More Graphics Cards!!

Can anyone recommend a good graphics card for up to£80 about $150 (i think). I was looking on www.overclockers.co.uk Im not obviously not looking for a super computer i just want something to play FS9 on a bit better than my slightly crap intergrated graphics

I found this Raedon 9250 but i don't know anything about graphics cards. So if anyone can tell me how this will run.
http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/radeon9200/specs.html

The NVIDIA price equivilent is this
XFX GeForce FX 5200 128MB

The 1st two links are for PCI Express GFX cards.
This is a fairly new method for GFX cards and needs a PCI-Express motherboard
The normal GFX cards are called AGP or just PCI
AGP is better than just PCI as it can produce better quality graphics due to the way the data is prosessed

So you have to be sure what type of motherboard you have

I have PCI but im not sure if there express

PCI Exp is very new,only the last 2 months or so.If your PC is more than 3 months old it probably will not be a PCI Exp motherboard

Before you go any further you must find out what your motherboard is and who made it

Did you have any documentation with the PC ?

I looked into it and I have decided to get,, probably the Nviea 6800 Yeah it costs about 400 bucks but,,, I have an Nvidea 5200 with 128 ram. I was going to get the 256 ram card for about 130 bucks but I have learned that the extra ram will give only about a 5% performance increase. I believe that the overall hertz and clock speed etc are the key. Unfortunately these Graphics cards are EXPENSIVE!!!
I did increase my RAM to 1 GIG. The performance stepped up, but I need the graphics power.

Yip, I'm in exactly the same place as you Elkin....

I've got great RAM performance (1024Mb), but it can only go so far if limited by the Graphics Card....

I was about to buy a 256Mb Grpahics card for £99 but found out that it would have given virtually no improvement over my ATI Radeon 9800 128Mb, so I raided my piggy bank, sold my clothes, etc, and bought a new generation Radeon X800 256Mb, which had better give fab results or else I'm going to smear Peanut Butter on it and eat the freekin thing !

It should be a pretty big improvement. I mean, when i got my X800PE, I nearly urinated myself...

Hi,

I'm told that You can get the hottest graphics card but if Your CPU is a bit on the sluggish side You're running into a bottleneck.

In other words, make sure that Your CPU will be able to handle Your new card.

Rick

That's affirm, FS9 depends a lot on the processor and not as much on the graphic card. Furthermore, if your processor is too slow, it will greatly limitate the capacities of your graphic card, as said above.
Take a look at www.tomshardware.com to see the specs on graphic cards. I would recommend a Nvidia GeForce 6600GT if you can put 50 more bucks than you say. It's a great midrange pick.

Your right Rick, GPS, we go to do it!!!! I have some weather and terrain addons that drop the frame rate down too much. I am going to get the card this weekend.

I got the X800 and have fantastic frame rates (32 on the ground in JFK in the 737NG with 70% traffic), beautiful colour, and of course 1280 x 1024 resolution.

I'm glad I bought it but there is one VERY disappointing area where I've seen virtually no improvement; Scenery Rendering delays.

(I have to confess, this was the reason I bought the card ).

Maybe I am expecting too much but I don't have the settings too high (eg.. AutoGen and Complexity on Dense.... there are 2 higher settings!), and when I am in the 2D cockpit and use my joystick hat switch to look out of the left or right window I STILL get a 3 second lock-up the first time I do it ........ if I look out immediately after that first go, it's fine and renders straight away.

There must be a setting that I have really wrong here, as I have invested more in my Flight Sim PC than NASA invested over the last 10 years.... the thing is so clever, it got out of bed this morning and cooked me Breakfast in bed! but still I get delays and boxy patches for a second or two before the scenery renders.

I'm gonna stick a posting on the General page, specifically about this Rendering Delay business - just to save any of the super, clever, helpful people from having to reply twice .

Did you configure your card with the Catalyst drivers?

It should look like that, do that on both the Direct3d and the OpenGL.

Another setback for me. I am going to purchase the Nvidea 6800 graphics card. It is about the best that is out there,, BUT!!! I noticed that the minimum requirements include a 350 WATT power supply!!!! My computer is only 300 watt!!!
I guess now I have to look into a power supply upgrade?!
Anyone know what else to do?!?!

The 6800gfx card takes extra power via a "molex" connector(early gfx cards took all there power via the AGP slot)
A "molex" connector is the same plug that powers your harddrive and cd/dvd drives (the 4 pin one with a rounded edge)

Power supplies are easy to fit and its worth paying for a good make
Try and get a 500 watt as this should see you ok for any future upgrades or even rebuilds
Make sure it has the right sort of connectors for your motherboard ATA or SATA(some come with both types of plug)

ATA and SATA are actually types of hard drive connectors. Look around for some deals online. I found a site the other day that has a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB on sale for $149.

6800GTs only come in AGP and PCI-express, which are the very new motherboards with this connector.

