Hi, greenhorn - welcome. I've been simming since FS3 back in the 80s, and each has been a performance improvement over the previous - and not just the graphics piece. The planes handle better in FS9 than they did in FS8 (2002), and in this respect FS9 is excellent - most people here still rave about it, so have no fear - go with it. Plenty of help here if you want to know anything. My rig won't handle FSX so I'm not even going to try; but from what I see and hear, FS9 is certainly no poor relation.
One of the jewels of this site (just restored for download) is one of the greatest freeware add-ons you can get - that's the global terrain mesh that gives a much more realistic topographical 'look' to pretty much anywhere that's inhabited on the planet - better than that supplied with the sim. Adding pieces of it (or any other add-on) is not difficult if you follow the instructions. FS9 looks like it was designed to be added on to, and most of the folks here have heavily-extended FS9 systems.
The vast bulk of my addons are freeware, and there's a huge amount here to enjoy.
Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 720
