Sapphire RADEON 9600PRO Advantage 128 MB DDR

[washburn_it]

Hi all,

a friend of mine is changing his video card (Sapphire RADEON 9600PRO Advantage 128MB DDR) and he proposed me to buy that video card from him (about $50).
I'm a fan of nVidia video card so I'm undecided if to get his Sapphire or keep my GeForce4 MX 440.
I know that 9600PRO chipset is much powerful than my GeForce4 MX440 but I would like to know what you all think about that card (Sapphire) and if there are troubles with FS 2004.
Thank you, best regards.

Bob

[_526th_Fireman]

There are no troubles with that card with FS9 provided you have DX9, latest version, and the latest drivers for that card.

You definately need to upgrade from what you are running. Question is, get that 9600 for $50.00 OR save up a bit and get an even newer nVidia or Radeon card.

[ctjoyce]

ya its a good card. However I agree, duble you money and go and get a ATi Radeon 9800 or the nVidia GForce 6600

[washburn_it]

Well....thanks for the answers...if I'm correct the nVidia 6600 is only on Pci-Express as I have only AGP-8x (Asus P4P800-S) connection.
I would have liked the nVidia FX-5700 but it seems that is off production (I can't find it anymore here where I live), replaced by FX-5500 that is a step far behind the 5700.
By the way I think that I'm going to get the 9600PRO as a small upgrade since I won't further upgrade my system till I will decide to change motherboard and all components to have a Pci-Express system.
Best regards

Bob

[C]

If you're just using it as an interim then I can't see a downside to getting the 9600 Pro...

I upgraded from a MX420 to a 128mb 9600XT from Sapphire and the improvement was very good, and had no issues in MSFS

Charlie

[sonic]

I agree I went to a ATI 9600xt and really helped.

[_526th_Fireman]

Sounds like a SOUND and reasonable solution washburn_it.

You will most definately see an improvement with that card over what you are running now.

I learned in the past that these Vid cards are like the computers themselves. You get the "LATEST AND BESTEST" now and by next week it's OLD HAT!!

I do believe in getting the best at the time of purchase. This way you are pretty sure that card will last you for some time and still keep up with the latest game developments for some time to come.

Let several, several and then several more releases of new cards go by before EVEN THINKING of upgrading again.

[the_autopilot]

ya its a good card. However I agree, duble you money and go and get a ATi Radeon 9800 or the nVidia GForce 6600

If you have the money, get a 6600 gt. It comes in both AGP and PCI-e varieties, so no problem.

Do NOT get the 9800 pro if you can afford a 6600 gt (they are actually about the same price). It's performence is nowhere near that of the 6600 gt. In fact, even the x700 pro have diffculties catching up with the 6600 gt.

[the_autopilot]

Hi all,

a friend of mine is changing his video card (Sapphire RADEON 9600PRO Advantage 128MB DDR) and he proposed me to buy that video card from him (about $50).
I'm a fan of nVidia video card so I'm undecided if to get his Sapphire or keep my GeForce4 MX 440.
I know that 9600PRO chipset is much powerful than my GeForce4 MX440 but I would like to know what you all think about that card (Sapphire) and if there are troubles with FS 2004.
Thank you, best regards.

Bob

You will see a huge improvement over a mx440. However, save up a bit and once you get a 6600 gt, you will see a colossal difference.

[Delta_]

I went from a ATi Radeon 7000 to a Sapphire Radeon 9600xt and that was one hell of a jump!

[washburn_it]

So guys, I plugged the 9600PRO and....it's great !!!
I increased FPS from 20 to 30, set almost all sliders to the max without having my screen freezing a while and then run.
Everything is fluid, the only thing I noticed is that even though the airplane detail is set to max detail (as when there was still the MX440), it appears not smooth but  (I don't know the right word sorry) like it was with a low resolution (mine is set to 1024X768 32 bit).
You can notice the borders of the wings or the body of the airplane with "scaled borders" not "rounded borders"...I hope you can figure out what I mean.
Any suggestion? That never happened with the previous card (MX 440).
How can I fix it? If it's fixable....

[Delta_]

If you have the latest drivers fromk ATi (see my sig for the link) you can put temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) on, i highly recommend this.
These are my settings, you need to go into the ATi control panel in-order to get to these:

Anti-aliasing will clear up all the jagged edges.

[sonic]

Hey Hi-D what does temoral ati-aliasing do. I never noticed that.

[Delta_]

It renders each frame slightly differently to another, it is like motion blur.  Which makes it sound like it makes the picture bad and blurry, which is wrong.  The image quality of TAA is absolutely amazing!  The best bit is you get what looks like 6xAA with only a 2xAA performance hit.  

[MattNW]

Hey thanks Hi-D, for all that info. I just logged on with my new system looking for info to set up just that card. I got the 256 mb DDR version. In fact this is my first post with the new computer. I started putting it together last night and finished this evening. Just have to get my sim changed over. Can't wait to fly stutter free for once.