Guys, First of all I wish you and your families a wonderful and happy new year!! I'm in a bit of a dilemma!! I have a pc which addresses my needs for work and renderings but not for flightsim!! (Booooo). I've been flying for the past 12 years and never invested in a good video card. I'm just fed up of playing FS2004 and not enjoying it to the full with some nice huge clouds and sceneries. I don't want to buy a new pc, I would like to buy a good AGP 8x video card for my PC which gives me some good frame rates. That is mainly what i'm looking for, good frame rates. Can anyone give me some feedback and guide me to a good video card??? I might buy it from eBay. All your help and opinions are more than welcome! Below are the specifications of my PC: ECS KT600-A V1.0 Motherboard:~CPU:Socket 462 for AMD K7 Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron processorFSB 400/333/266/200 MHz CHIPSET VIA KT600 & VIA VT8237MEMORY3x 184-pin DDR DIMM socket support up to 3 GB (DDR400 up to 2 GB )Support DDR400/333/266MHz 2.5V DDR SDRAM EXPANSION SLOT1x AGP 8X/4X slot 4x PCI slots 1x CNR slot STORAGESupport by VIA VT8237 4x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices2x Serial ATA devicesRAID0 & RAID1 configuration AUDIORealtek ALC655 6-Channel audio CODEC Compliant with AC'97 2.3 specification LAN VIA VT6103 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet PHY REAR PANEL I/O1x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors 4x USB ports 1x RJ45 LAN connector 1x Parallel port (LPT1) 2x Serial ports (COM1 & COM2) 1x Audio ports (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in CPU AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 1.9Ghz :2GB Ram :NVidia GeForce4 MX 440 (To bad to be true!!!!!!!): The following is a list of cards I went through: 256MB XFX PCI-E GF 7600GT TV/DVI VGA Card:128MB XFX PCI-Express GF 7200GS TV/DVI VGA Card:NVIDIA 7300GT 7300 GT 256MB AGP 8x GFX:nVidia GeForce FX5500 256MB DVI & VGA 8x AGP Gfx Card: I Would appriciate any help!!RegardsMauro Caruana

Mauro, I am afraid you will be quite limited trying to run FSX on that system. FSX is CPU intensive. The vid card is secondary. Getting a faster graphics card might be a waste of money, as far as improving FSX gameplay.

I'm running FS2004, I have no intension to switch to FSX. What are your comments on the above mensioned cards/system and FS2004?ThanksMauro

MauroReally the best use of your money would be a whole new computer.You can buy a computer that is 10x faster than that for $500 USD, maybe less if you buy a used one.The MX440 cards were not for 3D games--they were for office use--so having said that, if you really want to spend money on a vidcard, any of the ones you list would be ok. But you are limited by your 1.9 ghz cpu, which is not that fast even for FS2004. The cpu is your REAL limitation.That's why I think you money would be better spent towards a new system.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>I'm running FS2004, I have no intension to switch to FSX.>What are your comments on the above mensioned cards/system and>FS2004?>>Thanks>MauroHi Mauro,If you had a more potent CPU and main system, I'd be happy to recommend an ATI 1950 Pro AGP. It is plenty ample for FS9. I do agree with Rhett that your main system is kinda weak for FS9 even. It's possible you could make some very nice improvement tho with just adding this video card, you will just need to dial down some settings to allow your weaker subsystem to handle it. The graphics card will allow best possible rendering for your CPU's capabilities. Put another way, this video card will be more than your system really needs, but should at least allow the best rendering at whatever settings your machine can handle.Noel