Ram or Video Card?

[Guest TWVA395]

Hey, I don't know what to do. I have a Pentium 4 2.0 ghz, 256 mb of ram, and a medium-type video card. My question is, should I upgrade the RAM to 512, or higher... or should I get a new video card that is extremely powerful? If you need more info, just let me know.Thanx!Kenneth W. WeikTWVA395Paris France Hub ManagerACVA218Just another pilot :)

[Guest]

Start out with RAM. You will need to go to 512Mb. Any more than 512Mb is a waste for FS2002, but you will notice a difference in performance moving from 256 to 512Mb. You won't notice an improvement in framerates with a RAM increase but you will notice that it runs smoother in other ways. Besides, RAM is much cheaper than a videocard upgrade. If you want to make a super upgrade, move to the GeForce4 series card. You will notice most of the framerate increases away from the busy airports and the visual display will be a lot crisper. I upgraded from a GeForce256DDR 32Mb to a GeForce4 4200 and noticed quite a bit of framerate increase in most settings but very little around the dense airports like ATL and LAX. I believe in those areas there is so much geometry that needs to be calculated that the CPU must do most of the work. Best of luck!Robb

[John_Cillis 2,406]

That's a tough call.... I'm running with 256 megs and a GeForce 2.... I like my performance, so much so that I haven't bothered to upgrade my weak link, which is my cpu (a p3 800). About the only thing I can say is that the newer GeF 3 and 4 cards offer better anisotropy settings. 256 megs is borderline, and I've seen that on my system. With some of the newer, highly detailed aircraft out, I can come very close to using all of my RAM. The moment that threshold is hit, it can cause a stutter as the system tries to use the swap file. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, as my PC budget is done for the year, at least until tax time.Why don't you post your video card type and O/S--that could help others who've gone the upgrade route...-John

[Guest]

If you're running Win98(SE) go for the video card. If you're using WinXP, go for the RAM. Or, better yet, forget the "very powerful" video card, and do both no matter which OS you have - get another 256MB RAM and a GF4 Ti4200. That's the best choice of all for FS2002 (and a lot of other stuff).Trip