Wow, ummmm. WHen he said "drop", I wonder by how much and what his actual number was?I guess a very powerful computer will be a must for this version of FS. Like I did not expect that, duh... That 3Ghz 800Mhz FSB Pentium IV is the best there is out now. It's supposedly quite a bit faster than the 3.06Ghz versions,and FS likes those fast buses. See SimHQ for more details. Thanks for the info.Robb

Oh, ok, so you are saying that the version at E3 was a beta and that improvements will be made between now and July? Hopefully that will be the case. I just wonder how much improvement can be made between now and then.Robb

That 3Ghz 800Mhz FSB Pentium IV is the best there is out now. It's supposedly quite a bit faster than the 3.06Ghz version, and FS likes those fast buses. See SimHQ for more details.Also, if they are not done with their optimization phase yet, then the AVSIM review that they are working on so feverishly will be a review of a beta and not the real thing.Robb

Robb, Wait for an accurate long pro preview with the last build, too much easy to get confused, asking question and take final conclusion, the product is not finished and released.After the release it will be the time to judge, yesChris

well i just upgrade my pc from a AMD 1800 xp,512 ddr ram,gforce 32 meg(GTS) to a AMD xp 2600+(T BRED),MSI KT400 ULTRA VIA chipsetATI 9800 PRO 256 DDR 2 RAM,1.53 gig of ram (corsair cash 2).and i think this will do.

>well i just upgrade my pc from a AMD 1800 xp,512 ddr>ram,gforce 32 meg(GTS) to a AMD xp 2600+(T BRED),MSI KT400>ULTRA VIA chipset>ATI 9800 PRO 256 DDR 2 RAM,1.53 gig of ram (corsair cash>2).and i think this will do.Well if it won't, MS are going to have a very grim time with it's customer base.Talking of which, it's worth remembering that a lot of the marketing approach with this release has been focussed on broadening the appeal to more PC users. Whilst it's common to see "I'll just upgrade my PC" in a dedicated flightsim forum like this one, you won't find the general public following that line of thought. If FS2004 really is going to be a frame hog with all the goodies on show (and let's face it, everyone wants to see them and will be disappointed if they can't) they could fall flat on their face in their quest for more sales.

Hello, I have been able to saw the press release version many hour from a popular web site. We tested many configuration, fs2004 run very well on mid 2ghz system, gforce4 128mb, 512 ram, with most slider mid or high, there is many new slider for the weather/clouds. The ground texture are better. Overall I get the same smooth experience like Fs2002, with mid range system but cof is much more realistic then fs2002, the weather is the best I have seen to date in any sim, the clouds are 3d, no more paper thin even inside them, they melt slowly like (fly!1), no more cirrus clouds that melt from far distant, the sky system dusk, day, dawn are the best I have seen to date, they are not overdone! Lower than 1ghz, you will have to disable many many option to get smooth experience but I don't see any problem from 1.8ghz gforce4 128mb, 512 ram and to 3ghz with some tweaking on slider. BestEric

Are you saying that you did or you will?

Did you review it from a website? Did you actually get your hands on a version. Well, from what I hear you saying, it is pretty encouraging.Thanks,Robb

Chris, I have just ordered the following machine...Intel Pentium IV 3.0GHz (800FSB) Socket 478 pins CPU Boxed w/Hyper-Thread Technology MSI 875P NEO FIS2R, AGP 8X, i875P+ICH5R Chipset with Gigiabit LanKingmax 512MB PC3200 Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM CAS-2.5- 400MHz Rated x 2BUILT By ATI (Original) Radeon 9800PRO w/TV Out & DVI 128Meg DDRTEAC DV-W50E, 4x DVD-R/ 2x RW, 16xCD-R, 8xCD-RW, 16xDVD, 32x CD-ROM Internal Drive Only Western Digital Raptor 36.0GB HDD IDE, 8MB Cache, 5.2ms, 10,000rpm , S-ATA, w/DataLifeguard Super-Flower Gold finish, three fans with gold-painted grills ATX 470W Pentium IV Power Supply CE, C-Tick ApprovedSkyhawk Jupiter Aluminum Case with multi-function LCD Light Module ( No Power Supply )Oh and I am also getting a fairly standard WD 40Gig HD for data, reserving the Raptor for the OS and FS.Also using my monitor and kbd and existing MS Optical mouse and Sound card. The sound card is a Hercules Game Theater XP, 6.1 speakers Dolby

You need to keep in mind that clouds are not CPU intensive, but GPU intensive. If your computer lacks an adequate GPU, the clouds can really bog your system down.When I say adequate I'm referring to at least a GeForce4 Ti series card.James

Well the clouds being GPU intensive is good news. At least there is something you can do about that more easily than the CPU limited scenery.Thanks,Robb