I'd also like to point out that our new AH2 models not only look as good, if not better, that I can run them on my laptop. FSX with everything turned to minimum is essentially unplayable for me.
Maybe because I don't have any 3rd party scenery add-ons, but for my money the ground scenery in AH looks much, much better then in FSX. (FSX has better clouds though) Maybe part of it is that FSX is trying to replicate real scenery. But even beyond that, the ground in FSX just looks flat... the roads, grass, fields, buildings are all flat and all have the same texture. They do throw in the odd building that has 3 dimensions in the bigger cities, but for the most part the ground in FSX just looks like a big vinyl floor colored with abstract earth-tones in a random pattern.
Plus I can run AH on max settings, and get 50-60 fps always. In FSX with the graphics sliders about 2/3 to max I stutter along at 15-20 fps, (even at minimum settings I only get 30-35 fps) and -like I said- it looks like crap.
As for the aircraft models, I'd say the latest AH models are as good or better then the stock FSX ones. I do have some payware FSX planes that look better though.
I honestly would prefer prettier ground scenery over prettier airplanes though, since I'm in the plane, looking at the ground, not the other way around.
Not being a computer whiz, I don't understand how one program can look great and run fast, while another similar program looks crappy and runs slow.