I was thinking of improving my system for the last couple of days because I currently have a pretty powerful one, but I still can hardly set the graphic settings somewhere above average without suffering from bad FPS.My current system:Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit4GB of RAMIntel Core i3 @ 2x 2.93GHzNVIDIA GeForce GT 330 2523 MBDirectX 11Now I was thinking of buying a new videocard, perhaps the Nvidia GTX 460 at 1GB, but I'm not very sure if this would make such a great impact that I can set the graphic settings to (nearly) maximum and run it with good FPS?

I was thinking of improving my system for the last couple of days because I currently have a pretty powerful one, but I still can hardly set the graphic settings somewhere above average without suffering from bad FPS.My current system:Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit4GB of RAMIntel Core i3 @ 2x 2.93GHzNVIDIA GeForce GT 330 2523 MBDirectX 11Now I was thinking of buying a new videocard, perhaps the Nvidia GTX 460 at 1GB, but I'm not very sure if this would make such a great impact that I can set the graphic settings to (nearly) maximum and run it with good FPS?

Slight correction: This system isn't powerful at all. The GT 330 is basically a re-branded GT 220 (junk).A new GPU is a start, but it won't give the performance increase you'd probably expect for the price. What it will do is allow you to play other games with much better performance. The important question is rather or not your power supply (PSU) is up to it? What is your PSU's wattage (probably 400W or so)? I wouldn't put a 460 in that system if the PSU isn't at least 450-500W.It's obvious by the GT 330 that you have an OEM motherboard and system from a manufacturer like Dell. So overclocking (though the best choice) is out of the question. Otherwise, that would be the best way to get good performance out of FSX.

Edited February 27, 201214 yr by ZachLW

Sorry to dissapoint you, but your system is far from powerful - not just the graphic card, also the CPU is (by today's standards), close to the border from low to mid-end PC. FS X requires synchronised performance from both GPU and CPU, so just buying a better graphic card won't help you as much as you might expect. You definitely need a stronger processor also.

Is that a laptop?Like the others have said, that's a very average spec PC and not one that could be considered powerful especially for software as demanding as FSX. The i3 is the new, low-end processor. It's not really designed for proper gaming. Neither is the GT330 graphics card.Ideally you want an i5 or if your budget allows an i7, and preferably a GTX560 or better.

Thanks for your replies so far. One last question to be sure, if I'm gonna get an i5 or an i7 and a GTX560 or better, it will increase the power so that I can set the settings (much) higher and still can enjoy good FPS in FSX?I'm just asking once again to make sure I haven't misunderstood anything because it's certainly gonna be a lot of money...

i5 or 7 K-version so that you can oc it to 4.5+ with a 560 will do it for you. - and 8-gig of CL8 memory.

Edited February 27, 201214 yr by Paul J

Thanks :)