Hey everyone,I have been reading around and would like to hear your objective opinions weather I should buy FSX. Maybe this will help. I have a P4 3.2GHZ 1GB ram and a PCI-e Radeon X700pro. I think my FSB is 800mhz.The only thing I would consider upgrading is my ram. Other than that I have no plans to upgrade.Thanks,tejksed

I say skip it with that rig. With everything as low as it goes you might get 15-20fps best case. Depends on how well your brain processes low frame rate. I get headaches with anything below 20 and my machine averages 18fps so right now im borderline on the beta which ive been flying. I hear the retail is even slower than the beta so i havent purchased it yet either. It also appears that the dreaded ch pedals bug from the demo1 may be back and i have no desire to troubleshoot that so im going to hold off for a while, at least until i buy a new machine around january or february or whenever quad cores are available.

If you want to experiment and test with a new product - knowning that it has a lot of things which we have not figured out how to use correctly yet - knowing that it will be several months before the FSX world can come close to matching a fully developed FS2004 with addons- knowing that performance will be in the teens of FPS, maybe the 20's until Vista, DX-10 and a new computer are purchased next summer/fall- can avoid the temptation to try an import aircraft, sceneries and utilities which have not been updated to work with FSX- have the money sitting around and no burning need to use it elsewhere- have the hard drive space to keep FS2004 for serious flyingThen yes - buy it.Avoid think of it as an FS2004 update - it's a new product and when you use FS2004 concepts as your frame of reference, you'll be disappointed. If you look at it as a new product, it's got some really neat things.Needs addons of course - and those will come in the months ahead.

>Hey everyone,>>I have been reading around and would like to hear your>objective opinions weather I should buy FSX. >>Maybe this will help. I have a P4 3.2GHZ 1GB ram and a >PCI-e Radeon X700pro. I think my FSB is 800mhz.>>The only thing I would consider upgrading is my ram. Other>than that I have no plans to upgrade.>>Thanks,>tejksed Of course you should. I would upgrage the ram and make sure you set the silders in game and watch your FPS. Your computer is no dinosaur..Best,Randy J. Smith

I would not recommend FS-X to anyone as the first flight sim. FS9 + addons is a better place to start.Depends on your expectations and what you have now...If you don't have FS9 or just have FS9 standalone, then I'd say don't buy FS-X. Buy FS-9 discounted and add a specific package like Vancouver+ . You'll get great frame rates and it will amaze in the areas covered by the addon software. Or add general packages like FS Genesis mesh and UT Canada /USA / Europe.If you have FS9 with addons now, then FS-X is appealing, but dont uninstall FS9+.

What do you want from FS? If you fly GA aircraft mostly and do some bush flying or land at small airfields then definitely get it. When i do that (i have a slightly lower spec than yours) i get around 20fps with everything set to medium high and the sim looks gorgeous.If you want to fly airliners into major cities then you will get around 12fps and if you are prepared to accept that (i am) then its worth getting also.

Hi folks, adding to Reggie's words of wisdom... :-) FSX is all about RAM IMHO. System RAM and equally important GPU-RAM. I haven't been capable of reducing the load to less than 1GB levels (with acceptable visuals), so IMO, 2GB is a primary must have for FSX. The second RAM muncher is the way we display things. I'm getting a 512MB card next week but right now it's 256MB only (@ 1280x). At this resolution - default FSX with relatively high settings - the GPU would like to munch upto 380MB! At these same, high settings, system-RAM once even went upto 1.8GB(@ 2GB)! 1.5GB being standard. In the initial 15 minutes of simming, there doesn't seem to be much of a prob at such very high settings. However, since our virtual planes move, textures will be replaced, etc. This will go well or less well if both 'categories' aren't forced to swap to RAM (the GPU reserves system RAM) or HD (pagefile). I was wrong presuming a 256MB GPU will do 1280x fine. It's alright, but at 1280x and relatively high AA/AF settings, a 512MB card should be better. The visuals I like, have ca 220MB to start. With a 256MB card it's obviously hopeless... :-) Apropos hope, hoping it works... I'll attach a utility called MemStatus which monitors RAM consumption. I'ld suggest to move the 'Global texture quality' slider back and forth and see what happens. FWIW, over here, pereformance doesn't deterioate over time, if I don't exceed ca 175MB on the GPU. At 195-200, my 256MB X800XL goes crazy and starts to swap like nobody's business. :-) I'ld say, yes, the money is worth seeing it! :-) Perhaps don't activate FSX immediately? Use the 30mins jumps until you find your sweetspot, decide to postpone, whatever. Hope this adds to thoughts, good luck and kind regards Jaap Edited because I can't spell...

