Hi all, I'm not much of a computer buff (but I'm learning!) I've been trying to make some sense out of the various postings concerning video cards. I've not long updated my system (again!) when converting from FS2002 to FS9. (I've had flight Sims since the early days of Dragon and Commodore computers so I'm reasonable adept at understanding the settings of the FS programs and its facilities etc.)I now have an AMD 2700+ motherboard, with 1 gig of RAM and an FX5600 nVidia card. (I do hope all the technical terms are correct) I have to say I'm not all that impressed with the graphic display of the FS9 - compared with FS2002- in light of the increased clout the new bits were supposed to give. (I doubled the RAM and added the new motherboard and Video card when I changed to FS9) Performance is not as improved as I expected. Indeed FS2002 is still loaded and that isn't much better than it was previouslyI have heard that the FX5600, or nVidia cards generally, conflict with the FS9 program and have thought about changing the video card again. As said, I'm no computer buff and have to rely upon the retailer giving good advice when updating. Before I throw more money at it - would any of you, better schooled in the computer world, like to offer any advice. Thanks for listening.Regards Blue.

I haven't heard many good things about the FX5600, from what I have read, is that the FX5700 series and the FX5900 series, are the cards to buy, all the other ones are buggy.

I switched from Nvidia to ATi. Although I still think the Nvidia drivers are better, the ATI quality is very good. I have a 9800 non pro and love it, great bang for the buck card.

Thanks for the input people - very grateful. Regards Blue

Before you throw the baby out with the bathwater, could you let us know what settings you are using for the FX5600? Drivers? In game settings? Card settings?I have excellent results from the FX5600 I am using, although I accept that the equivalent ATI card might be able to produce better quality visually, the stability and potential for improvement on default with the FX card is really very good, but it does take a bit of setting up for FS.Allcott

Allcott, Thanks for replying........ You'll see elsewhere in the forums I've posted a note which, in effect also updates here. This is quite an old posting and received few ideas for me to work on - in the meantime I've been on that steep learning curve and following much advice from these forums, I now have a very much improved setup of which I'm very pleased. Basically - as you seem to be suggesting, I hadn't a clue about setting everything up. Now that I've delved into drivers and BIOS, along with optimising Windows XP to say nothing of the FX5600 itself - then the game settings! Well as you might imagine - Much better all round.I really didn't realise there was so much to these computer things! In any event many thanks again for your interest. I would be interested to learn more of your settings and system - in light of you having the same card as I have. I could also, look up the settings I'm using if it is of interest still. Kind Regards Blue.

In no particular order:MSI GF FX5600 256mb BIOS 3.6056.63 MSI WHQL certified driversProperties-MSI Clock - D.O.T Enable, `Colonel`.NVIDIA control panel, custom application profile: Anti-aliasing settings 4x, Anisotropic filtering 4x, image setting performance, vertical sync application controlled, force mipmaps application controlled.Screensize 1280x1024x32 (with CRT monitor adjusted to give correct perspective)FS Settings: 12808x1024x32, anti-aliasing UNchecked, Trilinear filtering, mipmap level to 4, Texture size to massive.Terrain Texture UNchecked, mesh to 75%, Ground scenery shadows UNchecked. Clouds to DEFAULT (unless you use replacement cloud textures) but with density to high.Think that's about it, except to say that my FS9.cfg looks like this (edited to show only relevant sections)DisplayUPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=25TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400TerrainTERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=75.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=4TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=6.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=0SceneryIMAGE_COMPLEXITY=2DYNAMIC_SCENERY=0DYN_SCN_DENSITY=0DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1SUNGLARE=1LENSFLARE=1This is the best compromise I have on my Athlon XP1800 system. Depending on your system specs you might be able to alter some of those settings to higher levels.Hope this helps.Allcott

Allcott, Many thanks for getting back on this. Clearly my "Steep learning curve was not steep enough because I didn't understand ALL of your settings/terms :-) However, I'm getting there. My card is the 128Mb version, with the AMD Athlon XP 2700+. I've updated the BIOS from MSI also am running the latest chipset drivers.I didn't understand "Properties - MSI Clock -D.O.T Enable - Colonel", is this a BIOS setting?The nVidia controil panel settings I do understand, they seem to be similar to those I've recently set from memory but I will need to check.My monitor doesn't display at such a high resolution - (New Monitor is on the shopping list) mine is 1024 X 728 X 32.My FS settings are comparable with yours (from memory but I will check these also)I haven't altered my FS9 Config.Further questions if you are able to answer them are: In light of my FX5600 card being 128Mb - is it appropriate to have FS9 Config. settings similar to yours?Also: the "Properties - MSI Clock........ - Colonel" above, what is it please?Thanks for your help so far, Regards Blue

The MSI Clock is a MSI overclocking utility designed for MSI cards specifically, but useable on others. The Official 56.63 drivers on the MSI website contain the overclock utility, just install as normal and you will find you have the extra tabs available.At 1024x768x32 you should be able to run 4x AA and 4x AF without affecting framerates too badly. I would stay away from the 2xQ (quincunx) as it makes the 2d panels noticeably more blurry for no significant gain in frame rates. It is appropriate to have the same settings as a starting point, despite the nominal difference in the cards.Finally, a `tweak` a good friend of mine recommends is to actually make use of the `default` button in the scenery settings menus to provide a good starting point for testing - it's so often the case that what causes a problem on some systems doesn't on others that a common base is actually very useful - that and the fact that the difference in actual appearance is very slight. What he suggested, and was borne out by my tweaking, is that if you tweak the card settings FIRST (including the FS menus), then the game settings AFTER, you will reach a better compromise than if you do it the other way round. Hope this helps!Allcott