Greetings,I emailed Flight Simulator Graphic Solutions requesting their service about two weeks ago and never received a response. So, I appeal to you all for some help. My system is a Gateway GT5676.AMD Phenom 9600 2.3 gig quad-core processorVista 644 gigs of DDR2SDRam (667 MHz)Upgraded to ATI X1950pro Video card (256 megs)My question is regarding improving performance in FSX. I am considering an ATI 4850 video card with 512 megs of ram. I am also considering doubling the system ram from 4 to 8 gigs.Or am I wasting my money as the processor is the bottle neck?I apprecitate any help.Bill

>I am>also considering doubling the system ram from 4 to 8 gigs.Upgrading beyond 4Gb is pretty needless as FSX probably won't come anywhere near 4gb utilisation.The processor you have isn't that bad - I've jut bought a 9850 Quad core @ 2.5Ghz and am getting pretty decent performance with 4Gb DDR2/800MHz system RAM. I'm an nVidia fan though and have an 8800GTo w/512Mb of Video RAM. I'm sure others will advise you on the ATi card.Have you tried any of the fsx.cfg performance tweaks at all, specifically:http://carlbethere.homedns.org/a320/terrain.gifTERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=n (n can be between 1 and 3000)TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=n (n can be between 1 and 3000)I have the above set to 750 for both. Lower numbers equal less trees/autogen and more framerate.http://carlbethere.homedns.org/a320/bufferpools.gifPoolSize=n (n can be 4000000 to 20000000)I dont have the above in my .cfg anymore but it can help some people. Default is 4000000.http://carlbethere.homedns.org/a320/jon.gifAffinityMask=n (n can be one of the following: 1 for single core, 3 for dual core, 7 for triple-core and 15 for quad core).This makes sure FSX is using all cores of your processor.Otehrs will chip in and comment I'm sure but I hope I help as a start :)

Thank you. I will try your suggestions.

AffinityMask=n (n can be one of the following: 1 for single core, 3 for dual core, 7 for triple-core and 15 for quad core).This makes sure FSX is using all cores of your processor.Does this really work for anyone? I tried it and saw no diff on my 6850 dual core.