FS2004 and Video Cards.

[brucek]

I'm thinking of buying an ATI 9700 Pro soon. Has anyone had great or bad experiences with any video cards in FS2004 (beta testers) ?Thanks,Bruce.

[Tabs]

Obviously no experience with it in 2004, but I put one in a system I built for my brother a few weeks back and 2002 absolutely FLIES on it - 30FPS with everything maxed easily. Keep in mind though that FS is a CPU limited application, a better video card won't do you any good unless you have a CPU capable of feeding it the data it needs at a fast rate.Ryan

[Guest product]

Ryan,I'd love to know those system specs! My experience with the 9700, and from what I gather other people's as well, are very good, but a promise of 30FPS with all sliders maxed isn't one that I can make on my P4 3.06 system, 1MB RDRAM. Flying in an area of minimal terrain mesh, yes you can get that with little AI. But on the ground at a big airport with AI, just doesn't happen. 20-25 max. I do run at 1280x960x32 resolution, which causes a hit, but on this high end system I've heard of as low as 15FPS at O'hare with full AI.Just wanted to give another perspective to the initial questioner, everyone's mileage may vary.Best,Joel

[Guest cw1011]

I agree with the above poster - fps will vary highly on similar systems depending on the complexity of the mesh, the plane being flown, the size of your AI fleet and how many are flying (and visible at airports), the complexity of the weather, the complexity of your scenery, your level of AA and anitsropic filtering etc. That said, I can't recomend the Radeon 9700 Pro more. I was absolutely floored by the performance boost on my system - especially in those areas that usually bring my system to a crawl: partly cloudy skies, busy airports and add-on airports. I don't think you will be disapointed.

[brucek]

Thanks all.My system is a P4-1.8G, 1G PC-2700, GeForce 3 Ti200 64M video card currently. Also contemplating increasing CPU power, as far as the mobo lets me (ABit BD-7II).Thanks again,Bruce.