I'm in the process of buying a new PC for gaming. Currently running a very old AMD 1.8MHz w/ 1G ram and an ATI All-in-Wonder 128M card. There's an HP Pavillion on sale right now for $800.00 with following specs:- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+- 2GB DDR2 memory- 250GB HD- NVIDIA GEForce 6150LE graphicsIf I upgrade this with a higher end graphics card I'm curious what kind of performance I could expect with FS9? Currently I run with most graphics turned way down (I fly the PMDG 747 a bunch).Are there any known issues with turning off the built-in 6150 and adding a better card?And lastly - is it worth just going for a 512Mb graphics card or is a 256Mb enough for today?Appreciate anyones thoughts and advice!Bob

>Are there any known issues with turning off the built-in 6150 and adding a better card?Maybe. Make sure that the motherboard has an AGP slot or, better yet, a PCIe slot to plug a decent graphics card into. My last computer was an HP and I found out after I had bought it that I could only use a PCI card in it. The PCI card was still better than the on-board graphics but not great. R-

>>Are there any known issues with turning off the built-in>6150 and adding a better card?>>Maybe. Make sure that the motherboard has an AGP slot or,>better yet, a PCIe slot to plug a decent graphics card into. >My last computer was an HP and I found out after I had bought>it that I could only use a PCI card in it. The PCI card was>still better than the on-board graphics but not great. R-Thanks - the system clearly can except a PCIe card. The machine I'm mothballing is an HP as well and I've been very happy with it. I've upgraded the graphics card three times now but it's at the end of its life I'm afraid.

Hi Bob, I have the same HP but mine only has 1 gig of ram. To answer your question: Excellent for FS9! I was amazed at the fluid graphics and good fps with my HP and HP lcd. I had no problems installing a pci-e video card, onboard graphics was automatically disabled. Check my specs below. The onboard graphics are worthless for FS9. I run with all sliders maxed on the display options screen and 100% AI traffic. My old computer couldn't run much AI. Now I'm having loads of fun with AI planes all over. Great landing at busy freeware addon airports like Malpensa, Rome and others with planes all over.... I have loads of freeware addons with mesh in most areas. The few freeware aircraft I have also have good results. I disabled ground shadows and aircraft shadows. Good luck...

>>And lastly - is it worth just going for a 512Mb graphics card>or is a 256Mb enough for today?>BobThe one thing I heard over in the FSX forum a few months back, from a MS person, was that more video memory will be desirable, rather than raw speed...out of a video card for FSX.In other words, he recommended a slower card with 512 vram over a faster card with 256 vram.Now, your question was about *right now* and 256 is fine for right now.Of course DX10 will change all of this. I know I for one plan to buy a 2nd gen DX10 card with 512 ram. That will be a little ways off though, I expect.Rhett

>>>>>And lastly - is it worth just going for a 512Mb graphics>card>>or is a 256Mb enough for today?>>>>Bob>>The one thing I heard over in the FSX forum a few months back,>from a MS person, was that more video memory will be>desirable, rather than raw speed...out of a video card for>FSX.>>In other words, he recommended a slower card with 512 vram>over a faster card with 256 vram.>>Now, your question was about *right now* and 256 is fine for>right now.>>Of course DX10 will change all of this. I know I for one plan>to buy a 2nd gen DX10 card with 512 ram. That will be a>little ways off though, I expect.>>RhettHi Guys, thanks for the great feedback. I couldn't wait for you so I ended up buying the machine and added an NVIDIA 7600GT with 256M.Playing FS is a NEW experience for me now! I'm amazed at how good it looks - and I've locked FPS at 22 with all sliders maxed out. Thanks again ...bob

>>Hi Guys, thanks for the great feedback. I couldn't wait for>you so I ended up buying the machine and added an NVIDIA>7600GT with 256M.>>Playing FS is a NEW experience for me now! I'm amazed at how>good it looks - and I've locked FPS at 22 with all sliders>maxed out. >>Thanks again ...>bob>I know what you mean...I went from a GeForce3 to a 7800GT...4 generations more advanced. ;) FS looked a lot better.Rhett