I was looking at some of the screen shots and factoring in the cost of a new PC in order to properly run some of the improved graphics with an acceptable frame rate, it looks like I will have to retire my 7 month old Windows XP 3.4 gig Pentium and go for a new 3.8 dual core, for around $1800 to $2000 ( on the Dell Web site). Maybe I am looking at this wrong, but it seems like this eye candy is going to be a $2,000 add on for MSFS for most of us, , and when I look at my own screen shots of Ultimate Terrain, FS Free Flow, Misty Fjords, Active Sky, and FE, it seems to be an awful lot of money to pay for some birds and cars driving around. Am I the only one that suspects that their present PC will have to be retired and is planning on buying a new one to Install FSX on, if they decide to purchase it?

Can't think of any recent game releases that didn't cause folks to throw more money into their hardware. It's the nature of the beast. But FSX release is still a long way away, and I'm not updating anything until I have a better handle on just what the new sim will demand.Cheers,Greg

well i automatically upgrade every 2 years so doesnt matter what comes out i also ensure i am up to speed with technologyhowever i dont go out and buy the latest n greatest!

Bob, we don't know if we will need to or not, ALL we know is that VISTA will need to be installed to get the most out of it. Same thing was said about FS9 BEFORE it came out and I found it to run better than FS2002 did on my old machine, so untill it is released, we'll have to wait and see.One thing to keep in mind, addons degrade FS performance, if we can get the quality of an addon with default, you will probably increase performance. my goal for the next version is to keep from adding all these addons and extra processes that need to be running during FS.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

If history is any indication FSX will perform better on your current hardware than does FS2004 when you have the same visual experience.When you try to run it flat out, then yes you'll need something heavier.But if you think your 3.7GHz machine with multi-miniflop video, hyperbyte ram, and terabytes of harddiskspace won't be enough you really need a reality check.

I'd just wait, as it is too early.If MS decides to use the hardware which already exist to its full potential, we can expect considerable performance boost.Games are usually developed on current hardware (some developers might have access to prototype machines, but this is not common and usually doesn't play huge role in development), and tuned to current machines, so I'd not worry about your rig. Of course in case of FS there is always an option to scale things up to some unreasonable levels using sliders.One big change and probably good reason to upgrade would be the situation when FSX would be multithreaded application, ie. it could use two or more processors. Then dual core would be good upgrade and probably big performance boost. Just don't buy Pentium dual core now (not good), go for AMD or wait till Intel catches up with technology :).Another change (which we can assume will happen) is that FSX will be 64bit application working on 64bit system (Vista or other 64bit windows flavor). That means that it can use 4, 8 or 16 or more gigabytes of ram. Considering what FSX does (ie simulating whole world), I'd rather use that possibility if I were a developer :). So, probably adding more ram will give performance boost. Imagine that right now FS can load up to 1 gigabyte of world into ram, then it has to reload, swap etc.. so we get blurries etc (simplified of course). Exchange 1 gig with 8 gigs and you get the picture ;)Next thing, we can hope for shifting the load from processor to GPU, at least in some areas. I'd rather hold on with GFX card now, as these seems to come out with new version very month ;).This is my opinion, your mileage may vary. Bottom line is, if I'd feel the urge to upgrade anything right now I'd go and buy the biggest, fastest LCD monitor I can afford and wait for FSX release with the rest.P.S. I use AMD4400 with 2 gigs of ram and and nvidia 7800XT card for gaming and I think I might add more ram (up to 4 gigs) when FSX comes out and that's it. I got a bit better machine for work but never tried tu run FS on it.

I was contemplating an upgrade now but looking at the Q & A it says 'optimised for the latest hardware' which to me means dual core and dx10 graphic cards. I think I'll wait another year - I am sure retirement will be due by then.

