Hi all,I have a P4 2.9mhz w/ 4GB (DDR2)system came with Radeon x300, was trying to save money at the time, with plans to upgrade later.I'm looking at the 8600 GTS and would like to get a second monitor soon. Currently have a 19" and would ultimately like to have 3 displays;19" 22"WS 19"Is this a good card for the $$? I should be able to get it for ~$180only have 1 PCIe slot so I'm not sure what to do about the 3rd monitor. Might be time for a new system by then.....Thanks!

Well yeah....butI'd go for the 8800 GTS 640mb version ,especially if you're into flight sim.

I'm running FS9 triple VIEWS- LFwd,Fwd,RFwd on 3 monitors with 3 GeForce FX5200 cards (a dualhead AGP & single PCI). System is my 4 yr. old AMD XP2200 1.8GHz - 1 LCD,2 CRTs. NO stutters, comfortable frame rates. Once you've flown with a 48"/180

I think an 8600 would be a nice balance for your system. Sure, an 8800 would cut through cloud drawing and AA/AF much better, but with FSX being primarily CPU-bound in low FPS scenarios your P4 would let you down way before even an 8600 would.Regarding three monitors, you have two choices with your system:- if you will only use the 3rd display for undocked panels, addons or for surfing the net while flying, then get a cheap PCI (not PCI-E) video card to drive the third monitor.- if you want 3x 3D displays, consider the triplehead2go. Just be aware that pushing that many pixels with FSX may want you to think about getting that that 8800 I talked you out of above. ;-)Gary

Thanks for the advice.I guess the big question is how much improvement am I going to see?I'd like to really ramp up the rendering detail throughout. I've gone over one of the tweak guides but don't think I can do too much without a little GPU horsepower.

You will get a reasonable improvement from such an upgrade. Certainly you will be able to turn AA / AF up and performance in GPU-intensive areas, like clouds, should noticeably improve. Just be aware that turning up some graphics details has a corresponding CPU load penalty. eg. turning up AI traffic gives a more powerful graphics card an advantage with drawing all the extra objects and detail faster, but the poor old CPU then has a lot more moving objects to keep track of.As I previously advised, an 8600 should provide a nice balance with the rest of your system, given that FSX is harder on graphics card than previous versions. But if you are starting to think 8800, then the rest of your system is outclassed and you really should be thinking a new CPU (Intel C2D or AMD X2), motherboard to suit and 2G+ of DDR2 memory to put everything back in balance.Gary

thanks. I went ahead a picked up the 8600GTS at Best Buy today, ended up $109 out of pocket (had some BB reward $$ and gift card) so I don't think I'll loose any sleep over it, and should hold me over until I can afford a new PC...

Let us know how it goes!Gary

Alex,Sounds like you got the Triple monitors setup going WiTHouT that Triple Head ToGo device. FS9, right? . . . How did you do it?

Alex - Yes, very good setup there!I,too,would like more info on your rig. My 5+ year old Dell 1.7 running a FX5600 Ultra is quite similar to yours. I'll be getting my older daughter's AMD 1.8 w/ a 5200 at the end of the summer when she gets her new laptop, along with a well behaved Samsung 19" flat panel CRT.May I ask what wattage power supplies you have? My Dell's 250 watt, which i've already replaced once, probably won't cut it much longer. I know there is an aftermarket 420 or 410 watt that will fit, so I'm already planning on that.Perhaps a moderator will step in and advise so we may see some pictures? Sure sounds like you have the low-budget setup I've wanted for some time now. Happy Flying!

Why don't you upload the pics to ImageShack or Tinypic ?