The Microsoft Flight Simulator X demo is out  

Downloading...

I ran medium res with all settings on highest and got about 20FPS

amd 64 3800
2 gigs ram
7800 gt

Overall it runs A LOT slower than 2004 but doesn't seem to look that much better. Maybe I need to spend more time with it.

1152x864, I haven't tried any onthers yet.
I looks fairly acceptable at a lower framerate because there really isn't much action (as compared to racing or an FPS). Of course for a longer flight a framerate above 30 would be needed.
I played it some more tonight and again I was expecting a lot more in terms of visuals. To me the ground still looks circa 1999 and the few buildings scattered about don't cut it. I am sure the DX 10 will help, but I wonder how much. To me the framerate hit isnt worth upgrading for what appears to be smallish improvments in looks.

Yowza, this thing is a dog. You have to have SLI to run it at acceptable settings. On my system (Athlon "Barton" 3200+, 1.5GB RAM, 6800GT) it didn't look any better than FS2000 cause I had to run everything so low.

I wish they had included some US scenery. Flight dynamics are as arcade as ever, even with the realism settings maxed, and they made the engine controls less accessable which makes flying controllable pitch props a real chore. :rolleyes:

It is still a MS sim afterall. Nice eye candy if your system can handle it, but for real enthusiasts and pilots, stick with X-Plane.

It doesnt seem to have SLI support. I tried to run with max settings at 1920x1080 with 7900GTX SLI'd, AMD 64 X2 4200@2.5 and slide show nigtmare...also it didnt look that good either with all graphics set to max. Just luv how all the buildings pop up... :rolleyes: . Its a real DOG of a demo.