Hello, Let me start off by saying that I am not the most techonologically savy individual, so please be patient with me. I have been trying for some time to optimize FSX for use on my PC. However, in order get it to run FSX somewhat smoothly, I have had to move some of the sliders to the left. At this point most of the setting sliders are set at medium high, and I am getting anywhere from 7-10 fps while taxiing at large airports to 15-19 fps while cruising. I would like to try to increase all of the display settings while also increasing my fsp to a steady 25 fps. I would also like to purchase some add-on scenery and aircraft, but I am leary to do so as I do not want to decrease my fps any further. To that end, I am willing to put some money to possibly upgrade my PC to get the most out of FSX. The problem is, I am not to sure what I need to upgrade. My specs are AMD Phenom X4 9650 quad core 2.3 Ghz, 7 GB RAM, 640 GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE video card. Please let know me what upgrades I can make to my computer in order to increase the performance of FSX. Thank you for your time. Your help is greatly appreciated.Mike

The cheapest solution if your motherboard supports am2+ is to get an amd 955 quad. it runs at 3.2 gig and easily overcloced, will run at 3.4 no issues. Al else seems ok. You need to read nickn s forum on simviation about setting up your pc. It helps most people. CPU speed is the key with fsx.

You have integrated graphics which is not even remotely up to the task. Buy a discrete graphics card such as a GTS 250 or GTX 260 and that will help tremendously. Your CPU is a bit lacking as well. If you can upgrade to a Phenom II closer to 3GHz you will see a nice bump in framerate.

You have integrated graphics which is not even remotely up to the task. Buy a discrete graphics card such as a GTS 250 or GTX 260 and that will help tremendously. Your CPU is a bit lacking as well. If you can upgrade to a Phenom II closer to 3GHz you will see a nice bump in framerate.

Yep I agree, your video card is trash. If you even got a 9800GT you would see a world of difference.

Hello, Thank you for your replies. Just to follow up on them though... If I spent a few hundred dollars to upgrade to an AMD 965 quad and a GeForce GTX 260, would I see a marked increase in performance? Do you think I would be able to run add ons such as Ultimate Traffic, REX or ASA, UTX, and GTX and still get good performance from my system with the upgrades that I suggested? Once again, I appreciate your thoughts on the matter, and I would like to try to make an informed decision before trying to make any upgrades. Thank you,Mike

First, I don't think hardware has been released yet that will run at a steady 25 or 30 fps in all situations with add-ons..I think we still have a year or two to go. It also seems like people are just starting to become happy with performance with the mid-i7 CPUs that are overclocked, with the high end video cards. But if you're ok with staying about from major cities or airports, and be light on AI, I believe you should fairly happy with the upgrade.