Robert McDonald

all of the above is great advice. I got interrupted in mid-post and now can't finish my original message. I highly recommend PilotEdge free trial. You can decide if fifty cents a day is worth it for real human ATC. IMHO, it's worth much more than that. They are open 15 hours a day 8am to 11pm Pacific time, 362 days a year... One little tip: When entering your flight plan into the FMC for the PMDG, you can enter the arrival STAR, but don't pick the RUNWAY until you get near your destination- atc will say something like "Expect the ILS approach runway 25L", at which point you can program in the runway on your FMC, in plenty of time to land. This obviates the sudden change to your runway if ATC switches it or the winds shift mid-flight. Try it- I think you'll find you'll like doing it that way check it out best of luck! If you want to really fly like a pro, I can also recommend Garmin Pilot (for Android). A real-life Electronic Flight Bag that has all the procedures and charts, runway diagrams, and much more. It's about $16 a month annual subscription. The procedures alone are worth it. If you have an Android Tablet, this prog is dynamite. You can communicate with FSX (bluetooth) or with XPlane (separate app).

You're on a pretty good methodology, and no doubt FlightAware is great for copying RW flight plans. That said, PFPX software is a VERY worthwhile tool that is well-suited to both FSX/p3d -and- XPlane. I use it extensively. There is a small learning curve, but it is simple to use. You should consider using PilotEdge live ATC, it is far superior to VATSIM, although PE is not free, and has a small service area (SoCal, parts of Nevada, and San Francisco Intl' KSFO). You can try PilotEdge free of charge for 14 days (NO CREDIT CARD NEEDED). When you fly on PE, you contact the relevant controller for each part of your flight. Let's take your example: BOACH5, HEC, RIIVR2 at 28,000 feet. you: (on KLAS clearance/delivery freq

it looks like something is sending a repeat command... check your linda settings, make sure no button or switch is set to repeat while the button is pressed (or the switch is left in a certain position). I don't know the VRI log stuff at all. It appears that two controls are repeating 66442 Com2 Radio Set and 66046 0 Gyro_Drift_Set are repeating. Find out where those items are being assigned within LINDA. Also double check that all of your controls in FSX are DISABLED, if FSX and LINDA/Vri are sending overlapping commands- problems will result.

