Search the Community

Greetings,In reading most if not all the Flight Forum posts here over the past few weeks, it seems that by far the majority of users are getting good to very good performance out of their rigs with Flight. Unfortunately, I am not. I knew I was going to have some trouble since a warning comes up that my video card does not meet required specs (which it doesn't). That part was clear, but what is confusing to me is what video card should I upgrade to? and will it make a significant difference? My goal, obviously is to get the frame rates and performance that most are talking about here. My concerns are, is my system good enough to handle a newer faster video card? Anything I should be concerned about (power supply, compatibility issues with all other software, etc). If I upgrade the video card will my FSX set-up (took a year to configure it correctly) be negatively impacted?My performance in Flight on medium settings (some even on high) for the free base software seemed fine, but with the Hawaii adventure pack and new plane, I am seeing some significant reduciton in frame rates which would be expected with more detailed cockpit and more scenery. Fraps says 15 tops and down to 6-7 densely populated areas for frame rates. Any thoughts would be appreciated on the video card upgrade or any other advice on improving performance. I want to get this up and running before Alaska is released. Thanks!I purchased my desktop August 2010 and here are the specs: Processor and Memory: Intel® Core™ i5-650 Processor 3.20GHz 512KB L2 cache + 4MB Shared L3 cache Intel® H57 PCH chipset 8GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM memory (4 x 2GB for ultimate performance) (expandable to 16GB) Hard Drive and Multimedia Drives: 1TB (7200RPM) SATA hard drive Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe Technology Write: 16x max DVD±R, 4x max DVD±R DL, 8x max DVD+RW, 6x max DVD-RW, 5x max DVD-RAM, 40x max CD-R, 24x max CD-RW Read: 8x max BD-ROM, 16x max DVD-ROM, 40x max CD-ROM Audio, Video and Graphics: ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 Series Graphics with 512MB DDR3 dedicated graphics memory, DVI and HDMI capabilities and support for Blu-ray and Microsoft® DirectX® High Definition Audio with up to 7.1 surround sound capabilities Connectivity: 10/100/1000Base-T network interface Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n Ports/Slots: 3 PCI Express x1 (3 available) 1 PCI Express x16 (occupied) 2 external 5.25" expansion bays (1 available) 1 external 3.5" expansion bay (1 available) 2 internal 3.5" expansion bays (1 available) Front panel 15-in-1 memory card reader: supports SmartMedia, xD, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Mini Secure Digital, Compact Flash I, Compact Flash II, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, RSMMC, MMC Mobile, MMC+ 6 USB 2.0 ports (back) 3 USB 2.0 ports (front) 1 FireWire® (IEEE 1394) port (back) Headphone; microphone (front) Optical audio out; LAN; microphone/line-in/line-out; rear speaker-out; side speaker out; center (subwoofer) DVI and HDMI available on the graphics card Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor: HP USB keyboard and optical mouse HP 2710m 27" diagonal full HD LCD monitor Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit