Which One of These Video Cards Do You Recommend?

[Chuck_B 2]

I've been simming for only about 7 months now, and I'm already into this hobby for many dollars and, man am I overwhelmed by the specs and choices in video cards! I've read tons here, but I'm still unsure as to what to get for my new Dell. I fly FS9 about 90% of the time and FSX for GA near my home. I love FS9 but wouldn't mind flying FSX more often. My system is brand new and is dedicated solely to MSFS (specs are listed in my signature below).I got on NewEgg.com and narrowed down the field to the 4 cards listed on the attached 3 jpg files. My search was based on 3 main criteria: price under $200.00, 512k of memory, and (somewhat arbitrarily) PCI Express interface. I'll be moving my old ATI X1300 Pro from my new machine back into my old one, an eMachines 3.2ghz Celeron with 2 gig of memory, which I will use as a client only computer with WideView for FS9 (that Celeron processor and <600 FSB never ran FSX well, so I'm not even hoping it will ever be anything more with the new sim).Which one on the attached do you, my more learned colleagues, recommend? Or do they all suck? Is there an even better one you would get, or a less expensive alternative you might recommend? The only brand name I have experience with is ATI, but I'm really just trying to get a good, reliable card for the best value.As always, thank you in advance for any insight you can provide.Sincerely,Chuck B.

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Chuck, without a mention about your display config and specially the resolution(s), answering a display adapter question risks to be a poke in the dark. ;-) All I could say, with single monitor setups FS9 does ok with 256MB adapters and FSX likes ca 400MB or more. That is, if you want to move the 'Global texture quality' full right (= 1024x textures are used). Perhaps Yahoo/google for MemStatus v.2.50? Hope this adds to thoughts, kind regards Jaap

[Chuck_B 2]

Thank you, Jaap. I'm pretty computer savvy, but as far as Video Cards go, I haven't kept up with even who the leading brand names are. When no one answered my post all day, I figured it was kind of a dumb question -- a poke in the dark as you said. I just happened to drive past a CompUSA last night, so I ended up buying a PNY GeForce 7600 GS with 512mb DDR, for $169.00 knowing that I could return it. I had some surprising driver installation problems, but once I got it working in my new Dell Dual Core it seemed to work great. Even with FSX!I have one other question, but I think I'll post that as a separate thread, so I'm not mixing apples and oranges here. Thanks for answering my post! I really appreciate it.Chuck

[Guest baksteen33]

Welcome, Chuck. Although your initial post was pretty complete, the display config remains THE determining factor. A simple comparison I often like to point to: A single monitor @ 1024x768 or two @ 1920x1200 are galaxies of differences. Or, upgrading from i.e. a 1024x CRT to a 1280x TFT is almost doubling the amount of pixels your FlyTendo needs to render. I hope you don't mind if I reply here re your other question... AFAI would dare to judge, FSX scales to particular configs. In FSX's autogen folder for example, you'll find 3 descriptions with almost identical names. FSX 'likely' uses the one it deems less troublesome and according to perf expectations. Maybe there are other functions which are scaled down too? In this context & FWIW, I've renamed 'min' to 'max' so minimal autogen gets displayed no matter what. Hope this adds to thoughts again, kind regards Jaap