I am contemplating on upgrading from 7800GTX to 8800GTX. I am using fs9. Can anyone out there that has done such an upgrade give me some insight as to what I can expect for performance increase? thx

suprised no one has done this upgrade

what's the speed of your CPU? If you have an average CPU, this upgrade won't benefit you much. The difference might be a slight 2-3 fps gain. FS9 is actually not a very "GPU" dependent game (when compared to say Gears of War or Half-Life 2, etc). The 8800 is made for games that specifically take advantage of the new directx/hardware features. FS9 is a pretty old game and is not using these features. It needs pure muscles to run (cpu+ram)...However, if you plan to upgrade to fsx soon, then this card will be useful. :)i'm doing a test soon of 2 7900GTX (512mb) in SLI mode for fs9...i'm curious to see how the fps will be. -feng

HiI did this a little while ago - v disappointing. I don't believe FS9 is equipped to take advantage from SLI. Currently I run in non-SLI mode with these cards supplying images to four monitors. A much more productive use - at least for me.Bud

When I upgraded from a 5900 to a 7800AGP Bliss Plus which has the same pipes and chip as the 7950 I was able to fly using 3d clouds. I got better preformance yes but found that I was CPU restrained. AI was what was holding me back but the eye candy was increased with no preformance hits. (I would get the same FPS almost with 3d clouds on or off fully maxed but get huge jumps when I would adjust AI levels)So as someone has already stated...CPU and memory will be what holds back preformance for FS9.

GA Flyer,I truly agree with that statement. I went from a GF FX 5700LE 256mb AGP card, 512Mb RAM and an AMD Sempron 3100+ to a XFX GF 6800XT AGP 256Mb DDR3 card and a jump of 1.5 gigs in RAM and an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.4 GHz (from 1.8 with the Sempron) and I am able to put everything at max. I use Traffic 2005, Airliner Pilot, PMDG 747-400, CS Legendary 727 and C-130 (actually it's the Just Flight publication of it), Carenado Cessna 206b Stationair, Just Flight PSS Concorde Professional, MegaCity Atlanta, FSNavigator4.7, and the FS9 Real Weather. I have the Traffic 05 set to 70%, anything higher and I would be in a sea of planes at KATL. When I am around the cities I get some pretty big hits on FPS,down to 15 at times, but when I'm over rural and ocean areas, as high as 80 FPS.I'm hoping to build a new system soon, but I'm going to wait for Vista to come out and get the kinks worked out a good bit before I do so. I'm planning on going with at least 2 8800GTX cards, but by the time I can afford to do it, they'll prolly be putting 4 in a system on a regular basis.BTW.....That's a cool little sim you got goin on there. Keep us posted on the progress. That's another thing I'm hoping to start soon too. But a 747 cockpit would need your whole house....lol. Good Luck with it

Hey guys. I did try throwing a 8800GTX in my system. Was not impressed the least bit espicaially with trying to fit that bohemoth in my case. I removed it and threw my 7800GTX's back in. Tried overclocking with the asus NOS AI ( i know, i heard this wasnt the best way to OC) on my fx60. Much better performance increase. As it was stated a gallion times, the CPU is the limiter in FS. Any of you OC guru's out there got a bit of time and don't mind helping me overclock my CPU correctly I would be greatful!

try your request in the hardware forum found in the fsx main forum. Sorry to hear about the bad news but it was expected. Seems to 7 series is powerful enough for fs9 and the good news is they keep making better and more powerful cpus and memory.

Oh well. I was wanting to try it out and lay the debate to rest. Now it can rest.

