I have a fairly new install of FSX/Accel on Windows 7 64-bit. Seems to run very nicely. I added PMDG 747 and played with a few cfg tweaks. Frame rates are pretty good in a single fullscreen monitor - 19" 1280x1024. I can do quite dense and get 25-30 FPS. Beautiful!!My question is how much performance can I hope for by adding more horsepower. I really want to run two monitors with multiple windows - one for cockpit - one for outside view - one for FMC. When I do this now the FPS drops below 10.I have a Quad core Q6600 with 8G Ram and a GTS275 card. I figured if that wasn't enough HW to get a decent FPS with multiple views - then I was asking too much from FSX.Or do I need a I7 Quad with a GTX285?Aloha,Eric

Hi Eric,Your experience with FSX is about right and the rule of thumb is the faster the hardware the better, but any expenditure needs to be balanced across CPU, memory and GPU. Look up Nick N's guide to performance tuning FSX.FSX and FS9 do take a hit with multiple screens. The expanded FOV hits frame rates.For the record, I use an Intel Skulltrail platform overclocked to 4Ghz (2 processors - 8 cores in total), 2 x GTX 285, tripplehead2go (3840 x 1024) along with FTX, UT, GEX, ASX amd various add on airports etc. For low and slow its wonderful - the right plane in the right part of the world and its wonderful. If I fly the Leved-D 767 with the VC using Aerosoft Heathrow in bad weather and most of the settings turned down it still remains a pittyful experience when compared with FS9 even though all 8 cores are being hammered. However the same situation in say Glasgow is great. Switch back to 1280 x 1024 resolution and it plays much better, but I hate losing the FOV.FSX is all about balance, it doesn't have the headroom for lots of add-ons and huge resolutions - you have to pick the right hardware, the right add-ons, the right resolution, the right weather and the right part of the world and it does come together.I use FSX for low and slow and FS9 for heavies and it works great for me. Just a shame FS9 development is winding down.The alternative might be to go multiple PC's and wide view, skipping the use of the VC. Just depends what you are after.Going i7 will improve things, but don't expect a mind blowing improvement. Many people will tell you what great frames they are getting but it tells you nothing - so many factors come in to play that without the same planes, weather, resolution, situation, location etc you end up comparing apples with oranges - its all meaningless.Steve