I owned an EVGA GTX690 (dual processor 2gb per GPU), currently own 1 - GTX Titan (with 6GB Vram) and 2-msi OC Gamer 770s with 4GB on each card. Each of the 3 video cards is installed in its own PC. Again, if you are thinking long-term, I STRONGLY urge you to get as much VRAM on your gaming card as you can afford, it's a BEAR to find out later you 'shoulda got more'. Used video cards are hard to sell at anything close to what you spent buying them. The Titan has 6GB of VRAM, but since my other 2 wing pcs have 4GB VRAM, my XPlane experience is somewhat locked to 4GB max. In the real world, in super-heavy environment with a lot of details and weather, the 4GB cards will sometimes 'overload', whilst the titan keeps plugging away. So, in a perfect world, I would own 3 Titans. That's not happening for me though. I would say in candor that 4GB is the "sweet spot" in terms of cost/benefits. Nick N and Word Not Allowed both have done a LOT of research and I would never argue with any of their recommendations - BUT, If you are thinking of X-Plane, and I highly recommend you work towards it - you will NEVER be sorry with the max VRAM, 4 is a LOT better than 3, and 3 is a LOT better than 2. My suggestion would be go with the Overclocked MSi Gamer 4GB 770s. You'll save enough not buying the Titan to actually be able to buy an i5 happy meal from Sam's (I like the DELL 8700), to run PFPX and AivlaSoft's EFB on. You definitely do NOT want to run those on your main FSX PC! If you can buy from Amazon (dunno if they "do" Canada), you can have the added benefit of a 30-day return window on your graphics cards. CAUTION: When ordering from Amazon.com (for PC parts), it's highly recommended to be sure the seller of your item is AMAZON and NOT one of their trusted partners. The 3rd party peeps are NOT as user-friendly if you decide you want to return an electronic (PC) purchase, including video cards! EVGA is notorious for 'exchange only' even when purchased from Amazon. I have had tremendous success with MSi 'twin frozr' cooling pipes and dual-fan high-end video cards. The OC model is clocked at over 1GHz right out of the factory, you don't have to worry about damaging it if your merely run it right out of the box at the 1 gig speed. Note, this card requires more than a 'stock' OEM power supply. I bought 750 watt Corsair semi-modular psus and love them. The happy-meal with the upgraded PSU and the OC 770 4GB msi video are screamers, love them dearly. The PC (no monitor) was about $699, the psu about $80 and the video card I'm talking about roughly $385 after $15 mfr rebate from Amazon. PCs came from Sams (Dell XPS 8500s, now being marketed as XPS 8700s. The STOCK video card was a GTX620, the lowest end discrete video card with only 1GB of ram. Popped that out in lieu of the 770s). I will recommend the TITAN to those who can afford it. It's just a BEAST. The added 2GB over the 4GB models I own DOES make a difference under extreme graphics conditions IN X-PLANE 10. Since I no longer fly FSX, I can't really say. A big part of me wishes I'd bought 2 more Titans. But for the price difference, I settled for the DELL XPS i5 8500s PLUS the 770 4GB card at about what just one extra Titan would cost me. Honestly, I'm STUNNED that the 780 only has 3GB VRAM. To me, your choice is the 4GB OC 770 -or- The GTX Titan. I would NEVER buy an expensive video card with below 4GB Vram, too limiting. Regardless of benchmarks, CUDA cores or anything else. Being able to push all the onscreen candy in the VRAM directly is golden. And even notwithstanding that, if you're thinking BENQ monitor at more than 1080p horizontal resolution, the TITAN becomes EXTREMELY compelling. The GTX690 was a huge frustration and large disappointment. The Titan blows the 690 away in FSX -or- XPlane. i never jumped for P3D V2. I am firmly in the 64-bit long-range camp, which puts me in the X-Plane hangar. Click on the Flight Videos link lower left of my signature graphics area, you can see the triple screen 180 degree field of view in XPlane 10 (64-bit). "a picture says a thousand words..."

Regardless of what 'speed' video card you buy, you should consider buying one with the most VRAM on-card as possible. 4GB as minimum, 6GB if money is not an object (that would be the GTX Titan). The on-card VRAM is important as you try to go to higher resolutions (above 1080p), or if you are going to attempt to run more than 1 monitor off the card. If you were to at some point move to X-Plane, you would also be very-well rewarded by HIGH VRAM on your graphics card. For example, msi makes a OC (Overclocked) Gamer 770 4GB (option) VRAM card that works VERY well in XPlane. X-Plane is designed to use all the VRAM you have available, thus 4GB is FAR superior to 2GB and even a lot better than 3GB. The GTX Titan has 6GB of VRAM on it, but if I'm not wrong, is the prior-generation Keppler GPU (the 6-series). Thus far, the Titan handles EVERYTHING I've thrown at it, without breaking a sweat. You mentioned SLI. Be aware that FSX does NOT benefit -at all- from SLI, nor does it benefit from high amounts of VRAM. Other games WILL (as I mentioned XPlane). Truth be known, SLI itself is somewhat misleading. Yes, you are building a large channel for Video signal, but in SLI, a pair of 2GB Vram cards only means 2GB 'max textures'- NOT 4!! Each card is limited by the VRAM that is on that distinct card. It is NOT cumulative. In addition, more video cards means more HEAT and also requires MORE POWER in the Power Supply. The better move (for me) was to build 3 PCs for XPlane, and each PC renders 1/3 of the total video area on its own monitor. You can see this in action on my YouTube channel (click Video link at bottom of my signature bar). When you run SLI, other things become bottlenecks, most notably data throughput, stuttering (induced by SLI itself), and the big one- CPU overload. It stands to reason: ONE CPU is never going to be as capable of rendering a LARGE area as THREE CPUS and THREE GPUS, each rendering 1/3 of the total real viewing area. When you try to connect THREE monitors to ONE video card, then drag gauges off onto one, and say, split the view out the airplane between the other two, you suffer a BIG TIME frames hit. Why? The video card must perform TRIPLE the work in the same amount of time. Plus, all of the calculations necessary to 'draw' all the action on all three displays must be done on just ONE processor (the CPU). So SLI isn't going to help. If you're only ever going to run just ONE monitor, then SLI is OK. The moment you want to use 2 or more... you're better off splitting the job up among more PCs. This of course only works if your GAME SUPPORTS IT. I don't believe FSX does, but XPlane 10.2 (and higher) surely does. Without ruffling any feathers, keep in mind that X-Plane 10.2 (and higher) can fly in 64-bits. AFAIK, P3D v2, while 'better' than FSX in some ways, remains a 32-bit program. As such all the SYSTEM RAM above 4GB is irrelevant and wasted. 64-bits removes that limitation. I am only going into detail for your long-range planning purposes. If you enjoy FSX and love how it flies, you can clearly remain with it. There are many things I myself love about FSX, but I can't give up the 180 degree field of view and superior frames that are my XPX experience today. The truth is, rendering all the on-screen eye candy in flight simulation (or other games) is a huge task. Calculating all the trapezoids, painting them with textures and then laying the final 'skin' on top of it all, plus clouds, wind, shadows, rain/snow, and of course all of this moving in real time while your airplane is also being rendered... Even a muscular top-end PC can be brought down to sub 20 frames per second! I know, I have been there in FSX. Same PC with the 2 wing PCS and ripped out the GTX690 for the GTX Titan, switched from FSX to XP10- added glass cockpit software (Sim-Avionics) on yet another separate PC (all-in-one HP Rove), you can see the difference with your own eyes on YouTube. If you insist on going the SLI route in future, my suggestion would be the 4GB 770s as opposed to the 780. AFAIK, the 780 isn't available with 4GB Vram. If it IS, then by all means, the 780. Cheers.

Nice job Emile. Even though not remembering his email used for the purchase sounds a little off-putting.

It worked for me, as best as I can remember. That was some time back. Best of luck.

I have migrated to X-Plane 10, but back in the day when I flew FSX, I ran into some issues with VRinsight hardware and Linda and FSX. In my case, there was a button or switch that was constantly transmitting an instruction (it might have been "gear up") and my 'guess' was that this constant data flow 'flooded' the buffer for Linda, and in essence "crashed" or caused the VRinsight gear to stop responding. Check all of your Linda button/switch assignments carefully. See if you have any assignments that say "repeat" (while the switch or button is in a given position). Try deleting that setting and see if your problem goes away. Just a suggestion. Be sure you take screenshots of all of your Linda settings (I like TechSmith's "SnagIt" software for such a task) to enable you to put everything 'back like it was' just in case. Also, be sure you have the latest version of FSUIPC.

simply put- there is no excuse to bully someone else. they are asking for help, perhaps they didn't know they could search, or they may have found this forum via Google, Bing or Ask search engines (which is how I found it) and likely being frustrated by some sim problem, post a plea for assistance. true enough, some don't take time to say 'thanks', and others ask the questions that've been asked a million times before. regardless, we don't need a 'forum bull(y)' to rain on someone else's parade. such antics eventually drive good members away. another person wrote a reminder that we all were 'noobs' once upon a time. whether it was 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago, we all walked the same path. some of us asked for help from time to time (i have) and others freely gave their help (i have) as well. to me, that is the main advantage of belonging to forums. giving and receiving information. it's regrettable when some folks get fed up and depart the forums. i can think of one soul who is a fount of knowledge about our hobby, 30 years RW pilot and has the killer RW simulator of all time. he no longer 'does' forums. simply had enough of the childish types. it's up to us (and our moderators) to keep the lid on bullies. how hard can it be to simply disregard a question if you feel it is redundant? another way of saying 'get a life'...