I upgraded from a XFX 7800GTX 256 MB to a eVGA 8800GTX 768MB. The difference in FS9 is so minimal, it's not worth it for that. I am using an AMD 4000+ San Diego chip and to be quite frank with you, for FS9 it really didn't make a dent. I didn't notice much of anything except that I can raise the Anti-Aliasing to incredibly high levels without any loss of frames.For FSX, it did make it from almost not usable to usable. FSX works great now, but I still feel that it won't work with a PMDG or LevelD level aircraft. It's just too slow. Hopefully DX10 and dual core support will fix that.But when it comes to everything else, this card is a beast. Half Life 2, Battlefield 2, GTR 2, FEAR, UT2004, Quake 4......all of these games are so fast frame-rate wise. Even running with high AA and AF, at a resolution of 1600x1200, this card handles these games without even trying. Everything is 100fps or higher (I kid you not). Let me also mention that the image quality is also improved. Very impressive.Word of caution though....this card is HUGE. I have an Antec P180 case and it barely fits in that. The card is touching the hard drives on the other side.But like I said, for FS9....it's a waste of money. Even SLI doesn't help FS9 so getting another 7800GTX wouldn't help much.If you have any specific questions about it, let me know.Best regards,Ivan

I went from 7600GT to 8800GTX and saw plenty of improvement. 256K to 765K Video memory did me good for dissapearence of the blurries problem. yes in FS9.Don't know about... upgrading from 7800GTX

Hi Manny, a recent 'info-bit'; the elimination of shimmers is because of a driver setting 8800s activate by default. It would be interesting to learn which particular driver(or reg) setting needs to be modified on i.e. 7xx0 Geforces to achieve the same effect? I wouldn't have a clue. :-) On X1x00 Radeons it's apparently the feature called 'AreaAF'. Don't have an X1x00 either... Most GPUs (or driver settings they adjust to by default) only render horizontal, vertical and 45

>Hi Manny, a recent 'info-bit'; the elimination of shimmers is>because of a driver setting 8800s activate by default. It>would be interesting to learn which particular driver(or reg)>setting needs to be modified on i.e. 7xx0 Geforces to achieve>the same effect? I wouldn't have a clue. :-) >>On X1x00 Radeons it's apparently the feature called 'AreaAF'.>Don't have an X1x00 either... >>Most GPUs (or driver settings they adjust to by default) only>render horizontal, vertical and 45

I HOPE Everyone is setting AA/AF to their drivers...Let the Videocard do the work...That's what it's there for..FS9 or FSX...Neither look worth a crud @ the Default/Global driver settings...Tweaking in the Sim is not where it's at... :( "Some" nVidia drivers come with a FS9 and/or a FSX "Profile"...That is where you should do your driver tweaks...If the "FS Profile" doesn't exist in your particular set of drivers...You can Easily add it...Some of the "Tweaked" drivers omit the FS Profiles for some reason...But it's no big deal...Just make your own..By using the FS Profile to do your "FS Specific" tweeking...Your not messing up anything else which runs well under the "Global" driver settings(Most everything else)...These settings will only apply when you click the FS9/FSX.exe...It's the way to go IMHO...I just today ran into a situation..Upon installing some new drivers for my 8800GTX card...Found the Factory Supplied FS9 Profile didn't work...First time I'd ever seen that...No big deal...I just added a new FS9 Profile of my own and it was Smooth Sailing after that... There is an Awesome nVidia Driver Tweaking Guide at Tweakguides.com...It's almost a bit Too Extensive..he he...It doesn't really address FS in perticular...But for the GURU/Techie Type I don't think it can be beat...http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.htmlThe ATI Guys:http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.htmlThe Main Page(Darn Good Site to Bookmark)..http://www.tweakguides.com/http://www.tweakguides.com/System.htmlIf you just bought your card..Stuck it in and installed the drivers...And have never tweaked the drivers for FS...Your missing out...I Think anyway..Have Fun...

>I HOPE Everyone is setting AA/AF to their drivers...Let the>Videocard do the work...That's what it's there for..FS9 or>FSX...Neither look worth a crud @ the Default/Global driver>settings...Tweaking in the Sim is not where it's at... :( >How true. But keep in mind that it's sometimes not so easy to get FSX to behave, and ALLOW a person to set AA/AF in the drivers. For me it required an install of new drivers, and much hand-wringing.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2530 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian