I read of some other person in another forum having the same problems, but unfortunately I don't remember where it was. So, I address a hopefully larger audience here in this forum.I've attached a picture showing graphic distortions which I experience in my FSX. Some areas of plane displays show this effect, the picture says it all. I guess the problem stems from the graphics driver and/or my monitors arrangement.My specs: ATI HD 4870, dual monitors (4:3, 1600x1200 and 1280x1024), Catalyst 9.5, FSX SP2 (no acceleration pack), Vista x64 SP2, latest drivers for all HW components, no overclocking. All systems run nominal i.e. no overheat etc. Other than the Catalyst drivers, there's no tweak tool installed.Of course I tried what I can and tested with various graphics driver settings and disabling/enabling of features and monitors without any change in what I get on my screen. I don't use DX10. Only thing I haven't tried is physically unplugging the 2nd monitor.I know the person in the other forum used a different, but new ATI adapter as well, and he had dual monitors too. So, I don't think I'm alone with my problem...Andreas

I don't have a solution but I think the distortions have something to do with your dual monitor setup and not the display drivers. Have you tried different resolutions to see if that fixes it? My only suggestion is to visit the following excellent forum if you haven't already: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum...2b5d143b1512ed0.Best regards,Jim Young

I tried and unplugged the monitor etc. I'm sick of trying anymore, as an IT pro I know where to draw the line and when there's no solution in sight. Maybe there's a solution, but I feel not without a price I'm not willing to pay (such as using lower resolutions or such).After Googling around a while, graphics settings and drivers seem to be a nightmare with FSX, different people get different results, there are endless combinations of in-game and driver settings, one influencing the other...To resolve my problem, I switched back to my NVidia GTS 250 1GB. I think it is powerful enough for FSX, at least I cannot see any FPS difference to the 4870 (guess even a "lower" adapter would perfectly do). My problem is gone now (leaves a few others, but I can live with them; besides, the HD 4870 has all of 'em too). The 4870 is certainly the better hardware, but not for a badly (and aged) program like FSX. So, sadly I cannot recommend the newer ATI adapters (maybe the catalyst drivers are the root cause of troubles) and need to say: Good bye, ATI...Andreas

It's something I had too with my 4870 (the post you were looking for had the word "FONT" in it if I remember correctly), its not an uncommon issue either and has nothing at all to do with multi monitor setups. As far as I remember it is a problem with all 4*** series ATI cards, ATI had been informed about it apparently 12 months ago when the 4870 first came out. To be honest it was only a mild annoyance to me, and it very rarely made anything unreadable in FSX. There is no such problem with my new GTX285 from Nvidia though, its my first ever Nvidia card too and I'm mostly impressed with it.

Andy is correct - its a characteristic of ATI 4xxx cards only. The early versions of CCC had an option which would resolve the issue but this had side effects and was removed in the most recent versions. In fact, the problem seems to have got worse with the latest drivers - particularly on FMC CDU.John R

Thank you all! What a pity! So, I let my ATI adapter on the shelf...Maybe one should make a sticky in the graphics hardware forum and warn people before they buy a 4xxx adapter...Andreas

As I said its didn't bother me very much so I would not say this is the main reason not to get a 4*** series ATI card, the main reason for me not to get one is the poor performance compared to Nvidia cards in heavy cloud conditions, they really don't like certain cloud formations and the frame rate tanks heavily.

ahinterl; yeah unfortunately FSX does a poor job at anti aliasing very thin lines and fonts. you should try changing the screen resolutions to see if one works any better than the other, a lot can go wrong during resizing.

Its got nothing to do with FSX its the ATI drivers and the 4*** series cards that are causing the problem, changing resolution and changing a million and one settings in the catalyst control panel make zero difference.