Hello I wonder if someone with more PC technical knowledge than me could answer this?Having tried most of the hardware and FS9 tweaks my system is running FS9 quite well but I still get the occasional stutter and frame rate problems. I know that FS9 is supposed to be CPU intensive but task manager shows that the cpu usage rarely goes above 60% and is normally around 50%. Is it safe to assume that if there is a bottleneck in the system it is the graphics card? Do you think a new card would help? I've tried over clocking the existing card but can't really see any difference! So would a new card be much better? I'd like to stay with a NVidia based card and was thinking of the newish Geforce 6800GS AGP - no PCI -express on the board.Systems specs are P4 3.0 Ghz HT; Asus P4C800 Deluxe 800 FSB; 2 GB PC3200 RAM; 80GB 7.2K HDD and Abit FX5600 128MB graphics card. FS9.1, FSAutostart, loads of add-ons - UK VFR etc etc etc!!The question really is would the Geforce 6800GS improve things at all?RegardsSimonBrighton UK

personally i do not think it will make much difference, i went from a G4 ti 4600 to a 6600 GT and saw no improvement with a similar sytem to yours, you may well se improvments with other games/apps but not FS.

>>Having tried most of the hardware and FS9 tweaks my system is>running FS9 quite well but I still get the occasional stutter>and frame rate problems. I know that FS9 is supposed to be CPU>intensive but task manager shows that the cpu usage rarely>goes above 60% and is normally around 50%. >Odd, when I run FS9, it takes 100% of the cpu. If you have WinXP, make sure you have Processor Scheduling to "Programs" rather than background services:Control Panel|System|Advanced|Performance|Settings|Advanced>Is it safe to assume that if there is a bottleneck in the>system it is the graphics card? Well you could make that assumption, and you may be right, but there are also many many more variables. A person could have an add-on causing a stutter problem, for example. Or a corrupted install/uninstall of an add-on. Or the RAM could be causing a problem. Or heat. Or the psu not putting out.>Do you think a new card would>help? I've tried over clocking the existing card but can't>really see any difference! So would a new card be much better?>I'd like to stay with a NVidia based card and was thinking of>the newish Geforce 6800GS AGP - no PCI -express on the board.>Honestly I have no experience doing the upgrade you contemplate:FX5600 to 6800GS--so I can't really comment with any accuracy. But I can say that if you would be going from 128mb to 256mb on the video memory, that will help in and of itself. If I had to guess, I would say that you will not be blown away by the difference, but a 6800 is a faster gpu than a FX5600, no question. Who knows? It may fix the frame hiccups you said you get. It might be all you need to put your system over the top.>Systems specs are P4 3.0 Ghz HT; Asus P4C800 Deluxe 800 FSB; 2>GB PC3200 RAM; 80GB 7.2K HDD and Abit FX5600 128MB graphics>card. FS9.1, FSAutostart, loads of add-ons - UK VFR etc etc>etc!!>>The question really is would the Geforce 6800GS improve things>at all?>I would say IMO your gfx card is the weaker link in the hardware you listed there. If you can find a 6800GS for cheap, I'd probably consider the upgrade. Otherwise no at this time. I think it's reasonable to assume that AGP cards will be dropping in price *A LOT* in the coming months since card makers are shifting over to PCI-E. Also remember that a stutter or frame drop is not necessarily always caused by a lagging graphics card. There's often a lot more to it than that.

Thank you Bruce & Mace for your comments on this - very helpfulBest wishesSimonBrighton UK