I've always had Pentiums but I'm thinking about upgrading to an AMD. What would a AMD 2800+ compare to in a Pentium? 2.8 or 2.6, etc? BTW I have a Nvidia 4600ti and XP.BBjorkman

My first PC was an Intel, didn't care for it much, have had 2 AMDs since and they have all been very realiable.I just put together a new rig for FS (and Ghost Recon), an Athlon 3200, 1 gig GEil high performance DDR, my old G4 4600, XP pro and FS9 screams! I am amazed at how well it does so far, everything cranked full, 2x AA, 4 XAF, 1600x1200 res, mostly payware FSD and eaglesoft installed along with a few others, a few addon sceneries, no tweaks or fixes and locked at 30 and usually stays there, even with heavy clouds, will go to about 23-25 in LA with full AI (realistic FS gates, not crammed full, LOL) I picked AMD again as most of the problem posts here when FS9 came out seemed to be on Intel systems,so far I am very pleased with AMD (can't wait to see what a new Vid card will do!)Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

Thanks MichaelThats good enough for me, I appreciate your input.BBjorkman CFI

I'm an Intel (EX-AMD) guy myself, but if you do decide to get an AMD do yourself a favor and DON'T buy the new FX51 chip.....it is being changed and re-released shortly.

Do yourself a favor and head over to Tomshardware.com - they have a good series of articles comparing the high end AMDs and Intels, head to head, and a huge omnibus study of something like 75 processors going back to 400 mgz. Objective, thorough - you can then make your own evaluation of cost vs. benefit. Just a great site. Colin

>Objective, thorough - you can then make your own evaluation of>cost vs. benefit. Yes, rather then asking poeople for their highly biased opinions it is always best to head for internet and study .. there is a wealth of data available, objective data.It used to be that AMD offered tremendous cost/benefit advantage, but it is hard to see this advantage any more. As a matter of fact the cost/benefit advantage shifted now visibly to Intel - and it happened just about when AMD's overpriced and underperformed Barton was released.Michael J.

Although TH is a great site I would recommend looking elsewhere for more reliable info.Go here:http://www.anandtech.com/index.htmlMUCH MORE RELIABLE!:)

And I almost forgot.Too put it into perspective, a P4 2.4C is about as fast as an AMD XP3200.A 2.6C or 2.8C would be MUCH faster then an AMD of "equal" designation. Remember, the new Pentiums have an 800mhz FSB.Hope this helps!:)