Simviation Forums

I have got FS2004 currently on order.

I checked the min spec which I exceed by some distance but I wish I had looked into the graphics card side of things first because....

Although my PC is quite new I only have a Nvidia 64MB DDR GeForce4 MX 420 graphics card (latest driver).

Now you have all stopped laughing I need to know just how well/poor the game will perform.

My spec is:

Dell Dimension 4550 Pentium 4 2.66 GHZ
512 MB DDR RAM @ 333MHZ
120 GB Hard Drive @ 7200rpm
Nvidia 64MB DDR GeForce4 MX 420 (latest driver)
Soundblaster 5.1 Live
Windows XP SP1

I am not after cutting edge graphics but will it at least be easy on the eye and playable? I also hear alot about frame rates?

All advice appreciated

Cheers

I have the same Video card and it was suggested to me to install the 40.72 driver version from Nvidia's website. I did that and it runs alot better.

I have found the newest driver does not always mean the best.

Stop laughing at your 64MB graph card? What about my 8 mb on board.  :-[

64 seems fine too me.

In myhonest view, FS2004 should be reasonable with that graphics card, but, I would'nt expect too many frame rates! i.e. the more the better......



Your machine, considering its spec of a decent CPU, super fast RAM and a 120GB HD are just screaming for any mid range graphics card!

I've got an Asus FX5600 128MB card, slower RAM than your system, a really cheap & nasty Jetway VIA Chipset motherboard and the really terrible Intel Celeron 1.7ghz CPU !

I agree. The Geforce FX is an excellent card. I could get much more out of it if I had a faster CPU. I bought my Geforce FX5200 for $67US from eBay. The FX is truly superior to the Radeon and past GF cards.
You don't need super frames though. 10fps offers fairly smooth operation. 16fps is what a movie at the cinema plays at. 25-30fps is the most you should run FS at.  

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I'll load it up and see how I get on and then make a decision as whether to get a new card or not.

One last question though.

If my current card is not compatable with DirectX 9 does that mean I should not install direct X 9 (as I understand it is with the game) or will it just simply not recognise it?

Thanks

yeah they say past 20fps and the eyes are unable to actualy see it so anything over 20 is good


another alternative is the geforce 4 ti4200 128mb its probably the best value graphics card out at the moment in my own opinion. my fs2002 runs about 20 fps fully maxed out on a cheap and nasty asus motherboard and an athlon 1.4 thunderbird