I went from 4.3 to 4.5, the performance is basically the same in DX8.1, but also has bug fixes.  OpenGl performance has improved quite a lot, and DX9 performance has increased by ~30% for some games.

I have upgraded my drivers to the 4.5's and I think these are a winner.    I used them with FS9 and Lock On last night and I am very impressed with them.  I ugraded from 3.9 to 4.5.  It took them this long to get the graphics looking great and the frames duable.  As far as a performance increase, I have not noticed much.  I have my sliders practically maxed and am able to get an average of 24 FPS.

You can check out my screen shots in the payware forum that were taken with the new 4.5's.

Do they NOTICEABLY increase framerates in FS9?

best,

................john

FS9 uses DX8.1 graphics so it will not get an FPS increase in this version, as it was openGL and DX9.0 that got the increases, but as jubjub47 says it gives an improvement in IQ.  Which is worth it straight away.

The only way to boost your fps is with a nice cpu or memory upgrade.  Cpu's usually produce the largest boost though.  I also saw in your specs your running 4xagp....upgrading your mobo to an 8x compatible board would be huge for you too.

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It's way more than 1-2% speaking from personal experience and technical stats.  I upgraded my system about a year ago from a 4x to an 8x board without changing any other components in my system.  My fps nearly doubled.  I went from avg fps of 12 to fps of 20-22 with fairly high settings and 100% traffic.  You've got to look at it how it is.  The 4x slot is basically a 4 lane highway with a high flow of traffic.  The 8x is an 8 lane highway with the same amount of traffic which has room to flow at a much higher speed.

Well in JBaymores situation he's running a 9800xt through a 4x slot.  It doesn't get much higher end than that at the present.  And in my case of switching from 4x to 8x, I switched for the same brand same chipset board as to not have to reinstall windows to clear out drivers and such.  The change in performance was absolutely the faster 8x agp slot.

By the way...your article seems a bit out dated.  One line from the article tells you everything you need to know about the faster cards.

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Well Jbaymore has had performance issues from the start and when compared to other computer similar to his, like mine for example, his performance falls short.  This still boggles my mind to this day, and I am sure he is just about fed up with it.  I am beginning to think his problem has to do with his 4X slot.  After changing things as he has, and upgrading to such a high end card, nothing has helped.  I'd say the last thing he hasn't tried yet is changing to a 8X AGP slot.  That just might have been the problem all along seeing as how everything else has failed in his attempt to even get his computer performing like others in his range.

I too have followed JBaymore and his computer problems, as he and I have very similar computers.  I also feel that my computer is not performing up to specs compared with others.  I have a Pent 4  at 2.6, 800FSB, 9600 Pro, 1 Gig of DDR 400, and an 80 gig, 7200 rpm hard drive.  I have updated everything, but the real problem is  I have no idea what kind of performance Im supposed to be getting.  To compare to others isnt really  much good, as everyone knows, there are tons of little things that seem to make a difference.  I guess maybe I should bench mark it and use that as a guide. I have mine locked at 24fps, and everything maxed except water effects(none), and autogen on normal.  I have cloud set at 70 miles, highly detailed and 70% 3d.  The biggest drag on my system seems to be Ai aircraft.  I fly out of Atlanta and from the spot view get a maximum of 10-11 fps.  Out of LAX 12-13 max.  Is this good, I dont know?  I guess it seems like alot of lower systems are out performing this by at least 10-20%.  I have thought about reloading the game and starting over, but at this point I probably have 50 hours of downloads invested and backing all of this up and reloading it isnt an option.  I just wish I knew if my computer is performing  the way it is supposed to.  I do have the AGP at 8x, but it didnt change anything when I tried 4x, so I am out of ideas.  Good luck to those still searching!  Todd

There is little performance increase 4x to 8x AGI in THG tests. Some improvement but not much.
ATI has been criticized in the past for not issuing drivers.  Now complaint of too many updates? ATI does recommend not upgrading unless problem or running an app they specifically fixed.  Barring a specific fix, I'll update 4.4 later this year.

Read the THG test here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20000214/index.html

Here is another test showing 1 percent 4x to 8x

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=604&pg=2

Two other tests:  One zero and the other 3 to 5 percent.

Newer cards, apps, and cards and drivers will likely benefit from 8X more than older cards.  But not the apparent 100 percent increase 4X to 8X.

Similar in CPU's.  AMD 2000 to AMD 3000 apparent performance increase is 50 percent.  THG tests show an increase of 28 percent.  Substantial but not as expected.

Fireman, thanks for the comparison, I have been away and just checked the boards. It appears that you also have much better performance from your system than I do.  2.8 vs 2.6, and 9800 vs 9600, seems to give you about 4-6 fps average more than myself.  Doesnt seem like much but when you are talking about low end being 16 fps compared to 11, the difference is considerable.  I realized this weekend that while I have a gig of ram, I am not running it in parallel, so I may be limiting my FSB to 400 mhz.  I am going to get another stick of 512, and replace the 2 sticks of 256.  Maybe running it in parallel will help.  Anyway, thanks again for the comparison, Ill let you know if I find anything.  Todd