Human nature is to seek common validation - that is if you're using something different than what I use, you must be wrong. The simple truth is all answers are right- and depend on the individual enthusiast's goals and what flying their chosen simulator means to THEM. I know some pilots really don't care about the scenery at ALL, others don't mind tinkering under the hood, and some care only about the airplane flight model, not the eye-candy of the 3D cockpit. And so there is inevitably a collision when fans of Simulation A encounter rabid fans of Simulation B. Ultimately, the moderators step in and close such threads before war breaks out. Personally, 'to each his (or her) own' seems logical. The contentiousness of some enthusiasts often results in some folks departing forum participation completely. That is regrettable, because by sharing our knowledge, each of us benefits and tech support issues are oft times easily resolved by one person reporting what worked for them on a public forum, and others with the same issue reading the 'fix' that he/she posted! And as another member said, everyone has to turn a blind eye to some part of their simulation experience. Maybe it's the occasional 5-second freeze-up, or the odd OOM error, or a random crash-to-desktop. Point being, no simulation platform is perfect. It's simply one may be more appealing to YOU than the other(s). Some of us fly multiple platforms as well.

Thank you Jim. Just saw your kind words.

shortly after XPlane 11 is released? :LMAO:

I would say the VRAM is extremely important, in my view it is of paramount importance. I simply couldn't cough up $3000 for triple Titans. So I have Titan on my main pc, and bought a pair of happy meal pcs from a membership club for like $699. I yanked the cheap nvidia GTX620 and the stock power supply and put in 750 watt Corsair CX750M (semi-modular) plus each PC got its own Msi GTX 770 OC card with 4GB VRAM. I can't say about P3D-- but I will say in XPlane this works very well, frames are insane. If graphics are important (and let's face it, you aren't considering 3 screens because they DON'T matter to you, you may want to really think hard about doing something along the lines I mentioned. My system means there is a distinct CPU -and- GPU doing the rendering for every monitor. The Matrox triple-head solution, or driving 3 monitors off ONE video card means that single card has to draw 3 times the display size in pixels, all at the same moment. Can it be done? Yes. But there are two negatives. The first is optical distortion when you try to take a 1920x1080 widescreen and make it 3 times wider but the same vertical height. This is sometimes called "fisheye". Second is the fact that heavy texture loads become even heavier as the size of the window is so much bigger, this can result in Vram flooding which in turn causes stutters and even freezes that can last from micro to several seconds in length. SLI has a history of its own, and you'll have to research it. Newer video games that are engineered for SLI are going to handle it better than older stuff. FSX doesn't benefit from SLI. I see your comment that P3D will "soon" support SLI. I always flinch when the "soon" word is thrown on the table. Best of luck to you.

It isn't hard to recognize a great add-on. Skymaxx takes XPlane up several notches. Let's face it, once you're up at 30,000 feet or more, you're looking mostly at the SKY and the SUN. Skymaxx is brilliant. And adds to the look and feel - what we like to call immersion! Great Christmas Gift! :rolleyes:

Skymaxx Pro is a great product. As another person said, just getting rid of the gray blanket alone was worth the money! Nice job- and I'm sure that the next rev will resolve any issues with redrawing. GREAT add-on!

Thank you Mike. Primitive filming with my Samsung Note phone... but it conveys the gist of the new setup.

Any sim that makes the user feel happy is worthwhile! I was always (and forever will be) in love with the PMDG NGX, and their new 777 is a wonderful addition! Unfortunately, I got a wild notion into my head about having triple visual monitors (180 degree field of view with little to no distortion, running at high frames rates, with butter smooth graphics even at night or at complex airports. I wanted a separate glass cockpit below my outside view monitors. I wanted a sim experience that was beyond anything I had experienced thus far, and more closely emulated the sensations of real flight. In my own personal case, the result was--

