Hi there, I am thinking of buying a new graphics card, my current on is Nvidia FX5500.Im looking at spending up to

Hi Gavin, IF you give full details about your system, then folks could give you informed suggestions.Manny

I feel your pain, I have a FX5500 in my desktop and it barely limps along even with the sliders mostly left. I'm assuming you have an AGP slot, so one of the better AGP cards that isn't rediculously overpriced is the ATI X800GTO, being that it has 12 pixel pipelines (most have 4) and has GDDR3 memory. As far as AGP cards go, nVidea seems to be a little more expensive for what you get, and it seems the other way around for PCI express. No AGP card will allow you to max out the settings and get good fps, but for about 140USD this card would make FSX very tolerable. I don't know what prices are like in the UK, but I found this card for 140USD online from newegg.com.

If you are talking FS9, then either an nVidia 7600 or ATI X1600 256M will hit the spot. For FSX, nothing out there makes it completely happy at the moment, so just buy the best specced nVidia or ATI card that 150 pounds will buy.GaryWoot - 1000 post mark!

I'm with satcomvato on this too, but recommend you get the ATI X800GTO2 special edition (2 as as in squared). This version is designed for overclocking with an improved heatsink. You can enable the extra 4 pixel pipelines on this card by a BIOS flash ( a simple procedure) and it overclocks from a default of 398:493 to 550:590. My Sapphire version was factory flashed to enable all 16 pipes.The card is superb in both FS9 and FSX.CheersSatchmo

I have almost the same question.The problem is, I just know too little about all the video card series and specs to know which one is the best. I have also an AGP card, maybe the selection below can also help the thread starter.On ebay Germany I found the following ATI AGP cards within my personal financial limits. How can one sort them in terms of performance? How does the card series relate to ram memory and ram type? In short:Which one would you recommend for FSX?1) AGPx8 POWER**RADEON X1600 PRO***512MB DDR-RAM 500/400 Mhz 128 bit2) ATI Radeon X850XT, 256 MB Chip frequency:520 MHz, GDDR3, RAM freq:1,08 GHz (German word is "Speichertakt, not sure about the English equivalent)3) AGP POWER SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X1600 PRO 512MB DDR2 512 X1600 Chipfreq:500 MHz,RAM freq:800 MHz overclocking possible 12 pixelpipelines4) Sapphire X1600 Pro 512MB DDR2 128Bit AGP8x X1600Pro5) ATI Radeon X800GTO X800 GTO X 800 GTO 256MB DDR3 AGP8x Chip freq: 400 MHz 2x400mhz ramdac6) SAPPHIRE X1600 PRO, 512 MB DDR2, AGP, 128bit, 500mhz/800mhz ramdac400mhzThanks everybody!GreetingsAlex

Thee X850XT is the fastest of the bunch, followed by the X800 then the X1600 Pros sit in a pack together at the back. FSX is known to like lots of video RAM, which suggests the X1600s, but the X850XT is roughly twice as fast in GPU bound games. I'd go for the X850XT.GaryPS. here's a link to a site where you can compare all three card types: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

Cool, thanks for your very quick reply! It helps a lot :)Alex

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132These two tables are great. Really puts everything into perspective. I have an AGP x800 GTO (Athlon 64 3500+)and am VERY happy with it for fsx and fs9 for the price $230 Australian approx 100 pounds UK.From the article the really good quote is:"Therefore, it is not correct to compare graphic chips only through their clocks. For the processing performance you will have to compare the clocks and the number of pixels per clock. As of the memory, the right way to compare its performance among different chips is through their memory transfer rate, which is calculated using the formula (clock x bits per clock)/ 8."Cheers Don