HiI am planning to change my PC. The question is:SHOULD I UPGRADE to Vista 64bits to use FSX?What are the performance improvements expected?Is Vista 32bits worthwhile?Thank you very muchGhiom Viguie

I think it's very difficult to give a precise answer because it will be dependent on the particular hardwre set-up and the add-ons you use. Having said that, there should be some performance increase. FS is a 32-bit application so it can't take full advantage of a 64-bit system. One thing you can do is use the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE switch which will enable FS to use 4Gb of virtual memory compared with the standard 2 Gb available on 32-bit systems.

>I am planning to change my PC. The question is:>SHOULD I UPGRADE to Vista 64bits to use FSX?Why are you planning to upgrade to Vista?IMHO Vista, without FSX DX10 support, whon't give you better performance. Maybe you look forward to dig into the security issues with using Vista and FSX add-ons, problems with hardware drivers and disabling Vista features to gain some performance.I'd recommend you to wait until SP1 for Vista and FSX/DX10 are released.Ulf B :-)Moving to Vista, maybe at the end of this year. It's all up to Microsoft and nVIDIA.

I have been running Vista 32 Bit since Beta 2 and have encounterered very few issues and problems. The one issue that effects program installation is User Account Control which can easily be turned off. If I am asked what the main drawback is to Vista I would say overhead. What I mean by this is memory and resources are more demanded by Vista. If you have the processor and memory to suppport Vista than I would highly recommend it. No problems here and the interface looks great!Bryan

I just upgraded from Vista Home Premium 32bit to 64bit and strait away I noticed better performance. I have 4GB ram and a 8800GTX so the 32bit only used 3GB of ram and wasted the other 1GB. Using 64Bit allows all my ram to be utilized. I would say I gained about 5 FPS.Also If you buy the Vista Home Premium upgrade DVD it only comes with the 32bit. BUT for about $10 more you can order the 64Bit DVD direct from Microsoft. So you can install the 64Bit Vista and if your unhappy then reinstall the 32Bit. I ordered the 64Bit DVD and I paid about $13 Canadian and I received it within 3 weeks. You cannot get the 64Bit upgrade if you buy an OEM version of vista. Here is a Linkhttp://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/1033...ia/default.mspx

I've been using vista for about 2 months now and love it! No issues at all. As for all the security issues, well I have no problems at all. I just disabled the USER ACCOUNT CONTROL :) I love how the people who say stay away from vista probably never use it! They probably try it for a few hours then go back to XP as the don't like change! It took me a few days to come around to Vista but now there is no return!

Bryan,What makes Vista better then Win XP? What features in Vista do you enjoy that are missing in XP?Ulf B

I like when you click on a file in Explorer to rename it, Vista highlights the filename only--not the extension. You just click and type the new name. The extension is preserved.The Start Menu is more compact--I like that. Desktop icons are more readable when sitting on top of wallpaper. In XP, I never used wallpaper--in Vista, now I do.Vista has a piece of software that tries to tell you why a program crashed. It has helped give me clues as to what is going on.Basically, lot's of little things. DX10 will be the big thing.

JackDanielsDrinker,Thanks for the info. It seems that without DX10 and FSX/DX10, there only minor improvements. IMO it's not worth the trouble. I'll wait until Vista SP1 and FSX DX10 are released.Ulf B

One of the underlying upgrades with Vista explains much of the painof driver updates - or lack of, and the better control of crashes.All windows XP and earlier had the drivers for all devices deep downin the kernal of windows. The problem was when a driver hit a problemyou just got the blue screen of death - windows just died. Vista hascomplete changed the driver code - hence the slow catch up with allthe hardware vendors, particularly the graphics cards.Now windows can catch driver errors and just report problems andhelp with a recovery/fix or whatever. In theory, a driver crash willnot take out Vista. That is the theory - as for the practice, Idon't know as I still use XP. My 2 pence worth is that it is always good to wait for the firstpatch for an OS. DX10 support should be worth waiting for. Also 64bit looks like a good option too (read the OOM posts), but youonly go from 2G to 4G for a 32bit application like FS9 or FSX,but that is probably enough with these applications.Tom

Hi Pete, were "signed drivers" available for your CH peripherals?Best and Warm RegardsAdrian Wainer

If Adrian lists CH as part of his system the answer would have to be "YES". CH has drivers for Vista 64. My system is C2D e6600 @3.5GHZ, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 8800 GTX, Vista Ulitmate 64, Saitek AV8R joystick, Saitek rudder peddles, and TrackIR3. All of have drivers. I haven't found a problem with drivers for any of the equipment I have, no problems with the games I run, and I love the Vista interface, bells and whistles. As to FSX I was having a problem with Out of Memory crashes. The latest Nvidia drivers helped but I found a fix that is mentioned on the forum and in Phil Taylor's blog. It was an easy fix after I got the courage to try it. The end result is that I have maxed all my sliders except water is on 2X low. I like the look. I'm the kind of flyer who likes to look at the landscape and having sliders right for detail and autogen is a big plus. When I was trying to land at Meigs on an IBM Clone 8088 in 1987 I never dreamed that one day it would be like this. Don't compromise and get as high end system as you can and run it on Vista 64. Tojas