Yes, the hardware issue 'tied me' to FSX for the longest time. I owned the VRinsight CDU-II, the MCP Combo II (Boeing) and the 737 Overhead by VRinsight. I sold all but the MCP piece. Ultimately, since switching to XPlane, I have upped the ante considerably, by moving to triple screens off triple PCs. That was not an inexpensive move. Everything is relative. 180 degrees all-the-time field of view is a huge game-changer for me. TrackIr never worked for me, I got 'seasick' or 'queasy' every time I tried it, plus the stiff neck cause by trying to avoid those feelings. I know some people swear by TrackIr and my hat is off to them! Me? Not so much. FWIW, Sim-Avionics supports some of the 3rd party cockpit hardware by a variety of vendors. The older MCP Combo (1st gen) by VRinsight being just one example, and some of the competitive products as well. FlightDeckSolutions' website has more info on Sim-Avionics. You can build the triple monitor setup off ONE PC, but I submit that the path that works so well for me is the call if your sim budget permits it. Without sounding like a broken record, the video card and how much VRam is built onto the card is very important in Xplane. And IMHO, that importance will only magnify over time, as Xplane continues to grow and refine, and more complex scenery is released. The add-ons are always somewhat risky, as sometimes they can bring frames hits, which sometimes DO get resolved by the developers in a timely way. Until those issues shake out, though, you can become frustrated when something throws a wrench into your sim experience. I guess we all are guilty of the same thing: OK, I love my sim the way it looks and flies today! Now, LET'S MAKE IT BETTER! That is where things can get dicey. I saw the writing on the wall when I got to fly a big-dog 737 full-on full-scale Boeing sim a friend built over an 18 year period and a substantial 6-figure cost. Once you see Heaven, it's hard to be happy in your own garden! That said, what I've built today is probably the closest I'll come to that experience. I already bought the Sim-Avionics software (a 'must' for the serious cockpit builder), plus the FlightDeckSolutions pro CDU. That CDU is astounding. It looks identical to the real deal, right down to the backlit buttons, the color screen, and the DZUS screws. The tactile feel of that device is incredible. The buttons have just the right amount of 'push back'. Once I get it all dialed-in, I will likely be in the air much more than I will be on the forums.

If you are flying in XPlane 10.25 and you want to push the eye candy sliders to their highest, 2GB is NOT enough. Then if you add the donation-ware HD Mesh V2 or other very-complex scenery, you can encounter momentary freezes or hard-stutters caused by scenery tiles overloading the buffers in the VRAM! Yes, it can and has happened to me. Now in FSX, 2GB is fine, because more VRAM doesn't directly benefit you due to the way FSX is programmed.

A well-reasoned approach to the flight sim hobby. On the other hand, flying a multitude of simulators and alternating between them may not be practical for every pilot. What I see is the incessant tug back-and-forth between what you like about sim A, versus sim B, and then sim C. Put in simpler terms, to me it means you're never completely satisfied regardless of which sim you presently are flying. I prefer to choose one, and build my flight deck around it, and attempt as much as is reasonably possible to set it up to maximum effect. I also believe that as the sims evolve, they will improve. Laminar has shown they are capable of greatness, although their team size and budget means it's a work in progress and the development time may be a shade longer than we would wish for. Many have said that when PMDG brings their XPlane product(s) to the marketplace, there will be a marked uptick in xplane enthusiasts, and I have no doubt of that. People who have shaped some kind of home-built cockpit experience, be it the full-on Level-D sim or some variant are less able to ping-pong back and forth from one sim to another. This can be a hardware-driven problem (hardware panel A is supported in XPlane but does not function in FSX would be one example), and also can be reflected in calibration issues for the different control surfaces. Best of luck to you, my friend.

[stepping up onto podium] Get as much VRAM on your video card as you can afford - it will serve you well. I regard the VRAM as more critical than the cores, or the clockspeed... for XPlane 10, it is of SUPREME importance. As XP develops, the 'burden' of rendering the overall image (airplane, terrain mesh, textures, roads, cars, boats, clouds, etc) 30 or more times a second becomes harder and harder. If you have increased your graphics slider settings, you'll desperately NEED as much VRAM as you can get... especially as you pile ever more-demanding tasks on your sim. I particularly like the Msi "Twin Frozr" cooling pipes with twin cooling fans. Whisper-quiet, and extremely effective. I also like EVGA, for their USA-based aftercare. As I previously wrote, consider buying a warranty on the video card. The EVGA GTX690 I purchased less than 2 years ago had 'issues' and was replaced twice in two years. I am gratified that EVGA took it upon themselves to 'do the right thing' and did an in-warranty swap to the TITAN in lieu of the 690. I can't help noticing that the '690' card did not regenerate in the 7-series product lineup. It's either too hot (temp wise) or some other issue suggests that nVidia is de-emphasing the card. Currently, none of the major sim platforms support SLI-technology, so the on-card SLI on the 690 was useless. Worse, the "4GB VRAM" they advertise is split in half (2GB per GPU), so only 2GB of VRAM was available at any given time. In my mind, 6GB is 'just right' for XPlane, but if that's not doable or realistic (and let's face it, paying so much more for 2 more than a 4GB card is just crazy), then I think 4GB is 'the sweet spot', for now. I highly recommend you keep the 4GB 770. You will NOT regret doing so! Also, be sure you have a good quality and sufficient watt rated power supply. They are reasonable- I recommend Corsair.

