Hi everyone.I recently purchased FSX the Deluxe edition and noticed that I' couldnt get it running as nice and smoothe as FS9 (I was expecting this and am not too dissapointed about it as I knew FSX would be ahead of the tech curve - at least my current level - see specs in sig.) I like FSX but cant seem to finish a lengthy 1 1/2 flight without a spontaneous system reboot... Althought I'm really looking forward to making this my default sim as opposed to FS9.However now I find I'm getting a little tense with the stuttering and low frame rates and the reboots although I did find that it runs better in a higher resolution 1600x1200 than lower res' - go figure. I was contemplating an upgrade to a Vista ready system as soon as hardware compatible with it (specifically Dx10 graphics cards but there is no definative answer as to when they are scheduled to appear) became available but doubtless that hardware will be expensive and on the "bleeding edge" so to speak. My question is this. Would there be an advantage to doing an interim upgrade to a PCIe Motherboard - I was thinking ASUS or something like that, keeping my "old" 939 AMD 4000+ processor, and upgrading to a 7950 or equivalent PCIe graphics card. Is there any advantage that users have seen running FSX in PCIe vs AGP?Any advice would be appreciated. I dont want to spend unessesarily when the "temporary fix" would yield little or no results. Thanks in advance.RobFAJS

I've gone through a similar dilema. Your system is way ahead of me - athlon xp 2000+, radeon 9800 128MB pro. With fsx I find a great deal of compromise is required. In comparison with fs9 my settings are real low (very low traffic, very low weather, no autogen), but I can get a very smooth 15fps if I stay away from large airports and cities. I push the scenary slides up at the expense of everything else. My frame rate drops if I'm in any kind of jet. 15fps may not sound like much, but locking it at 15 gave me a very smooth ride. I got around 11-12 fps leaving Gatwick in the rain and landed at some strip in France. As soon as I am in the air I hit 15, and landing at the low detail strip was also 15. The terrain is just awesome, as are the water effects and rain reflections. Even with these restrictions it's hard for me to go back to fs9. The only thing I miss from that is the addon traffic.After a lot of research, I decided to wait a year before doing a major upgrade. Why?- Vista will be here and hopefully less leading edge- Likewise DX10 graphics cards, hopefully second generation with better power consumption and cost- Likewise AMD and Intel single die quad core processors (or more). At the very least the current two cores will be a lot cheaper.The huge question of course is how well can fsx exploit these? Before investing in new hardware, I'm prepared to wait and let others find out.Having said all that, I have entertained a small and cheap upgrade:- 1.5 GB RAM. This made a big difference. I used the memstat tool and so far have not exhausted that.- I will be getting a new graphics card. 7600GT or X850XT 256MB (I'm AGP). Again memstat says I've not blowing 256.- I may get the fastest athlon xp from ebay.When taking into account selling the old parts on ebay, I think I'll be spending less than