>Hi>>Would an AMD 3400 64 and an ATI 9800 XT be a "fast PC"? I have>that and run 25 maxed in MOST situations.>>Jim>>http://www.hifisim.com/>Active Sky V6 Development Team >Active Sky V6 Proud Supporter>HiFi Beta Team>Radar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/>AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/>FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/Jim I am getting about the same as you on a Dell XPS P4 3.2GHz with a Radeon 9800XT. My machine still feels fast to me, but FSX makes my machine show its age I guess. I still like FSX a lot though.

I've run the texture tweaks & added the FIBER_FRAME tweak & PoolSize tweak to my FSX.cfg, and I get a sold 28-30 FPS on my system (see specs below).I'm happy, but by no means will I 'settle'. I am a habitual tweaker, and I'm hoping to squeeze a little more out so I can raise the AI & autogen a bit higher than what I've got them at now.

Who are you and what have you done with Mike.:) "But at the end of the day, there IS promise on the horizen with Vista and ATI at least."Thats all we have been saying Mike that FSX is a Diamond in the rough, not a lump of coal. Just needs some polish which will come.

I am really glad you found the source of the trouble-yeah I'm ready for a beer-let's do it! Better get your shield up now though-being on this side isn't always pretty-although enjoyable! :-)http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

Hi Mike,Since Vista hasn't been released yet, according to this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6110958.stmhow did you get your copy? Are you perhaps a beta tester? if so this means that the final Vista release would be different than your copy and maybe more stable or less...Stelios

OK Stelios, Go back and actually read the post theres your answer.

OK - quick query, I'm running XP Home + Vista RC2 - dual boot.FSX installed on XP Home.what happens re activation when I install also on RC2 ? Will it cause me grief ? Will it use up one of my "installations" before I need to phone Microsoft ?thanks for any help,Mark.

Worked fine for me

OK ... Quick update from me. My experience only.1) If you you are using a current ati card under xp fsx runs badly 2) If you are using a current nvidia card under xp fsx runs ok and with a bit of tweaking, pretty good.3) Thanks to the op for pointing the new drivers out and fsx runs now as well as it should under vista with an ati card and with a bit of tweaking, pretty good.So the conclusion is that something in the ati xp drivers doesnt like fsx, but can i just say that for me anyway this is a ,massive leap forward as i have vista rc2 and intend purchasing a retail copy on 30 Jan as they have now retreated on the licensing restrictionso can i just repeat .. HURRAH!!!!YIPPEE thank goodness etc etc (you get the picture)My next question is .. is it going to be worthwhile upgrading to an 8800gts from an x1900xt and i gues i'm going to be answering that, but given that the 8800gts has 64GB/s of memory bandwidth against my current 46.4GB/s it ought to.and again i would like to say YIPPEE!!!!all the best

If you're upgarding hardware for other things, then January might be a good time to upgrade - if you like throwing your money away. Buying a DX10 card is absolutely pointless unless/until DX10 games start to appear - and for FSX, th patch is released and PROVES to have better performance. If you are upgrading only for FSX. Wait.Allcott

Too True - and the comment about retreating on the Vista Licence still smacks badly

Stelios:No, I'm not a beta tester, I am a Microfot MSDN Universal member and have a corporate license for Vista Ultimte (or any other version of Vista for that matter as well as every piece of software Microsoft makes for the corporate environment). Additionaly, the capacity in which I work gives me open access to the folks at Redmond.Vista RTM was held back at least until Nov 8th due to a last minute bug. I can tell you that the differene between Vista Beta2 and prior and RC2 is stunning in terms of performance of the OS.With that said, I don't expect performance to get any worse and I don't expect to see much of an increase in frame rates after Vista is released.DX10 is showing a 25% gain in performace on all DX9 games right now. On one hand that is great...on the other hand if you are getting only 10FPS in FSX then a 25% boost in performance will only get you up to 12.5FPS...nothing to write home about.Microsoft will have to change FSX to Shader 4.0, you will have to own Vista and you will have to have a higher end video card to see a higher boost in performance. With that said:If you are getting 10 FPS attempting to fly FSX the way you want it, and the above upgades make FSX 100% faster (which is unprecidented and simply won't happen), then you will STILL only get a frame rate of 20FPS without dumbing down FSX past your tolorence level.The short term brings no stunning relief, trust me. Microsoft is accurate when saying that the sim is built for a future processor. I think that without TRUE multi-core support a brute force single core processor such as the AMD FX-6x would have to double its processing power to get the sim totally fluid. Given the current die size and power consumtion a quantum leap in single core processing is not even on the horizon at this time.Hate to be the bearer or bad news, but Vista will only get you running better, and I want to make it clear that it is NOT the holy grail...just the holy cow.

YEs that all sounds highly likely to be true, but whatever for me fsx actually runs properly now but only on vista (with my ATI card)My question actually was, will fsx run better for me with an 8800gts or not?With regard to the dx10 issues, i am completely disregarding any particular improvement (or not ) as nothing has been written yet, however it appears that an 8800 is significantly faster in dx9 games on the dx9 platform.It appears to me that in both the ati crossfire amd the nvidia gx2 route there is significant performance to be gained in fsx thus indicating that an 8800 with single gpu achitecture approaching the power of these two ati and nvidia solutions should do the same job. I just wondered if anyone had any evidence.The vista dx10 arguement is a bit mute with regard to fsx as nothing appears to have been written yet let alone tested so i am not even thinking about that.thanks

Well, my opinion is that a faster video card is always welcome. However, it depends what your expectation for improvement is. Given the nature of FSX, I doubt that you will see a 25% improvement moving from one high end card to another.HOWEVER, if you are moving from a low / mid range card to a very high end card you should get between a 15% to a 30% improvement over your current FPS.

Mike, are you the same fellow who made violent diatribes about FS X and anybody who was already satisfied with it before you came to the same conclusion?Don't you now think that you could have held off on the agressive behavior until you had reached these results?While I am certainly happy that you have joined the majority of us who, while finding definite performance problems with FS X, still have been able to get much enjoyment from it, I do wish that all who have shown such violence would have also shown more restraint.All in all, though, congratulations and many wishes for your enjoyment of the game.Best regards.Luis