After reading this forum for hours, I think I'm just more confused on both dual core and SLI technology. Straight to the point: Does FS9 currently benefit from either technology? I understand long term potential, FSX, Vista, etc, but what about FS9 in its current state? With dual core in particular, is it a benefit with running add-ons like AS6 or Radar Contact along with FS9? Thinking about an upgrade and just trying to balance current cost vs. performance vs. not wanting to wait for Vista (blatant impatience :-roll).[p class=dcmessage] BradKELP/KBIF http://home.elp.rr.com/bmbanister/BannerSig_BMBanister.jpgAMD Athlon XP 2600, Asus A7V600, 1GB PC3200, NVidia GeForce 6800, SB Live

FS9 will benefit from SLI and dual-core, but nowhere near like many other programs will.FS9 vs. SLI:SLI is program independant. Programs do not have to be written for SLI to function with it, so with that in mind, FS9 does "use" SLI. The problem is, is that before FS9 can place a graphics load heavy enough on a GPU to make SLI flex it's muscles, it gets bogged down on the CPU level. Most modern, higher-end video cards have all the horsepower needed to easily run FS9.There is a point of diminishing returns as you scale up the GPU ladder with regards to FS9 - the faster your card is, the less it will do for FPS improvements... but it will allow you to turn up settings like AA and AS. All things being equal, FS9 is far more CPU limited than graphics limited, which is partly why SLI has little impact.With FSX, SLI may become more useful as things are offloaded to the GPUs a little more. (of course, that's with a DX10 SLI setup)FS9 vs. Dual CoreFS9 *ON ITS OWN* will not benefit from a dual core setup simply because of the way it is written - it will use one or the other core, but in a linear fashion - it will not run processes on BOTH cores at the SAME time. (hence, no real benefit!) When you bring in an addon program (weather, ATC, flight tracking), then the second core will be used concurrently - for the other programs. Now you see a bit of benefit, because you are not sharing ONE CPU for your addons, but splitting the jobs between two. With FSX, dual core computers will be able to split some of the actual FSX-only processing between the two cores, which may result in better overall performance. Of course, the use of dual cores to assist with addon programs remains, too. (Hopefully I got that all right!)

Thanks,I really appreciate the to the point answer. Just what I was looking for.[p class=dcmessage] BradKELP/KBIF http://home.elp.rr.com/bmbanister/BannerSig_BMBanister.jpgAMD Athlon XP 2600, Asus A7V600, 1GB PC3200, NVidia GeForce 6800, SB Live

I concur that FS addons work much more smoother with dual core than single. On either of my single core systems, I have to minimise FS if I want FS Build to build a flight plan anytime this century, Active Sky to download weather quicker, or even Windows explorer to open folders with any sort of punctuality. I gave FS + addons a quick trial on my wife's dual core laptop and all addons were much more responsive with neglible FPS impact to FS while they were doing their most computational stuff.I'll be upgrading my A64 to dual core once the next gen dual core come out from both AMD and Intel when I can get the older ones for $100-150.Gary

As for SLI FS9 doesn