HiWell, after reading a lot of excellent advice given out on this forum, I bit the bullet and upgraded from my signature system, to the following:-Core 2 Duo E6600 CPUGigabyte GA965-DS3 MotherboardGeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)Maxtor 6V300F0 300GB 7200rpm SATAII 16MB Cache HDDAnd all i can say is...wow what a difference !!! The improvement in performance is just beyond belief - FS9 is now soooooo smooth - and the dreaded blurries have totally gone.As an example, parked at the gates at Gary Summons UK2000 London Stansted in the virtual cockpit/cabin version of PMDG's 737-700NG with 100% AI (mainly AIA, EAI & fspainter), Active Sky (cloudy), Ultimate Terrain Europe, Active Camera... I've seen my frame rate jump from a struggling 13-15fps to a rock solid 40fps capped.Unlimited it jumps from about 45-55fps. I've now subsequently capped it to 30fps (always nice to have something in reserve !)This frame rate remains constant during the complete flight envelope including taxi, takeoff and landing into some fairly complex third-party add-ons. Must admit, i haven't tried EGLL with 100% AI yet !!!Now i know i can here voices saying "why didn't you wait for FSX and DX10 ?" and they would be valid questions. However, in my opinion, life's too short to keep putting off things on the off-chance that something better is just around the corner.If you're thinking about an upgrade but are unsure about what "the future may hold" my advice would be just do it, if you get results anything like those that i'm now seeing, you'll be glad you did...Gary

Gary,I have a slightly lower spec sytem than yours, but I currently have locked FS9 at 24 fps. (mainly due to some crappy Simflyers scenery)I am also currenty running the E6400 at stock speed (2.13ghz) as I am having some memory timng issues with the BIOS at 333mhz FSB. MSI are working on a new BIOS to fix it apparently.......What resolution and AA/AF settings are you using?Thanks,Glenn

After seeing the performance of FSX, and the thought that I cannot have Ultimate Traffic and other addons that would need Processing cycle from the core... I have been thinking of doing a FS9 install on my new PC too. Originally, I wanted this new PC to be exclusivly for FSX.I'll install FSX... just so I can fly in areas where I do not have any addons in FS9.So my strategy is fly FSX in places where I usually don't fly in FS9. and Fly FS9 with all the addones in super smooth conditions where I have great addons. And remove FS9, only after FSXI (a fix of FSX) or a great new Chip from Intel that would run at 12Ghz is around the corner.:)Manny

I've just ordered a similar upgrade (see http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=18607&page=).I am mostly upgrading to give FS9 and other games I run a good boost of speed, not so much FSX. Having seen the RTM version of FSX in action on reasonably new hardware at the AVSIM conference, I think it will take another generation of CPU and video card again before we can crank FSX's sliders towards the hard right. As Manny has pointed out in a few of his recent posts, the only CPU changes on the visible horizon are the jump from dual to quad core, and FSX is already expected to benefit little to none from this change. That leaves DX10 video cards to save the day for this mostly CPU bound title, and the jump to DX10 seems to be more about prettiness than performance. As such, unless an FSX DX9 performance patch is released coincident with the DX10 / Vista patch, I think we will be in for a long wait before FSX will truly "fly" on our mean machines.Gary

Another one joins the fold. Congratulations. And so much headroom to overclock when things get desperate in FSX.

congrats on the upgrade. I am really leaning towards buying an ATI x1850xtx, its so much money but I am looking, not for vista or dx10 performance, because id have to buy a whole new computer, but to enjoy fs9 for another year or longer...

Good for you Gary! Good luck.ErvIntel Core 2 X6800, P5W Deluxe, Coolmax 650W, Corsair DII800 4G, two 74G/WD 10,000 drives, ASUS 1900XT/512 Card, CoolMaster TAC-T01

Awesome!! That's great...

With an AMD 4000+ I'm happily holding off on upgrading with a solid 40 FPS in PMDG 737 VC. By the time I go for it, your E6600 will be lower end main stream to say the best.Ha!(Sorry, poor guy's way to get in balance)

Hey Gary, I have my current components in this case:Lian-Li PC-68 USB ATX Mid Tower (Silver) Aluminum 12 Drive Bays 3 Cooling Fans $126.00Do you know if modern mobo & video cards like yours would fit into this case? It's a great piece of work and I sure hate to have to unload until the last possible minute! I have been using the 5y warrantied U320 SCSI's for quite a while even though they are expensive they are quiet and very fast with the least CPU utilization. I do quite a bit of work with Gigastudio 3 which takes advantage of 15k spin rates and lower access times with these. Noel

I just ordered my parts as well:- Intel E6600 Core2 Processor- SUPER TALENT 2GB DDR2 800 T800UX2GC4- Intel BLKD975XBX2KR 'Bad Axe 2'- Already have an EVGA 8800GTS that will be swapped into this machine- OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply- Silverstone TJ-09BW case- Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX CPU Cooler- 2 Seagate Barracuda Perpendicular Recording 320GB Hard Drives- 2 DVD-RW DrivesHoping to get 3.4Ghz out of it and hoping to get mid 20's in the cities with 3/4 sliders like my dad and his FX-62. This should keep me plenty busy this weekend. :)

Hoping to get 3.4Ghz out of it and hoping to get mid 20's in the cities with 3/4 sliders like my dad and his FX-62. This should keep me plenty busy this weekend. :)You will get that and more, the e6600 has a lot more horsepower than the FX 62, prepare to be amazed:).John

Well judging by what some of the people with highly o/c'd systems have said, i am not setting my expectations that high. Anything 24 or better is a bonus. I was very impressed with the performance of my dad's machine though and the e6600 should be about even with that with no overclock at all. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

>Gary,>>I have a slightly lower spec sytem than yours, but I currently>have locked FS9 at 24 fps. (mainly due to some crappy>Simflyers scenery)>I am running locked at 25 fps, but with an average of 3y/o components. I am using all sliders full right except autogen to one left of full right. I am using ActiveSky, FDC, ActiveCamera, and PMDG 737 & 747. I sometimes need to drop cloud draw distance to 50m, and also one left of the highest cloud density. I have sweetened it up with some tuning as described in another post. Seems like you should be locking higher than that . . . if desired.Noel

Very interesting post. I'm sticking with FS9 for the at least the next year - I have enough addons and it's set up quite well, and I can't imagine getting anywhere near where I am in FSX for at least the next two years . . . Your frame rates sound great, but how was EGLL with 100% ai?So I'm wondering if I should follow your lead. I have a Athlon 4000+ (socket 939), 1 gig okay memory, and evga 7800gt. Here are my options:1. Do nothing, and just overclock my current Athlon 4000+.Decent performance right now without overclocking, but with the PMDG 747 VC at a really busy airport, not so good.2. Do one final AMD upgrade - get a single core 939 2.8ghz CPU, and maybe overclock that? Costs me 300 dollars. Is the performance increase enough, for a dead-end/not future proof upgrade?3. Go the Core 2 duo route - Need new mobo, cpu, and memory. Costs me 6 - 700 dollars. And, I imagine that if/when I go to FSX, I'll need to upgrade that Core 2 duo rig.But, your performance sounds really great. Is it that Core 2 or that video card or?So, what to do. Any thoughts?ThanksStephen