Hi people,I have about

Jon,Currently testing a Radeon 5850 and I can finally say for the first time ever that I have not seen one shimmer in any buildings. Don't have time now but I will post my settings later. My system specs are in signature. In addition, running HDE clouds (for now as REX is in my sights) and they are portrayed beautifully with fps dropping to about 30 in heaviest IFR conditions. As a side note, I used nVidia many years until I got hooked on a 9800pro then went on to a 3870 with even better results. Also waiting to see what nVidia Fermi will bring.

You shouldn't need a graphics card upgrade for FS9. I have a customer who uses the same card and runs FS9 with full settings (dual monitor, both 1080P) with every add-on you can imagine and never has performance issues, on a Core 2 Duo E8440 @ 3.33GHz (E8600 speed) with 4GB RAM on Windows 7 x64. If you feel your performance is lacking for FS9, I suggest you look elsewhere. Start with the CPU. What are you using?

Jon,I don't dis-agree that the 8800 might do a great job, but I definitely can attest to the fact that going to the 5850 provided me with a great experience! I'm dumbfounded how nice the app now looks without building shimmer, with HDE clouds for now and the additional add-ons as in my sig. 30-60 fps with no stutters with the following settings:XFX Radeon 5850 stock speed/cooler1680x1050 32bit resolutionCatalyst 9.10 driversAA - 4x Edge-DetectAF - 16xCatalyst AI - AdvancedMipMap - High QualitySSAA - QualityVertical Refresh - Off Unless App SpecifiesMSFS 9.1SceneryTerrain Mesh Complexity - 50Terrain Texture Size - HighTerrain Detail - Land & WaterWater Effects - LowExtended Terrain Textures - checkDawn/Dusk Texture Blending - checkScenery Complexity - Extremely DenseAutogen - DenseAddon Dynamic Scenery - DenseAircraftVirtual Cockpit - HighAircraft Landing Lights - checkNO reflectionsNO shadowsWeatherSight Distance - 60Cloud Draw - 403D Clouds - 100%Detailed Cloud Density - HighHardwareTarget FPS - UnlimitedRender to Textures - checkTransform & Lighting - checkBilinear Filtering selectedMipMap Level - 4Hardware Rendered Lights - 8Global Max Texture Size - High[DISPLAY.Device.ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series.0]Mode=1680x1050x32MipBias=7[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100TextureMaxLoad=10[TERRAIN]//TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=50.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000//TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8//TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1//TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=0.000000TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000//TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=0.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000//TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1307992TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=3[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1DYN_SCN_DENSITY=3DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1SUNGLARE=0LENSFLARE=0

You shouldn't need a graphics card upgrade for FS9. I have a customer who uses the same card and runs FS9 with full settings (dual monitor, both 1080P) with every add-on you can imagine and never has performance issues, on a Core 2 Duo E8440 @ 3.33GHz (E8600 speed) with 4GB RAM on Windows 7 x64. If you feel your performance is lacking for FS9, I suggest you look elsewhere. Start with the CPU. What are you using?

E8400 3GHZ4GB memoryVista Home Pre 32bit

Jon,I don't dis-agree that the 8800 might do a great job, but I definitely can attest to the fact that going to the 5850 provided me with a great experience! I'm dumbfounded how nice the app now looks without building shimmer, with HDE clouds for now and the additional add-ons as in my sig. 30-60 fps with no stutters with the following settings:XFX Radeon 5850 stock speed/cooler1680x1050 32bit resolutionCatalyst 9.10 driversAA - 4x Edge-DetectAF - 16xCatalyst AI - AdvancedMipMap - High QualitySSAA - QualityVertical Refresh - Off Unless App SpecifiesMSFS 9.1SceneryTerrain Mesh Complexity - 50Terrain Texture Size - HighTerrain Detail - Land & WaterWater Effects - LowExtended Terrain Textures - checkDawn/Dusk Texture Blending - checkScenery Complexity - Extremely DenseAutogen - DenseAddon Dynamic Scenery - DenseAircraftVirtual Cockpit - HighAircraft Landing Lights - checkNO reflectionsNO shadowsWeatherSight Distance - 60Cloud Draw - 403D Clouds - 100%Detailed Cloud Density - HighHardwareTarget FPS - UnlimitedRender to Textures - checkTransform & Lighting - checkBilinear Filtering selectedMipMap Level - 4Hardware Rendered Lights - 8Global Max Texture Size - High[DISPLAY.Device.ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series.0]Mode=1680x1050x32MipBias=7[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100TextureMaxLoad=10[TERRAIN]//TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=50.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000//TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8//TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1//TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=0.000000TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000//TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=0.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000//TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1307992TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=3[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1DYN_SCN_DENSITY=3DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1SUNGLARE=0LENSFLARE=0

Thanks for your responses guysJon