Fellow simmers,

I am looking to upgrade from an old 9800GT to a new graphics card that's under $200. These are the two cards I am looking at:

 

http://www.tigerdire...asp?EdpNo=41125 (GTX 550)

 

and

 

http://www.tigerdire...5335&CatId=3669 (GTX 560)

 

As far as the question, I see that the 550 has a higher clock speed for core, memory, and shader. But it's stream processors and memory interface/bandwidth are less than the 560. My understanding is that FSX mainly takes advantage of the core/memory clock speeds, is that correct? If so, is the 550 a better choice? Which one would give me FSX better performance? I am not really worried about the price, but wouldn't mind paying less for the 550 either if it will run FSX just as good.

 

Why is the 560 more expensive if it has lower clock speeds for core, memory and shader? Is it just a newer architecture?

 

Also, any other recommendations for a good FSX graphics card under $200 are welcome.

 

Thanks,

 

Frank K.

 

EDIT: Specs are i5-2500K @ 4.5GHz, 8GB RAM, 64Bit Windows 7

The GTX560 is much faster

 

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=647&card2=657

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/541?vs=543

My philosophy is to stay a bit behind the ultimate performance curve. As you rise in performance the PERCENTAGE difference seems to go down. Right now I have a GT240 152mb cheap video card ($41). It works amazing well on FSX and Prepare 3D. My GPU usage is close to 100% but FPS over general Orbx Pacific Northwest is in the 30+ range with autogen trees at dense and buildings at very dense. A small amount of GA traffic and no giant airline traffic. Clouds max'd with REX textures and Rex weather program. The general consensus is that Prepare3D ($50) will begin to move more processing to the video card so I decided to go for the GTX550. Yes, the 560 is faster but $50 higher. You can chase specifications all the way to super expensive cards. You have to stop somewhere so I chose the GTX550 as a good price/performance video card. It is certainly better than my GT240!!