Hey all, I was just wondering if I made a decision in buying the ATI Radeon 9600 XT. I noticed right away how clear and crisp FS2004 was and how much smoother the 737 ran, it still gets a little stutter on takeoffs and stuff, however I want to know if there are other video cards within that $200-$250 price range that are better than the 9600XT because if there are I can always take it back and get whatever may be better. I run FS2004 at 1280x1204 res. with everything on high except lighting and mip levels. I have a Pentium 4 2.8 ghz with a gig of DDR ram.Jeff Smith USAF

Jeff,You shouldn't be seeing any stuttering with the R9600XT. Did you format after installing your new card?

Yes... ther is one: the nVIDIA (ASUS, etc.) based on the new FX5700 graphic processor is the best in quality/price and works very very smooth in every situation.With the new ForceWare International driversVersion: 53.03Release Date: December 9, 2003WHQL Certified.Graphics Engine GeForce FX

Wouldn't bother with that. The Radeon is by far superior.

Format what? My hardrive, no way it would be too much of a pain. But if you have any suggestions on how to optimize my windows xp bootup I would be thankful. I didn't build this computer myself this time I bought it on base for cheap but it's an HP and it's got all this preinstalled stuff and all these programs start up, and when you bring up msconfig there's like a hundred things starting up and I don't know what I can take off the start up list?Thanks,Jeff Smith USAF

Jeff: There is an XP-optimization tutorial in the avsim library. If you can't find it, let me know (sjmantel at mindspring dot com) and I'll try and find my printed copy and get the location info from there. Good luck.sj MantelKEWRP.S. I like your card selection (I run the 9800XT). I think your problem is too much running in the background. There are lots of things you can try and it's very unpredictable what particular tweak or tweaks will fix it, so be patient and methodical. Also, call HP tech. support directly for advice on which of their startup items can be disabled. The avsim tutorial proabably won't list some of the stuff you are seeing because it's hp-specific. Use your favorite search engine to search out "XP Optimizing" or "XP Optimization" or "XP Tweak".

I am convinced that the nVIDIA are better then ATI on my personal experience. My old ASUS V8440 Geforce Ti4400 (with up to date Geforce drivers) settled at 10FPS was already smoother than any ATI settled at 20-25FPS; to say nothing of the smoothness of my new FX5700 fixed at 20FPS and AntiAliasing settled at 8xS!!!Try before buy!!!Andrea

Sorry but that is not the case. ATI blows the doors off of Nvidia in both speed and image quality. The 9800 Pro is simply the best money can by and with a fast MB/CPU/RAM combo you CAN run everthing on high and be very flyable. As a side note, I have a Gforce FX 5200 and run at 1280x1024 32 bit with most on high and get 15-30 with NO stuttering. This is due to my motherbord and very fast ram....[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/betaimg.jpg

Hello all,I've recently purchased a new top of the line dell PC and I am very upset with it's performance. It's a 3.2 P4 2GB of DDR mem RAID hard drive config and a 256MB Nvidia 5950 Ultra 256 vid card. I'm getting horible performance in FS9 even with the sliders turned way down. My FPS is jumping from 5 to 30 in all situations and is really never smooth. I have gone through the system looking for bottlenecks and hav also tried to go through some of the config. guides that are on AVSIM here but I'm really at at a loss as to what's causing my probelm and I don't want to break anything else. It's basically a clean computer with only virus scan, a firewall and a few games installed. I'm running at 1024 x 786 32 bit with my Nforce drives set to "performance" quality. AA is being controlled by the drivers and not FS and my lighting is scaled way down as well. I'm almost lead to believe somthing is broken in this computer but I hope not. Hopfeully I'm just a computer gimp and it's an easy fix. Any help from some of the more computer savy members would be greatly appreciated. The 737 is a remarkable step forward in FS design and I can't way to fly it with some good performance in FS9.

Hi.Don

Hi There, the file you are looking for is reality_xp_fs2k4_tweaker.zip good luck.Ron CIntel P-4 1.8 Gig512MB PC2100 DDRAMMSI G-Force 4 128MB19" MonitorSB Live ValueForcefeedback StickIs it ever enough?

Randy,I understand you have the same video card as me, the FX5200. I run an AMD XP 1800+ with 512MB of 333mhz DDR RAM on a Gigabyte board. I am so disappointed with my framerates. If I fly the 737TNG in FS9 with the "Grey and Rainy" theme, I get between 4 and 10 fps. Otherwise, my framerates are in the twenties. I have tried various cloud files, reduced the weather sliders, have the latest drivers, tweaked Windows XP, overclocked the core speed and memory approximately 10%, added cooling, the list goes on. Is this card supposed to produce higher framerates than this?Roger

No, this card is the *king* of the budget cards, so in that respect it is *ok* but it cannot compare to even the Gforce Ti series cards which have a faster core. I run pretty darn well with it with all my tweaking, my ram is set to 5-2-2-2 hard drive is 133 and my CPU is default 2100 AMD XP. For the card's speeds, I set it to 290/425 which helps a lot. I also have it set to *performance* no AA-AF (does not matter with my res anyway and it just cannot handle it with this card) no VSYNC. Also, I just formatted my hard drive which also helps out. Even at busy airports with the NG I get 15 FPS...[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/betaimg.jpg

I just reformatted, too. I believe it is the ultimate "spring cleaning" for a PC and I do it yearly. Most of my framerate troubles occur in the vicinity of cumulus cloud. I think I'll double-check that I have the alternate cloud files installed. I might also try OC'ing the card a little more. Just curious, how are you cooling your card? Mine has a built-in fan and I have two 80mm case fans. I am considering jigsawing a hole in the door of my case to install another 80mm fan that would point directly at the card.Roger P.

I have the cloud set from the library too. Boy those helped me greatly with weather. I do not even have a fan on my card! I played battlefiled 1942 for 6 hours last night so I know the card can handle at least what I have set. I will be installing a Gforce 4200 Ti later this week to compare. I am sure I will be keeping the 4200 over the 5200 FX simply for the clock speeds the Ti series can run at. If you can get a hold of a 4600 ti you can clock in the 700 range, and while not as clear image quality as an ATI, the price is much cheaper..[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/betaimg.jpg