After checking out several reviews and forums and getting help from the Avsim forum and went ahead and replaced my dying ATI (I suspected) with a Winfast Leadtek 6600GT 128mb AGP card.The card eats a powerconnector but comes with a Y-cable, which it shares with my cdrw drive. I powered up after using drivercleaner, downloaded the newest NVIDIA drivers and removed the old fs9.cfg. The card is a bit less noisy than my Radeon which even had a rather silent 3rd party cooler fan installed. Nice. Temps are very low, about 35. No wonder actually, since the card runs underclocked because, as a screen notified me:"... the NVIDIA-powered graphics card is not recieving sufficient power.To protect your hardware from potential damage or causing a potential system lockup, the graphics processor has lowered its performance to a level that allows continued safe operations."GRRRRRRRRAnyway, I loaded up FS and after a half hour everything runs, no lock-ups as before, so that seems ok, it must have been the old card dying. RELIEF!The general image seems somewhat clearer and sharper. There's very light shimmer but generally everything just looks a bit crisper. Nice!However, running from a desolate stretch of Texas (first in the menu :) in the default c172 with most things on and rather high I get measly 10-12 fps on a clear day at noon. GRIEF!I wonder how much it is underclocked by the driver?Fastwrites are off in BIOS, AGPx8.AAx4 (not controlled by game), MM is 4.So, should I install an old driver that doesn't have the auto-utility and hope for the best, or shell out for a new PSU?My volts do seem low:+12 is only about 11.40, which I believe is too low?Any comments?I'll play with some settings now, to see if I can get tolerable fps so my craving can be fulfilled :)-dasher7

Hey Dasher, I am glad you got the 6600gt and yes that warning you got is a sign of not enough power and that 12 volt is low. Who makes the power supply and what are the other voltages ie the 3 and 5 volt rails. How are you checking the voltage through the BIOS or through a windows temp monitoring program? Paul

PAUL!60 FPS!!!! HURAHHHHH! Now you might wonder what happened, mmmmmffppp, hrrr, I FORGOT TO PLUG IN THE POWER CORD ON Y TO THE PSU, what I had just outruled..DOOOHH!!Anyway, thanks very much for following me all the way here, but I just don't have time to chat right now ;))))Yes, the volts are low, but I'll get back with more specs after I indulge myself for a while. HURAAAAA, I'm so happy.Thanks again. Now stop laughing, folks, the cords plug in here and bla bla, yes I know.-dasher7

Hey it happens to me sometimes I get so caught up in the technical aspects that I forget the simple things LOL and I am laughing at myself at those times.I am glad your getting the performance you deserve.Paul

The graphic card REALLY needs a dedicated `clean` feed from the power supply. It's not a good idea to ask it to share with any other device. Using a bit of clever thinking you can usually make the GC a one-to-one and get a.n.other deice to share.Allcott

Hi Paul and Allcott and everyone else.Yeah, I'll make a switch so it gets a solo feed, easy enough..Anyway, last night I flew around enjoying my "new" sim. I flew with the sliders rather high, higher than I used to, with about 10-20 extra fps, showing a less marked difference under high loads, I think. When I fly eg the default Cub I can lock it at 30 fps and it rarely dips below. So, all in all, my performance is up (though I'll move the sliders a bit back tonight as especially clouds seem to make the card work too hard for smooth operations) and image clarity is better and brighter, with default gamma. I noticed eg that the upper leather (it is leather, right?) on the c172 panel is a bit browner where I remember it as more blackish on the 9600PRO, so there are some small color variations too, reds may be brighter.So, back to the game for now, I'll make a thread later about the PSU, I'll have to do a bit of messing around to see the specs on it, as all info is hidden from view now. EDIT: Only real problem now seems to be flashing menues, enough to be an irritation. I remember this with old ATI drivers, but I haven't checked out the forums for this issue on my new card, so I'll look around a bit. Thanks,Dasher7(Running P4 2.4, 512 cheap rams)

>The graphic card REALLY needs a dedicated `clean` feed from>the power supply. It's not a good idea to ask it to share with>any other device. Using a bit of clever thinking you can>usually make the GC a one-to-one and get a.n.other deice to>share.>>>AllcottI have to disagree because almost all devices inside the pc are "sharing" off the power supply but because they are sharing doesnt mean that one device may get more power than the others,like the hard drive for example pulls alot of power but most likely is chained to a cd/dvd recoder or player, actually you should be looking at the amps each line is providing and if they are good then you shouldnt have a problem with with your video card with the Y power adapter, with a good power supply it shouldnt be a problem.paul

Paul, you are fast! ;)I just edited my message about flashing...-dasher7

LOL scarey isnt it? No I just like helping where and when I can because I tend to be a hardware nut lol. The flashing could be a sign of the drivers or it could be the resolution. What are you running and what is your refresh rates? If all is ok then I would make sure that the old drivers are completely removed just to be sure.Paul

sharing isnt that big of a deal, because most power supply cables have 2 or more plugs themselves