I have a 1 1/2 year old computer with a Pentium 4 3.2G CPU, 1G RAM, and for Christmas I gave myself a Radeon X1600 card. Yeah, not the best so I've been told, but it has 4x more onboard memory than its predecessor. Well, I was underwhelmed by any perceived improvement in the way FS9 ran.Over the weekend I downloaded the latest ATI drivers for my Radeon, and it has made a BIG change! I have always had frames locked at 25 fps with most all sliders maxed. I was used to seeing the frames drop to 11 or even 9 when using the Eaglesoft Cirrus 22 in VC or in panning with the Active Camera in spot view. But now the frames rarely stray below 24 at any time, and then only for a second or two. I have noticed a similar improvement in the way the FSX demo runs on my machine. Question: can just an updated driver, same generation, make such a great improvement or is it possible I simply did not have the prior drivers properly installed? If not correctly installed I just assumed the card would not work at all. Opinions?

Bob; I believe the the correct response is ...yes ....no...or allof the above...:-lol

Hi Bob,This link might interest you:http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/938/What I would like to know is whether this performance hike will also benefit my X800 XL which is also a 256MB card? I am an Omega devotee so will wait with bated breath for his 6.8 modded drivers.I currently run his 3.8.231 drivers which seem to work pretty well for me. These are based on the 6.3 Cats, so I am a few behind at present.Mike

Mike; Hang in there, latest is not always best. I'm running omega'sover 2 years old and manageing the DEMO OK.

Thanks, Mike. That cite was much appreciated.