Hello guys. I want to know would I realize a huge difference between a GTX 560 and GTX 580. Of course there are some significant differences between the two but would I be able to tell a big difference in FSX with my system (listed below)? I have been involved with flightsim since its beginning and invested tens of thousands of dollars to be on the cutting edge with it but not anymore. With the economy the way it is now and living on retirement budget, I am not able to splurge as I once did. It no longer impress me to spend an extra $300 to gain 3 or 4 more FPS or smoothness. I would imagine any 500 series would be better than the 400 series counterpart. GTX 560, 570 or 580 - what would be reccommanded?

MSFS doesn't produce much of a workload for modern graphics cards, the vast majority of graphics card resources are not utilized. Moving from a 560 to a 580 would produce no noticeable difference in performance, and only measurable at a very low percentage. The 560 is basically the card to get for FSX. I would recommend the TI version over the standard 560 though.

I was having the same debate with myself on my recent build. Couldn't justify the 580 from a cost perspective so I split the difference and went with the superclocked 570 by evga. I don't know how much (if any) gain over the 560ti it was but I'm happy with the decision I made however as the graphics exceeded my expectations within FSX. I also came from an 8800GT so i'm sure the 560 couldn't have been a bad decision either.

I just went to a 560TI over the weekend over my old GTX 285 and I'm pretty happy with it. Gained about 25% more frames in heavy load FSX areas (with a 4.0Ghz i7-920) with less stuttering and more smoothness over the 285. But I also wanted the 560TI for the quietness of the fan and that fact that under load, the 560ti runs at around 52C. My GTX 285 would climb up to around 75-80C under load and the noisy fan would kick in.

Thanks guys for responding. While looking at the spec's of the many cards out there and considering the advice, I am leaning towards this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500210&Tpk=ZOTAC%20AMP%21%20ZT-50702-10M. As far as I can tell, the specifications looks great even when compared to a GTX 570 ti. I hope to make a purchase in the next couple of days. Still open for suggestions and please feel free to make them - I know in this day and time, noone wants to be held liable in any sense of the imagination but, please don't worry about that - I am from the "old school". I am just a plain, simple and honest person that uses more "common sense" than anything else.Thanks again

Wilbert, the 560TI version generally performs better than the plain 560 version. You can see the difference in gaming performance in these links:Tom's Hardware 2011 graphic cardsAnandTech 560 reviewWhether or not, the 560TI works better in FSX than the plain 560 version is unknown to me, but I do second TechguyMaxC's recommendation of the TI version.

Thanks to all. I decided on this http://www.newegg.co...0012-P3-1578-AR and await its arrival. I hope this will be able to keep up with things for a little while because this economy is going downhill fast. I remember the time when the most expensive thing of a home pc was the CPU. I can forsee that in the future, you will not need a motherboard - just a case, graphics card, power supply, monitor and dvd drives. All the input/output devices will be on the graphics card because that where all data processing will be. Just joking but again, Thanks. I hope that my system now will be able to handle FSX, M$ Flight and X-Plane 10 and all the fantastic add-ons that are now being developed.