Hello All,I planned to upgrade my system (getting rid of my 3870X2) with a 8800 Ultra but this one is no more available in my area.According to you all experts, what would be the best performing GPU to run FSX: GTX 260, GTX 280 or 9800 GX2?Another good choice seems to be 8800 GTS as this one tops all the rest in this Tom's Hardware test:http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...on,2007-18.html FSX to be run on a 24" monitor (1920x1200) with a Q9650 to be installed soon.Thanks!HFIntel Q6600 Quad CoreASUS Maximus ExtremeCorsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333Antec P182 with PC Power & Cooling 750W QUADSeagate 500GB and Seagate 1GBSamsung 245B 24po 1920x1200Windows XP Pro SP3

CPU centered as FSX is, meaning it does not leverage the GPU as it should, I doubt it will matter...I went form a GTS 8800 to a GTX 9800+ and saw no difference ion FSX FPS (upgraded the card for other games).Frankly, FSX was coded in a completely stupid way so as not to offload to the GPU.

Hello All,I planned to upgrade my system (getting rid of my 3870X2) with a 8800 Ultra but this one is no more available in my area.According to you all experts, what would be the best performing GPU to run FSX: GTX 260, GTX 280 or 9800 GX2?Another good choice seems to be 8800 GTS as this one tops all the rest in this Tom's Hardware test:http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...on,2007-18.html FSX to be run on a 24" monitor (1920x1200) with a Q9650 to be installed soon.Thanks!HF

If the only game you care about is FSX then don't bother with another dual-GPU card, you'll just be throwing your money away. FSX is not optimized for dual GPUs. Just get the fastest single GPU card that is reasonably priced. The GTX 260 is your best bet with current e-tail pricing.

hi,i am also considering a graphics card upgrade. i am currently using a 7800 GT 256MB. not a bad card, but it i think that the memory is not big enough to maintain crisp scenery (blurries). changing views is a pain when in detailed areas (airports!).what would be a good deal and give me improvement with my problem? how much ram on the card do you really need? could you even tell the difference between 512MB and 1GB?would the 9800GT 1GB help me reduce my blurries (reasonable price with around $140)? my CPU is also a little aged (amd64 3500+) and i have 2GB ram, a fast HD and win xp.any experience/insight would be appreciated!thank you.

If you are on a 32bit OS I would not recommend a GPU with more than 512MB RAM. The 9800GTX or 9800GT (with 512MB RAM) are excellent choices for FSX. 1GB of RAM on your GPU will only come into play at very high resolutions with lots of AA enabled, for everyone else 512MB is the sweet spot. Memory bandwidth is also important (256bit being the minimum you should look at).How much will this upgrade help with your FPS is hard to say for sure but it should be pretty noticeable. You should be able to increase sliders a bit and the loading of views etc should be significantly smoother.

If you are on a 32bit OS I would not recommend a GPU with more than 512MB RAM. The 9800GTX or 9800GT (with 512MB RAM) are excellent choices for FSX. 1GB of RAM on your GPU will only come into play at very high resolutions with lots of AA enabled, for everyone else 512MB is the sweet spot. Memory bandwidth is also important (256bit being the minimum you should look at).How much will this upgrade help with your FPS is hard to say for sure but it should be pretty noticeable. You should be able to increase sliders a bit and the loading of views etc should be significantly smoother.

i am running a dual monitor setup, one at 1600x1200 and the other at 1024x768. would that be considered (very) high resolution?

The nVidia 8800 graphics cards are getting hard to find. You might want to check out this $200 XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI DVI/TV PCIe Video Card:http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_info....oducts_id=10197

i am running a dual monitor setup, one at 1600x1200 and the other at 1024x768. would that be considered (very) high resolution?

2560x1600 / 30" monitor and up is considered very high resolution.

2560x1600 / 30" monitor and up is considered very high resolution.

do you think there are any performance differences between the 9600 and the 9800 series that one would actually notice? and between the 9800 variants (GT, GTX, GTX+)?

How about using ATI RADEON HD 4870 X2 (2GIGS) with Intel i7-965 and two 42" monitors running @ 1920x1080? That is my future system.Any input is appreciated.ThanksAbe

do you think there are any performance differences between the 9600 and the 9800 series that one would actually notice? and between the 9800 variants (GT, GTX, GTX+)?

Yes, between 9600 and 9800 for sure. The differences between the individual 9800's are going to be smaller. The 9800GTX+ is also a smaller die size so it offers a cooler running chip meaning you can clock it higher before it falls over.

How about using ATI RADEON HD 4870 X2 (2GIGS) with Intel i7-965 and two 42" monitors running @ 1920x1080? That is my future system.Any input is appreciated.ThanksAbe

Generally speaking dual gpu cards and cards in SLI do not benefit FSX much unless you are running at 2560x1600 screen res with lots of AA. In my opinion you would be MUCH better off with a single GTX280. You can always add in another in the future if need be. Nvidia cards generally run FSX 10 to 20% faster than Radeon cards.The 4870x2 is taking a fair bit of beating from reviewers for delivering somewhat underwhelming results. This is attributed mostly to driver issues (which may or may not be fixed - your gamble) so keep this in mind. Also, the GTX280x2 is on the way shortly...

Yes, between 9600 and 9800 for sure. The differences between the individual 9800's are going to be smaller. The 9800GTX+ is also a smaller die size so it offers a cooler running chip meaning you can clock it higher before it falls over.

ok, thank you for all the help. maybe if i could ask one last question: you say that i should get no more than 512MB on the card. does that mean i will see NO difference between the 512MB and the 1GB version of, lets say, the 9800? i am just asking because i use MyTraffic, PMDG aircraft, Megascenery and other photoreal scenries, very complex as aiports as Mega Airport Frankfurt under FSX. just checking!thanks alot.

With FSX on 24" or smaller monitor you will see very little (if any) difference between a GPU with 512MB and one with 1GB of RAM. In this case your CPU will simply not be up to the task of filling up the whole 512MB, nevermind 1GB.

Generally speaking dual gpu cards and cards in SLI do not benefit FSX much unless you are running at 2560x1600 screen res with lots of AA. In my opinion you would be MUCH better off with a single GTX280. You can always add in another in the future if need be. Nvidia cards generally run FSX 10 to 20% faster than Radeon cards.The 4870x2 is taking a fair bit of beating from reviewers for delivering somewhat underwhelming results. This is attributed mostly to driver issues (which may or may not be fixed - your gamble) so keep this in mind. Also, the GTX280x2 is on the way shortly...

Thanks for the input, Sharrow. For many years I've been using ATI because I do a lot of VIDEO CAPTURE and Nvidia does not seem to support that. If I find a solution, I will give the GTX280 a try.Abe