I'm new to the forum, my last foray into FS was back with 98 and since about year 2000 I've been away from the flight simming side of things.I'm super keen to get right back into it however I really need some advice on which version to get FS2002 vs FS2004.I've got an AMD Athlon 1.2ghz, 512MB PC133 RAM, 32MB Geforce 2 Pro video card, 20GB HDD (8gb free space) running WinXP Professional.Given my older PC specs I'm confident of being able to run FS2002 without a problem, but because I was thinking of getting the less commonly found FS2002 Pro version, it really doesnt seem to be a whole lot more $$$ to splurge and get FS2004.So my question really is given my older PC spec, is it enough to run FS2004 comfortably/get good performance, or should I just forget the new one and buy FS2002?

If you had a more robust video card than what you have, I would say try FS2004. I run FS2004 on a P3/800 and with a GEF 4200. It's run FS2004 so well for the type of flying I enjoy, I've skipped a few generations of systems in order to splurge when FS2006 comes out. Other than MSFS my home system is only used to remote into my office PC and run some image processing software--it has more than I need for work and pleasure.But I have concerns about your video card even running FS2002 well. FS2002 didn't start to shine for me until I got my 4200TI, which has 128 Megs of RAM. FS2002 and FS2004 both are texture intensive. A card that doesn't hold up will cause both sims to become a blurred mess at times, especially if you enjoy high speed aircraft. I used to run FS2002 with a 32 Meg Voodoo. It looked like FS98, that's how poor the texture clarity was.So in conclusion, I think your video card will be the weak link, even with FS2002. You'll run FS2002 better than FS2004, but not by much.Although your post by rights should appear in the Hardware forum I will leave it here at least for the next day or so, in case someone who had your card can challenge my concerns. I would be more than happy to hear it would work well for you if it has for someone in the past!-JohnEdit:Just so you know what's possible in FS2004 with my setup, here's a link to my most recent screenshots. I was getting about 26-27 fps in spot view and about 21-22fps in the VC of the aircraft shown, both payware add-ons for FS2004http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&mesg_id=221773

Well, I run FS9 on my P3, 1.0 Ghz machine, with 512 Mb RAM and a 32 Mb Radeon 7000!As Dirty Harry said, "a man's got to know his limitations" and for me that means sliders to the left for autogen, AI aircraft, etc. I just try not to look at the screenshot forum much ;-)BlairCYOW

"AMD Athlon 1.2ghz, 512MB PC133 RAM"-------------When you say that , is that like a 1600+ speed? I had a system like that and liked fs2004 pretty good although I didn't go around cities as much then hahaI would say more RAM though and a new graphics card (32 megs is very low)

Go with FS2004. I ran it first on a P3 - 800mhz with a 64mb video card and 512 ram.It ran it fine, you just have to turn the scenery sliders quite a bit down. I found is that FS2004 at low settings still looks much nicer than FS2002 at high settings. If you get it be sure to grab the resized autogen textures here on avsim and some resized low resolution cloud textures, those should help performance on a low end system quite a bit.

Guys, thanks for the responses. At this stage I am going to run with FS2002. I might at some stage upgrade to a 128 or 256MB video card for a small investment and try FS2004 then.

I think you will be making a mistake if you go with 2002. My system is:P3 800, 512 PC133, Win 98SE, FX5600XT w/256VRAM. I get perfectly acceptable frame rates for most sceneries.The thing is, 2004 runs better than 2002. I have both. I uninstalled 2002 right after trying 2004.I would get a video card and you will probably need to get rid of some files on your hard drive eventually.My 2 cents.Good luck with your decision.Earl

I'll add my voice to the group advising to go to FS2004.It ran better on my machine than FS2002 ever did, and as long as you fly with clear skies and no AI, you should be outperforming FS2002.

I disagree with the others. If you keep your current video card you will not enjoy FS2004 as much as FS2002. You won't even be able to view some of the reflective effects in FS2004, as there was a change in FS2004 that caused older cards (like the GEF 2 which I first had with FS2004) to have issues with reflections.If you replace your video card--even with a clearance 4200TI--it's a different ballgame. The 4200TI is slower than today's crop of cards, but I consider it up there in terms of the beauty it can display in FS2004. I had to open up FS2002 for the first time in a couple months as I am working on a new aircraft project, and I was stunned at how archaic it looked compared to FS2004. -John

If it helps you at all I ran FS2002 with almost the same setup as yourself until the last few months when I upgraded to the NVIDIA Ti4200 which made a masive difference to my framerates. When I started with FS2004 I still had that same setup and it ran just fine. Framerates were low and I had to be careful of which addons to use due to the framerate killers nevertheless I had a system certainly good enough for FS2004. If I had to choose between the two with the same system I had then (pretty much the same as you) I would go for FS2004 just be careful when buying certain addons.Andrew Brownhttp://www.crazypilots.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

One good thing about you being out of simming from 2000-2005 is that you missed FS2000 which probably saved you much psychological harm. :) I was never completely "out" of simming but drastically reduced my involvement from about 2001 to 2005. Between 1998-2001 I bet I was one of the most active AVSIM people, but now no one remembers me. haha.I really would be tempted to go with FS2004 if I were you.You can spend $50 and get a better video card than what you have.FS2002 is *much* much better than stutter-happy FS2000 was. You wouldn't be hurt going with it--it's just that I know at some point you will upgrade something (either your video card, or the whole system) and so at that point you'll wish you had FS2004. Of course, you could always buy FS2004 or FSX at that time. Sorry for the rambling,...Rhett