Nvidia/Ati - Radarman?

I think most people would recommend that card.
You could always try selling the card on EBay, and knocking the price up on the postage.. That's what everyone else does!

The fx5200 is not a bad card,but its not one of the best either
I have seen fs9 very playable with this card(in fact he is still using it)and here is an old post about it that seemed to work for someone
Try you settings like this ➡

https://forum.flyawaysimulation.com/forum/topic/1121/video-card-question/

Let us know how you get on

No I've never had an Nvidia just ATI cards and at the present time I have the AT Radeon Pro 9800 128mb DDR and I couldn't be happier unless I had a new 256mb ATI.
Yes I recommend this card but only from ATI not a partner, I don't know enough about them to draw a conclusion one way or the other.
TTT is the expert an Nvidia.

Yeah, not to diss nVidia (yeah right) but the FX5200 is crap! And, ATI walks all over them when it comes to new 256mb cards. If you want to sell the card, i wouldnt ask more than 15 dollars for it. Heck, I wouldnt pay that for it!

But if you want a stable card, go with the 9800Pro, or even the 9800XT is a excellent card.

In fact I am really disapointed with it, if i am landing at a major airport, the frame rate is around 6 or 7 with simple clouds and everyhting else set to medium.

No question, the FX 5200 is a weak card for FS9, but even with 512 megs of memory it should perform a bit better than that with that CPU.

Make sure your drive is cleaned up, checked for errors and defragged regularly. Make sure everything else including your antivirus program is shut down while running the sim.

Are you using Direct X 9?

Get the latest drivers if you don't already have them (ver. 61.77)

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_61.77

OK, good discussion, but always remember...all rigs are not equal. Therefore, what one person likes may or may not be correct for you. When I bought my last NVidia card (it's great, but I'm not going to tell which one), I really wanted to get the best card for me. So I bought the comparable ATI card from Best Buy and installed it and ran Flight Sim 2004 for 2 days. I was happy ! But I took it back and traded for the NVidia card I now have. Framerates were similar, BUT I luv'd the graphics better with the Nvidia card. So I still fly with it ! I bought from Best Buy because I knew I could return the cards with no hassle ! If I am sure of my purchase, the internet is the only way to go, however, buying a video card is probably the hardest choice made (and very expensive), so requires more leeway. Who would buy a car without driving it? rob

I naively assumed I could take the card back, especially as I was hoping to trade it for a more expensive one but PCWorld wont let me exchange so I guess I am stuck with the Nvidia. 😞

Im gonna start saving up for an ATI as ive heard mainly good reviews wheras a few people have said the FX 5200 is a poor card for FS9.

I actually ran PCpitstop.com on my computer lst night and it reckons my C: drive is heavily fragmented. Does anyone know any good tools for defragging )ive heard the Windows one isnt great).

Redjay,

If you scandisk and defrag once a week XP's tools are good enough. I always use them.
I tried this for a while , it did a good job but I couldn't see the benefit over XP.
Use the 30 day free trial. if you think you need it. http://www.executive.com/downloads/menu.aspx