Hi,I'm sorry for posting hardware related post here. It seems somebody hates people posting this type of post but I really desperately need suggestions on hardware upgrade.Here are what I have for now:CPU: Q6600 OC @3.0HzRAM: DDR2 800 2*1GbVideo Card: XFX 8800GTS 320MbHard Drive: SATA II 250G 7200rpmOS: Vista Business 32bitUpgrade Motivation: even for default aircrafts, I can not get a smooth experience over Aerosoft Mega Airports such as Paris Charles de Gaule or even Nice Cote d'Azur. Especially at night. 10-20 FPS generally but got stuck sometimes. Even 15FPS is okay for me but I don't want it to get stuck. What's more, I'm going to fly NGX in these airports in the future... So, I need a smooth experience.FSX Config: - No target frame rate limit. Global Texture resolution: High- Aircraft/Scenery are set to Medium high.- Weather is Ultra High (Cloud draw distance: 60mi, detailed cloud density max)- Nearly no traffic...Considerations:- Should I add more RAM. 4G, 6G and upgrade to Win7 64bit (I've got it already). Cost: ~ 50 EUR- Should I change a video card? 460GTX? Cost: ~ 200EUR- Should I buy a SSD Hard drive? Cost: depends on its size, at least 100 EUR.I can't afford to change them all for now.... So which one do you think can help me most?Thank you so much for your help!:( Desperately waiting for answers.. Thanks!!

I think you really need to upgrade your whole system core unfortunately - mobo, CPU, RAM, and GPU. The Core 2 Quad is three generations behind now - there was a very noticeable difference when I went from my Q6600 to the i7 860. It would be even moreso going to the new 2500K/2600K. Your low amounts of system RAM and GPU memory is seriously holding you back big time too - those addon sceneries have a ton of texture overhead and you're likely fully saturating the card. There's just no way you're going to get a smooth experience with a lot of scenery addons with this type of system, sorry. Your components are old enough that a new system is probably the best option. There's no one thing you can buy that's going to fix it.

+1 to what Ryan has said. If you were to get a new GPU (ie; the GTX 460), im pretty sure there would be a bottleneck causing even worse performance. Im upgrading my system at the end of the year (had it for almost 2 years!), and im assuming yours is more than 2yrs, so you should probably do the same!

If you absolutely can't afford to do more, upgrade the GPU and the system RAM. Get a 1GB GTX460 or 560 Ti, and put 4 or 8GB of RAM in the machine.

If you absolutely can't afford to do more, upgrade the GPU and the system RAM. Get a 1GB GTX460 or 560 Ti, and put 4 or 8GB of RAM in the machine.

Oh dear Ryan, I'm evertime so doubting between the 560Ti and 570. Is it really worth to pay 100 euro more for the 570, the 670 really that much better? :(

Steven,Simple - do you play other games besides FS? If not, get the 560. If so, get the 570. The 570 is MUCH better than the 560 in GPU limited games.

Steven,Simple - do you play other games besides FS? If not, get the 560. If so, get the 570. The 570 is MUCH better than the 560 in GPU limited games.

Oke, it will be the 570 then because I'm planning to play the coming Battlefield 3 aswell. Many thanks for your help!

I operated an E8400 before it blew up with a 4gb 800mhz RAM, nVidia 9800GT 512mb, 500 SATA HDD all on the Gigabyte EP45-UD3 mobo. I found it worked pretty well with aircraft such as the PMDG 747-400. I think the only thing holding it back when I wanted to use addon airports such as FTX YMML was the texture load capacity and maybe OS. So depending on what you want it for, you may be able to make a few simple upgrades.(I know, I am not professional but, I just want to have my say.

If you absolutely can't afford to do more, upgrade the GPU and the system RAM. Get a 1GB GTX460 or 560 Ti, and put 4 or 8GB of RAM in the machine.

Thank you so much Ryan. This computer was bought in Jan. 2008. I ran Nv Inspector today and it showed that the memory usage of my graphic card was constantly at 313M (317M max) out of 320M, maybe that was the sign of lack of memory.By the way, the RAM usage of the system was constantly at 1.7G out of 2.0G.When my CPU run at 3.0Hz, it's about 3-5 FPS faster than 2.4GHz under the same condition.So maybe I need to buy a Video card and some RAM.. Oh, yes... Maybe my power supply is not enough, it's only 400W :(

Somebody brought those old posts up and my poor post sank...You know everyone says FSX is a CPU limited game instead of a GPU limited game. However, I'm wondering if it's limited by video card on my computer since overclocking CPU only makes minor difference for me.Memory in my video card reaches 317M out of 320M and my system RAM reaches 1.7G out of 2.0G. Is that the sign of lack of memory?

Somebody brought those old posts up and my poor post sank...You know everyone says FSX is a CPU limited game instead of a GPU limited game. However, I'm wondering if it's limited by video card on my computer since overclocking CPU only makes minor difference for me.Memory in my video card reaches 317M out of 320M and my system RAM reaches 1.7G out of 2.0G. Is that the sign of lack of memory?

If you plan to buy a any GTX Series, you might consider visiting this pageafter you install your card. Bojote's Tweaking and Tuning tool for FSXIt will help you gain some extra FPS on your FSX.And as someone said before, try to also buy more ram. 4 GB of ram willmake FSX breathe a bit more. Making FSX run smoothly involves many factors. starting off from CPU processor, followed by RAM, video and a big fat hard drive.Oh and by the way, upgrade from Vista to WIN7.Cheers! Mike

I was thinking the same thing about upgrading my computerDell Studio XPS 435MT, Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 GHz , 8GB RAM,Windows 7 Home Premium (64 Bit)NIVIDA Ge Force GT 220Wat you think??