Hi,As much as I would like to upgrade to the latest video cards, I cannot afford them at this time. Do I need a video card with at least 512 MB of RAM or will 256 MB be enough to run FSX with medium settings while at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 x 32? I heard from someone that you only need more than a 256 MB RAM video card if you use FSX at higher resolutions? thanks very much,joe

Yes you will.Allcott

Joe,It would be nice to have that 512MB. But if you are not going to upgrade your entire system (Don't know what you current system is), then just hold on for a while. Inching from 256MB to a 512MB may not be worth it nor would it make too much of a difference.Unless of course you get a great deal on a nice 512MB video card. This may be possible. Now, the the G80 on the way..the price might tumble on the earluer version.My 2cMannny

Seriously, I would wait.However, I am running decent to mid-high settings with FSX on a 256MB X800GTO that I got for a little over a hundred bucks a few months back. Expect those prices to keep dropping.Now that the 8800 is out, the DX10 era has begun. Watch out for the early adopter super expensive cards, but sometime in the next quarter, we should start seeing more cards out with the new technology, and at lower prices. Right now, for the new gen, the 8800 is the only game in town, which why they get to charge an outrageous amount for it. When the new cards start rolling, watch for the current generation X1800, X1900, 7900 and 7950, to drop considerably. Any of these cards should do more than fine for what you are asking, assuming that you have a PCIe slot.

My new system is on the way, and its an HP Desktop with an E6600 (2 x 2.4 GHz, 4Mb L2 Cache) and 2 Gigs of RAM. It has one x16 PCIe slot.I thought Core 2 was a good choice from the performance tests I had seen. Graphics Cards Reviews:http://www.pcworld.com/product/reviewfinder.html?id=46I had heard that even the 8800 GTX was having performance trouble with FSX with an average frames/sec of around 34, but that will go up as soon as Vista comes out next year. The review is below:http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html...GVudGh1c2lhc3Q=- JOE

Joe:Don't waste your money on ANY DX9 cards right now. DX10 is the future of gaming, including FSX. Graphics, performance, etc will only truly be realized on DX10. (Vista required). If I were you, hold off purchasing anything and save your money until March / April when ATI have their cars out along with Nvdia, so you can choose between the faster of the two, or even hold out until Aces finishes their DX10 patch and make a decision then.There are no cards right now that will make *much* of a difference with FSX.Of course, if you don't plan on moving on to Vista or taking advantage of the FSX DX10 features (still at least 8-12 months away) then wait until the X1950XTX comes down and pick one up. It seems to be the fastest DX9 card right now and will probably be the last DX9 card from ATI.

Thanks very much for your advice!My other question is about the power requirement for a video card. When the minimum power requirement is lets say 450 Watts, will the video card run better with more or is the minimum enough power? If I do need a power supply, what would your advice be?thanks again,JOE