Best Video Card ?

[SR 747]

Hello friends,

I'm a lover of quality so I bought many add-ons to improve FS9 but I have come at a point where I just gave up flying because the framerates were really too low and the terrain too blurred.

I have to buy a new computer and a new video card and need your advice. I know this is an old story but I need help to know at this time what is best (for a short while...)

PC configuration :

Pentium 4 : 3.06 Ghz
1536 Mb Ram
2 x 80Gb HDD

I'm hesitating between the new NVidia 6800 (128 or 256 ?) and the Radeon 9800 (128 or 256 ?)

I would be very grateful to you if you could tell me what is the best card available and what kind of CPU or other components I should have on my PC for optimal performances with FS 2004

Thanks very much

SR 747

[GregM_G]

Hi,
The 6800GT (I think available only in 256MB) looks to be the best choice, certainly faster than a 9800 and even quicker than X800 Pro... :( ...and if I remember the reviews correctly it beat out slightly the X800 PE. Anyway, I recently upgraded to an X800 Pro and it runs great, but if I were buying today I would opt for the GT.

Your CPU at 3.06GHz, while capable, would most likely become the bottleneck in your system.

have fun,

Greg G

AthlonXP @ 2.3GHz
EPOX 8RDA3I
1GB DDR
Radeon X800 Pro
WinXP

[SR 747]

Hi Greg G

Thanks for your reply !
Since english is not my mother language, I do not understand
the expression "the bottleneck in your system". Does that
mean that it is too low ?

Thanks for your enlightening clarification !

SR 747


P.S

By the way, there seems to be an NVidia 600 GT and 600 Ultra
Is there any difference between the two ?

[woottsbj25]

[font color="blue" size="2" face="arial"]'bottleneck' means that whilst the rest of your system is good, that will pull it down. I don't thin it will do that too much because 3GHz is pretty fast!

If you are looking between the X800 and the 6800 then there is no question the 6800 will beat the ATi until they bring out the X800XT

The 6800 is very expensive though.[/font]


Regards,

Tom Wootton

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...f84db6c0fa.jpg

www.airbe.tk

"In aviation, you start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the
bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck."

woottsbj25@hotmail.com - add me to MSN if you want!


3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 with HyperThreading
120 GB Hard Drive
ASUS P4P800 Motherboard
1024 MB SD DDR RAM
GeForce FX5200 256MB
17" Flatscreen AOC Monitor
HP PSC 1350 All-In-One
TDK DVD-+RW
CH Products Flight Sim Yoke
CH Products Rudder Pedals USB

[SR 747]

Thanks very much !

[zoynyne]

>[font color="blue" size="2" face="arial"]'bottleneck' means
>that whilst the rest of your system is good, that will pull
>it down. I don't thin it will do that too much because 3GHz
>is pretty fast!


==============

The videocard is almost ALWAYS a bottleneck.

Take any modern high end videocard.

Run a game/sim at 1024 x 768 clean - you're seeing what your machine can do.

Now toss in a litte bit of antialiasing/anisotropic filtering, even a modest amount. Or just bump the resolution up.

Now you've got slightly lower framerates, and sometimes drastically lower framerates.

3 guesses on which hardware component just became the "bottleneck"...

[BickBz]

>Hi,
>The 6800GT (I think available only in 256MB) looks to be the
>best choice, certainly faster than a 9800 and even quicker
>than X800 Pro... :( ...and if I remember the reviews
>correctly it beat out slightly the X800 PE. Anyway, I
>recently upgraded to an X800 Pro and it runs great, but if I
>were buying today I would opt for the GT.
>
>Your CPU at 3.06GHz, while capable, would most likely become
>the bottleneck in your system.
>
>have fun,
>
>Greg G
>
>AthlonXP @ 2.3GHz
>EPOX 8RDA3I
>1GB DDR
>Radeon X800 Pro
>WinXP


Hi,

Just as a matter of interest, I've been reading Roy Chaffins
page - see what He has to say about "best" video card for FS.

MickB
HAND

[SR 747]

Thanks for your help to all,

I ordered the NVidia 6800 Ultra (hard to find these days !)
and will let you know about the improvments.

SR 747

[aigean]

wow, congradulations. let us know how it works for you. i imagine you'll see a performance increase in fs2004, but you're notice an even much larger performance boosts in other games.

what was your old video card?