I started this thread since Megacool and myself wanted to discuss this topic.

Megacool, on my PC, FSX runs very nicely. Minimum FPS is 22 and that is with a lot of AI planes and gorgeous scenery. I have it all maxed out.

You are right about the game not being very well optimized since a lot of times the frames are significantly lower yet the CPU/GPU usage is not above 60~70%. I monitor these variables a lot since I have dual monitors, and sometimes the game fully utilizes the CPU/GPU and sometimes not at all.

What about you? How well does it run now?
Whoa sweet you have it too! Anyway as I've stated before, It's simply unplayable on ultra high settings, especially on high resolutions (900p and above). I have to set it between medium and high, plus there's always that annoying slow scenery loading in the middle of a flight. I can achieve an average of 25fps @720p.

I'm not sure about the CPU/GPU usage part, I didn't check. But basically I guess my GPU cant render it at high resolutions with decent frame rates - I can max it out on 800x600 with a minimum fps of 28 in some locations, but it looks blurry on my screen at that resolution.

I want to upgrade to achieve these graphics and frame rates at a high resolution, hopefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvy3Z7k8wcE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DJbkm2udkY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usP-Mh8qiDQ

Bunch of scenery mods and add-ons like the A380 should be installed first.
okay then we should do a 3 person flight ya Xsever ! :)
I was thinking of asking Megacool how good is his internet speed so that we can try to fly all together.

Megacool, Jad and I fly online together from time to time. Would you like to join in?
I flew today from Turkey to Beirut and my average FPS was 50! Everything maxed out!
I didnt really get what Jad meant in his post. But hey yeah, sure that would be awesome, we can all crash together :) j.k

Though I never tried to play it online, my Internet is meh, but latency is acceptable - not sure about something though, I dont really have a legit copy, so I'm not sure if I can join :P

Btw 50fps maxed out? Fkn ace! the 5770 is a pretty good piece of hardware, and your clock speed is far ahead from the reference card - sure it helps get you those extra sweet frames, although FSX is a cpu-hog.
Newsflash MegaCool

You can play FSX online even if it's not a legit copy! Yeah that's right.

As for the 50FPS, i think it's the Quad Core too @ 3.5GHz which makes the biggest difference.

Nevertheless, FSX never gets boring. There are always things, planes, and routes to try.
So Xsever, you think my CPU @3.6GHz can max it out with a decent card, of course with relatively high fps? I think my overclocked speed is pretty good, but I'm not sure about it being only a dual core.

PS. we should arrange an online flight.
3 years later
Hi there guys,
my brother want to buy a new computer to play FSX on it.. do you think GeForce GTX 660 2GB DDR5 is good enough or he should buy something better?? and what about the CPU?
what do you recommend.

10x in advance
vvizo wroteHi there guys,
my brother want to buy a new computer to play FSX on it.. do you think GeForce GTX 660 2GB DDR5 is good enough or he should buy something better?? and what about the CPU?
what do you recommend.

10x in advance
The game doesn't need much GPU horsepower. A GTX660 would be overkill just for this game. AFAIK, the game can use up to 16 cores (threads). Not sure how AMD CPUs perform on this game, but at least a recent Intel quad-core (preferably an i7 with HyperThreading) or AMD equivalent. The Intel 6-core CPUs should be good if the game can take care of 12 threads.
FSX is actually an old simulator and Microsoft stopped developing it long time ago the system requirements are pretty low check out this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925724
there is also FlightGear which is an open source simulator which runs great on my i5-2500 and hd6950.

if you want an awesome Flight simulator you must check out Xplane this one requires a powerfull GPU and multi cored CPU to run at 60 fps but i think its the best simulator out there.
DNA wroteFSX is actually an old simulator and Microsoft stopped developing it long time ago the system requirements are pretty low check out this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925724
there is also FlightGear which is an open source simulator which runs great on my i5-2500 and hd6950.

if you want an awesome Flight simulator you must check out Xplane this one requires a powerfull GPU and multi cored CPU to run at 60 fps but i think its the best simulator out there.
Requirements aren't low. I've run the game and it does require a very decent CPU to run at *acceptable* framerates, which are well below 60FPS. Often users target FPS like 24FPS just because the game can't run much faster.

24FPS is a disaster when you're used to higher framerates.

Don't be fooled by the required specs. Nobody follows game spec requirements anymore, even with games that are generally GPU-bound.
haven't had a chance to try FSX but from my experience i can play flight gear on 60fps, i think FSX is crippled
It definitely is. It's just patched up from previous versions, with DirectX 10 tacked on, and performs badly whatever you throw at it.