The Great Debate

[Jaffa]

Here's how it goes:

I am currently running:
P4@2.1 GHz
Radeon 9000pro
512mb PC2700 DDR

...basic specs.

Now, at Heathrow I normally get less than 10FPS(full sliders) no matter what plane, what weather in FS9.  I really would like to get the FPS up to around 20 without sacrificing quality.

What I am thinking:

Either a 9700pro or 9800pro

Or

a 9600pro or 9600xt and another 512mb ram.

Now, could I get some advice, please?

(money is a non-issue)

Thanks!

[JBaymore]

Jaffa,

I have both a 9600 pro AND the extra 512 meg of RAM.  

Forget the 9600 pro.

Get BOTH the 9800XT AND the extra RAM.

FS2004 is a real dog when it comes to performance...... you need all the hardware firepower you can get.  See the bar charts in this forum for comparisons of the 9600 to the 9800....about double the performance..... and about double the price.

best,

...................john

[swanny338]

9800XT and extra ram... or a 9800 Pro and extra ram you will be very pleased with either, and if you get the 9800 Pro get a Sapphire 9800 Pro... the black one  ;)

[Jaffa]

Ok, but they will not come right together, I will probably get the 9800pro shortly and then get the RAM for my birthday, in March.

Thanks guys, I just wanted some re-affirmation

[Jaffa]

Do you think a 9700pro would be enough?

I am going to get a whole new computer in a couple years for college so I have too save a bit...

[swanny338]

9700 pros are really good cards, that would probably be the best way to go

[congo]

I don't think more ram is gonna make a lotta difference, you may not even notice it. Get the best video card you can.

[swanny338]

congo, that is an incorrect statement, back when I was on my G4 Ti4800SE i would get like 5 FPS with sliders maxed and lots of clouds and rain.... I then up graded from 512MB PC2100 to 1024MB of PC3200 and my fps jumped to 15 with the same settings and the same amount of weather.... It makes a pretty large difference

[congo]

congo, that is an incorrect statement, back when I was on my G4 Ti4800SE i would get like 5 FPS with sliders maxed and lots of clouds and rain.... I then up graded from 512MB PC2100 to 1024MB of PC3200 and my fps jumped to 15 with the same settings and the same amount of weather.... It makes a pretty large difference

Swanny, it may have worked in your case, I suspect because your system was overloaded with background programs.

Flight Sim only uses around 120 mb of ram, so I can't see the biggy about Ram. I can pull one of my 512mb sticks out and it doesnt seem to make any difference with only 512mb ram. I have very little running in the background though. Also, my new P4 rig only has 512mb of ram and it gets around the same FPS as my AMD PC with 1024mb, I've tried both PC's with different RAM combinations using 512mb of DDR PC3200, 512mb DDR PC2700, and 1024mb DDR PC2700.

Where the extra RAM helps, is if you are processing huge textures for example..... so if you enable the MASSIVE texture sizes in FS, Sure it will use available RAM, but your BIOS must be setup to enable huge textures in graphics as well.

[Daz]

ah i see so i have my agp aperature set at 512 mb lol and my massive textures thats ok see spec below

[4_Series_Scania]

(money is a non-issue)

Ok, GeForce FX5950Ultra 256MB.

Topped off with however much RAM your board will support.

I'd be looking to upgrade the CPU also, Jaffa (You said money isn't an issue.... ) The FX5950 combined with a nice shiny Prescott CPU (coming early Feb) with 1mb of L2cache...... I'd hazzard you'd be nearer to 30fps with full quality! - Ask Daz, he's got the 5950 and I think he likes it!

[Jaffa]

Woah, slow down mate!

Now, money is a non-issue to get the cards I mentioned.  If money were a non-issue for anything else, I'd be running the best I could.  Plus, I go to college and get a whole new computer in two years(maybe 4.0ghz by then???).

Right now its looking like a 9800non-pro or 9700pro.

Money to me is not an issue(I can afford a 9800xt), yet the old people that live with me( aka parents! ) , seem to think that the 9000pro I have is plenty sufficent!???

Dunno, just don't know!

(the money is MINE, oh I got the moneyyyyyyyyy)

(taken from Vegas Vacation)

[Jaffa]

Well guys, i'm the pround new owner of an ATI 9700pro.

Got it on ebay for $182.51, it was used but in perfect condition!

Sweetness!

[congo]

Excellent Jaffa!

Paul, That's weird with the 32mb aperature, and such a low setting as well........

The ram on the card isn't the issue in the BIOS Aperature settings, which I'm not precisely clear on. I'm pretty sure the aperature setting is an enabling setting, like a maximum buffer size, that's all. I figure if it's too low, in causes a bottleneck, if too high could suck ram off the other processes. Anyone know for sure?