For about 8 years now, I've used new versions of Flight Simulator as the stimulus for my upgrading - seems to work out. However, I usually get what is great at the start of the cycle. Usually, but the time all manner of clever add-on has been released in the interim, my system is a crawler when the next version is released.J-

I may have things backwards; I was under the impression that 32 bit applications will work on 64 or 32 bit systems, but 64 bit app's will only run on 64 bit systems? If this is true it seems very unlikely to me that FSX could be a 64 bit app; everyone would be buying it then returning it saying they didn't read the fine print. Unless they offered 2 different versions like they did with the standard and pro which seems unlikely but possible. It would be nice if it is 64 bit, but I think it will take a little longer before FS is pure 64 bit since most households will not upgrade their windows XP for a while longer. At the most I can guess is it will take advantage of hyperthreading and dual core CPU's. As far as Vista optimized; maybee something along the lines of in game links to aviation information and media over the internet. Was anyone disappointed with Combat Flight Simulator 3 other than me; just imagine if FSX starts you out on a farm with the Cub while you have to fly to different barns collecting chickens to be tested for the flu. After a while you pass the private and get more choice of aircraft to fly your errands with. LOL, and performance will not be an issue because you will lose interest before your character is talented enough to fly fast or even have eyesight good enough to see scenery off in the horizon. How will the multiplayer be improved, with ai controllers I hope. I'm planning to give FSX a try on my present system; I have a feeling I wont need as many add-ons running and I think my P4 with HT will now begin to be used so I'll see better FPS performance than I do now. Anyone hear anything about CFS4 yet?Matt

Is your FS9 system a crawler this time, as FSX approaches?

When i add a 200GB hdd in a few days and put only fs on it, i hope that will be good enough for a while. I just spent 1700 last year (dec 04) and 350$ last month on the X850XT and im about to add a 200GB HDD for fs, so that should be good enough to get acceptable visual detail out of the program. Think im right, guys? I hope so.. :):-wave

I think a $140 SLi or Crossfire motherboard, and $250 graphics card (don't see how FSX would really, really need dual graphics, but will be ready just in case) and I will be good enough for now. I can alwyas drop another gig of RAM in if really needed, or swap out my Athlon64 3500 for a dual core if needed.scott s..

You are right FSX will run very well "out of the box" on any "modern" PCwith a decent video card. I am sure that a huge amount of time is spent on optimizing both the code and just as important all of the data that the code will call More and more intelligence is being added to video cards all the time (think pixel pipelines ,vertex shaders etc) and now in some of the newest dual cards the ability split the duties so that one card does the math for things like dynamics (I.E. the physics involved) then takeing that info and passing that info to the second card so it can then render the next frame with out haveing to do all of the above math involved in the dynamics, so the second card will then only have to do the math to draw each frame. Now I do not know if FSX has the code to do that but even if it does not the people at Microsoft do have all of the latest low level codeing tools to optimize the final code and the data as well. Of course people will want more so the add-on community will do it's part as well and yes they will push what our hardware to it's limits but is that not what many people want?. I have an older friend with a P4 1.5 GHZ machine with and old 64Mb video card and guess what FS9 out of the box runs fine on it with most sliders set "in the middle" exept for clouds (any thing volumetric is hard for older hardware to handle) but my point is that it runs fine out of the box and my guess is that FSX will to. Dan Martin Team Flight Ontario

Anytime you feel for a laugh read the minimum system requirements for FS2004 and see if that comes close to your experience, and like some others have said they have put some $$$ into upgrades.Best bet is to wait for the release of FSX and let those with high end systems provide feedback then decide what to do. If history is anything, MS has always understated hardware requirements, so I see $$$ ahead for FSX and VistaBill

Besides that, compy upgrades are a way of life us heavy users anyway. I'm nearing the end cycles of my Abit AI7 motherboard (Scoket 478, AGP 8X, PC3200 DDR) which means some of the hardware is starting to become cheaper for it, yet it still supports SATA 150 and up to 4GB of RAM. My upgrading is going to be a slower process than usual this year, but I hope to snag the best deals on some rather big upgrades. My video card is good enough to last me for some time, thank goodness, and my CPU runs very nice OC'd from 2.4GHz to 3.01GHz. RAM is my next upgrade. Currently 768MB PC2700, going to go 2GB PC3200 I think, a matched pair of 1GB sticks. Yeah, that should cut it. Next is an even larger (yet QUIETER :)) heatsink/fan for the CPU, and a new fan and heatsinks for the video card GPU and memory chips. Then a new soundcard.Ahhh. I love the smell of new hardware in the morning.http://home.earthlink.net/~dawgfighter/sit...es/swvasig1.gif-Jeremy BurchSWVA4806 http://www.virtualswa.com/home.phpThe Ozark Dogfighter http://forums.avsim.net/images/wedge.gifHappy Flying!