Read 'em and weep all who have invested so much in ATI lately ... I told you so ...!______________________________http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=IO_20030623_5901

Hi Bob,What's your point? In about 3 months or so you can post exactly the message about ATI, because then they have taken the lead again. Then after another 3 months NVidia .....Currently I'm looking for an replacement for my GF4 Ti4600 and I'm not sure if it's going to be a 5900 Ultra. I understood it still makes a lot of noise, much more than the ATI 9800 Pro. I don't mind having 35 instead of 40 framerates as long as the picture quality is good and it doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner.Egbert

Excellent point Egbert!! LOLLong, detailed post, you sure he doesn't work for nVidia? LOL Seriously thanks for the info anyway, I am sure plenty of people are going to rush right out and get one, good for them!!I am also in the market to replace my G4 4600, we'll see what happens.Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

The first user can read the "junk" that Tom posts on his site, but can't read the basic rules here on AVSIM. :)PS: Oh yeah, its against the rules of AVSIM to post material from another site. You are supposed to post a link....but I will let the AVSIM handle that part. :)Folks,Just so your aware, posts relating to hardware will be moved directly to the dedicated hardware forum and off topic posts will in most cases be moved to the hanger chat or a forum more appropriate to its content.RgdsAidi http://forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=106086&page=[div align=center][link:www.jetdoc.com/STO/]Visit The Bookstore & Gift Shoppe][/b

Most reviews (non-biased ones. About 3 sources you mentioned showed a bias towards nvidia in the past) state that the 9800 Pro and the FX 5900 are about equal, but the 9800 Pro has the edge in image quality. Given that nvidia had plenty of time to catch up to the R3xx core, but still failed to truly outpace it, shows ATi's technological prowess. the FX 5900 (ultra or non-ultra) doesn't obliverate the 9800 or the 9700 even like some people make it sound like. And let's not get started on the whole "optimization" issues now...whew.

The way I see it, it's good news if nvidia and ATI keep leap-frogging each other. That way the quality keeps going up, prices keep coming down, and we all win.

Competition is great. We Win! Although ATI is ahead, it's lead has narrowed. BTW; where is this superman card? The 5900 Ultra that is? Does anyone have one? If so, how's it performing? Ahh; so many questions, so few answers. Surely, someone must have this Superhero. It's only $500 bucks. Chump change!! Well, guess I'll have to wait for ATI's new R420 coming out later this year? It's fun reading the reviews and then reading all the scandalous chinanagans that follows.:-lol:-lol:-lol

Bob K, I think you need to learn what your talking about before you post such un-thought comments like "Read 'em and weep all who have invested so much in ATI lately ... I told you so ...!" :-roll

The R420 certainly does look good, if it can actually deliver twice the performance of the R9800 Pro and not be incredibly expensive, I'm grabbing it.

The ATI vs. NVIDIA battle rages on, so here's my two cents worth...I can only offer an opinion based on personal experience.I was a happy Geforce 4 4600 Owner when the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro came out. Being somewhat of an adventurous hardware guy, I decided to try one.I immediately noticed a much sharper, detailed picture. Flying was great for the first few minutes until I began having the infamous lock-ups. (A problem I never had with NVIDIA.) I finally figured out that even though the 9700 Pro is an 8x card, and I have an 8x motherboard, I can only run the card at 4x or I get lockups. I've experimented with several different configurations and every driver since the Cat 2.5's, including the Omega. I had no luck in getting this card to not lock up at 8X. I know some of you are saying that there's no real difference between 4X and 8X anyway, and you're probably right. It's the principal that a $400 video card OUGHT to work without pulling out your hair trying to tweak it. (Oh yeah, C&C Generals locked up big time too. Never did completely solve that one..) Now the new Cat 3.5 drivers are out, and I'm getting weird flashes and artifacting that I never got with the 3.4's. Here's the bottom line...some say that ATI has gotten beyond the driver issues taht plagued them for so long. My personal experience is that they have not. I am going back to NVIDIA because, in my humble experience, their cards have always been rock solid performers, even if the detail wasn't quite as crisp. I've ordered a new 5900 Ultra 256 card that should be here in a couple of days. If FS2k is as half as good with this card as other games are in the reviews, it should be nothing short of great... I'll let ya' know!

Let me guess, VIA chipset on your motherboard?? Some of the early 8x mobo's arent done to proper 8xAGP specs, hence why the 9700 doesnt get along with them.

This post was truely intended to be provocative, if nothing else.I am looking quite forward to the newest FS release. I have been a devotee since FS-3.0 (when my Intel 286 CPU hummed along at 12 MHz with 1.2 meg RAM to boot).There were no factions back then ralleying around hardware manufacturers or any other "for-profit" concern.Let's, during this celebration year of the "Century of Flight" (even though the actual period may span more than a century), reflect more of what real-world flyers have been about: helping each other to work with the elements, weather, and physics (and in our case, electrons) to make everyone's landings those they can walk away from with their heads up.

Those early 8xAGP problems have long since been solved. Verdict is in. Was a motherboard problem. Not ATI. Let us know how that new 5900 Ultra works?

I know the problem is fixed now, was just saying that if he happens to have one of those older ones...

>Let me guess, VIA chipset on your motherboard?? Some of the early >8x mobo's arent done to proper 8xAGP specs, hence why the 9700 >doesnt get along with them. Very nice guess indeed! I don't think of my mobo as being that old..it's a Soyo P4 Dragon Ultra Platinum (new enough to support USB 2.0). Anyway, I hope the VIA chipset isn't the problem, 'cause I'll still be ###### when the 5900 gets here if it is! :) FedEx shows that the 5900 is due here tomorrow, so I'll let ya'll know how it goes! Thanks for the replies....Mark