April 4, 200521 yr I've finally decided to buy a new graphics card. Since things change so quickly, I am afraid to rely on older recommendations.Can anyone recommend a graphics card (AGP) for use exclusively with flight simulator? I am hoping to keep things in the $150 range.Thanks!
April 4, 200521 yr It is nothing fancy.IBM NetvistaIntel Celeron (1.8ghz if I recall correctly - I'm not at home to check, it is definitely not less)512mb RAMIntel integrated graphicsCurrently, I run FS2002 and am pleased. Frame rates are actually decent. I set it for 30fps and have no trouble with that assuming minimal weather and AI traffic. I installed FS2004, and was not impressed. Frame rate dropped quite a bit. (hard to compare apples to apples, but I was not pleased with the frame rate at the resolution I wanted - when I was at an airport, the frame rate would be in the 9-13 fps range, cruising along was in the low 20's, but with no weather)Here is the main thing: I really don't have a problem with the sliders set fairly low. But... I can't stand how everything other than right underneath my airplane is a blurry haze (and only turns clear when I come right up on it). It is IMPOSSIBLE to dead reckon, and just looks bad. I am assuming that if I install a graphics card, I'll see sharper images in the distance. If not, then I think I would be wasting my money. I am pleased with my current frame rates with FS2002, but want to rectify the "blurry" problem. (and would also like to run FS2004 comfortably) I am looking at the Radeon 9600 XT. This seems to be a good tradeoff between price and performance, and tested fairly well for FS. (see http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/gra..._charts-09.html )Also, as long as my frame rate is about 30 fps, I am happy. I would not like to dip below 20 fps at airports, etc.My theory was that I could lock the frame rate at 30, and the graphics card would have more time to display distant scenery. Please correct me if I am wrong.Hopefully that all made sense.Thanks!
April 4, 200521 yr Even if you have the best Graphics card..your cpu will be the bottle neck.I have a Pentium 4 2Ghz processor and I upgraded with a $550 FX-5900 Ultra Graphics card... and it did improve.. but I suspect that my CPU is still the bottle neck. Manny Beta tester for SIMStarter
April 4, 200521 yr This is my concern... I don't want to throw good money after bad.I just want 20+ fps with acceptable detail until the horizon. I was hoping the graphics card would do this.
April 4, 200521 yr If you want to improve the texture sharpness edit these lines in your cfg file. Q) How can I improve the look of the ground textures?A) Open your fs9.cfg file, and modify the following lines:TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.50000This info was taken from the very 1st post in the Tips & Tricks section up above.What this modification does is expand the detail of the ground textures to a wider area around your airplane. Also make sure to check the "Extended Terrain Texturres" in your Display settings in FS9.I good Video card will gain you those extra frames you are looking for.Jim
April 5, 200521 yr Hi, IMHO the one you're looking at will do very well. This is based upon the presumption that you're not running FS at a high resolution now and that you leave it there. Then 9600 will do just fine (max 1024x). Good luck and kind regards Jaap
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