any suggestions re graphic card

[davetheplane]

i have just bought a copy of fsx ,    my system is as follows  XPpro , 80gig harddrive duel core pentium 2.8gig 1028 memory  the mother board is viap4m800 pro ,  but to be honest not a clue what that means , i think the graphics card is one of these built in types .  i can fly fs9 ok no problems .at a frame rate of around 20 seems quite good at that ,    now i installed a brand new fsx   tried to open .    got the notice ,your graphic card may need a new driver will not work etc etc    i looked and i seem to have the latest driver on .    now all i get is  shortcut  fsx comes on then goes of same trying to start out of programs   .any ideas  also can anyone suggest a good upgrde card ps price i belive you get what you pay for     sorry its a bit long not to sure of all the pc terms      dav

[jimcooper1]

That Via P4M800 Pro is the chipset on your Motherboard...can you identify the Make and Model of your whole Motherboard?

Regards

Jim

Edit:  I suspect with that chipset that your Graphics will be AGP.  In which case you would be looking for something like an nVidia 7800GS or ATI  X1950Pro at the top end $150-$200.  What's your budget?

[davetheplane]

hi jim thanks for reply .     i had a guy drop by who is into computers , top and botom is what i bought is not a lot of good to do the job . so i am upgradeing to somthing called sli  not sure what that is but i have to noteify the power station when i switch on .  ill keep this new one and play on the other . i am having two graphic cards not one so god nos how this work     again many thanks dav

[davetheplane]

jim just to add , you were on the right track about the agp  it was what was wanted i can get the card you mentioned for around

[jimcooper1]

[quote]

[davetheplane]

jim i am not to up on the computer game so just going along with what the guy says . now i am not skint  but dont want to go over the top .if i give you what i have now , on this computer do you think i can use some of it to make a difference . or can you suggest a list of componants to make a good one that will run say FSX dav

[davetheplane]

jim i also looked at your setup some power that makes mine look like a windup one    dav

[GunnerMan]

Im not sure where you live but in most places SLI does not draw nearly enough power to need to call the power company about it. I hate to say it but this "computer guy" you know sounds a bit incompetent about what a computer really is. I would be doing my research on anything he tells you to do.
  It also sounds like you kind of want to go down the path of getting a new computer. For anyone here to really give you some advise you need to provide a few things for us: What do you want the computer to be capable of?(FSX, New/Unreleased games, overclocking, professional use such as CAD),and what is your price range; if we recomend parts that cost 3000 when you only have 1000 then it does you no good. That is the basic info we need to give you an educated answer.
  The best thing you can do is educate yourself, that way you know what you are getting and why.  8-)

[davetheplane]

ok gunner,   i have took all you say onboard . iam now looking at some of the other members set up then finding out the price and range of componants,   i wish to ie  play fs9 and fsx to a reasonable standard .{decent graphics }    i dont need everything flat out but the system as it is now is useless for that purpose  and regards the power out this was only a pun ,.  i was hoping i could canablise some of the gear out of this one , as i also am thinking of space .   my question was what could be a reasonable set up to run fsx i could then build it bit by bit over a couple of months  i will list now what i have  to see if anything is worth saving .   jim will also see this i hope     450 watts tower   lga775   intelcore tm 2 duo 2.8  1 gig mem but only at i think ddr400 80 gig hardrive  the mother board is p23g pc chips  now if any more ifo is needed i will submit to you but please. understand  all pc talk is really new to me so please forgive    dav

[john_uk]

dave if your not to good with comps and want a decent one at a decent price. i was reding Computer shopper this morning and they did  reviews on some

[jimcooper1]

[quote] .

[davetheplane]

jim if i decide to go withthe memory and new card like your suggestion what size power supply shall i get to upgrade .   price is not a problem up to date i expected to spend more       dave  ps although still thinking about building a better one ??