What type of video card and CPU speed are you on now?

Thanks you guys. Yeah! It needs the 'harddrive' connector. I will look into a power supply that has 3 connectors because I have 2 hardrives connected. Also, my system is AGP ATA 2.21 GH Hmmm? I wonder if this 2.21 cuts it?!?!

Ok!! I got it!!! I just bought the Nvidea 6800GT 256. The 6800 Ultra is a little faster but WAY more $$$$$$$ It cost a lot!!! I had to buy a power supply too! Mine was only 300 watts. It requires a 350 watt system. I got a 500 watt unit. I'll install it and lett you all know!
I'll tell you something!!! This sucker better cook and clean for what it costs!!!
(I do other graphics apps. I had to have it anyway)

WHAT fun?!?! I bought it, installed it and--,, WHAM!!! It took a dump! The fan quit, it overheated,, a regular nuclear meltdown!!!
I called the manufacturer and all that,, Anyhow, it is going back. It is a MSI Nvidia NX6800GT-TD256.
I read through the forums for the site that supports it (MSI) and now I am not sure what to do I am thinking about an ATI radeon card.

If anyone has further info that I can use, please shoot it at me!!!! Such as MSI, PNY, ATI and all that.

Here is a benchmark tes result weblink for nvidia and ATI.

http://www.digital-daily.com/video/geforce-6800gt-roundup/index09.htm

Copy/paste if you have to.

Getting the best video card out there isnt going to make your system faster if you still have a slow proccesor, or not enough RAM. Your system will always run as slow as your slowest part. If you post your specs, I can tell you what would be a good upgrade.

Thanks pal!!! I am allways wide open to hear everything from everyone.

AMD Athlon 3200 2.2 GHZ 1 G RAM ATX 500 watt power

I have found, so far, that the diff betweene the Nvidia and ATI is: The Nvidia has 400 hz and the ATI has 570hz (Rite around there)
The bench testing all around shows the Nvidea kicking a little but unto the ATI

There are various makers of cards for Nvidia though:

galaxy, pny, gigabyte, asus and msi Anyone know which is better/worse? GROUP HUG!!!!!

I´m running a very equal puter as Elkinallen,mine is a AMD Athlon 64 -3500+,and 2048mb DDR-400 ram,and I´ve got a Gainward 6800 Ultra extreme Golden sample -256mb gfx card installed,and it kicks butt,so if you have got a fair size bag of coins,then that´s the card for you

Thanks!!!!! I did save up and I do have that bag. So far I am eyeballing that PNY Verto geforce 6800 Ultra 256. OR!!! The Galaxy Avalanche 6800 ultra.

So far I am staying away from MSI and Asus. Bad reps. I bought the MSI and it failed after 1 hour of op.

Ok. I'll giver another try. I ordered a PNY VERTO Geforce 6800GT 256. I reviewed the performance comparisons and this card beat out even the 6800 Ultras!

We'll see!

What type of PSU did you get? It may be 500watts, but if its not made by a good company, the wattage doesnt matter.

I´m running a very equal puter as Elkinallen,mine is a AMD Athlon 64 -3500+,and 2048mb DDR-400 ram,

Compared to:

AMD Athlon 3200 2.2 GHZ 1 G RAM ATX 500 watt power

Not even a close comparison. The 64 bit 3500+ processor is running an 800Mhz FSB while the 3200+ is running at best a 200 Mhz FSB.

My inclination is that you could put the best video card money can buy into that thing and it won't make that much of a difference.

Your system will always run as slow as your slowest part.

That post above is dead-on. The bottleneck that you're going to run into is with the FSB on the processor.

The link above is a good test comparison of video cards, however, they were all tested on a P4 with an 800 MHz FSB. It's apples to oranges.

The link above is a fairly simple test that lacks a lot of good data, but nevertheless visually lays out the difference in performance you'd expect to see between the 64bit 3200+ and XP 3200+.

My two cents: save your money on the video card and put something that will perform with the bottleneck rather than go beyond it.

Thanks for this Great work!!! Gotta hand it to you!!!!! I like the info you threw this way. I did not take the card without some other things. I am looking into a system upgrade that will fit all the pieces without the bottleneck problem.

Hey!! While I got you, did you check out those bench test results? And ifso, what do you think is the best card to run the graphics we all are talking about here? (Going with- that all the other hardware is of an appropriate type).

OOoooo K!

I just installed a Nvidia PNY Verto Geforce 6800GT 256.

I just ran CFS3 with firepower with all the setting (sliders) set to high and it CRANKED!!!!! NO, count'm! ZERO frame rate hits!!!

I'll give FS9 a try and see what happens. First I have to install FSGlobal and do some other things.

If She performs good enough, I will leave as is.

My CPU is a AMD Athlon 64 3200. I may,,, MAY!! upgrade to a 3500.