Nv4_disp.dll blue screen and ... advice on Nvidia vs ATI?

[Byrna 0]

Hello everyone,I was doing a flight last night on FS2004 (on WinXP Pro 32-bit) and I got that rare occurrance of the STOP ERROR (BSOD / blue screen) referring to the NV4_DISP.DLL driver. This error has occurred on my new PC since I got it but only once in a blue moon, and only with FS2004. I looked through the forums here and found a few possible explanations and also found something in the NVIDIA support database which may of help to some people, even though the Nvidia article refers to another game (not FS). Here is the link to the Nvidia KB article:http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia....amp;p_topview=1I actually have not tried the suggestion yet. But I will test it. However, one of the solutions in this forum intrigued me and pointed to a possible cause though it is hard to prove for me. One guy found that his CPU was overheating (an AMD FX-55 which is an older and much hotter CPU if I recall, than the ones from today). I noticed, however, that this problem occurs with many different Nvidia chipsets. I have the 8600GT, but I read articled about many other cards like the 8800, 9600, etc... so it is NOT just my GPU. Is anyone getting these errors with the newer Nvidia cards like the 265, 275, 285, 290 series etc...? I can say one thing: on my old PC, I NEVER had blue screens period, with regards to the video card driver. My old PC had an ATI X850 PRO AGP card in it. This brings me to another question: Can I have some input from different people about how stable Nvidia graphics cards are, compared to ATI-based cards? I will probably be upgrading my card in the next 1-2 months. I have ordered FSX and I will run in on Win7 Pro 64-bit and I will wait and see how FSX runs but my guess is that high quality graphics will not be possible with my current video card. I can see a whole bunch of people now sighing and saying, "duh! Where have you been? What did you expect from an 8600GT?" When I bought my system, I bought it for WinXP 32-bit and FS2004, not my current setup. Hence the lower end video card (I was on a budget like everyone else... but the PC is upgradable so all is good.) By the way, I have not received FSX yet. I should get it within about a week's time...So can anyone help with these two issues/questions? The BSOD referring to the nv4_disp.dl and stability of Nvidia versus ATI. Also, image quality of NVidia vs. ATI in FSX?Thanks,John