Video card upgrade for FS9 (AGP)

[sluggy 3]

Hi everybodyI've just bought an X1950PRO 256MB AGP card (and a 500W PSU to feed it), am I going to be smiling when it replaces my 7600GS 256MB card? I'm running XP SP3, FS9.1 (with bulk addons) Pentium D 3.4GHz and 2GB of ram. I run at 1280x1024 with 32 bit colour on a 21" CRT.I'm secretly hoping this will be an awesome upgrade, but I'm not getting too excited yet... ;)

[sluggy 3]

On a related note, my new PSU (Antec 500W) has the following specs :2 x 12V rails @ 18A. As the specs for the X1950 state 12V @ 30A, will this be enough? I'm finding it a little hard to believe a 2 year old AGP video card could draw 30A, and I work on 10kW HF transmitters for a living!

[FLEX1978 373]

Hey Sluggy, unfortunately your not going to see much of an improvement :( probably no zero increase in FPS. FS needs raw CPU power so your only option for a good upgrade is switching to a dual core. this will mean new ram, PCI-E card etc etc so were talking about a new machine here. but.....The good news is with the X1950 you will have better visuals plus you can add more AA and AF without much of a performance hit. About a year ago I used that card with a P4 3.2 HT it was a very good combination.Rob

[jfri 42]

>Hey Sluggy, unfortunately your not going to see much of an>improvement :( probably no zero increase in FPS. FS needs>raw CPU power so your only option for a good upgrade is>switching to a dual core. this will mean new ram, PCI-E card>etc etc so were talking about a new machine here. but.....>I'm not so sure about that. I have an upgrade path like thisNVIDIA MX440 ATI 64M to Radeon 9800 PRO 128M to NVIDIA 6600GT 256M DDR3 and each of these steps significantly improved performence. But when upgrading the CPU from AMD1800XP to AMD2400XP I noticed no obvious performence improvement. The same thing when trying to overclock my current AMD 64 3200+.I myself wonder what an additional graphic card upgrade could give?My systemAMD 64 3200+1 Gb RAM 400 MHzNVIDIA 6600GT 256M DDR3Win XP Home

[sluggy 3]

After many years of tweaking, I now get 24 frames fairly solidly, and that's with 100%AI, autogen and 3D clouds in the PMDG 747. It drops to around 7-15 coming into a large busy airport (of the scale of Heathrow), but by then I'm not looking out the windows anyway! I've set my cloud draw distance to 30 miles, I'd like to increase that to maybe 50 miles and reduce the FPS drop, plus I'm sick of using nHancer to get a nice picture. Another week and I'll know if these new bits will work!

[january 19]

jfri- Your 1Gb RAM may be on the low side. Initially, my AMD XP2200 system had only .75 GB - but when this was increased to 1.25, FPS jumped at least 20%. Later, after increasing to 2.0 GB, there was no detectable improvement- at the FPS high end: BUT the bottoms seemed to be better cushioned. Can't really prove it, but FPS lows do appear to be propped up a fair bit by the extra (2.0) RAM when the going gets tough in high density scenery.(Like adding props in the basement when the floor starts to sag!) Alex Reid

[FLEX1978 373]

jfri, you were upgrading from very low specs '64meg card' so yes someone in that situation is gonna see a big boost. Sluggy is at the high end of older hardware, he cant squeeze much more outa that system. I have been building and selling custom gaming rigs for years.Rob

[jfri 42]

>jfri, you were upgrading from very low specs '64meg card' >so yes someone in that situation is gonna see a big boost. >Sluggy is at the high end of older hardware, he cant squeeze>much more outa that system. I have been building and selling>custom gaming rigs for years.>If I remember correct there is a difference in memory bandwith. The 1950PRO has 256 bits and the 7600GS has 128 bits. Should that not make a significant difference?I might be able to buy a 6800 ultra cheap so I might see for myself.