Im looking to upgrade my old system in the near future.What is the best CPU and graphics card to run FS9 maxed out.I dont want FSX because ive sent loads on extras like scenery and aircraft.I will also need to buy a new mother board, because i dont have any pci connectionI have a P4 3 hz cpu, sapphire x1950 pro card, and 2 gig of memory at the present.This seems to work OK until I start to use clouds which kill the frame rates, which i have fixed at 21. thanks for the advice steve

A high end dual core or a quad core will run FS9 well. For graphics, a NVidia GTX range, or 9800GTX/GTX+, or ATI 4870 or higher.

If you need the big 3, you'll almost certainly need a new power supply as well. Be sure to get a quality unit from a name brand or you'll just be buying a replacement down the road.

A high end dual core or a quad core will run FS9 well. For graphics, a NVidia GTX range, or 9800GTX/GTX+, or ATI 4870 or higher.

A decent dual core is a must and I would recommend the 9800 series card over the ATI card. With the NVidia card you can tweak more performance out of it using nHancer.I must admit to being hugely biased towards NVidia cards though.

I'm not sure about FS9, but FSX poses some issues for some ATI users. Please note I said SOME and don't jump to conclusions. I run my 2x 5870's with no issues why so ever. But maybe that's just luck.

I built my system specifically for FS9 last year and I think it's one of the best performers for the money (see specs in my sig below). Everything told me that FS9 doesn't really benefit from having 4 cores vs. 1 so I stuck with a dual core processor and overclocked it to get as much speed as possible (on air). This was my first o/c attempt and EVGA products made it very easy, they have step by step tutorials on their forums. With FSDT KJFK scenery, WOAI traffic @80%, AS 6.5 weather, and PMDG aircraft it never goes below 30 FPS and usually stays between 50-60 FPS.

Thanks for everyones advice. steve