With FSX due out in about a month, I'm in the computer upgrade quandry. Right now I have an P4 3.0 GHz, a gig of RAM, and a Radeon 850XT. I know I will probably be sorely disappointed by the performance. Would it be worth it now to get a new mobo, an Intel Core Duo 2, and a prety nice PCIe graphics card? Will the DX10 graphics card be PCIe as well? so that I can easily upgrade? Would a mobo be able to support upgrading to a better core processor down the road? Or is the hardware out now still not suficient to run FSX at it's true potential?

>With FSX due out in about a month, I'm in the computer>upgrade quandry. Right now I have an P4 3.0 GHz, a gig of>RAM, and a Radeon 850XT. I know I will probably be sorely>disappointed by the performance. Would it be worth it now to>get a new mobo, an Intel Core Duo 2, and a prety nice PCIe>graphics card? Will the DX10 graphics card be PCIe as well?>so that I can easily upgrade? Would a mobo be able to support>upgrading to a better core processor down the road? >>Or is the hardware out now still not suficient to run FSX at>it's true potential? That is absolutely true. There is no hardware out now to "run FSX"at its true potential." The "true potential" stuff is what we'll see out of the FSX engine in 1.5-2 years from now, when we have ground add-ons and more powerful machines and so forth.If it were me, I would not be thinking 'upgrade' immediately--why not see what others get out of FSX, and see what you get on your P4 3.0 ghz in FSX, before you make any big decisions?Also, I think you're right in general, that you will have to turn down a lot of settings in FSX with your machine, especially if you run lots of AI, and complex aircraft. But give the sim a chance...see what others get with greater machines...then make an informed decision.RhettAMD 3700+, eVGA 7800GT 256, ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, etc. etc.

Tim,From what I saw at the AVSIM Conference, your system should be okay until Vista and the new DX10 Video Cards are released. My educated guess is Jan 2007 which isn't too far away. Sure, you won't be able to operate FSX at its full potential but you should be able to enjoy it until the really good stuff is released. The first couple of months after FSX is released will probably be a learning experience for all of us. I have a system similar to yours and I have had good frame rates with the FSX demo. The DX10 capable cards will be PCIe since that is the latest and greatest technology. At the AVSIM conf the ACES team showed a "very accurate" artist concept of what DX10 and DX10 capable cards will do to FSX. It will be more than awesome. For instance, waves on the water will tumble and fall and get much larger depending on the weather. If it's a very windy day, expect to see large whitecaps and large waves that look very, very realistic. Microsoft is currently working on the upgrade for the DX10 technology and will release a DX10 only patch that you can download only when you have your new DX10 card installed. This patch is expected to be completed soon and will definitely be on their site for download when the DX10 cards become available. Hope this helps.Best regards,Jim

Thanks to both of you for your input. I will wait to see what others get out of their power machines before I make any decisions. I always like to have the latest and greatest, so it's hard for me to standby and let others do the testing :)