Hello all,I just built a new cpu and it really isn't doing better then my old AGP card(7800 GS). I have a load of aircraft's and scenery installed but even at LGA 2004 I can only pull off 16 FPS while looking out the side of the cockpit. I recently installed some blueprint scenery's and run around 22-35 FPS. Now when I installed FTL 2008 and MCO 2008 I'm in the 30's-60's with frame rates. I go to Paris and and with all those aircraft there I can still get in the 50's-60's but when go to FRF ATL can only squeeze out 16-22 FPS. It just seems that this card should be able to run everything over 25 FPS, am I missing something? Specs:AMD 5900 dual core 3.0 ghzWD 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive4 gigs DDR2 1066ATI 4870 (1 GIG)Windows XP, 32 bitI've installed the lastest drivers for the graphics card but not for my biostar mb....Any help will be appreciated...

As always, CPU speed is the far more powerful item when it comes to MSFS performance, be it on FS2002, FS2004, or FSX. You mention that you built a new CPU - what processor were you using before, and did you experience similar performance?You mention nothing of your MSFS settings - are you running everything at high levels (autogen, clouds, AI traffic, and scenery density)?Most modern graphics cards can handle everything that MSFS sends its way. The only time you really begin to tax a modern graphics card in the flight simulator is when you apply very VERY high image quality settings... like 16x AA along with 16x AS at very high screen resolutions (1600x1200 or higher).As a pure hunch, I think you might be running into the ceiling of your processor, not your graphics card.-Greg

Also you don't mention the aircraft you're using when getting these performance numbers? Which view, 2d, VC, spot view... all these are significant factors.However, it is true that investing a lot into the GPU does not make sense for a game like FS. The winner formula appears to be - get the fastest (Intel) CPU you can afford and a max 8800GTS -level card.