"9800 GTX. I was led to believe the GPU wasn't that big of a difference maker" Ok I have had enough of this crap about video cards not being a big deal when it comes to fsx not running better thats BS every time I bought a newer video card I have seen major improvements from the purchase, I now own gtx508 fermi and let me tell you it blows away my last card in fsx and that was no slouch get a real video card in that thing please.

The i7 "Bloomfield" architecture processor debuted 3 years ago in 2008. I run an i7 950 Bloomfield which is already 3 year old technology and I have zero issues with the NGX. You think PMDG should develop their addons based on technology that was available 4+ years ago? Or 5 years? Six?Computing hardware will upgrade rapidly every year. If you can't keep up that's not PMDG's fault. And how did they lie to you when they posted their minimum and recommended settings on the project page before you even clicked "buy?"

I'll tell you how, because I already have an i7 processor that kicked plenty of FSX butt before this addon. Is that good enough? They recommend a Sandy Bridge i7? So I should just go right out and spend $750 to upgrade from a processor that already kicked butt to the newer one, just because they couldn't figure out how to throttle the product to something a little less expensive for those who ALREADY took the plunge?

I have a pretty old dual core myself getting about half the fps you mention. How did you do that?

I dumped my fsx cfg file, ran fsx, closed it, then used this http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html. Then i lowered my scenery setting to medium. I have to admit, i have the autogene slider to nil. I don't care, if i fly a passenger jet i aint looking out that much and i dont see much difference at an airport. if i want to fly VFR to look around, i can modifie my setting easely as most add-on small plane are not fps hungry. And this is on a 32bit OS (i'm putting W7 64bit tonight).

You haven't been flying X-Plane have you? ;) Chris S

"9800 GTX. I was led to believe the GPU wasn't that big of a difference maker" Ok I have had enough of this crap about video cards not being a big deal when it comes to fsx not running better thats BS every time I bought a newer video card I have seen major improvements from the purchase, I now own gtx508 fermi and let me tell you it blows away my last card in fsx and that was no slouch get a real video card in that thing please.

That's just something I've not heard before. Even all of the guys doing comprehensive testing of FSX performance with different hardware have said that video cards aren't a big deal. Perhaps it's time for a shift in thinking here. It would be nice if everyone stopped saying that, though.

You haven't been flying X-Plane have you? ;) Chris S

What PMDG aircraft work with X-Plane? Oh wait, none.

Chris proud of you my friend now lol please believe me pal its so true, if you need help with your system be proud to help you I have been doing this for years and I know we can get that thing smoking buddy.

That's just something I've not heard before. Even all of the guys doing comprehensive testing of FSX performance with different hardware have said that video cards aren't a big deal. Perhaps it's time for a shift in thinking here. It would be nice if everyone stopped saying that, though.

I'm currently using an ATI 5850 and I can tell you the graphics card does make a difference when you are talking about anti-aliasing and texture filtering. My card is terrible at AA within FSX, but lowering the AA setting by one notch gave me a boost of about 5fps.

I'm getting very good performance.

Gtx580 I lower nothing, card rocks ask anyone

I'll tell you how, because I already have an i7 processor that kicked plenty of FSX butt before this addon. Is that good enough? They recommend a Sandy Bridge i7? So I should just go right out and spend $750 to upgrade from a processor that already kicked butt to the newer one, just because they couldn't figure out how to throttle the product to something a little less expensive for those who ALREADY took the plunge?

Chris, lose the attitude. No one wants to help someone that has to be sarcastic with every reply. And no, that reason isn't good enough.I get 30 frames with an i7 Bloomfield, the very first i7 architecture to come out, so actually yes PMDG did design their product to work with "something a little less expensive." A lot of the testers and developers tested the NGX on i7 systems and they didn't have problems.Just because you have an issue with your system doesn't automatically mean the NGX can't run on an i7 system.I think you're just angry it doesn't work as well as you want it to on your system, and you'd rather blame PMDG and make ridiculous claims they lied to you when plenty of others don't have issues with the same processor architecture you have. Anyway, good luck fine tuning your system.

Often over-looked is the amount and type of anti-aliasing being applied. Do you know what kind of AA you are using? 8X Super Sampling looks super but is a heavy burden on even the highest end systems. I saw a dramatic increase in smoothness and fps when I switched from 8X Super Sampling to 8X Adaptive Multi Sampling and just a tad decrease in scenery quality.

With all due respect trip I think he has made ammends by considering a new video card, which is a great step in the right direction, thanks.Not on my flight rig right now but in the aa settings in nvidia inspector the supermode 64 x 12 is awesome its not the right description but you get the idea try it out much better than the usual 8x stuff, works great, now one would think it wouldnt work well being such high numbers but it worked wonders for me.

I am very interested in the performance issue before I make my purchase, so can all the users with computers that belong in a NASA lab stop posting their fps in such a casual way? Michael S...Your computer is most likely the fastest one on the boards. If YOU had problems, then I would be VERY worried about the product.Some of us don't overclock our i7's (which we don't have) and most of us don't have heatsinks that could cool an overheating truck.There are some of us who would like to hear from people with the minimum specs and somewhere in between the minimum and recommended.

Post your rig specs please Goran for some help

So what GPU should I get? $500 is a little too much for a 580 gtx