maybe this might help you in you descisionhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/01/05/amds_ati_radeon_eyefinity_performance_review/6Best Regards,Bert Van BulckWell done!Why spend a lot more money for the last 15% of graphics?I would consider an SSD though. Improves overall PC experiance!Best Regards,Bert Van bulck

Perhaps I'm reading the links wrong but even ATI 6xxx and 5xxx series have AA performance issues like the 4xxx?I guess I'm now lost between a 5970, 6970, or I suppose GTX 480.

Perhaps I'm reading the links wrong but even ATI 6xxx and 5xxx series have AA performance issues like the 4xxx?I guess I'm now lost between a 5970, 6970, or I suppose GTX 480.

Personally, I'd stay away from ATI if I were intent on having good FSX visuals.

Personally, I'd stay away from ATI if I were intent on having good FSX visuals.

I think that the GTX 580 is out of my price range. So if I went the NVidia route, it'd be between the 570 and 480.

Personally, I'd stay away from ATI if I were intent on having good FSX visuals.

If you don't want Eyefinity, Nvidia is the better choise. Shame Nvidia didn't have it at the time as I wanted to get rid of the Matrox.Best Regards,Bert Van Bulck

I'd probably just get a GTX 570. Good value and beats a 480. Not sure how it ranks stacked against a 5870 though (480 is on EOL anyway)

As has been said lots of times by lots of people, if you aren't overclocking, you are wasting your time and money. Nothing else you can do is going to give you a fraction of the performance boost! How about this for an idea; Instead of a new graphics card, buy a 2nd hand i7 920 (and a decent cooler) off ebay, and overclock to 3.8 ~ 4GHz. Your warrenty is safe because you have taken your posh chip out. If you don't like the results you can sell them again for pretty much what you paid so there is no financial risk, and if you do like the results, you can sell your i7 975 and get a GTX570!

You have spend 4k on your rig, but you do not want to risk damaging components due to overclocking? You could of course have spent 2k on the rig and overclocked it and it would have outperformed what you have now. And if you torched your cpu (which i have never heard about anyone doing honestly, not for moderate 24/7 clocks anyways) then you could have bought a new piece of silicone for about $250. Doesnt seem like you took the most cost effective road, nor the one that yielded the best performance. I dont get it

Based on the fact that your I975 is actually better made to take overclocking than i7920 is then you are far safer to do it. Hence why the chip comes at a faster stock clock in the first place. I havent heard of anyone frying their CPU(more likely to fry a graphics card) your i975 in a years time will be worth next to nothing anyway, and in fact is already being phased out, so even should it fry over the next year the CPU will be outdated and slow especially if still running it at standard clock speeds.As pretty much everyone as stated in the thread, as much as graphics cards do add some benefits to fsx, and they vary across the range and manufacturer, unless your GPU is that ancient(which it isnt) or you just got nothing better to do with your cash, with the present pc infrastructure and the way FSX is designed you will see very little improvement at all for FSX, may gain in some areas with other games, but again in some games ATI will out perform NVIDIA. Overclocking your CPU is the way to go, an i975 not overclocked is a pointless purchase, its like paying extra to have hand stiched leather seats in your car and then putting seat covers over them to protect them so nonbody sees them!Overclocking is simple, its only if you really want to go crazy that it becomes a bit more complex, but most motherboards, have a standard set of simple overclock tweaks that will give you basic overclocking without even needing to really know what you are doing. Your CPU with its present cooler and 7 fans, will take a moderate overclock, you dont need water cooling to get 3.8 out of it, and if its a decent aircooler you will get 4 out of it easily to.Whatever CPU you have you will see in these forums, that from people with E series, quad, or I7 I5's they all see biggest FPS gains by overclocking.I'd save your money, if you fry your CPU in the year, you will have enough cash to buy a I7920 and in fact in years time probably your i975 on ebay but as it wont have fried anyway you will then be able to upgrade our GPU to the new archecture or new CPU range, which around about then will better intergrate GPU/CPU workloads and MS Flight likely to be out which will benefit(hopefully) from GPU performance increases, for now overclock.

After running a few days with an overclocked i7 950 chip up to 4ghz, it's stable, and performance is so smooth it's ridiculous. I don't see a huge jump in FPS as much as I do a smooth experience. Even when frames might be in their 20s with tons of clouds, in Orbx PNW, full autogen, fps are smooth and no jumps or stutters.

I'm simply not comfortable with the cooling of my system and my technical know-how to overclock (yes, I have read several tutorials listed on these forums). That, combined with a warranty, I just don't want to do it. I appreciate the suggestion to overclock, and I acknowledge it will help.I've decided to go with the GTX 570 and preliminary results are promising (3d clouds, major thunderstorm, at FSDT JFK in the VC of the JS41, no AI; able to hold about 25+ FPS, externally limited to 32 or so and able to hold 30+ with the JS41 demo scenario smoothly). Granted, I only have 10 min to toy with it, I'll be able to sit down and look at all the new video card features on Thursday. Thank you for the recommendations.

Well, over all, it seems like it was a good choice. You're upgrading from a 4870 X2 to a 570. You don't have enough money to get a 580 but you want something better than a 480 so you got a 570. You're worried about OCing your CPU because you don't trust your air cooling and your knowledge and you don't want to void your warranty as well so if that was the case, I would have done the same. Good choice in your case

How would a GTX460SE be for FSX? I know it is not the full on 460, but just wondering.