9700 TX Radeon Graphics card

[Guest gremel]

I have a 9700 TX Radeon Graphics card which is a 128 meg card and it does not say it is a 'PRO'....I discovered in Control Panel Advanced settings that mine are set at the half-way mark. When I move the slider to the 3/4 mark, I get 4X and 8X windows etc lighting up on my screen. I'm afraid to enable these and was wondering what settings I could get by with to maximize my graphics card.I currently have a Dell 8250 series with a 2.4 processor, 1024 of Rambus PC1066 memory ram, 120 gig HD etc.Any ideas would be appreciated since I know very little about the max settings I could get away with....My other specs are: Intel 850E chip, Bios chip 4 Mb, 250 watt DC power supply. The computer came std. with the 9700 TX Radeon 128 meg card...Regards,jack noullet

[Guest TerryT]

Jack, Don't worry about advancing your sliders for the video card. Your computer will tell you if it is beyond its capabilities. You either will have a blank screen (will revert back to lower setting after a few seconds so you can still operate computer) or you will get an outstanding looking video image but very few frames per second. (jerky video). Or you might just get outstanding video that is both clear and free of any stutters. That is what we all are looking for, yes? It sounds like Dell is shipping their computers with a middle of the road setting which should give you both performance and quality video. You can experiment by increase/decreasing the slider to liking. I was kind of surprised to see that your computer only had a 250 watt power supply. From what I have read, the 9700 card series requires additional power (extra plug on video card). If by chance, you start seeing some really weird things happening with your computer like it locking up, you might have to install a larger power supply (300-350 watt range). These computer places try to get by with the minimum parts they can use, even Dell which is suppose to be one of the better computer manufactures.Good luck and enjoy your 9700 card.Terry

[Guest gremel]

Thanks for the info Terry. I did notice on the card that when you install it, you have to plug in a wiring harness to the board and it does have a fan. Is that what you mean when you stated: 'the 9700 card series requires additional power (extra plug...on video card'???Regards,jack noullet

[Guest Bigshot]

Don't worry about your power supply. That 250watt PS from Dell is better than most 400 watt PS'. Unlike the cheap stuff that many here buy and brag about how cheap it was, Dell uses a very good Power Supply. The 9700TX card that you got is an ATI9700 card that is underclocked. Apparently that's the way Dell wants them. For whatever reason, it's a puzzle to me. It should work fine for you. Just not as powerful as a regular 9700NP or 9700 Pro card. You should set it up in the video card menu for 4xAA & 16xAF. I run my 9700 Pro with performance AF in FS; because it looks great and you'll find you get more mileage out of it on performance. Also, set the highest quality textures and highest quality mipmaps. Leave Vsync on application preference and make sure Truform is turned off. Run the sim at the 1600x1200x32 res if you can. Go ahead and max out your terrain sliders/aircraft sliders and check all the boxes in the settings/display within the sim. I run the terrain mesh at 90 percent, Visibility at 90 miles and clouds at 60 percent. Everything else is maxed. I also run AI on default setting and lock my frames at 22fps max.

[Guest gremel]

Thanks for the 'HU'....(heads-up). I'll give it a go.Regards,jack

[Guest gremel]

One little question: What is 'Truform' ?? I can't find it anywhere..Regards again,jack

[Guest Bigshot]

Don't worry about it. It'll be off by default. It's usually an option at the bottom of the card menu. Doesn't apply to FS. Only games that support it and they're few from what I understand.