Hello there! No, I didn't have to purchase 2 additional copies of XPlane, though you would either need 2 extra Disc 1's of the XPlane install set, or else you would purchase 2 USB keys from Laminar. Obviously, the USB keys are more elegant solution. I have heard some folks create 'virtual DVD drives' with software that can fulfill this requirement. Since you're running just ONE simulation (but splitting it up amongst 3 pcs), afaik, you would NOT need to buy 2 extra copies of XPlane. Personally, the USB keys are the hot setup. Setup is pretty simple. All PC's need to be on the same network, it's best to hard-code their IP addresses so they are always the same. I use the IXDG 737 that is freeware for XPlane, but remove the 2D/3D cockpit plugin. Sim-Avionics replaces the avionics from the XPlane models (this would be if you want to use a glass cockpit that sits outside of the 3 monitors as I do in my videos. If you're happy with 'the old standard way' I imagine you could use the XPlane built in cockpit models, though I don't know what THAT would look like with 3 monitors (?) maybe someone out there could comment. If you decide to go this route, I would be happy to share what knowledge I have. The software (Sim-Avionics) is available from FlightDeckSolutions, it's pricey, designed for full-cockpit builders, but works well. Cheers and best of luck. Keys for success: At least i5 Intel CPUs, my main (center) PC is i7 2600k at 4.73 GHZ, the two Wing PCs are DELL XPS 8500 (recently replaced by XPS 8700 in stores). REMOVED stock Power Supply (460 watt) from XPS PCs REMOVED stock nVidia GTX620 Video Cards (politely, "not great") Installed Corsair CX750M 750-watt semi-modular Power supplies in each XPS, plus Installed Msi Gamer OC GTX770 4GB option DDR5 Vram video cards in each XPS. Main system is GTX Titan 6GB DDR5 Vram. Note, the 770 cards are available with _2_ or _4_ GB Vram. You want the 4GB. Very important long term. Hope this helps. Ciao!

I think for the money, the OC 770 with 4GB is 'the call' for XP10 (and possibly Prepar3D). It's less than $400 after rebate, and that's a lot more palatable than the Titan. Yes, it would be 'ideal' to have 3 titans, but $3000 for 3 video cards is nudging the 'nutty' button just a tad. I was lucky to obtain a Titan as an in-warranty replacement from EVGA for the second failed GTX690. When I bought the 690, I was thinking "buy the best", never even dawned on me that VRAM was so important. It is VERY important as simulation platforms evolve, and more of the 'rendering' work is pushed to the graphics card and off the CPU. This means much nicer frames, more complex graphics, and a flight experience we've all been waiting for. We all want max eye-candy, and the juggling between what's on screen and what the frames counter is telling us has taken a lot of the joy out of our hobby (at least for me it did). That's why when I went to triple-screens, I didn't ask ONE video card to render three times the work in the same amount of time. It simply stands to reason that frames would radically suffer. So the pc-per-monitor solution, while costly, is the one that will ultimately reward your investment. X-Plane can split the image across a gigabit network and render to 3 (or more) pc's all at the same time. It's simply incredible what that looks like during flight. +1 for AMAZON. I buy only direct from them, and generally AVOID their 'trusted partners' so I can rely on a 'no quibble' return policy in the first 30 days. That is GOLDEN. So much so I have discontinued purchases from other online electronic vendors (e.g. "new egg" or "tiger direct"). New Egg will only replace a defective video card, they won't take it back for refund (as stated on their website). The loyalty I have for Amazon has rewarded them with a significant number of purchases. My main flight deck PC components almost exclusively came from the Jungle River website.

