Long time reader, first time poster.Here's my setup:Asus Maximus ExtremeIntel E6750, no overclock (yet)2GB OCZ PC160002x7600GT and 1x8500GT driving six monitors, no SLI, no overclock.2x750 Seagate 7200.11 SATA in RAID0All monitors running 1280x1024.Vista 64 w/SP1FSX Deluxe w/SP2I currently get framerates of 10-12 at Medium Low FSX setting. Wanting to boost this. Not ready to upgrade graphics cards yet (waiting for what comes after 9800GTX on the monster scale)I really can't tell if the bottleneck is the gfx, the cpu, or the ram. *shrug*My question is - which is my better option to improve performance for ~$400US: Q9450 CPU or 4GB PC16000 RAM? Or is there a better suggestion?Thanks for all input, everyone.Serte from Indy

Frame rate is CPU clock speed dependent, so just O/C what you got. The Maximus will go to a 450FSB. With that 8X multiplier, you get a 3.6GHZ CPU. Get a decent CPU cooler for ~ 60 bucks. However with that 8500 Vcard, you are going to be limited to min sliders. Eyecandy is all Vcard dependent. Until you're ready to spring for a Vcard, there's no reason to buy any thing else. You already have the stuff (More ram will not help FPS).The 9900GT will be out in July. Rumor has it at 256 shaders. Hopefully it will be a good boost for Crysis, but FSX is Not Vcard limited with the current 8800GT(S). The 8800GT will run all eyecandy sliders full blast. FSX uses the CPU for FPS, Autogen and AI performance, but can only utilize One core for that duty . . . and needs that Single Core to run at 8.0Ghz. Aces did their best, but only were able engage multicores for scenery loading. It's gonna be FS11 until we get any better performance from Any available CPU today, or tomorrow. This will be a software fix. Take your 3.6Ghz and run. It's as good as it's gonna get for a while (until Aces figures out how to use multicores . . . in FS11).

>I really can't tell if the bottleneck is the gfx, the cpu, or>the ram. *shrug*To see if it is the gfx card, what happens if you start cutting back on monitor outputs (starting with that 8500)? If your FPS increases notably with each monitor cutback, resulting in pretty descent performance with just one, then gfx card(s) is/are your problem.You don't mention what split of 2D and 3D views you are running on the six monitors. If running one 3D view and the rest are 2D views, then an 8800GT for the 3D view and your existing 7600 cards for the 2D views would be sufficient. If running two or three 3D views, you might want to consider the Matrox TH2G strapped to an 8800GT and again keep your 7600 cards for 2D outputs. If running four or more 3D views, you need descent GPUs per 3D output pair.Gary

Wow , six monitors for FSX, love too see how you have those setup!I find FSX works best with only 1 monitor active in windows, running full screen mode 1900x1200. If I add a 2nd monitor or 3rd monitor and run in windowed mode, I can put gps etc on it but framerate is impacted. IF I try and run a 2nd or 3rd view on the other monitors, FSX slows too much,so I took the extra video card out and just run a single monitor most of the time.I had a e6750 for a while, and it overclocked well.Think I had it at 3 - 3.2 Ghz with the stock cooler.The q9450 is still at 2.66 same as your stock e6750,what you want to do is get the cpu speed up,dont expect much difference just going quad at the same speed.Memory is low cost now, so you might upgrade it but dont expect much difference.If you want frame rate:1) Overclock or buy a cpu that will run 3 - 4 Ghz2) Use a video card for FSX with a high memory bus size. Example, the older 8800GTS 640 SSC or 8800GTXs or 8800 Ultras. 3) Set windows desktop to single monitor and run fsx full screen4) Use the config change to limit the number of trees to 500-10005) Try the suggested settings for Vancouver Plus FSXThat will get you framerates like never before up to 1900x1200, then try adding back bits of your current setup seeing where frame rate is impacted. FS9 works well with muliple monitors but FSX not so well I found, with the exception being using 2 PCs and sharing the cockpit between them in online mode, then its perfect.

More CPU First..O/C it. you can do good with O/C around 3.33 or betterDo you know about the {Job Scheduler} to get all cores going in your CPU.....That did more for me than anything ever tried...... Digital Storm Desktop Case: Digital Storm 850Si Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache) overclocked 3.38Motherboard: nVidia 780i Core 2 Quad (nForce 780i SLI)Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme SpeedHard Drive 2: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512MB (PCI-Express)Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi FPS Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O Unit)Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Zalman Case Fans)Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)

The Maximus Extreme is not 450 limited as you can see below... and yes, you should be running 3.0-3.2,-PPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E8500 468X9.5 @ 4.45Asus Maximus Extreme2 gigs OCZ Reaper DDR3 @1400Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0