Advice on a graphics card?

[microlight]

I have had to buy a new desktop as the hard drive in my old one (2002 vintage) was on the verge of giving up (again); and as I use it for business as well as FS9, it was time for a replacement.

My new one is a better basic spec than the old one (Intel dual core 2.2/1.4Ghz processors, 2Mb fast SDRAM, 250Gb hard drive, WinXP) but only onboard Nvidia 7050 graphics which are almost useless as far as FS9 is concerned - decent frames in clear skies only! I'm in no real rush as my new laptop runs FS9 better than my old machine did(!) - however, in an ideal world, what kind of graphics card would anyone recommend for this spec of machine? I'm looking at running FS9, not FSX.

Thanks!

[ozzy72]

How much are you willing to spend?

[microlight]

Hi, Mark. Well, the card in my old machine was a Radeon 9200SE which was reasonable if not outstanding - 128Mb, it I think it is. Looking for something a little better than that, although not absolute top end, as the machine isn't good enough for it. Needs to support widescreen. I dunno, around 75 to 100 quid maybe?

Does that help?

Thanks!

[AMDDDA]

8800 GT, or if your PSU doesn't have the dual 6 pin power plugs, go for the 8600 GTS (xD, I love the card so much!) as it only requires one and most comps have the single 6 pin power plug that it requires, and they are relatively cheap now, as 8800GT's have hit 140$ here in the US, which is around 50 quid?

[Slotback]

8800GT needs one six pin connector.

[microlight]

I have available PCI Express slots inside the machine - does this make a difference to what I can put in there? My old machine has its Radeon in an AGP slot but there aren't any of those in the new one.

There are some apparently decent cards out there for around the

[ozzy72]

A 6600 card should work pretty well with that rig providing you meant 2Gb of RAM not 2Mb

[Fozzer]

I'm still running on my old Socket A, AMD Athlon 2600XP+ (2.1 GHz), 2.3 GB DDR RAM, and nVidia 7800GS 256 Meg AGP card...

..and it runs FS 2004 with Win XP,  like a dream, with Max Settings... [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]...!

Paul...full of joyfulness!... ...!

[microlight]

D'oh! 2Mb!!! (Yep, 2Gb) Actually, my old stone age Sinclair ZX80 had 2Mb RAM!!

Wouldn't run FS9 though! Thanks for the feedback, looks like it might be the Asus then.

[Fozzer]

D'oh! 2Mb!!! (Yep, 2Gb) Actually, my old stone age Sinclair ZX80 had 2Mb RAM!!

Wouldn't run FS9 though! Thanks for the feedback, looks like it might be the Asus then.

...2Mb.....2Mb...!!

..lucky you!... ... ... ...!

My old ZX80 was bursting at the seams with 1K of RAM...

....an extra 16K was a add-on luxury... [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]...!

Paul....Captain Zolog... 8-)...!

[microlight]

It's incredible what you can cram in there with a tin opener and a funnel...

[NickN]

D'oh! 2Mb!!! (Yep, 2Gb) Actually, my old stone age Sinclair ZX80 had 2Mb RAM!!

Wouldn't run FS9 though! Thanks for the feedback, looks like it might be the Asus then.

...2Mb.....2Mb...!!

..lucky you!... ... ... ...!

My old ZX80 was bursting at the seams with 1K of RAM...

....an extra 16K was a add-on luxury... [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]...!

Paul....Captain Zolog... 8-)...!

I flipped for the outrageously expensive and very limited offered 64K module on my Timex Sinclair. Hard to find at the time and I think they only made a few hundred of them available.

Did they make a 2MB module for that?

I was off the Sinclair and on a Apple II probably by then

[Fozzer]

D'oh! 2Mb!!! (Yep, 2Gb) Actually, my old stone age Sinclair ZX80 had 2Mb RAM!!

Wouldn't run FS9 though! Thanks for the feedback, looks like it might be the Asus then.

;)

...2Mb.....2Mb...!!

..lucky you!... :o... :o... :o...!

My old ZX80 was bursting at the seams with 1K of RAM...

....an extra 16K was a add-on luxury... [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]...!

Paul....Captain Zolog... 8-)...!

I flipped for the outrageously expensive and very limited offered 64K module on my Timex Sinclair. Hard to find at the time and I think they only made a few hundred of them available.

Did they make a 2MB module for that?

I was off the Sinclair and on a Apple II probably by then

2MB?.....I suspect that Micro's typing fingers were getting over-excited again... ;)...!

LOL... ;D...!

My favourites..>>> Following home made computers; the Apple IIE, Sinclair Z80 Spectrum, Commodore C64, Amstrad CPC 464, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga A-500 and A-1200....

...and I've still got them all...and still program them... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]...!

Paul....Pieces of Eight (Bit)..... 8-)...!

[Brett_Henderson]

I was one of those fools who paid $3,000 (1985 dollars !!) for an IBM PC with a whopping 640KB (0.5MB) of RAM

I got more use, fun, and education, plugging away on an Atari 800XL (64kb of RAM (0.05mb)..

[microlight]

Yes, Paul - I was getting over-excited (not a good thing for a Saturday night) and suffered from massive inflation. Talking about the 1kb into 2mb here, guys!

Oooh, Matron!!



(Off the Hitchhiker's Guide, going back in time to the Carry On films! Did you ever see them, those of you in the US?)