Well, I had the 'demo' experience, honestly speaking, the time limit was so short that I simply could not make a valid determination of whether or not X-Plane was viable for me or not. So I bounced back to FSX and then went and bought X-Plane. I disliked the empty airports quite a lot, a real buzz killer. I missed my beloved PMDG. I returned to FSX with a vengeance and kind of forgot about X-Plane for a while. Then one day, I got fed up with the memory problems and pretty low frames rates in FSX and thought about X-Plane again. Why not? I thought. I already own it! So it began again, and then I met a guy who has a full-size honest-injun Boeing 737 NOSECONE in his garage, with all the overhead, mip, throttle quadrant, lower pedestal, real-deal Boeing seats, in-your-face 18-year project sim! Plainly speaking, it blew me away. Next thing I knew, I embarked on what I consider a stellar feature of X-Plane, the triple monitor display - but (drumroll) with THREE PCs, one per video display. Next thing I knew, an all-in-one HP Rove 20" for the glass cockpit, plus Sim-Avionics software. The FlightDeckSolutions pro-level CDU. Game-changer! See the results on my YouTube page. Then you tell me, which is more appealing? Hint: If frames really matter to you, you'll likely say X-Plane. Watch the big video (that's from FSX). Notice the stuttering! Annoying! Complex airplane + Complex Scenery + Rex Weather = Less than great frames! Now watch one of the newest tri-screen videos (all are from X-Plane). What can you say about the smoothness and the graphics quality? It's not even close, IMHO. Now that XSquawkbox has released in 64-bits (and PilotEdge.net can also fly in 64-bits in XPlane), there is no excuse to remain trapped in 32-bit software any longer. Also, X-Plane can use ALL of your VRAM which is something FSX cannot do. X-Plane has gotten a LOT better, plus there is a wealth of add-on stuff (free, paid or donation-ware). Must-own add ons include UrbanMaxx, SkyMaxx Pro 1.1 weather, HD Mesh 2.0, and a wide variety of airports, including fine work by Tom Curtis ("Howdy"). His San Francisco and South Bay stuff is killer, most-notably San Jose and KSFO. Not knocking FSX or Prepar3D, but just sayin... take a look at the frames counter in this short clip from XPlane 10.25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W802HbTz3ak

Great choice- the 4GB of VRAM is VERY important in the long scheme of things. Whether you 'stay' with P3D or move over to X-Plane or remain firmly in FSX, you will never be sorry to have that extra on-card memory. In X-Plane, the simulator can use ALL the VRAM you have available, to render textures. Hint: Leave a bit of unused VRAM so new scenery can be swapped into the VRAM buffer prior to being needed "on screen". For example, although I have 4GB VRAM on the wingman pc's, I only preload them with about 2GB of scenery. Frames rates are INSANELY HIGH. One of my videos demos the frames rates of the 770 4gb card. It has the word Frames in the title. I opted for a pair of 4GB Msi Gamer OC Twin-Frozr 770's for my triple screen setup, the centerpiece card is the GTX 6GB Titan (long story, got it under warranty for a DOA GTX690 courtesy of EVGA). EVGA is a good company, located in California. STRONGLY recommend you purchase their lifetime warranty option if you can. Money well spent, video cards are notoriously 'touchy'. Take a look at my videos (click on the link below my signature bar). You will see what's 'possible' with 5 PC's and XPlane 10, with triple monitors and glass cockpit. Maybe not your cup o' tea, but I can honestly say it's a game-changer, and I didn't have to part with 15k for a JetMax from FlightDeck Solutions. Their CDU is spot-on right out of the 737. Sim-Avionics software drives the glass cockpit, and the CDU. Good luck, Howard! I went back to X-Plane. The triple monitors sucked me in. The frames and performance are astounding. What you're looking for, methinks.