One of my main questions is -- will SLI be supported?RegardsDaveHouston, TX

If you watched the videos at gamestop, they hinted as unleashing the power of SLI, so we can only hope as I have an SLI MOBO also.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

SLI or dual core CPUs - they were hinted but without any definite promises.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

The only thing you need to do to "support" dual core is to be a well behaved multithreaded app, which FS is. The OS takes care of the rest.

SLI is all handled by the hardware. There's nothing Flight Sim needs to do.

Oh 2 errors in two posts ...First off a FS2004 doesn't support load balancing through mutliple CPUs even as it's mutlithreaded. They have to change quite a lot in the engine to support that, or if they are lazy they can just add OpenMP 2.0 over their current thread code to support multi-cores.Next, the 3D engine of FS2004 doesn't support SLI. It's not just a hardware problem, but also the 3D engine has to be constructed in a way the SLI or Corssfire works. Most games even older one allow SLI-tech, FS2004 does not.

Can someone explain to me what SLI realy is?Thank you.

>If you watched the videos at gamestop, they hinted as>unleashing the power of SLI, so we can only hope as I have an>SLI MOBO also.>>Regards, Michael>KDFW>>http://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpg>>CalVirAir InternationalWhere is the video? Give me the link, please ;-)

>Oh 2 errors in two posts ...With respect, if you are going to challenge the knowledge and correctness of one of the nice folks who actually work for MS and develop FSX, you should be forthright enough to establish your own bona fides.You claim that there are "2 errors in two posts," yet haven't provided any evidence to support your assertion. Simply stating something is incorrect doesn't doesn't make your statement(s) gospel truth... ;)Now please understand, I'm not saying that your assertions are wrong, but we know who made the statements you're contesting; we don't know who you are...

>The only thing you need to do to "support" dual core is to be>a well behaved multithreaded app, which FS is. The OS takes>care of the rest.As I can see right now, FS9 only uses 1 core out of dual core processor.I happen to use few applications which can use more than 1 processor (core) and on the same OS I see 2 (or 4 for that matter) processors used at 100%. FS is always at 50% or 25% processor usage (so it utlizes 1 core running all its threads on 1 core) and I really can't see any traces of it using my 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) processor, ever (which is kinda good thing in some cases ;). Yes, I gree it behaves well, but still on one core (processor).Where is the mystery and magic?

Yeah, you're right. I'm sure I don't know anything about how FS works.

>Yeah, you're right. I'm sure I don't know anything about how>FS works. Well, it would be great to get first-hand info then, if possible.I understand that FS is well-behaving multithreading application, but does it support thread-level parallelism (we do know that OS, let's say XP and Vista does support it, but it is only 50% of the success as far as understand, the app has to do it's part as well).But forget it, what I am really interested in is - are there any chances that I'll see 100% processor usage on my dual opteron system when running FSX (and FS only), because no matter how hard OS tries (XP), I cannot see it happen with FS9 and always have 70-75% left for work ;) ? I am sorry, but I am totally puzzled by your answers and just plain curious.

Actually,The person does have a valid point. Sorry Mike, but just because the operating system supports multiple threads doesn't mean the software takes advantage of it. For example, the application has to create two distinct threads for different tasks. For example, one thread handles the flight physics and the other thread handles the graphics portion. But the programmer either has to instantiate or relegate the work to take place in another thread. All the OS does is place the threads in separate processers. On the SLI configuration, in press releases and many informational sites, NVIDIA has stated that a game has to be SLI enabled for it to see performance increases. On the list of games, FS9 does not appear to be supported.Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen a second thread started for MS Flight Sim, and I have read that it is not multithreaded architecture.Thanks,John Flowers

I understand that Vista is going to support legacy D3D9 (9.0c), D3D9 with Vista extensions (requires IHVs to supply new drivers built to Vista model) and D3D10. Can FS team advise which API they are developing for?I assume that if the D3D9 with extensions is used, SLi/Crossfire is not such an issue, since the hardware is virtualized and GPU(s) are (pre-emptively?) scheduled? At least that is what I could find out hunting around MS DirectX site. The latest data seemed to be from Sep 05, before the Oct and Dec DX SDKs came out, so maybe stuff has changed?scott s..

What makes any of you think I'm talking about FS9?