HiMy PC, originally purchased for FS9, runs FSX reasonably if I am very careful with the settings.I have noticed that Vista gives the following performance rating for my system:Processor 5.3, Memory 5.9, Graphics 4.1, Gaming Graphics 4.4 and Primary hard disk 5.7 giving my system a performance rating of 4.1It also gives FSX a game requirement rating of 3.0 and a recommended performance rating of 5.0. This appears to confirm my FSX experience, it runs but not without significant concessions, and that the video capability is the weakest link.My questions are:How relevant and/or realistic are these figures?Am I likely to see a significant gain if I upgraded my video card (a GeForce 7600GS) to a top end model? I am unlikely to be able to afford a major H/W upgrade in the near future and wonder if a good card now would keep me going and then transfer to a newer system at a later date.What video cards would you recommend?What system performance ratings does Vista give to those owning a system running FSX at or near full pelt?Please keep it as nontechnical as possible at this stage.Current systemProcessor: AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 56600+ running at 2.8 GHz.RAM: 2 GB occupying the only two slots on the M/B.Graphics: GeForce 7600GS with 500 MB of memory, which is a slower product than the GeForce.7600GT.Present software: FSX, Flight1 GEX and UTX for Europe and USA, ATR 72-500, Aerosoft My TrafficX, Cheyenne and Katana.Eventually hope to run: FEX, Global X mesh, Austria Professional, Scotflight’s scenery for Scotland and a really good model of a Cessna Skyhawk or similar to complete my hanger.All comment welcomeBlue skiesFlapless

IMHO they don't mean a thing for FSX performance.Your system is a bit weaker than mine and I've been ready for a major upgrade for over 1 year hehe.I wouldn't waste the money on a video card upgrade. Maybe if your power supply can take it - a geforce 9800GTX/9800GT would be a bit of a step up assuming you're running lower resolutions like 1280x1024 etc.The entire system needs reworking, ie - time to buy new parts if you seriously want to run and ENJOY FSX.A good base system:Intel i5 2500K or i7 2600K CPUP67 motherboard4-8GB DDR3 RAMGeforce GTX460/570/580 video cardDecent cooler for overclocking Quality brand name Power Supply (Corsair, PC Power+Cooling, etc 700w+)Probably need to spend $1000-1500 bucks to get a decent FSX rig.

HiMy PC, originally purchased for FS9, runs FSX reasonably if I am very careful with the settings.I have noticed that Vista gives the following performance rating for my system:Processor 5.3, Memory 5.9, Graphics 4.1, Gaming Graphics 4.4 and Primary hard disk 5.7 giving my system a performance rating of 4.1It also gives FSX a game requirement rating of 3.0 and a recommended performance rating of 5.0. This appears to confirm my FSX experience, it runs but not without significant concessions, and that the video capability is the weakest link.My questions are:How relevant and/or realistic are these figures?Am I likely to see a significant gain if I upgraded my video card (a GeForce 7600GS) to a top end model? I am unlikely to be able to afford a major H/W upgrade in the near future and wonder if a good card now would keep me going and then transfer to a newer system at a later date.What video cards would you recommend?What system performance ratings does Vista give to those owning a system running FSX at or near full pelt?Please keep it as nontechnical as possible at this stage.Current systemProcessor: AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 56600+ running at 2.8 GHz.RAM: 2 GB occupying the only two slots on the M/B.Graphics: GeForce 7600GS with 500 MB of memory, which is a slower product than the GeForce.7600GT.Present software: FSX, Flight1 GEX and UTX for Europe and USA, ATR 72-500, Aerosoft My TrafficX, Cheyenne and Katana.Eventually hope to run: FEX, Global X mesh, Austria Professional, Scotflight’s scenery for Scotland and a really good model of a Cessna Skyhawk or similar to complete my hanger.All comment welcomeBlue skiesFlapless

Hi, I do not own Vista, but W7. It gives me an rating of 7.3 for the processor, 7.3. for RAM , 7.2 for grafic´s and the weakest is 5.9 for my HDD. Maybe that helps a bit.You´ve questioned, what you need, to get FSX running somehow good?With this rating I can play FSX somehow good, but I´m actually on an purgade in the grafic section, hoping things get better.Regarding your grafic card question, I´ve found something really affordable and powerfull: Check out the nVidia GTX 460, she´s not so expensive and has decent power. I´ll get her in a couple of days.I have some other upgrading tips: 1. Try to get 4Gb RAM, 2 are too less. My system is using arround 2,8GB or more, when I´m flying with a small GA aircraft, so 2 GB aren really a no go.2. You could try to overclock your processor. I also did that and had a really performance boost. It´s mostly not too difficuld to do it, but you have to do some maths. I don´t know how this is with your AMD system (I have an Intel CPU), but I got an easy overclocking tool shipped with my motherboard. you can ckeck the net regarding to these things, there lot´s of tutorials out there.That´s it for now, if you have some other questiones, just write.