Starting the slow process of selecting components for a new build. The drives & case will migrate over from my current machine. I intend to purchase a Penryn processor, and today I am leaning towards 2 core versions, mainly because of allegedly superior overclockability. So, it is pretty much down to GPU solutions. I had an ATI 9700 Pro way back when, and while IQ was fine, the card and all drivers available were prone to the odd lock up, and some games would not run well at all. I changed to an nV 6800 GT OC and have NEVER had any issues with the card in any apps, with any drivers I've tried, and IQ was decent.Is this now a matter of preference (or perhaps familiarity), or are there truly compelling reasons to go with one line over another? I will be buying a top end card, maybe two, when the time comes in Jan 08, that is, if the US$ is not totally collapsed by then.Noel

Whatever you end up getting, don't get two of them unless you are driving enough monitors to need all those video outputs - SLI / Crossfire is wasted on FSX.Gary

Thank you Gary. Now that I think of it, the other issue is that my screen is only 1600x1200, so two cards will probably not offer much for ANY games in the near term, when contrasted against top-end single cards. I do like to take into consideration the video demands of other, non-FS, sims or games, but again, probably one fast card will be ample for the foreseeable future. I don't think I'll want to get into multiple screens, tho it's possible.

If you have not thought of it, look into a 37" or 42" LCD as your main monitor.....My tech friend (who built this machine) suggested this earlier this year and, WALLA, the FS world changed forever, awesome, to say the least.....got a 1080 P Westy with the ATI 1900X (7.10 driver), you will not regret spending $ for this first......regards, Dick Leonard

Hi Noel, From what I've be reading Ati has been lagging behind Nvidia for some time now in highend performance benchs. I've run across many disgruntled 2900xt owners, but that seems to have tempered a bit after this latest driver release. Another round of boards are due out soon and G92 is coming closer too. I think I'm going to wait and see where this DX10 thing goes with performance over the next 3-6 months. If I were buying now though, I'd be going with Nvidia all the way. JMHO Regards, Kendall#1: [email protected]/Coolermaster HyperTX2 Gigabyte P35-DS3L 4GB Crucial Ballistix Tracers PC6400 Seagate 250GB 7200.10 SATA2 Gigabyte X800XT -Cat 6.12's CH Yoke/Pedals/Saitek Throttle Dual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905 #2: Dell 8400 3.2 H.T. 3GB PC4200 Diamond Xtreme/Logitech X-530's

I am undecided on the graphics card issue myself, but just to offer a bit of information on the Penryns: in the offices of a big American semiconductor company below me (where I am allowed to play on Tuesdays), a QX9650 has been running at a little over 5.0 GHz for 2 1/2 weeks now, air cooled, doing BOINC computations at 100% full load as a burn-in. It will hit the market in mid November and cost around US$1000. Last week we installed and ran FSX on it, and got 92 fps over New York, all settings maxed (stock installation with any add-ons). Everywhere else we saw 100 fps and far above. Graphics system is on-board stuff on a new Asus motherboard with X38 chipset (not released yet). The CPU makes ALL the difference for FSX. One really doesn't need a sophisticated GPU.

Oh my, that is exciting news--the overclockability and performance in FSX. I'm sure if this is true with the quad version then the 2 cores should compare favorably eh? I am really looking foward to assembling a high end machine and I'm sure I'll see some definite improvements over my aging system--that still works just great! I am pretty inclined to stay with nV as it's been so stable for me. Any opinions on IQ these days with high end nV v ATI?I guess it will be Vista time too.

Have ya'll been following this?http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/new...92-scores-outedThis is the G92 and it will be called the 8800GT. We were hoping this would be a triple over the 8800GTX. Seems it didn't work out that way. It appears it will end up "only" providing the same performance as the GTX . . . but the good news is that it's a single slot card (laptop bound?) and may only cost 200 bucks. It's due in the 29th, so we'll see then.Sam

Hold your horses until mid-November. Both ATI and nVidia will have new models out then. The last thing you want to do now is rush for the 8800's which will shortly be outdated. It seems DX10.1 will bring significant performance enhancements, especially for shading, albeit no new features for FSX.

>Hold your horses until mid-November. Both ATI and nVidia will>have new models out then. The last thing you want to do now is>rush for the 8800's which will shortly be outdated. It seems>DX10.1 will bring significant performance enhancements,>especially for shading, albeit no new features for FSX.Thanks Martin that is good to know. I am buying parts after Jan 1 so will see what looks good then.

>If you have not thought of it, look into a 37" or 42" LCD as>your main monitor.....My tech friend (who built this machine)>suggested this earlier this year and, WALLA, the FS world>changed forever, awesome, to say the least.....got a 1080 P>Westy with the ATI 1900X (7.10 driver), you will not regret>spending $ for this first......regards, Dick LeonardHi Dick,I have been thinking of doing the same thing. I was wondering how far away are you sitting from it? Do you have the 37 or 42? I have about 3 feet from my chair to the wall, and was wondering if a 42" would be too big for that distance.Bill

I am more and more intrigued by Matrox's Triple Head2Go. I think having 3 1280x1024 displays would perform better than one huge but higher resolution screen, no? I do have a desk space concern tho too. May just get one 16x9 24" or so. I have a 22" screen now.

>I am more and more intrigued by Matrox's Triple Head2Go. I>think having 3 1280x1024 displays would perform better than>one huge but higher resolution screen, no? I do have a desk>space concern tho too. May just get one 16x9 24" or so. I>have a 22" screen now.I also thought about that option, but having the VC split by a bezel would drive me nuts. It looks good in exterior shots, but the vc is split between the monitors.What I mean is that for instance half of the radio stack is on the centre monitor, and the other half is on the right monitor with a bezel in between. The same would happen to any gauges on the left side as well. By going to a large display, you get the same real estate, but without bezels. I don't think a larger monitor would reduce the performance. The resolution of a 42" at 1020p is something like 1920x768. My 24" LCD is running at 1920x1200, so theoretically there should't be much difference between the two?Bill

>I don't think a larger monitor would reduce the performance.>The resolution of a 42" at 1020p is something like 1920x768.>My 24" LCD is running at 1920x1200, so theoretically there>should't be much difference between the two?>>BillWell, this may not be accurate but my sense was that your primary GPU/CPU affects the ultimate perf you will get, and that the triple head just sends out this output to 3 screens. So, in effect you will get the same perf out of 3 x 1280x1024 as you would from one 1280x1024 panel. At least that's what I believe. Owners could elucidate on this. I know FS9 when compared as 1280x1024 versus 1920x1200 will show sizeable degraded performance, some of which may be attributable to the GPU, but not all.You make a very good point about VC's though and this would be a problem for me I believe.

Just as a point of reference, I have a 1080p (1920x1080), 42"-er and run the PMDG 744 a lot. I have widescreen enabled in the FS9.cfg file. I generally sit about 12-18 inches back. It's entirely 'in my face.' I'm constantly trying to peak around the centerpost for my attempted approached to VHHX. I spend some time in that seat IRL and it looks pretty good to me. Also, I was somewhat amazed that my performance did not suffer. I run have run a 19" forever. My FPS experience 'feels' the same on the 42. I run in in windowed mode and I can drag between the 42 and the 19 sitting beside it. The performance is the same.