Help me choose a GFX card

Get the 8800 GTX or the 8800 GTS. Both are Direct X 10 ready and they will last long time: these are the next generation cards designed with the Vista operating system in mind. ATI has some very powerful cards too, but it looks like everyone is after the 8800 series cards.

As far as running FSX on max.... I will add two more gigs of ram. And chances are you still won't reach max settings.....

I think the nVida 8800 GTX is the highest performance card available.
But
There is a computer hardware website;"Toms hardware guide" (THG), that has an interactive comparison chart of ALL vid cards running many benchmarks.
url for chart below.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=606&model2=547&chart=231

THG has many recent 3rd party articles about the merits of different cards too. I have almost the same comp you do, with my 8800GTX, I'm gradually increasing settings and still see consistant 20FPS

Hay Gundam

I Just ran FSX at max possible settings on winXp in a window.

Opened task manager (cont-alt-delete), tabbed "Performance" and flew loops ina Cub over Houston.

FPS stayed at Targetted 20FPS
CPU useage peaked at 61%, averaged 53%, that's a 2.4ghz core2duo
Memory useage averaged about 538mb, peaked at 928mb, that's FSX, winXp, everything running on 2gb of ram.

I'm ready to pronounce that FSX on winXp doesn't need more than 2gb, at least if you use an 8800GTX.

I see. did you try to go full screen? Now that you mentioned that I should try to fly FSX in a window on Vista. I wonder if there will be a significant change with the settings on max...... 😕

Thanks guys. Just a last question, what is the best manufacturer (reliable...fast...etc) out of the three (BFG, XFX and eVGA)?

Gundam

Ya, that's a good idea

Annoyedmouse

Pick the manufacturer with the most informative product support web site!
That won't be gigbyte