Howdy folks!I'm looking to upgrade my PC a bit,just to make it to the end of the year.Then i will make a major upgrade to make sure FSX will run fine on my system.I currently have:P4 2.02Ghz768MB RAMATI9600Pro 256MBSo what do you think i should upgrade and with what?Do mind i don't want the best of the best.Just something that will make my system live a bit longer with the current FS and addons.I get a random of 15FPS average with this setup,but at major airports or heavy weather,this drops to 5-8FPS...Anyway,looking forward hearing your suggestions!GreetzSteven

Steven,Best bang for buck in FS is always a faster CPU.However, having said that, the rest of your system is in need to.The min RAM for FS9 & Win XP IMHO is 1gbThe Radeon 9600 is also pretty outdated. I think you can live with it for now though.If I was you, I would get a faster CPU and 1Gb of RAM. Just make sure the CPU you pick is supported by your current MB.Glenn

>Steven,>>Best bang for buck in FS is always a faster CPU.>>However, having said that, the rest of your system is in need>to.>>The min RAM for FS9 & Win XP IMHO is 1gb>>The Radeon 9600 is also pretty outdated. I think you can live>with it for now though.>>If I was you, I would get a faster CPU and 1Gb of RAM. Just>make sure the CPU you pick is supported by your current MB.>>Glenn>>Thnx for the reply Glenn!I knew allready that my CPU was probably the thing to upgrade...What do you suggest i'd buy?And also,What do you mean by support of the current MB?If i upgrade my RAM to 1Gig or more,will i then be able to pick whatever i want?GreetzSteven

Steven,What I meant was, make sure that if you decide to upgrade your CPU that your current Motherboard will accept the new CPU.I am not too up on Intel these days (I dumped Intel after my 1ghz P3)As new CPU's come out, many times the pins are changed so that you need a new motherboard to make it work or simply that the BIOS will not support the faster CPU.Let's say you decide to buy a 3.0ghz P4.You will need to make sure that your current motherboard and BIOS will 'accept' the new CPUIf you end up having to get a new motherboard, you are pretty much doing a full system upgrade anyway and kind of defeats the purpose.This is where upgrade vs new system choices have to be made carefully as the cost of upgrading can sometimes be more than just building new from scratchMake sense?As for the RAM, are all your slots filled already?

Ow ok,i get it now :)So basicly,i should begin with the motherboard and then upgrade the CPU.As for the RAM slots,yes,they are allready filled,but i can always change it no?Just by taking out the cards and replacing them with the new ones.Also,what will change when i upgrade to let's say 1Gig of RAM?GreetzAnd thnx allready for the help!I'm getting a better view now on what to focus first.

Yes, but if you are doing a major upgrade at the end of the year, it's not worth replacing the motherboard right now.What I would do if I were you, is get the fastest CPU your current motherboard will take. Go to the MB makers website, you will be able to find your MB model and it will list the compatible CPU's.Leave it at that until the end of the year when you do your major upgrade. Then you can get new MB, graphics card, RAM, CPU etc.The new CPU should see you through until your major upgrade.And yes, you can take the current RAM out and replace it, but again seeing as all the slots are currently filled, it makes more sense to add RAM at the major upgrade and make do with what you have for now.Glenn

Thnx a lot for that info Glenn!!So the CPU will be the first thing to upgrade for me :).Also,sorry to ask this again,but what exactly will this do for FS?Better FPS or smoother loading times or ...?

FS is very CPU intensive.Typically, the faster CPU will get you more FPS. (this is where most improvement comes from on FS)RAM can help with the stutters and load timesGPU will not increase FPS, but will allow higher resolutions and AA/AF to be used.