Hi All - i'm ready to buy the ultimate graphics card to get FULLon all display sliders in FSX - NOW - what mashine and especialy GRAPHICS CARD to buy???RegardsFrank

Doesn't exist. Wait a year.Allcott

Okay - i'll wait - But in the current time - what will be the best choice right now???RegardsFrank

Nobody has done a quantitative test on a range of video cards to know for sure, so the simple adage of more is best will have to do for now. Anecdotally from these forums, the best cards seem to be those with the most video RAM and the fastest GPUs just shy of SLI / crossfire (because FSX does not benefit from these technologies at all) that you can afford. ie. an X1900XTX 512M or 7900 GTX 512M would give you the best overall FSX experience for now, but people are also reporting good results from the next class of GPU down but with the same memory eg. 7600 GT 512M.Gary

Thx...So at the time, this will doMSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 1GB DDR3 Quad SLIGR-PCIE/MS/NX7950GX2RegardsFrank

>Thx...>So at the time, this will do>MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 1GB DDR3 Quad SLIGR-PCIE/MS/NX7950GX2>>Regards>FrankNo, because FSX does not support SLI. What you are asking for is impossible to answer, right now. As no testing has been done on FSX you cannot get your answer. Just look through the forums for the tecnical answers from the FSX ACES team, and you will see quickly that NONE of the current `whizzbang` technologies are supported by FSX - not dual core, not SLI or Crossfire, not networked computing, not physics chips, etc. The `best` card for FSX will NOT be the most expensive, nor the most feature laden, nor something with quad cores. You would be wasting your money, money that would be better spent matching the rest of your system, as FSX is just as dependant on CPU and RAM as previous versions, altough it also puts a massive strain on the video card as well. Sorry, but what you're asking for is nothing more than speculation. And that speculation could only be based on what is arund NOW, when Vista and DX10 is just around the corner. The best card now could be rendered obsolete overnight if FSX, patched to DX10, performs as claimed. Or it might not.Allcott

Okay - thanks for the reply !I'll gor for alot of Graphics RAM, system RAM and CPU powerFrank

Allcott, I agree with you, mostly; but your statement that FS "does not support SLi" is perhaps a bit of an over-simplification. Steve Lacey, one of the (former) Microsoft staff developers of FS9 says this, referring to FS and SLi:".... So, what about the application (i.e. Flight Simulator)? The application knows nothing.... there is nothing the application needs to do to enable it [sLi], support it or anything it".A bit mysterious out of context maybe: the full article is here:http://www.steve-lacey.com/blogarchives/20...imulato_6.shtmlMartin :-)

BTW, I am not saying that SLI improves performance in FS9 - I think tests show it doesn't.What about crossfire? ATI advertises this as not needing 'application support' - which rather goes against what Steve Lacey is saying (and I am assuming, as he was one of the MSFS development team, he would know).Still not really 100% clear, is it? :-)

It's perfectly clear: FSX is designed for Vista and the next generation of graphic cards. SLI is not relevant for FSX because what we need to wait for are the DX10 cards, Vista, and DX10.Until then, we can have as many theoretical discussions as we like about the effectiveness of SLI in FSX, or Crossfire, but it still runs like cr@p, so who cares? Feel free to submit sme benchmarks, but spending $250 dollars to get a slightly less slow slideshow isn't cost effective use of resources.Our poster wants to throw money at the problem, but it's not the money that's holding FSX back, its the technology. The next generation of cards may solve the problem. That's what the current ACES team members seem to imply, but there has been no evidence to prove it, yet. On the basis that we KNOW nothing out there now is going to solve the FSX problem NOW, and that we have NO IDEA whether what's coming will do so NEXT, the solutino is to wait.Allcott

I agree totally. I am not getting FSX until I can have Vista & DX10. I will want a dual-core CPU - and possibly crossfire (and a Dell 24" monitor!).Until then, FS2004, with all the addons I have, such as Flight Environment, ASv6, FScene, FSGenesis mesh et al., looks just wonderful, and I get very good performance too. I can see no reason at all to change right now.M.

>I agree totally. I am not getting FSX until I can have Vista>& DX10. I will want a dual-core CPU - and possibly crossfire>(and a Dell 24" monitor!).>>Until then, FS2004, with all the addons I have, such as Flight>Environment, ASv6, FScene, FSGenesis mesh et al., looks just>wonderful, and I get very good performance too. I can see no>reason at all to change right now.>>M.What you don

I'm amazed. Is this the 2405FPW you are talking about? It had great reviews everywhere - the only 10/10 across the board in PC Pro magazine I have ever seen. Did you just get a dud one maybe??M.

>you will see quickly that NONE of the current `whizzbang`>technologies are supported by FSX - not dual core, not SLI or>Crossfire, not networked computing, not physics chips, etc. >Dual core is not supported? Forgive my lack of knowledge on this but I thought it was going to give you more horsepower no matter what if it was a dual core AMD/INTEL CPU.>is arund NOW, when Vista and DX10 is just around the corner.>The best card now could be rendered obsolete overnight if FSX,>patched to DX10, performs as claimed. Or it might not.>>>AllcottProblem for some of us is we also like other games, have used the same rig for 3 years (P4 3.2HT, 1GB DDR RAM, 9800XT 256MB), and are itching to build something ASAP. But the teasing of Vista/DX10 not being around, atleast not being around any time soon to wait is a pickle.I think I am just going to build in November and have fun with it no matter what I get. Ofcourse I change this plan almost daily when I think about it.LOL..Maybe now is a good time to see what XPlane looks like.http://www.lemosnet.com/misc/gpilotsig.jpg

Yeah, I gotta say I have a Dell 24" and I'm very happy with it. No image quality problems at all and great value for money. Cheers,Noel.