Hey CaptainsI haven't been simming much the last six months due to "real life" (built a house) and the fact my old box finally went south. So, it's finally time to get a modern computer which means I can soon start enjoying FSX in all its glory (hopefully)...Self-shadowingAs I haven't been able to test the "DX10 preview" (my old 'puter wasn't DX10 compatible) I've never seen the VC shadows in play. Is this something that automatically works when you turn "DX10 preview" ON or is it supported by individual A/C models? Related, I've seen alot of model developers listing "custom self shadowing" in their feature list but I've never seen the point of custmizing it. Is it to make self-shadowing look better somehow? I think the default self shadowing looks pretty enough but maybe it's just me?CPU coresAs I'm now looking for a new computer it's time to decide the type of CPU. Does anyone have any suggestions on the number of CPU cores? Will a good ol' "Core 2 Duo" enable me to drag all the sliders to the far right (providing the GPU can handle it of course)? Will more (4) cores be utilized and, if so, to the the extent it's worth the (rather steep) price?GPUnVidia or ATI? I've seen alot of praise for the Radeon 4870 X2 setup. It's pretty pricy but is it worth it? Anyone?Thanks all/Jonas

Ill answer with what i know. FSX will test any system. Simply put its a bandwidth hog. The faster you CPU and ram the better. Yes, it will use 4 cores, but 3 will only be used for texture loading they havnt quiet figured out this multithreading thing yet. As far as i know ther are not that many with all sliders to the right, you would need a supercomputer for that, just too much deatil being loaded and everthing slows down.As far as video cards in fsx it realy doesnt seem to make that much diff, i think what they tend to do is help the sim run a little smoother, i have had 3 in past few months and i havnt seen any of them help that much with the FPS. latest is a 9800GTX but i upgraded my ram to 1066 at abt the same time, CPU is amd running at 3.1Ghz, i have FPS locked at 30 and except in busy large airports it now pretty much stays there. Mind you i have heaps of Ai on this machine, dont fly without it.If i could get a amd 3 core that would run at 3 gig i think i would get one as im sure that texture loading must help a little, currently 2 core.Mind you i just built my son a intel machine, was going to give him my old bits but intel is flogging amd at moment although im happy withy what i have.

>Simply>put its a bandwidth hog. The faster you CPU and ram the>better. And of course a high-bandwith motherboard is extremely critical too, Phil wrote recently on the subject in his blog.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

>And of course a high-bandwith motherboard is extremely>critical too, Phil wrote recently on the subject in his blog.>Which article are you referring to? What do we mean by the bandwidth of a morgerboard?

>Which article are you referring to? What do we mean by the>bandwidth of a morgerboard?Problems with reading? No, I did not write about morgerborad. ;)Phil wrote recently on the subject in his blog.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

Thanks guys, I'll go look for Phils blog on the bandwidth issue.Any takes on self-shadowing?/Jonas

I went scouting Phil's blog and I found a few articles that delved into the world of "buses" but I'm not sure I found the one you are referring to. Phil spoke about PCI-e buses mostly. Is that what you are referring to?Cheers/Jonas