My PC Spec and FS2004

[Guest flyingjock1]

Hi FolksI have been flying with FS2002 on my PC since it was released and my wife has given me the money to buy FS2004 but i have read so many reviews and forums to try and glean whether FS2004 is a viable option for my machine.My specs are as follows: K7S5A Motherboard AMD ATHLON 1.2 GHZ AT 266 256 MB RAM 40 GB HARDDRIVE NVIDIA GEFORCE 2 MX100/200 VIDEO CARD SIS AUDIO DRIVER WIN XP PRO EDITIONAt present i have Directx 8.1 installed and know that FS2004 autmatically loads in a newer version in the form of Directx9.Has anyone out there got experience of running the game with the same video card as myself and if so 1) did u manage to get it to work under Directx9 and 2) did u manage to get any framerates.Realise thru looking at this forum over the last year that there are a lot of knowledgea people so my apologies if you are reading this type of question for the umpteenth time but simply any advice positive or otherwise whether i give my wives hardearned cash over to the local pc store, or do i keep FS2002 and get some brownie points and but her something with the money.Anyway its Scotland, its cold and damp and its ready to rain, oh well soon be Xmas. Thanx in advance for any help.Tom

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Your video card will work, but it will not display some of FS2004's advanced graphics features, like bumpmapped water reflections. That's not what concerns me, however. The weakest link in your setup is RAM...256 Megs along with WinXP simply won't work well with/FS2004--I suggest at least 512 Megs for XP. My specs are close to yours, but I upgraded my ram early on, as FS2004 used the swap file on my hard drive and stuttered like heck until I did. Now it runs well, although I still have FS2002 around as I have some older aircraft I fly from time to time, like Yannick's Robin, that only work well in FS2002. Also, by "well" I mean I can still get fps in the low 20's if the scenery detail over the area I'm flying is similar in density to FS2002. Very detailed airports like DFW have worse performance than FS2002, but added to them are better looking ground features, and new ones such as taxiway signs.Once I plugged FS2002's scenery into FS2004....performance was just as good, if not a bit better, albeit with nicer lookin' clouds.... :)

[Guest flyingjock1]

Hi JohnMany thanx for taking the time to read and reply to my message.I understand where you are coming from so i think its best for now under my current setup to persevere with FS2002 until i can get some cash to upgrade the memory. Maybe i'll buy the memory with the