on paper the cards are similar and in games such as Doom3, so i guess the question is are these cards good and does one work better with flight sim than the other?
i also play Il-2 but that's not really too intensive anyway. my card has killed itself because i run at 1280x1024 which it just wasn't designed to do
Got an Asus Gefore 6800 256Mb AGP card in my 3.0GHz Athlon, 1Gb RAM, 3 year old PC and that runs FS9 pretty good.
I work in an IT department and was looking for an AGP graphics card for a mate the other day. Typically a Geforce 7600GT 256Mb AGP card would set you back about £100ish. and is pretty much the max for an AGP slot without spending more money for not much more performance.
There is a Geforce 7600GS which is slightly cheaper (£75ish) than the 7600GT but this would be slightly slower. There is the Geforce 7300 series which is cheaper again but slower still. You pay's your money and takes your choice !!!!
Must admit not really up on the ATI cards as I've always gone for Nvidia at work & home.
If you have an Intel 3.4GHz P4 CPU and 1Gb RAM in your PC then the 7600GT would work a treat but it depends if your pockets are deep enough !!!! if not a 7600Gs would be OK.
trying to get a new card though as ssecond hand hardware just doesn't seem like a good idea
Much of my kit here is "secondhand". If it worked when it arrived, then it still is, ie months/years later. Ok so it is 1 or 2 generations old and not cutting edge. Probably the only thing I buy new is hard disks to get the warranty.
But if I wanted to I could afford to go out and buy two brand new PCs. I just can't justify it to myself (don't need to justify it to anyone else ). Same principal as with a new car - depreciation.
So for those who want the newest and shiniest, let me buy your "old" kit.