hi all, i have the current setup:eVGA Nforce 680i |Intel Core2Quad Q6600B3 3.3GHZThermaltake Big Typhoon|Corsair 620hx4GB Gskill DDR2 800MHZ 4 4 4 12 1TBFG GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB|XFI Extreme MusicCM Stacker 832. Fans: 3In 3Ex(including PSU fan)Logitech Z5500|Sharp Aquos 32" @ 1360X7682xWD320GB in RAID0| WD's 200gb, 320gb, 250gband im thinking of upgrading the video card to something like a GTX260 or a GTX275...but i was talking to a friend and he told me that fs9 and fsx are more CPU dependant other than mainly on the video card....so im wondering if its better to upgrade the gpu or get any of these:q9550, q8400, q9400, e8400, e8500....i would like to get some input on this as to what would be more beneficial in terms of framerates and so on...thanks

I doubt you would see any performance difference from upgrading your graphics card, at least in FS9 or FSX. I just upgraded to an e8500 processor from a Core2 2.5 ghz and saw a substantial increase in fps. The 8400/8500 can easily be overclocked, if you have a good cpu cooler.Dale

I doubt you would see any performance difference from upgrading your graphics card, at least in FS9 or FSX. I just upgraded to an e8500 processor from a Core2 2.5 ghz and saw a substantial increase in fps. The 8400/8500 can easily be overclocked, if you have a good cpu cooler.Dale

I agree with Dale on this one. Go for he CPU first. I use the E8500 for about a year now. Out of the box it runs at 3.16 Ghz but I overclocked it without issues to 4.02 Ghz. It can go further up to 4.50 Ghz but then, you will have to invest in serious memory and (of course) a very good cooler.I don't push it that far but I have very good results in Fs-9 and Fs-X.Beware.... overclocking can and will seriously damage your hardware when done wrong... have a nice weekendLuc Brusselmans

Yea I think I'm gonna get the q9550 and overclock it. Since fsx supports quad cores. Do you think overclocking it to 4ghz will bottleneck my gpu or have memory issues?? Thanks guys

Sorry, but I'm going to disagree here. If he got a good 1 Gig video card, the performance improvement would be amazing, and it would be a lot less hassle and expense than replacing the motherboard and doing the over-clocking.

When I upgraded my Pentium D (yes, I know) to a Q6600 I noticed a pretty big boost in performance and that's running at stock speed. But recently I just upgraded my graphics card from 8600GT to 9800GT and honestly the boost in performance wasn't that much.After all, FSX is CPU bound as we know it. So I would recommend going with the CPU upgrade. Specially since you already have a pretty good GPU in there.Regards,

Well I tried it with my old CPU yesterday after installing the service packs and at my resolution of 1360x768 i ran it at ultra high with the aa tuned to max on nhancer. Pretty much all maxed out and I got around 30fps. So I think I got the CPU for no reason hahaha. Ill keep it anyway. In case I have to change displays or somethig. It runs really nice. Regards

Sorry, but I'm going to disagree here. If he got a good 1 Gig video card, the performance improvement would be amazing, and it would be a lot less hassle and expense than replacing the motherboard and doing the over-clocking.

You may disagree but there's not a benchmark nor a knowledgeable simmer here that will agree with you on this one.CPU > GPU for Flight Sim.