I intend to order a new graphics card later today.My budget is up to

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Hi Alex,I just made a similair choise 3 weeks back. I decided to go for a card based on ATI's Radeon 9500 chipset to replace my old GF 4200ti. After some reading I decided to get an Saphire Radeon 9500 128 Mb. Why?First of all the Radeon's are handeling Anti Aliasing and Anisotrophic Filtering very, very good, two aspects that are very important with flightsims.Secondly there is a type of Radeon card that can be "tricked" by the driver to perfom as a Radeon 9700 pro! This means that if the trick works (45% chance) you'll get the performance of the much more expensive Radeon 9700pro!! Please beware: only a certain type of Radeon 9500 can be altered! Look for a 128Mb Radeon 9500 with a red PCB and the memorychips aranged as follow: two memchips above the GPU and two beside at the back end.If the trick doesn't work, well, nothing wrong with that as you'll have a perfect and fast card. If it does work, an even faster card will sit in your machine! You won't even ruin your warranty of the card because the trick relies on the driver, not on the hardware.Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about the new Geforce cards such as the 5600 Ultra so perhaps someone else can shine a light on this card.Finally let me tell you I'm very happy with my Saphire 9500@9700pro. Fantastic performance for a little price and with a quality that leaves me amazed everytime I fire up FS2K2!!Good luck with choosing cards!LennartOh yeah, I've read the 9500 being faster than the 9600 so get the older one, the 9500.

Thanks guys,I was going to get them from dabs.com - I think they only have one 9500 card. I didn't realise there were so many!Any more advice much appreciated, hope this isn't too OT.Alex

Alex, buy the best one ATI Radeon 9800 Pro :)

Hi Alex,It all depends on the speed of the processor you have. No point spending lots on a fancy card if your processor isn't a fast one. More system details needed before I can advise.Cheers,

Alex and Lennart -I just bought a Sapphire ATI 9500 for the same exact reason that Lennart mentioned. It's a great card at a resonable price. Unfortunately, the softmod did not work for me. I'm getting artifacts :( so I just reinstalled the latest drivers and am still extremely pleased!!! Here is the website where you can get the softmod (if you decide to go with the 9500). http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/P.S. Don't get the 9500Pro - it cannot be softmoded. It can only be modified by flashing the BIOS or doing a hardmod (not recommended).Chris [email protected]

ATI 9500 here and am very happy with it, constant FPS at 30 (locked at 30) together with an AMD 2400+.Works brilliant, and the card was really not too expensive.CheersHolger

Hi Ray (and all),I have:Gigabyte KT400 moboAMD Athlon XP 2800+512 DDR RAMCD-RW 52xDVD 16xWindows XP HomeIf there are any other specs just say :)I ordered a "Radeon 9500Pro 128MB DDR" from dabs.com - but I can change the order tonight as it's "awaiting stock". A penny for your thoughts!Alex

Hi Alex,The Radeon 9500Pro looks fine as it and the mobo both support 8X AGP. I hope you're getting a nice display. CRT or TFT? I've got a Iiyama Pro454 19" CRT running at 1600*1200 @ 85Hz. For now at least the CRT remains my first choice.Oh, you might want to consider 1Gb RAM. With Fs getting ever more intensive the small price difference is well justified even if you're not flying the PMDG737 ;-)Happy flying!

Thanks Ray,I'll add another 512 RAM (edit: RAM is PC3200 spec) to the order.My display is a 17"er from 1999 :( I didn't realise that it was so important? I'll be sure to ask you for help when the bank balance finds its footing again. Where abouts are you anyway? Anywhere near Herts?Take care,Alex

Actually, I order the ATI 9800 Pro 256 today and will have it tomorrow. Will let you know how it is.Brad

holy graphics batman!!! well, I just can't put that kind of money down for a card right now. I'm happy with my 9500 and SGI 21" running 1024x768 @ 100mhz.Chris Driver

ah what would I give for a 21".... (screen)Alex

If I were you, I would change to the 9500 non-pro. You will save some money and possibly be able to softmod it up to a 9700pro (can't do with the 9500pro). Just my opinion...Good luck and enjoy!!Chris Driver