$$$ vid card vs. $ vid card+RAM?

[turner112 52]

Who said I have 2?I have 3!But two are Macs (G3 400, G5 2x2) and my Flight Simulator is a PC. (Not including a Mac Performa 6400 in the basement...)If FS was released for Mac I'd be really happy.But eventually I want to use multiple computers to run FS to get gauges on one screen and scenery on the other(s).Andrew>btw why do you need 3 computers all suddenly if you have 2>now??>>

[oktorn777 0]

IMHO it's very hard to upgrade your system to a level at which it could run FS2004 properly. Of course you can try it, but the bang for money will be very poor. Besides your system will get outdated very soon. Buying a middle class computer doesn't cost much, runs fs2004 without problems and can be upgraded easly if it's needed. I also tried to max out my old system, but the performance gains I got wouldn't justify the money that I had paid.And don't get a FX5200, it's a very low-end card. Better: FX5700, FX5900XT, Radeon 9600XT and so on...;) cheers,:-) Claudio

[oqvist 11]

But that you can

[Guest MoonlightSonata]

hi, I have a very similar system to yours:I started with a PII350 and 3x256 M RAM, FS2002 and a GF2 MX400. processor was a bottleneck - sound problems, but still playable! However I had to upgrade the PSU to 450W since my 230W PSU complained about the graphics card by churning out lots of interference and noise!I upgraded to a Powerleap celeron 1.4G (2+ years ago like you). very good upgrade. runs fs2002 great. I then improved graphics quality by adding a cheap end-of-line overclocked GF3 ti200.FS2004 runs fine. The processor bottleneck means I have to reduce AI traffic & Autogen. Anti aliasing is a non-starter. Must haves are reduced size cloud/autogen textures, 2D clouds...etc.So my advice to you would be: Overclock your celeron powerleap 1.2 if it makes you feel better to 1.4G and add a second-hand GF3 ti200. You may have to upgrade your PSU to 400+W - but you never know it may be ok.and if you want to see some screenshots from my system click the links below

[oqvist 11]

As for PSU 400 W PSU is not necessarily better than 200 W ones. You wouldn

[NM5K 1]

But you shouldn