I just came off of a test-bed flight over cosmopolitan cities like Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami.Using that 30 fps hook, and FSX set to 'unlimited', I was so surprised and pleased to find that the lowest I dipped, was for blinks-of-the-eye to 26 fps. Blink...and back to 30. The clarity of the textures is magnificent, to the point that you can actually, and quite easily see homes within subdivisions...and make out, not only the driveways, but even to more detail, the walkways to the driveways and around the house. With my Pent 3.4Ghz...I didn't even KNOW that there was this detail. I usually saw a 'large' shape that depicted the roof of the house.Another observation with a P4 3.4 GHz as a baseline, I no longer have SNAPPING, moving texture blocks as they attempt to render into place as I fly. I aways had that with the 3.4Ghz./ATI 1950 Pro.Now...with all staying (with the D9 boot) at 30 FPS, I have absolutely NO RENDERING visible to the user. No matter where I look out of the cockpit...the scene is already rendered and in sharp focus.Other than being inside of a true-life cockpit out in the environment....this, for the FIRST TIME SINCE 1984, do I have absolutely no trouble (no longer a second thought...) suspending disbelief that this is not the real world...that those are not true subdivisions below my wing, mountains to the horizon, clouds that make their way across my flightpath....nope...the mind says that this is real.Finally, the last part of the Trinity that creates suspension of belief...is the control of the aircraft, and its movements through the atmosphere. With a CPU in the class of the i7-975,...I feel a steady (not jerking due to low FPS and driver input to my force joystick) resistance upon rotation, and as the plane moves through the air currents, so does the 'feel' coming back from the Logitec Force 3D Pro. I must say (and this will be my last 'observation' post...: Since yesterday, do I feel that I have arrived at the apex of this hobby. The 'Flight Simulation Holy Grail' is real! When the reader (if you have not already) moves up to this level of CPU/GPU combination, after a few flights, you start thinking less of the MECHANICS of flight simulation (CPU, GPU, Power Supply, Memory, etc) and only focus on flying that plane! Very little tweaking....and a HELL of a LOT more flying!OK...off the soapbox, and back to that flying I'm talking about. :)

Some of us have been flying with that level of 'reality' in FSX for years now, welcome to the group!

Some of us have been flying with that level of 'reality' in FSX for years now, welcome to the group!

Well said, lol. I'm happy another one is. Maybe one day if there are enough of us, people will quit bashing FSX :(