Okay, just upgraded my computer to an Athlon 64 3000+ with 1GB of PC3200. I've seen beautiful screenies of Flight Sim, and am impressed with the gorgeous 1280x1024 resolution. In fact, if I'm understanding correctly there are users that won't play at less than this. I'd love to get it going, but I continue to get jerky performance in some occasions.I'm thinking it may be time to upgrade the old video card. I'm still using a GeForce 4 Ti4200. It's been my understanding that FS is more processor based than graphics card based, so I haven't bothered ot upgrade before now. What do you guys think? Is this card insufficient with my rig, and if so, can you make any recommendations on a good graphics card?Thanks,Ken

I'm no expert but I would suggest your graphics card may be a bottle neck for the rest of the system.

Ken - I was once running a 4200 on a 2.2Ghz OC'd to 2.5Gz. When I changed the card to a 9800 Pro (128MB) I was shocked. The maximum framerate didn't change all that much but the average framerate almost doubled. The 4200 really had a hard time coping with clouds and water details - the 9800 has no problems with either. Flying in heavy weather with the 4200 was really a "jerk-and-stutter" sort of thing - not so with the 9800. There is really no way I can describe the overall difference except to say that if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it. The newer cards all have better FSAA, better anisotropic filtering, more memory, etc. While still very CPU sensitive, FS2004 also benefits much more from a "better" video card than did earlier versions. All mileage is, of course, variable, but I think a video card upgrade would help quite a bit.DougP4 3.0C SL6WK @ 3.510 (1.600 VCore - 234 FSB)Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (BIOS 1019)2x512MB Corsair TWINX CXM3700 (3-4-4-8)4x120GB WD 7200 IDEHercules 9800 Pro (128MB @ 410/360)A-Open 1648 AAPPlextor 708AEnermax 431W PSUInwin CaseStock Intel HSF

Hi Ken,Definitely the TI4200 is by far your weakest link! As already mentioned, even an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro will show you a big improvement. I use the 9800 and I get frame-rates of 12-35 fpm. ONly in photo-realistic airport sceneries do my frame-rates go down to 5-8 fpm when taxiing but I don't get any stutters at all, so taxiing is smooth still workable. But my CPU is slower than yours-Athlon XP3200+ so you should get good performance with yours. Higher end video cards will definitely make big differences based on what I've read from people with such cards in this forum. For example, an ATI x800 or an nVidia 6800 series will be major improvement in frame-rates over the 9800 Pro.Good luck!John

My 6800 ULTRA is not fast enough for FS 2004 so definiatly. You will see a difference. I am not even close maxing the antialiasing or anisotrophic for example out with my 6800 ULTRA though I have an 2,75 gig A64 to couple it with. It all depends on how you run it. I run with stereo3d glasses which put a bit extra strain but even without that I can

Just before spending the money, run your 4200 with the 56.72 drivers if you are not already. I've got the same card and found these drivers to be smoother than others I've tried.BTW.. I also found I could overclock the 4200 to 4400 speeds, using Rivatuner..