MAX Capabilites of FS2002

[Guest]

I am planning on building a new gaming rig. I have been a flight simmer for 7 years. I was wondering if FS2002 can take advantages of 1GB of Ram, Hyper Threading, Processor and Video Card Capabilities.I would like some opinions.Abe

[Guest]

FS2004 will support Hyper-Threading. That will kick major arse :-kewl I bet for P4 3.06ghz+ owners. Radeon 9500 Pro or higher is a nice choice for a video card. I've had a wonderful FS experience so far with my Radeon 9500 Pro, though for the absolute best buy an ATI Radeon 9800 when they go retail soon.-Matt

[Guest]

Where did you find out it supports hyperthreading?I have a TI-4600 what do you think?

[Guest]

I remember reading about it either in a forum post or the official Microsoft press release. I went looking around, but for the time being consider it a likely rumor. Can anyone else back me up on this?If you get a 3ghz processor or something really really fast then you have no reason to upgrade your video card. FS2004 will most likely use DX8 pixel shaders to remain compatible with a wider range of video cards, but again that's just my opinion, I don't know anything for a fact.-Matt

[Guest FPSFREAK]

Your operating system is what is responsible for how much ram can be addressed not your programs so to answer the first question..Yes 1 GB can be used if your running windows XP. It wont be used but it could be if needed(Most people dont realize how much memory 1 Gig is).COF2004 shows no support for hyperthreading. It may be just a rumour and if is than like any other should be researched before being passed along. It would be nice if it did for those that can utilize it but it has been shown that HT really doesnt offer the performance gains one thinks it would unless the app is specifically written to take advantage of it.COF2004 will ship w DX9. It will be backwards compatible to DX7 but to take advantage of all of the graphics in the sim a DX9 card may be your better choice although your 4600 should run it just fine.Hope this clears things up a bit.Bobby

[Guest]

Ok, Can someone explain what DX8 and DX9 is. I am always confused with the API technologies.Will the TI-4600 support it?Abe

[Guest]

4Ti4600 supports DirectX 9.0 (DX9).Other GF4s provide full DX8 support and partial DX9 support.Under Windows 2000 or Windows XP FS2002 will take advantage of high amounts of RAM, though I've never seen it use more than about 350MB on my machine (which until yesterday had 1GB (1.5 now)).Main advantage of such nicely large amounts of RAM is the ability to have several programs loaded side by side, which is essential when doing things like aircraft or scenery development and texturing.I can run FS and PSP together with no ill effects (apart from a slight slowdown of FS when saving large files in PSP) for example.

[XWRed5 0]

>COF2004 shows no support for hyperthreading. It may be just >a rumour and if is than like any other should be researched >before being passed along. It would be nice if it did for >those that can utilize it but it has been shown that HT >really doesnt offer the performance gains one thinks it >would unless the app is specifically written to take >advantage of it. See http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/review/acof1.htmI quote...."The new graphics engine, along with the entire FS-ACOF application, make extensive use of Intel's new Hyperthreading Technology to produce eye-popping realism while squeezing out every nanosecond of system performance available. While it will all run on a low-powered Pentium 3, if ever there was a reason to upgrade to a hot new Pentium 4, FS-ACOF is it."My guess is that it will be written as a true/properly multi threaded application and hence hyper threading will help performance, as will using multi processor machines.I hope they start making better use of these monsterous graphics cards we're now using as well.Take care,Ian

[Guest FPSFREAK]

I stand corrected Ian. Now another reason for that 3.06. LOL Thanks for the Info.Bobby

[Guest FPSFREAK]

>4Ti4600 supports DirectX 9.0 (DX9). >Other GF4s provide full DX8 support and partial DX9 support.Am I missing something here?? Do you mean GeforceFX supports DX9? I may be wrong but as far as I know there is no Ti4600 that offers support for DX9. AGP8X support and DX8.1 but no direct DX9 Support.Anyone disagree??Bobby

[Guest]

Can someone breakdown DX 8.0/9.0 per my original post. Also, explain what API's do please.

[Guest]

Hmm, that's what I read... Could be partial support of course, given that there was no finalised DX9 when the chipset was finalised.

[Guest]

API stands for Application Programming Interface.It's a set of programming instructions and code libraries programmers use to create a program to work with the operating system (and underlying hardware).DX9 is the latest interfacing layer between software and hardware for multimedia applications (mainly used for games, but can also be used for networking, visualisation, etc.).DX8 is an older version that of course doesn't make full use of the very latest hardware because that hardware wasn't there when DX8 was created. DX9 also fixes some bugs and provides improved performance over DX8 when the hardware supports it.

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

Direct X 8/9 is an interface of graphic features between your video card and a programmer like myself.An "API" standing for APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE in most any case is something that I would want to have as a programmer.What it is is a library of calls that I could make to have a certain graphic condition happen without having to know how to directly program your specific video card.As a pseudoexample:If I want to draw a box in the center of a black screen I could call the DirectX API functions for my specific language if available and write something likeFunction ScreenColor alias "DXAPI"Function DrawBox alias "DXAPI"Black = 0Red = &HFF0000&ScreenColor(Black)DrawBox(150,150,Red)Whereas I am calling 2 DirectX functions which I originally defined to be used throughout my program then actually calling the function with the required parameters.As far as DX 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 each version usually has bug fixes from previous versions and added functions and streamlined each time.But in order to use some of the features, they have to be present in the hardware video card to begin with.Hopefully it cleared up some and maybe confused others. :-eek

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

That's pretty funny how we answered in about the same manner at approximately the same time. :-lol