Really, how would you determine if the performance went "up" enough or to a level that matches what you would have gotten on a fresh OS?

The point is you compare to the prior results with previous hardware. If the performance goes up, the upgrade worked. This isn't some mystical art, it's science.

Most don't, really?Now how would reformatting/reinstalling the OS and applications "save time"? I think it's more of the second thing you mentioned, "eliminate *possible* headaches" which is why many recommend doing a reformat to begin with. Does reformatting not help to obtain that "certainty" that you are getting the most out of the new GPU?

I'm not going to continue to argue this with you. I do this for a living, I know ##### I'm talking about. You can try and bait me all you like but I'm not going to humor you any longer.

The point is you compare to the prior results with previous hardware. If the performance goes up, the upgrade worked. This isn't some mystical art, it's science.

Right, and like I asked before how do you know if the performance gain is the same as it would be if you left nothing to chance with a fresh OS?

I'm not going to continue to argue this with you. I do this for a living, I know ##### I'm talking about. You can try and bait me all you like but I'm not going to humor you any longer.

You do what for a living? Fix computers that are used for those

I've been repairing PCs professionally for the last 10 years. I work in a repair shop, and I fix about 50 PCs per month on my own. Outside of that I have 3 personal game machines which I maintain, as well as 2 others. I also have private clients which use their PCs for a wide variety of tasks, FSX not the least among them.What is it you do, precisely, other than attack people on forums?

I've been repairing PCs professionally for the last 10 years. I work in a repair shop, and I fix about 50 PCs per month on my own.

So how many of those

We are talking

Thanks Tim.I have tried the

I understood "dedicated gaming machime" from the previous post. I take it you dont have a lot of add-ons or tweak the OS much to set it up?

As far as FSX is concerned, just UTX/GEX USA, Canada and Europe and almost everything Orbx has released, so I don

Hi,Just got done reading some of the responses in this topic, what a shame. Its amazing how far down hill these forums have gone since the old days. I've owned both ATI's 5870 and Nvidia's 285GTX video boards, I sold my ATI board on ebay because graphics/performance was unacceptable for use with Microsoft Flight Simulator, Nvidia is the hands-down graphics card of choice for "ME" in regards to Flightsim. If your buying a graphics card in the hopes of better Flightsim drivers, things aren't going to get better drivers wise because both companies could care less about Flight Simulation!. Between the two companies, ATI's drivers are pathetic and any requests/feedback fall on DEAF EARS.As far as re-formating your system and starting from scratch because you changed a video board and associated drivers, that's just ridiculous!. All you need to do is use the graphics card uninstall program provided and if it makes you feel better, use an additional graphics driver removal tool. If you are paranoid about lingering drivers, you could also scan your system registry. Don't let anyone lead you to believe searching the system registry is a long and tedious operation, its not!. If your going to search your system registry just enter key word(s) to search for (example: ATI), if you get a hit, you can leave the entry and continue your search or delete the entry, to continue your search, just press F3 to delete the entry press the DEL key. I can scan and remove ALL VIDEO DRIVERS from my system registry within minutes, a complete system re-install would take two to three days. Again, formatting/complete re-install just for a video board is ridiculous!

Hi,Just got done reading some of the responses in this topic, what a shame. Its amazing how far down hill these forums have gone since the old days. I've owned both ATI's 5870 and Nvidia's 285GTX video boards, I sold my ATI board on ebay because graphics/performance was unacceptable for use with Microsoft Flight Simulator, Nvidia is the hands-down graphics card of choice for "ME" in regards to Flightsim. If your buying a graphics card in the hopes of better Flightsim drivers, things aren't going to get better drivers wise because both companies could care less about Flight Simulation!. Between the two companies, ATI's drivers are pathetic and any requests/feedback fall on DEAF EARS.As far as re-formating your system and starting from scratch because you changed a video board and associated drivers, that's just ridiculous!. All you need to do is use the graphics card uninstall program provided and if it makes you feel better, use an additional graphics driver removal tool. If you are paranoid about lingering drivers, you could also scan your system registry. Don't let anyone lead you to believe searching the system registry is a long and tedious operation, its not!. If your going to search your system registry just enter key word(s) to search for (example: ATI), if you get a hit, you can leave the entry and continue your search or delete the entry, to continue your search, just press F3 to delete the entry press the DEL key. I can scan and remove ALL VIDEO DRIVERS from my system registry within minutes, a complete system re-install would take two to three days. Again, formatting/complete re-install just for a video board is ridiculous!

Just some caution: If you have 980 SLI board you might remove the keys to the MB chipset in the proccess if you are doing a scan for all things Nvidia. Also becarefull of how ATI has integrated with the AMD chipset drivers. Its not that its that hard at all, just use some caution and do some research for the first time. It is hard to think of doing this for the first time, so I hope I havenet left anything out, Im just typing on the go as it bubbles up into whats left of my brain right now...It is really a good idea to get familiar with the contents of the display drivers as it helps to remove them. For starters you can read the install.ini and of course Google is your friend etc. Also some the ATI services if still running when you delete keys or try to use the uninstaller will just keep coming back or you will get warnings that they are missing. Make sure all ATI services are stopped while in SafeMode and do your registry scans and uninstalls from there from there. Nvidia are pretty straight forward, I hate ATI driver hooks! :)

Hi,Just got done reading some of the responses in this topic, what a shame. Its amazing how far down hill these forums have gone since the old days. I've owned both ATI's 5870 and Nvidia's 285GTX video boards, I sold my ATI board on ebay because graphics/performance was unacceptable for use with Microsoft Flight Simulator

No no, that's the wrong answer. I want you to tell me how to get my 5870 totally awesome for FSX

Just got done reading some of the responses in this topic, what a shame. Its amazing how far down hill these forums have gone since the old days.

Not to mention that many forum members who actually did have good info/recommendations to share won