It is time to upgrade my current video card (ATI Rage Fury 32MB AGP) to something a little or a lot more high tech that is very compatible with FS2002. Anyone have any suggestions??? I am looking at an Nvidia chipset and have heard good things about the GeForce 3 Ti500, but it is pretty pricy. Any suggestions are appreciated.Shawn

At this point, I wouldn't put any $ into a Ti500. Go with a GeForce 4. The Ti4200's are very affordable and in line with the Ti500 (less expensive in many cases if you shop around).Keep in mind that FS is strongly CPU-bound, and while you will benefit somewhat from a larger frame buffer, you won't be able to tap the bandwidth of your card without an exceptionally fast CPU.On my old 1.0 Ghz box, I found that upgrading to the Ti4400, while it did not improve my frame rates significantly, it *did* allow me to enable certain visual effects (Hardware T&L, Triple and/or Anisotropic filtering, larger textures, etc...) - so the sim *looked* visually more appealing.Good luck with your purchase.J

If you're looking to purchase a new video card, wait a couple of months for the new nVidia NV30. I've read a lot of good things about it.Ryan-Flightpro08 :-coolVATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Controller 1 (C-1)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com]Taxiwaysigns.com Scenery Designer

Yes, wait for the new NV30 from Nvidia. Or check out the new one from ATI which is the leader at the moment (the drivers might not be ready on the ATI cards, so you might want to wait for a review).

The other good thing about the NV30 coming out is that then the prices of the other cards will fall so you be able to get a Geforce 4 cheaper.Craig

Thank you for all your suggestions. They have been really helpfull. Price isn't a real big issue, but if you go to [a href=http://www.pricewatch.com]Pricewatch.com[/a] you can get hardware through vendors for really cheap. That's why I was asking about the Ti500 as one of the vendors has it for around $109 right now.Shawn Anderson

Hey Shawn,If you are looking for the ultimate Flight Sim experience where graphics are concerned, I personally recommend sticking with your current card and keep saving up until Q1 next year when nVidia are slated to release the GeForce 5. It promises to be one of the best release the graphics world will see, as well as being quite pricey - so put those pennies away!

The only problem with this thinking is that by the time Q1 rolls around next year, "the NEXT great technology" will be looming and it will promise you everything the current technology offers and do your dishes to boot. You can end up chasing your tail waiting for the technology sweetspot. It's like the Heisenberg Principle in action.There's an old proverb that one is always half-way to the door :)J

The ATi Radeon 9700 will be released shortly, the 9000 is just out.

Which is why you have to make the decision sooner or later, or else the vicious cycle will drive you insane. :-)Personally, once the G5 comes out, I'll buy it and do a major rehaul of my computer. After all, Doom 3 will require some pretty good hardware, and I don't want to even THINK about running it on my G2Ultra. :-)Then there's the possibility that FS2004, if released early to mid-2004, might be optimized for the G5 series. If true, then at that point, a processor upgrade and maybe an extra RAM stick would be all that's required.-Lukexcom, :-wave----BEGIN FS CODE BLOCK----G:KMSP a--- R FS+ F++ P X++ FU+++ C++ H++ O V+++ AVSIM+++ TS+++-----END FS CODE BLOCK-----

It's really a scary thought when you consider all the money you have thrown out on upgrading your hardware over the years!I went from P90 (which I paid 2,500 euro for) to P200 to P300 to P650 to Athlon 800 to Athlon 1,4 where I'm currently at. A P4 2,2 is waiting around the corner. As for monitors I started off with 14"--> 15" --> 17" --> 19" --> 21" and now looking at a TFT too. Videocard I don't even wanna think about...And then I ask myself why I never have any money left at the end of the month! :) Which incidentially might have someting to do with the fact that I always seem to buy my add-ons for MSFS2K2 in the middle of the night when I get home from the nightclub... oh well...KristerNope, I don't have a SIG

Thank you all for the kind words. Since I have no idea how much longer my current video card will last, I went out today and purchased the Gainward GeForce 4 64MB DDR. Looking at all the other cards and the different prices, the GF4 card has a clock memory speed of 4.0ns which right now is one of the fastest. After getting the card installed, I have noticed a fairly decent frame-rate change for the better, and the graphics are a lot crisper.Shawn Anderson

I just went out and upgraded my machine from an Athlon Thunderbird 1000 to an Athlon XP 1600+, the highest speed chip my Asus A7V133 mobo will supposedly be happy with. The results were very pleasing! I went from 11-13 FPS on the ground at my favorite starting locations to 18-22 at the same locations with only the CPU upgrade.The cost was only $68 shipped.If anyone's still hanging around to a slower CPU and has the ability to upgrade without a mobo swap, it's definitely a worthy upgrade for CPU-hungry FS2002. Probably worth more than a graphics card upgrade if you already have anything half decent.(Other useful info: 266 MHz FSB, GeForce 2 Pro 64, 768MB PC133 RAM, settings 75% average.)