Since the day FSX came out, I like so many have battled with settings, altering fsx.cfg, replacing textures, and read all I could find on the forums. Fighting with blurries, SP2 menu disappearing, lockups, cussing Nvidia, Aces, and Microsoft. Tried XP Pro, XP x64 and Vista 32. Tried Nick_N

Always nice to see a happy camper!Enjoy!:--)

Are Cee you tick me off :D. In my heart I knew that my 8800 GTS 320MB wasn't up to it, but my ego said..'nah, it's your memory. Upgrade.' So I did, with no attendant improvements. If there is a consulation prize here it is that I was intenting to upgrade my processor from a E6850 (well at least my ego was!) and while that might have helped a bit (especially if I went quad) I think your experience has confirmed for me that my heart was right all along and the 320MB graphics card just ain't cutting the mustard. So maybe when I find some cash my Love /hate relationship will be over too (ie with my computer...I've always loved FSX!) Thanks for your post. RegardsTerry

My plan is to keep the current 8 series card and skip the 9 series.Then hopefuly,Nvidia will have drivers and developers will be supporting the 10 series card.By then, FSX will be tamed like FS9 is by the hardware available and we can crank up the settings and run complex planes easily.MS should also have the new FS11 programmed with "future hardware in mind" and bring those future cards and harware to a crawl.Repeat process......

For a year I assumed a 8800/320 meg was more than enough for FSX. It was the little program MemStatus that opened my eyes that I was wrong. Once I got a card with enough video memory, everything else started falling into place. Now I'm really impressed with FSX/SP2. Though I never posted anything bad about Nvidia drivers, Aces or M$, I guess I owe them all an apology for some of the name calling I screamed at my monitor over the past year :-)

From following the hardware forum (highly recommended) it appears the consensus is that 512 graphics mem is required for FSX. At least that's how I read it. There's also some debate about graphics mem bandwidth.scott s..

A cropped shot of RAM used and what lead me to believe I needed a graphics card with more RAM. It seems FSX enjoys RAM. Monitor is a Samsung 22", Windows and FSX are set at 1680x1050.

No link to this fantastic utility?http://nuclearplayground.com/NuclearPlayground/

I googled "memstatus" a month ago... but this link does look familiar :-)http://nuclearplayground.com/NuclearPlayground/There were no links or addresses in the readme... odd?

>From following the hardware forum (highly recommended) it>appears the consensus is that 512 graphics mem is required for>FSX. At least that's how I read it. There's also some debate>about graphics mem bandwidth.>>scott s.>.>I have an ATI 512MB video card and the most memory usage I've seen reported by Memstatus is about 380MB. Is it because my card is AGP that more video ram is not being called upon?

Thats weird. I have that little proggy and every once in awhile turn it on to see whats what and my video memory running FSX SP1 doesnt go above 100 mb's with a NV 7600GS 512 MB. AGP Apeture is set to 256MB's in my system BIOS. System memory runs at about 1.3 GB's out of 2GB's average.DaveESSB

>I have an ATI 512MB video card and the most memory usage I've>seen reported by Memstatus is about 380MB. Is it because my>card is AGP that more video ram is not being called upon?It depends on the resolution you are running.(And as you probably know, the location in the FS world in which you are flying)RhettE8500, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64

and the aircraft.the F-A/18 in Acceleration has >50m of texture.

Do you think a Nvidia 9800GTX with 512MB memory any better than the 8800GTS 640MB?

Just changed out my 8800GTS 640mb card for an eVGA 9800GTX SSC 512 and can say "Yes" it's better but not "Tons". My 3Dmark5 score went from 17159 to 18954. Although the bandwidth is less the core/mem clocks are MUCH higher. Especially on the SSC (Super,SuperClocked) version. The 9800GTX is 1.5 inches longer than the 8800 GTS so make sure you have room. I had to move a harddrive and change a case fan because the connection on the MoBo was covered by the new card. Also covers one of my SATA connections.