My ATI 9800pro is on the fritz... What's the best most recommended video card out there these days for FS9? I'm used to paying upwards around $400 for a card so price is not a problem...

I just replaced my 128Mb 9800Pro with a Nvidia 256Mb 7900GS. I now use 8x AA and 16x AF, and get frames equal to my 9800Pro without any AA or AF. It looks great. The Nvidia looks much more natural at that. The best thing about it, is that I payed $150.00 for it, while it was on sale. I am very happy with it. I only use FS9 and will not move to FSX until they resolve the framerate issue or until hardware is released that is affordable to run it (probably 3 years from now). Best of Luck!RH

I use a ATI 1900 XTX512 MB GDDE3 Memory.I admit that FS9 doesn't work as well as FSX does. With FSX my frame rate is set to unlimited and I get frame rates of 48-66 with FSX. FS9 I get less frame rates. The card cost me $395.00 but I think it was worth the money. I also updated my motherboard to a Asus P5L-MX. Can't remember how much that cost but it was well worth the money.Gary W

The best video card if money is not an object is the nVidia 8800GTX or even 8800GTS. you might save a $100.My FS9 is unbelivably good. :)Manny

Thanks guys for the feedback... :-)

You really do not need to spend that much money... I've got a similar system to yours: P4-2.8, 1 GB and have recently upgraded to a Nvidia 7600GT 256M card. It is just great, handles all kinds of clouds well with 4XAA and 8XAF at 1280x1024 and costs less than $200.It is also a regular sized card that does not draw a ton of power and has a quiet fan. It comes in PCI-E and AGP models.Not the fastest card, but great value for money.

I was looking into replacing my ATI 9800Pro with an Nvidia 7600GS - would that be an improvement at all? I am building another computer for my son so he is getting the ATI card. I run dual monitors, and I cannot span a window bewteen the two screen using this ATI card and the 5.7 CAT drivers. That is my main reason for wanting to use an Nvidia card, because I want to be able to span a window in two monitors.

Well guys I settled on an old Radeon X1600 XT 512MB card. Seeing my PC only supports the old AGP architecture, that was one of the best cards I could get. Thanks for the help guys... :-)

I've read some not so favorable reviews of my new (well, new to me) Radeon X1600 XT video card. I'm happy I'm seeing better performance (although not huge leaps and bounds) over my older $400+ Radeon 9800 XT. I guess there's something to be said about newer technology. My X1600 produces better performance over my 9800 plus the benefits of 512MB video memory over 256MB is very noticeable in FS9 (games like Half Life don't seem to fare as well). Under FS9 this card is very sound... I won't be able to get the newer PCi Express video cards until I buy another computer (for FSX). As it stands now I see the old saying 'don't believe everything you read' comes into play. I wish video card reviewers would use Flight Simulator as a benchmark because it's one of the most intence program out there graphics wise. Just because a card doesn't perform well with shootem up titles, I've often found another story in the Flight Sim environment. Unless someone points it out like I'm doing here no one would ever know concerning particular cards.Being one of the last good AGP video cards the X1600 XT delivers (especially with 512MB of video ram). You put that together with the latest Omega drivers, the results in FS9 is pretty good. Depending on how FSX performs under Vista and the new OS's mature cycle on the market, I may not be in the market for another computer until January of 08. The Radeon X1600 XT 512MB has extended the life of my aging PC by at least a year with FS2k4. This is surprising after reading the various reviews on the card from some very reliable sources (I will say the card was reviewed along side more robust PCi Express cards instead of comparable AGP cards of the time. I guess the X1600 XT and Pro were the last of their breed in the fall of 2005).

I recently purchased an Nvidia GeForce 7300, about $100 card but got it for $70 on sale. It runs in the PCI-Express and although it is a 256, it claims to support up to 512. FS9 runs outstanding with this card, with just about everthing maxed out. It seems that until Vista comes out, and Direct-X 10, it makes no sense to futher upgrade, because you still can't run FSX the way you would want to, to take adavantage of the detail. Is there really a card out yet that will do this?Pilot Pete

Too bad about the AGP limitation.I just bought the X1600 XT PCI express 512 Mb. And its great.Definately if I were recommending to folks, I would keep emphazing go for 512 Mb.

I have followed this thread with interest. I too have decided to stick with FS9 and do some upgrades and am really having fun. Have a Dell 8300 3 ghz with 2 gig ram and an ATI 9800 XT AGP card. Question..would a X1600XT improve performance on my machine? Also, the Dell has a 305 Watt power supply..can it handle the X1600XT. A new machine is sometime in the fairly new future so I really don't want to replace motherboards, cases and power supplies.Any guidance you can give me is appreciated.Thanks!Jeb

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I would think your current machine would handle FS9 fairly well. Are you getting decent fps? Are settings maxed? I really don't know if your PS is enough to support the x1600xt, but if your machine handles fs9 well enough I'd just start saving for a killer system.Has anyone here seen FSX running on either of the 8800 cards? I can't imagine that FSX won't run a decent frame rate at maxed settings with either the GTS or GTX. I have read reviews about the 7950GX2 running any current title with maxed out settings EXCEPT for FSX, but all I've read about the 8800's is that they're way ahead of any software title available.