I like a very smooth sim, so I will stick with FS9.

>Hi folks, adding to Reggie's words of wisdom... :-) >>FSX is all about RAM IMHO. System RAM and equally important>GPU-RAM. >>Jaap >>The GeForce 7950 GX2 has 1GB of ram. I thought right away of MSFS when I read that. Seems however tomshardware thought it wouldnt be of much use in games. I would be interested in seeing some numbers.http://www.lemosnet.com/misc/gpilotsig.jpg

FSX can run much smoother at lower frame rates than FS2004. Some folks have said they were disappointed with FSX frame rates until they turned off the counter and just enjoyed the flight.Why not try the demo? It is based on the release code. You can even try most of the tweaks that folks have been releasing in it.Tony

It's awesome. Buy it for sure. You know you're going to buy it anyway. :)The flight models are better, the scenery is much better. The missions are a total blast. Who cares if you have a zillion frames per second? You're not training to fly a 747, just have fun. Some people take FS way too seriously and FREAK OUT with every little change. Lower frame rates are the result of more detailed graphics.

>Hey everyone,>>I have been reading around and would like to hear your>objective opinions weather I should buy FSX. >>Maybe this will help. I have a P4 3.2GHZ 1GB ram and a >PCI-e Radeon X700pro. I think my FSB is 800mhz.>>The only thing I would consider upgrading is my ram. Other>than that I have no plans to upgrade.>>Thanks,>tejksedI pretty much have the same system except a 3.4 cpu and I recently added 1GB RAM to 2GB total to see what would happen. Same video card. If more RAM helped I could not see or notice it, it must have done so in the background. FPS and smoothness did not improve.Best thing you could do is try the demo and see what you think.With my system I am really not happy with it and moving sliders to the left makes it look worse than FS9 and not even as smooth. There is no doubt some very nice eye candy but you will pay dearly for it. Outside of that many things are wrong and out of place or dont work, and I wont bother list them here. A very nice feature is the Tower for multi player. If you like connecting and flying with others and or doing air traffic controlling then this is a good addition.Bottom line for me, I would have to say its a non starter and would not purchase again if I had the choice. And just to be clear, I did try the demo, but based on all the hype and buzz from beta testers and even some aces posters that they found stuff to optimize, wait for the final release etc etc, it would be better, I went ahead and got the final. Well it was no better at least for me on my machine in my house on my street..:-) Have to say all that so no one jumps all over meSo as a pretty active virtual airline pilot its back to FS9 for the real stuff and FSX for the gaming side...Good luckBill

Hi,I have been fairly pleased with FSX with my rig shown below. I am still teeaking the system but I get average of 10-25fps at KSEA with slidders mid level or higher. I will probably be tweaking FSX for the next year before I can be satisfied. I guess that goes with the FS hobby. I have added several of the changes mostly to autogen as discussed on this forum to get where I am at now. Out of the box with default settings was terrible. Example, sitting at KSEA rwy I got 6 - 8 fps. After tweaks I nvever drop below 10. IMO if you read through the fourm you will find some helpful hints to get FSX running at a respectable fps with your system. Go to this site for some helpful tweaks.http://www.fox-fam.com/wordpress/?page_id=41or here:http://www.fsstation.com/articles/flight-s...nce-tweaks.html I plan to get either 1 or 2 gram as well, which I understand will improve your system in running FSXHope this helps,CarlDell E510, P4-3.4ghz, 1gram, PCIe EVGA 7600 256mb

Bill,Sorry to hear you are not pleased so far. Did you use any of the autogen fixes? Also since you did not notice any change adding 1gram is a conern since I was ready to go purchase an additonal gig. May need to consider adding 2gram. Will wait and see what others are finding out. I will agree that FSX is not up to how I had FS9 running. FS9 ran flawlesly on my system with plenty of payware planes and scenery. I will continue to use FS9 for sometime but I will also try ot keep up with FSX. The big problem is when I go a try a payware say a PMDG or Level D plane or Cloud 9 or Tampa Bay scenery. Just have to wait and see and enjoy. regards,Carl

>FSX can run much smoother at lower frame rates than FS2004. >Some folks have said they were disappointed with FSX frame>rates until they turned off the counter and just enjoyed the>flight.>>Why not try the demo? It is based on the release code. You>can even try most of the tweaks that folks have been releasing>in it.>>TonyBoy, Ill agree with this one. The frame rate counter is justa basic indicator, dont put a lot of faith in it. Ive been downas low as 11-12 fps and its still smooth. Ive had the same thingin FS9 mind you. I never pay any attention to FR counter any more,other than to just have a look out of curiosity. If its smooth,Im happy.