Hi guys,I'm currently running FSX on an E8500 OC @ 4ghz,on XP32 with 4Gb of Transcend 1066 RAM.My GPU is a 9600GT.I'm looking at the cheapest upgrade that will improve mostly the image quality,since FPS wise I seem to be doing pretty good.Would going to a GTX 285 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143190) make a huge difference compared to a GTX 260(http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127464)I guess a GTX 275 is also an option (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143183)I suppose a CPU upgrade to a I7 930 could help too,but I would then need new MB and RAM.Thanks for any input.Richard

I was running a similar setup before I built my computer. I ended up buying a 5870 thinking that would be the answer to my horrible FPS.It did give me some boost, but not a ton. Just said to myself eff it and bought the i7 with completely new hardware. The i7 without a doubt is the cause for my huge FPS bump. If you don't have the money, save up for now and fly with lower settings. They're won't be any new CPUs for a year so you have some time to the point where you won't have to buy another upgrade in just a month or two.

Hi guys,I'm currently running FSX on an E8500 OC @ 4ghz,on XP32 with 4Gb of Transcend 1066 RAM.My GPU is a 9600GT.I'm looking at the cheapest upgrade that will improve mostly the image quality,since FPS wise I seem to be doing pretty good.Would going to a GTX 285 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143190) make a huge difference compared to a GTX 260(http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127464)I guess a GTX 275 is also an option (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143183)I suppose a CPU upgrade to a I7 930 could help too,but I would then need new MB and RAM.Thanks for any input.Richard

I was running a similar setup before I built my computer. I ended up buying a 5870 thinking that would be the answer to my horrible FPS.It did give me some boost, but not a ton. Just said to myself eff it and bought the i7 with completely new hardware. The i7 without a doubt is the cause for my huge FPS bump. If you don't have the money, save up for now and fly with lower settings. They're won't be any new CPUs for a year so you have some time to the point where you won't have to buy another upgrade in just a month or two.

Hi,Thanks for the reply.I can't really do the full upgrade yet,but with 4 Ghz on my E8500 FSX is working quite well.I'm just wondering if replacing my 9600GT with a different GPU(GTX 260,275 OR 285) would improve the image quality.I know the CPU would be my bottleneck,so maybe a 260 would be OK?Thanks again for the advice.Richard

I can recommend the gtx 285 1 gb, you