Hi!I'm running MSFS2004 on this system:- Athlon XP2800+- Epox 8RDA3+- 1GB PC3200 (Infineon)- WD Raptor 74GB/SATA & IBM DDYS 36GB/U2W- Leadtek Winfast 4xSound...and here it comes:- ASUS V8170DDR (GF4 MX440 DDR)It runs quite well, but only as long as the weather is fine. Flying through clouds or complex scenery brings the FPS down. Many times I read that faster VGA cards do not always increase the MSFS2004 FPS significantly. What's your opinion? Is it worth buying a new card? I don't want to spend too much money, so it should be a mid-class chipset.And unfortunately it needs to be a GeForce, as I use Trainz Railroad Simulator which insists on GF cards - don't ask why...Thanks for your advises!Greetings,Holger

Okay will not ask. Yeah throw that video card out the window it should never been manufactured. Gets beaten by Geforce 2:s some times. Depending on your budget a 9700 or 9800 PRO would be splendid. 9700:s you will have to buy used to have chance of getting. 9800 PRO is available for around 200$ You don

For a mid priced NvIdia card that would balance well with your current system you might consider this: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-128-188&depa=0Note: The specs listed there show DDR3 memory, but I don't think the card is built with that. More than likely it is DDR2.Hope this helps,Greg

for a mid range card, ati radeon 9800 pro for sure. about $200.

dang sorry now I just recommended you a ATI card :). For nVidia on a budget 5900XT or non ULTRA or if you are willing to spend a bit more 6800 nonULTRA?

>Also I hope you use Chris willis cloudfix?Oops, no!:-)

Hi again!Yesterday I approached GCRR (Lanzarote) with a FPS of, let's say, 3-5. This convinced me...(But most likely I won't throw the old one out of the window, although I should... I just stick to my old hardware, which by now fills whole boxes. BTW, could anyone use a 5400 rpm 3GB Ultra-SCSI HD? Or an 8 MB ATI RagePro VGA? ;-))Thanks a lot for your advices. Time to go shopping again!Greetings,Holger

Holger, I'm curious, why did you buy a Geforce4 MX? It was a very, very cheap and bad performing card right from the start and only suited for office use, really.Get yourself a decent videocard and you won't recognize fs2004 anymore! It will be total different beast!And don't believe that FS doesn't take advantage of faster graphiccards. FS is very different to other games because almost no one plays it from stock, but throws hundrends of addons in it requiring as much processing power as possibly available from ALL components:-aol. A balanced system is best. Just as a guideline below 20 FPS isn't acceptable under normal conditions.My card recommendation: low-end: Geforce 5900XTmid-end: Radeon 9800 (128Mb version)High-end: Geforce 6800 GT Radeon X800 The Radeon 9800 would fit very well into your system and it delivers alot of bang for your money!cheers,Claudio

Hi Claudio!>I'm curious, why did you buy a Geforce4 MX?The answer is quite easy: because 1 1/2 years ago I needed a faster yet cheap video card. My old one was a GF 1 DDR (32 MB), thus it was an improvement (and honestly I wasn't very much into gaming anyway). And one month ago I discovered MSFS2k4, and I learned that it's time to get a new one. :-)>My card recommendation: >>low-end: Geforce 5900XT>mid-end: Radeon 9800 (128Mb version)>High-end: Geforce 6800 GT> Radeon X800 OK, again I am on the low-end side. On thursday I got myself a GF5900XT, but yes, it runs about thrice as fast, and yes, I hardly recognized MSFS2k4 when I first turned on the anti-aliasing. The card wasn't too expensive (179 eur), and I think it was worth every euro!(And now I save additional money, as I can turn off the heating in my living-room.)Greetings,Holger

Yup that