Hi,I have an AMD 350 Mz computer which I get from 12 to 15 frames per second the way I have it configured. I would like to get better detail on the virtual cockpits. I am using a Voodoo 3000 with 16 megs of ram. I am thinking about buying a Geforce4 mx 420 pci card with 64 megs of ram. My computer does not have an agp slot. Will this help or will or maybe slow my machine down because of the extra video memory to process. Also what drivers should I use with this card? I am hopeing this will help my system until I upgrade later this year.Bill FitzgeraldKsgf

You have to look at your whole system. First, your CPU isn't going to work any faster because you now have a better card. Its limited to its speed. You will probably see some improvement over the Voodoo. You will need to download some drivers and upgrades. Visit http://www.guru3d.com/ for drivers and information concerning removing the existing voodoo drivers before installing the new NVidia drivers. Also download the information on removing old NVidia driver before installing new NVidia drivers. I would start with the drivers that come with the card, then work your way up/down to see what is best for your system. Lastly, visit www.flightsim.com and download gf4mxdsp.zip that enables the reflection capabilty in the GeForce 4 MX cards for use with fs2002.

Thanks for the help. I went to 3dguru and read some reviews and they said that the Geforce4 mx had nothing more than Geforce2 features and that the Geforce3 had more features like pixel shadeing,ect. I was not able to find a Geforce3 with a PCI bus, not sure if they made any in this configuration.I thought with the extra video ram I would see a big improvement over the 16 meg voodoo, but if this is not the case I may just wait until I upgrade. May buy Asus motherboard with onboard video and wait for the new 9x cards come before buying a video for the system. Bill

Well I went out and bought the Geforce4 mx PCI card with 64mbs. Looks like a big mistake. I upgraded because I was trying to get my virual panels to look better than they did with the voodoo 3000 and they look great, but the frame rates went fram a smooth 13 to a jerky 7. The 2d panels dropped from 14.8 to about 14. In addition to this my computer wants to freeze when Iam just using my desktop. I have lost some sound effects in pin ball wizard too. Seems to slowed my computer down overall.I hope someone has some ideas on what I can do to fix these problems. I will be reinstalling my voodoo and makeing a paper wieght out this $90 card if not. I installed the drivers that came on the cd, they are version #4.13.01.2832.Any help would be appreicated.Thanks Bill

It could be your computer isnt powerful enough for the card. I bought my Radeon 64MB VIVO as a replacement for the Voodoo Banshee on my other K6-400 system. Big mistake. It made that system cough and choke so bad in games I was about to assume the card was broke. I was indeed over the system requirements, and removed all traces of the Banshee drivers, yet it still didnt work. I replaced video cards before on other systems, but I never had this thing happen before, that system literally rejected it. No setting whatsoever would correct it. So I gave up and just put the Radeon back in the box and put the Banshee back in.When I got my new computer, a Athlon 1.2GHz system, I decided to throw the Radeon in. Works absolutely great in a new system. Not a single cough in FS2002 when I tested it. I was pegged at 30fps (rarely goes below 25fps) with all sliders maxed, which I heard is excellent for my type of system.Its a very good idea to buy a comp maybe not cutting edge, but enough for you to get the card working to full potential. A lot of new boards crave a newer computer or they will run poorly or fail to run at all.

Go back to http://www.guru3d.com/ and download/read the notes on removing the voodoo drivers from your system before installing the NVidia drivers.I would also recommend your get later drivers, such as 40.72. Also don't forget about the gf4mxdsp.zip file from www.flightsim.com for improving reflections on GF4MX cards.Lastly, make sure you update your drivers for your controller chips, i.e., VIA, Intel, Sis, AMD, ALI. Look in your device manager for the type chips you have.You graphics driver shouldn't cause problems with your CPU. It is an output device and it should wait on the CPU to provide instructions. Internally, it should be able to better process the data it has for viewing on your monitor.Check to see if your new card is using the same IRQ as other peripherals, such as, sound card, modem. If so, try moving the card to a different slot. The IRQ sharing may be what is causing the Desktop problems. You need to get the basic computer operating first before you can expect to get fs2002 optimized. Check the IRQs in device manager.Whew! I keep adding to this post. See this post for more on performance. http://ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboa...rum=DCForumID26

Thanks for the help,I really like the new card, if I can get things worked out. I reinstalled the divers and did not load the desktop utility that came on the cd. I think this helped with the system problems.My fps is around 13-15 in the 2d panel mode,but suffers in the virual panel mode and plane views, fps drops to about 5. If I get this worked I will be a happy camper, the whole point of buying this card was to be able to read the instruments on the virtual panel which I can do know.I have a Compaq and it has VIA chipset, I didnt know Via would still be updateing drivers for this antique system, but I will go take a look.Will try all your suggestion and post back. Agian thanks for your help.Bill at KSGF