>Any videocard with the SE after it is not worth it in my>opinion. Why's that?

Sound advice here, gents! Opposite to mainboards, I'ld also stay away from any SE display adapter. SE in this case is: StrippEd down. AFAIK, in the case of the 9200 versus the 9200SE, there's only a 64kb interface on the SE. It's 128kb on the 9200/@ the same amount of pipelines (2). Theoretically, the 9200 (w/o SE) has the same performance as a Ti4200. Theoretically, because I don't know how the clock frequencies relate. All in all, the situation is comparable to buying a harddrive: Get 40GB for 45 bucks or pay 55 for 60GB? Which one would you get? In your case (literally!), a non SE would make a nice technical difference and you might be relatively safe to say, your GPU isn't the bottleneck. BTW, you will want to keep the resolution at 800x or 1024x max for now. I therefore hope, you're not considering a 1280x TFT for FS and your config... 1280x would kill it! On a sidenote too: A total of 512MB RAM is very helpful. i hope this adds food to thought, good luck and kind regards Jaap

Thanks!Unfortunately, I updated to DirectX 9.0b and it has killed ALL of my sims!80But I'm working on it. Thank you kindly for the advice, everyone!Andrew

Here is a link with some video card spec. info.http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?locat...&var1=88&var2=0Kurt M

You can find and Asylum GeForce FX 5200 256mb PCI card on the Internet for $59... it is an Nvidia card, and works very well with FS9... It is an older version, but my wife is also using an 8 year old Elsa II Nvidio 128mb card with her Celeron computer. You dont need a top of the line card for FS9, which is more computer dependent. When ready to get a new computer, check out this website...Ive been buying computers from him for over 12 years, and even though the price is very good, they are excellent computers. Unfortunately, my last one I decided to buy a Dell, and it was the biggest mistake I ever made. Very overpriced, and not one bit better than those that Ive bought from David at: http://www.compulandinc.comHis warrentee and service is excellent.

Andrew,I run:Win98SE, 256M RAM, 800Mhz PIII, FX5600XT 256, SB512, 56.64 driver, DX9. I get mid teens and up to 30 fps with FS9. It actually runs better than FS2002. I paid $100 for the FX5600XT 256 from http://www.buyxg.com/Be sure you have a large enough power supply if you decide to get anything better than 5600.Re DX9 problem, it may be your vid driver. 45.23 is a good driver. I use 56.64 and get slightly better frames but some older sims like FLYII have a glitch or two. FS9 loves it on my box.Hope some of this helps,Earl

Thanks Earl!After reinstalling DX and updating my vid drivers, and crashing a few times, I've got it working pretty nice. Still need a new vid card so thanks for the info, I'll take a look at that one.Andrew

Thanks for the notes Kingair. I'll look around for that card.. still doing some learning here!I've coped down that address should I go for a new computer.. should I tell him who sent me if I go?Thanks,Andrew

Hey Andrew I have v.similar machine to yours. I have a PIII 1.13Ghz overclocked to 1.5Mhz and runs FS2004 like a dream because this PIII has 512KB of cache it help performance *alot* in SiSoft benchmark my machine is up there with the 2GHz P4's :)The one thing holding me back is the graphics card - I have a GF2 64MB !!! I know that by upgrading the card the performance of Fs04 will be very good and right now because of all the fuss over PCI-Express and X800 and X300 and XT BCDFG ... you get my meaning ... !So a ATI9800 Pro card looks like a good bet now, I have always used nVida but with all the rave reviews about ATI and there AA implimentation and video quality I will go down this road. The most important thing I have read is that not all 9800Pro's are the same! some are badged as Pro but have 128bit somthing-or-other whereas you want the 'real' version that rates as 256bit (data path I think) they are very cheap now and if you can overclock your PIII a little you're laughing ... - sorry if I'm hazy about some of the detail, I've been in IT Support for 5 years but in the last year have been a bit out of touch with all the XTATBTX blah blah blah stuff, for me now a PC that works well with the least fuss is all that matters :) btw, my 3Dmark2001 score is around 4500 , I know my CPU can dish more out to a better graphics card like that ATi

Hi daelight -Thanks for the info!I don't even know about how I would start overclocking... FYI for my upgrade from PIII 500 > PIII 1.2 I used the Tualatin 1.2GHZ card. Amazing improvement...I'll look for those video cards - thanks again,Andrew