I've seen quite a few benchmarks for FSX related to graphics cards, such as this one:http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_200...=1057&chart=293The few CPU benchmarks I've been able to find for FSX seem to indicate that it might not be as CPU bound as I thought:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2158632,00.aspI currently have a P4 3.6 ghz - a fast clock speed, but an older single core (HT) processor. Trying to determine just how much of a benefit moving to a newer multi-core proc would provide. Does anyone know of any good FSX CPU benchmarks, or anything that can quantify the impact of upgrading a CPU? Thanks!

Search is your friend :-)First, see here to show just how CPU dependent FSX is. Although not shown on this chart, extrapolation of these results show that an E6850 would push out about twice the frame rate as your current CPU.http://www.behardware.com/articles/657-6/a...on-64-6000.htmlAlso, from my own test results posted in this forum: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...20&page=3#32194and specifically look at conclusion 8, namely:8. A 50% CPU overclock translates to a 34% performance gain, which is an efficiency factor of 68%, on both OSsThis again shows the CPU dependency of FSX.Gary

Great stuff, love to read about it all. Was running low on room and was searching for HD info. Running a 150 (or so) GB Raptor and running low on room. Thinking of getting a 500 GB sata for C and put the raptor on D for all flight sim stuff.But the CPU info is great. I have an e6600, and am glad to see my MB also handles quad cores if I want to upgrade in the future to a fast CPU.http://www.lemosnet.com/misc/gpilotsig.jpg

". . .might not be as CPU bound as I thought . . ."Well, there is this from an extremetech review of 4 8800GT vcards:"A Word About Flight Simulator X: AccelerationWe ran both DX9 and DX10 benchmarks using Microsoft's Flight Simulator X, with the new Acceleration expansion pack installed. Acceleration adds a mode called "DirectX 10 Preview," which mostly adds improved water shader and HDR lighting to the game. We set the game mode to "very high" on all settings, except graphics, which we manually set to the three different resolutions. We used the in-game AA and AF settings to enable AA and AF. We also set the frame rate target to "unlimited."However, we're choosing not to report the results of our FSX testing for each card. The reason is that every single benchmark result came in at between 20 and 21 fps for every resolution and AA/AF setting

Thanks Gary - that CPU chart is just what I was looking for. As far as I can tell, I'll get a 2X boost in frame rate by upgrading my GPU, and possibly another 2X boost from replacing the CPU. It also seems like there is little difference between dual and quad core processors with FSX - at least not enough to justify the added cost (if FSX performance is your only objective). So the graphics card upgrade looks like the best bang for the buck: $250 for a 2X boost vs. $1000 (incl motherboard + mem) for the same improvement. It's great to have the option to extend the life of your machine - wish all gadgets worked that way (e.g. upgrade the CMOS sensor on your digital SLR, upgrade the network chip on your iPhone, etc...). John