difference it makes from the ATI cards.OHN